Tour de France Stage 5 Ypres-Arenberg *Spoiler*

lawrences

Yeah, Cheers Rick kept me sane.

pottssteve

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keukelere weirdly has a clean helmet....

Wash with a water bottle?

Porte at 1'54"

thomthom

Do you reckon Froome still has his helmet on?..

overlord2

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

The_Boy

Bardet and Pinot both came in with the Talansky group.

RichN95.

Nibali, Fuglsang +0.18
VdB +2.02
Porte +2.11
Talansky 2.22
TJVG, Pinot, Valverde, Costa, Bardet 2.28
Mollema 2.44
Contador 2.54
Nieve, Peraud, Konig 3.46

rick_chasey

Lot of tour to defend the yellow now.

Then again Astana are obviously in stonking form

adr82

GC top 10:

1. Nibali
2. Fuglsang +2
3. Sagan +44
4. Kwia +50
5. Canc +1:17
6. VdB +1:45
7. Gallopin +1:45
8. Porte +1:54
9. Talansky +2:05
10. Valverde +2:11

frenchfighter

Keep refreshing here for the results:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=124212

salsiccia1

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

The management were obviously of the opinion that a Wiggins implosion was more likely than a Froome crash. And I think they're still right.

ManOfKent

Any news/rumours on Froome's injuries?

blazing_saddles

Lordy, look at the post count.
The Big Two: One dead, the other partially buried.
I guess Vino said something really special on the team bus.
Dropping Cancellara and Sagan, not on anybody's script.

adr82

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

You can't talk as if they knew this was going to happen and decided not to bring Wiggins anyway FFS :roll:

Pross

Rick Chasey wrote:

Keukelere weirdly has a clean helmet....

Is this unusual for a Belgian? I heard their personal hygiene was poor.

Anonymous

Great stage. Gutted Froome out. I think he went down 3-4 times today.

Contador droping so much is great for the mountains ride.

powerbookboy

That was a bit special.

Wonderful performance performance from Nibali. And hat's off the Sky. Turned a rubbish situation around as best they could. Contador's going to have to have a couple of enormous days to pull this back. Tinkov will be going apeshit..

option_click

Awesome stage - can't believe the pace, given the conditions

Crampeur

frenchfighter wrote:

Keep refreshing here for the results:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=124212

Time gaps not that huge, but lots of small gaps.

TMR

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

And rightly so. As I, and many others pointed out. But oh no, Froome is God's Gift. Bet you all feel stupid now.

above_the_cows

Pross wrote:

Epic. OK, now it has finished would AtC and DDRaver like to comment on whether the race would be better without this stage? It should make the mountains even better as well.

Personally I don't particularly like watching people suffer excessively for our entertainment. I would have liked to have seen a full on battle between Contador and Froome. Maybe it's just me but I don't get the excessive need to get the testosterone flowing by enjoy such brutal things, that's not why I like cycling.

It's why I don't like rugby or football or boxing. To me it isn't entertaining to watch people fall off and laugh about it. I've never watched cycling for the 'hardmen'. For me it is a different type of sport.

If I'm honest this is one of the few times on this forum where I have really felt like I don't belong here, with the level of machoness on display. I haven't enjoyed it. I think we can all approach these things differently and that there is space for those differences to be appreciated. People going on gloating and being silly about other people's valid opinions is not what for me this place was about, there's the other place for that.

The_Boy

With the exception of Froome crashing out that was pretty much a perfect day's racing. And even then, I reckon his race was run yesterday. Can't really stand Froome, and would have loved nothing more than to see him metaphorically beaten up in the mountains but nobody wants to see that. Apart fom anything else, it has an impact on the racing.

All that said, the stage wasn't as bad as some made out. It's the first week of the Tour and it's always nervous. Crashes happen and they're part of racing. Today was nothing but a brilliant day of bike racing. Andgood job by Porte in minimising the losses to a degree.

Hopefully sets up another great two weeks of racing between the favourites.

RichN95.

Horner, Zubeldia, Rolland +4.16
Frank Schleck +8.10

pb21

Historically I would say Contador would make up that time on Nibali, but Nibali is looking very good at the moment...

overlord2

adr82 wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

You can't talk as if they knew this was going to happen and decided not to bring Wiggins anyway FFS :roll:

No need to tell me. The general public know FA about cycling which is the point i'm making. Biggest winner = Wiggins

TMR

adr82 wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

You can't talk as if they knew this was going to happen and decided not to bring Wiggins anyway FFS :roll:

They should have taken him for such an eventuality, if not for the fact he would have done a good job of work. Poor of Brailsford.

norvernrob

ManOfKent wrote:

Any news/rumours on Froome's injuries?

I'm sure they mentioned a fractured wrist in the last hour or so.

salsiccia1

TMR wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

And rightly so. As I, and many others pointed out. But oh no, Froome is God's Gift. Bet you all feel stupid now.

Possibly, but nowhere near as stupid as you sound.

adr82

TMR wrote:

adr82 wrote:

Overlord2 wrote:

From the public's/PR point of view it makes not taking Wiggins look :oops:

Not the best decision management made. :roll:

Brad will be at home laughing all the way to the fridge.

You can't talk as if they knew this was going to happen and decided not to bring Wiggins anyway FFS :roll:

They should have taken him for such an eventuality. Poor of Brailsford.

So are we just ignoring the whole "Froome and Wiggins can't stand each other" thing then?

The_Boy

Above The Cows wrote:

Pross wrote:

Epic. OK, now it has finished would AtC and DDRaver like to comment on whether the race would be better without this stage? It should make the mountains even better as well.

Personally I don't particularly like watching people suffer excessively for our entertainment. I would have liked to have seen a full on battle between Contador and Froome. Maybe it's just me but I don't get the excessive need to get the testosterone flowing by enjoy such brutal things, that's not why I like cycling.

It's why I don't like rugby or football or boxing. To me it isn't entertaining to watch people fall off and laugh about it. I've never watched cycling for the 'hardmen'. For me it is a different type of sport.

If I'm honest this is one of the few times on this forum where I have really felt like I don't belong here, with the level of machoness on display. I haven't enjoyed it. I think we can all approach these things differently and that there is space for those differences to be appreciated. People going on gloating and being silly about other people's valid opinions is not what for me this place was about, there's the other place for that.

I actually have a lot of sympathy with this position. The only disagreement I have is that I don't believe that stages like today's are actually any worse than a nervous, wet flat stage in the first week of a GT.

Yes there were crashes, but apart from Froome they all made it back in one piece. And I reckon Chris' race was run yesterday, tbh.

germcevoy

Awesome stage. Feel bad for Froome but crashes happen. I'd love to see a cobbled stage like this every few years. A proper test.