Tour de France Stage 4 Le Touquet-Lille *Spoilers*

Macaloon

With so many teams missing out, why don't we often see secondary breakaways in the early stages, rather than the suicide jumps towards the final?

Is this just a convention that you violate at your peril once the initial break is established: it's just rude to poke a sleeping peloton, and forcing them to chase the break harder is poor form for those in it?

dougzz

pottssteve wrote:

TMR wrote:

I've just read that Andy Schleck is out? What's wrong with him?

He's taking annual leave....

Holiday to use up before the tin tack..........

frenchfighter

Paul 8v wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Not sure what Voeckler is doing attacking on a flat stage. Not feeling confident of his abilities in the mountains.

he was having a mare yesterday, he was at the back quite a lot, one of our club members took this pic of him mucking about with his mech:

When he came past us he was dead-last and grimacing even more than usual. He does like to ride the rear though so I guess no surprise.

pottssteve

Crowds are HUGE...

the article don

^ I'm not sure if that's humerous insinuation or unfortunate phrasing but are we saying housewives' favourite Tommy V likes to "ride the rear". Oo-er

Paul 8v

frenchfighter wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Not sure what Voeckler is doing attacking on a flat stage. Not feeling confident of his abilities in the mountains.

he was having a mare yesterday, he was at the back quite a lot, one of our club members took this pic of him mucking about with his mech:

When he came past us he was dead-last and grimacing even more than usual. He does like to ride the rear though so I guess no surprise.

Quite skillful to fettle the barrel adjuster on the mech on the fly, I'd end up in a hedge!

Macaloon

the article don wrote:

^ I'm not sure if that's humerous insinuation or unfortunate phrasing but are we saying housewives' favourite Tommy V likes to "ride the rear". Oo-er

Doesn't know his rear from his elbow, that one.

MaxwellBygraves

WHY THE F*CK IS TOUR COVERAGE NOT ON ITV1 WHEN THEY'RE SHOWING PETER ANDRE'S 60 MINUTE MAKEOVER RIGHT NOW??

:evil:

ddraver

Just started on ITV 4

Macaloon

It was quite frenetic in the finale in London, however, and one man who did not enjoy his afternoon on the greasy roads of the British capital was Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) who failed to make an impact in the sprint. His manager Marc Sergeant was succint in his appraisal. "André was afraid," he told Sporza. "He kept losing our boys’ wheels and braking on the corners. But you can’t win anything that way at the Tour. It was a lost opportunity.”

http://live.cyclingnews.com/

:shock: I think he was protesting at his team riding for Kittel. By all accounts they're at it agian.

fleshtuxedo

What's the view on Froome for those of us not watching? Does he look okay? When he's not, he tends to look pale and distant. Does he look pale and distant?

ddraver

Hmmm Pinky & Perky vs Carlton and Sean..?

Paul 8v

Looking at this one it looks like he's in the little ring, I rode along there yesterday, it's a very slight incline on my cross bike pushing my sister on her POS mountainbike and I was in the big ring so he must have has something wrong. Thinking about what I said just now would he be running electronic shifters rather than cables so it may not have been the barrel adjuster.

graeme_s-2

Paul 8v wrote:

Quite skillful to fettle the barrel adjuster on the mech on the fly, I'd end up in a hedge!

Last year in one of the classics I saw Tommy remove his helmet, adjust the straps and place it back on his head. As he was putting it back on he was swinging through a right hand bend onto a cobbled section with no hands on the bars. I fell off the sofa just watching him!

ddraver

FleshTuxedo wrote:

What's the view on Froome for those of us not watching? Does he look okay? When he's not, he tends to look pale and distant. Does he look pale and distant?

Hard to say, Carlton says he does but I'm not sure I can tell either way. I'd say he looks very narked off more than anything myself...

Paul 8v

MaxwellBygraves wrote:

WHY THE F*CK IS TOUR COVERAGE NOT ON ITV1 WHEN THEY'RE SHOWING PETER ANDRE'S 60 MINUTE MAKEOVER RIGHT NOW??

:evil:

Because ITV is targeted at morons who would prefer to watch an Aussie with less than two brain cells to rub together than something which requires you to think?

ddraver

Is Fabian Checking his texts?

ddraver

Graeme_S wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Quite skillful to fettle the barrel adjuster on the mech on the fly, I'd end up in a hedge!

Last year in one of the classics I saw Tommy remove his helmet, adjust the straps and place it back on his head. As he was putting it back on he was swinging through a right hand bend onto a cobbled section with no hands on the bars. I fell off the sofa just watching him!

It would make a lot of sense if he was on electric wouldnt it as they tend to break totally rather than go out of alignment so maybe he could nt get in the big ring. Would explain why he couldnt hang on the back of the group when the sprinters came out to play

First high profile failure for Campag EPS? Road General will explode!!

ddraver

Everytime I hear Kemmelberg now I think of Rick's charming pronunciation...

pottssteve

Are Eurospoilsport going to show all of every stage?

goonz

http://gfycat.com/InnocentBewitchedKiwi

Paul 8v

Graeme_S wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Quite skillful to fettle the barrel adjuster on the mech on the fly, I'd end up in a hedge!

Last year in one of the classics I saw Tommy remove his helmet, adjust the straps and place it back on his head. As he was putting it back on he was swinging through a right hand bend onto a cobbled section with no hands on the bars. I fell off the sofa just watching him!

Haha, quality

goonz

adr82 wrote:

Got to agree based on the Dauphine, if Froome isn't 100% Contador is going to be out on his own as far as GC is concerned, unless Nibali has really found some special dope from somewhere.

ftfy

josame

hammerite wrote:

Have I told you about the time the lovely Emilia and I shared a hotel room?

Well not quite, but she was in the room next to me. Emma Johansen was in the room opposite. (Snowworld Hotel, Landgraaf for the World Champs). Rui Costa was on the next table having breakfast. I think Iran were in the same hotel too, no Nibali in sight.

As the Dalai Lama said to me just last week 'it's not good to name drop'

ddraver

If you re very quick there's another Boardman/Boulting special on ITV now. I can't help but love these!

TheBigBean

Macaloon wrote:

With so many teams missing out, why don't we often see secondary breakaways in the early stages, rather than the suicide jumps towards the final?

Is this just a convention that you violate at your peril once the initial break is established: it's just rude to poke a sleeping peloton, and forcing them to chase the break harder is poor form for those in it?

I can't defend the snoozefest which was much of stage one, but I think generally the peleton increases its speed throughout the race, so it is harder to get away the later you try.

hammerite

Carlton in German accent shocker.

Anonymous

Roads all but deserted

"zut alors. Il est encore une fois, ce temps de l'année qui vient tellement rapidement, quand tout le mond arrive a velo, et ils payent meme pas le Road Tax!"

pottssteve

Thinking about the Tour going back to the UK, I would like to see a stage from Portsmouth to Folkestone. If they hugged the coast there would be a lot of up and down and it would look great passing along the Downs and through the middle of towns like Eastbourne, Hastings etc, packed with people on staycation.

RideOnTime

Not like Yorkshire is it... been spoiled.