TDF Stage 10-Mulhouse-La Planche des Belles Filles *spoiler*

epc06

Why so many hardons about the Vuelta when we are just a week into the Tour?

mm1

Broken frame? Does this mean that Oleg will be looking to bin Spesh as well as Sram?

With all due respect to FF and others, the race goes on. Froome going has already prompted memories of 1980, but Zoop still had to get round and beat everyone else who was left. Fortunately Contador doesn't look to be in as bad a way as Ocana on the Col de Menthe. Ocana came back the following year, Alberto will be back too. This race has a long way to run. Lots of excitement to come. If Nibali wins, it certainly won't be a la Walko.

Macaloon

Milton50 wrote:

Apparently the FTSE just lost 100 points....

FF's not taking it so well, then?

blazing_saddles

Just thinking that Majka was peed at having to ride this, for fear of the effect it would have on his Vuelta leadership.
I'm guessing he's even more peed off atm.

thomthom

Martin doing a great job but let's not forget that quite a few big riders are still in the peloton and the time gap has pretty much stalled. It's nothing 'outrageous' as someone on Twitter might make it out to be.. But that's what you would expect..

curium

Bakunin wrote:

curium wrote:

Could actually be a harder tour for Nibs to win now because there would have been a number of riders who had discounted themselves for the win due to the presence of Contador and won't now show NIbali the same level of respect.

Like who? Cheng?

What I mean is that many riders would have been waiting for Contador's attacks and bracing themselves to stay with him but now they may actually do some attacking themselves!

jimmythecuckoo

frenchfighter wrote:

What a cruel sport. This is a complete and utter disaster.

for his supporters.

Not being a fan of AC I am not really bothered to be honest.

Let's hope for some creative racing to test Astana in the next couple of weeks.

mfin

mm1 wrote:

Broken frame? Does this mean that Oleg will be looking to bin Spesh as well as Sram?

Sram and Spesh didn't do Tony much harm yesterday.

davidof

ThomThom wrote:

Where does this thing about a snapped frame come from? I'm pretty sure it broke because of what seemed to be pretty hard fall.. Not that unlikely, eh..?

Most likely. There is a 6.8kg weight limit so not as if frames are being built down to the wire for the tours. Bertie's S-Works weights 7kg.

Anonymous

Hope he is ok and no bad injuries, but he shouldn't have been racing at all being a convicted doper and all.

frenchfighter

What a disaster. The two tacticians can no longer make the race.

OPQS

OPQS wrote:

Nibali obviously has a healthy lead; ignoring stage wins, who is his biggest GC threat?

Anyone?

ContrelaMontre

dish_dash wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

The only way I can respect a Nibali win is if he goes off solo on several occasions and gains good time.

I really and truly thought Contador was going to destroy everyone including Nibali even with his time loss.

Surely several MORE occasions... he's already taken two stages impressively by the neck...

Nibali was ridden with more PANACHE than any other rider so far. I'd have been more disappointed to see him crash out than Bertie. Let's face it, Bertie promised much but had delivered nothing so far.

Could be good for the race as Valverde, Bauke and JVDB might consider themselves back in with a shot.

mfin

frenchfighter wrote:

What a disaster. The two tacticians can no longer make the race.

Tacticians, that's one word for them.

RichN95.

Only four people didn't pick Contador or Froome for PTP. hommelbier (Valverde), calvjones (Pinot), Tusher (Talansky) and Ridgerider (Mollema)

bigmat

A guy I race against had a big crash a few weeks ago due to a frame failure. I'm pretty sure he was riding a Specialized...

Back to the race - awful for Contador, bad for the race? Let's wait and see. Its a funny one - we haven't even had a HC climb yet. There are riders who could light it up and give Nibali a real battle - Porte, Valverde, maybe even one of the French guys (Peraud, Bardet, Pinot). The TdF is generally won on long Alpine / Pyrennean roads (although it can be lost anywhere) and we haven't seen how any of the contenders are going on those yet. Its wide open - let's just hope for a great race.

frenchfighter

Astana are so sh*t. They have been drilling it for an hour and Tony Martin is still increasing his lead even after his huge attempt yesterday. To let him go off again with Kwiatek in tow is bad planning.

above_the_cows

OPQS wrote:

OPQS wrote:

Nibali obviously has a healthy lead; ignoring stage wins, who is his biggest GC threat?

Anyone?

Given what we've seen thus far in the Tour I don't think anyone's going to be making any predictions or claims.

jimmythecuckoo

Riis... wow.

Dorset_Boy

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

What a cruel sport. This is a complete and utter disaster.

for his supporters.

Not being a fan of AC I am not really bothered to be honest.

Let's hope for some creative racing to test Astana in the next couple of weeks.

+1

Tough on bertie but no more so than for any other abandon.

Paulie W

Those going 'meh, Contador's out; the race goes on' are kind of missing the point of top level sport. I think the race could still be highly entertaining but one of the reasons I watch sport is to see the very best going head to head. The loss of Froome and Contador (alongside the absence of Quintana) means that isnt going to happen and that impacts on the spectacle for me.

RichN95.

OPQS wrote:

OPQS wrote:

Nibali obviously has a healthy lead; ignoring stage wins, who is his biggest GC threat?

Anyone?

Probably Porte. Maybe Kwaitkowski if he gains time today. Talansky will be willing to attack. Valverde will be consistent.
Maybe we'll get a Pereiro situation.

ManOfKent

mfin wrote:

Tacticians, that's one word for them.

Not the first word that came to my mind, I must admit.

They hadn't even done a great job so far, unless losing a bunch of time on the cobbles was intended to lull the others into a false sense of security.

adr82

OPQS wrote:

OPQS wrote:

Nibali obviously has a healthy lead; ignoring stage wins, who is his biggest GC threat?

Anyone?

Kwia is in virtual yellow right now, he might be slightly concerned about that. Porte should still be up there too you'd think.

above_the_cows

At this rate Ridgerider, hommelbier and calvjones are the only people who can get any GC points on PTP.

mfin

RichN95 wrote:

Only four people didn't pick Contador or Froome for PTP. hommelbier (Valverde), calvjones (Pinot), Tusher (Talansky) and Riderider (Mollema)

I got Kwiat at 200/1 each way, you never know, it just might result in a few quid. Is only 22/1 now.

OPQS

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Riis... wow.

What was that?

davidof

Above The Cows wrote:

Oh give it a rest. Everyone crashes. Even Nibs and Sagan. In fact Sagan crashed twice in one stage. But there is sweet Fanny Adams you can do if your frame brakes.

Just to remind you that Contador had already lost 2 minutes to Nibali on the cobbles because he couldn't keep up. I rest my case.

thomthom

frenchfighter wrote:

Astana are so sh*t. They have been drilling it for an hour and Tony Martin is still increasing his lead even after his huge attempt yesterday. To let him go off again with Kwiatek in tow is bad planning.

= They are not drilling it.. It's not that hard, FF..

ContrelaMontre

RichN95 wrote:

Only four people didn't pick Contador or Froome for PTP. hommelbier (Valverde), calvjones (Pinot), Tusher (Talansky) and Riderider (Mollema)

Kudos to them. PTP has been reignited by this.