Rest day 1 *spoiler*

symo

Reckon Tony Martin would be a laugh.

pottssteve

symo wrote:

Reckon Tony Martin would be a laugh.

:shock:

Got to be the Jensie, assuming he can get time off from taking all his kids to the zoo/playground/McDonalds etc...If not, I'd be happy to push the buggy as I haven't had to do that for a while.

frenchfighter

Today Alberto Contador took the plane that Oleg Tinkov made ​​available in the airport of Dole (France) to travel directly to Barajas Airport (Madrid), where he immediately went to the Clinica Centro, in which doctors waited to do a medical examination before deciding the best course of treatment and if surgery is needed to speed his recovery.

Alberto Contador chose the Clinica Centro after contact with Real Madrid F.C. and more specifically with Emilio Butragueño, with whom he has a good relationship and who quickly talked to the club's medical services and they in turn recommended Dr. Leyes, a specialist in the type of injury suffered by the leader of Tinkoff-Saxo.

Alberto Contador said goodbye to his teammates at breakfast today and traveled to Madrid hoping to recover in time to take the start in the Vuelta a España, although everyone in the Tinkoff-Saxo team are aware of how hard it will be to be fully competitive in just 40 days.

DeadCalm

frenchfighter wrote:

I agree with your analysis of the French side of things. There will be a lot of pride in being the top Frenchman in the GC. AG2R continue to thoroughly impress...a remarkable change from only a couple of years ago.

DeadCalm wrote:

I do find his transformation, since joining Astana, from someone who was competitive in GCs to someone capable of absolutely dominating them a touch disquieting though and would be very happy to see him show some weakness at some point.

I think this is particularly unfair. If anything he has plateaued and so far this year had underperfomed.
Check out his palmares prior to 2013. Most rider's can only dream of having that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Nibali#Palmares

Quite possibly unfair and I will grant you that he had a decent palmares before 2013 but then again nothing to really suggest that he would be able to dominate a GT the way that he has done in the last two years (assuming of course that he continues to be unassailable in this tour). It seems to me that he has shown a marked improvement since joining Astana which doesn't seem entirely natural to my eyes. He is certainly not the same rider who couldn't even keep up with Wiggins in the mountains two years ago. I am prepared to admit though that my personal view of Astana (and consequently Nibali) is almost certainly clouded due to my dislike and distrust of Vino who I naively idolised for a spell.

RichN95.

"I had a four-and-a-half kilo Toblerone at home last year in April when I had a bit of downtime. It was gone within a couple of weeks. I got to the point where I knew I had to stop it so I gave a couple of the massive chunks away."

From an Ask Richie online Q&A

above_the_cows

That Toberlone was almost the same size as Toblerone Boy himself.

RichN95.

SCR Pedro wrote:

Rest day question: which german rider would you most like to have a beer or coffee with? I reckon Greipel could be quite a laugh

Tony Martin would be the worst to have a beer with. He would just sit there silently, knocking them back at a tremendous pace and you'd struggle to keep up.

nevman

RichN95 wrote:

SCR Pedro wrote:

Rest day question: which german rider would you most like to have a beer or coffee with? I reckon Greipel could be quite a laugh

Tony Martin would be the worst to have a beer with. He would just sit there silently, knocking them back at a tremendous pace and you'd struggle to keep up.

Surprised he didnt make the WC squad-he`s a great dribbler.

ben@31

pottssteve wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Not only the GC looking wrapped up, the Lanterne Rouge looks done and dusted unless Cheng doesn't make it through the high mountains.

The race needs Nibali to have a really bad day.

It's a nice thought but Nibali would have to lose an awful lot of time to challenge Cheng...

Whats the odds of Cheng having a breakaway out in front and the sheer awe causes the rest of the peloton have a pile up, all their bikes get tangled together and it takes 2 hours 21 minutes and 1 second to untangle all their bikes?

deejay

DeadCalm wrote:

. I am prepared to admit though that my personal view of Astana (and consequently Nibali) is almost certainly clouded due to my dislike and distrust of Vino who I naively idolised for a spell.

While I completely agree with your dislike of Vinokourov that started with me when he was a member of that Fraudulent, Filthy Team Deutsche Telekom that played a big part in the spread of the Virus EPO so quietly.
However I doubt that Nibali would take much notice of that subject from a known convicted Druggy and only associated with him for the "Money" and Team help he could offer and then let his legs do the talking.

Christ I'm getting to sound like a new FF but I have been watching Nibali this year with his slow and deliberate progress towards a TDF victory just like the old fashioned way. (well some did it this way in the past)
He didn't show to the other TDF - GC riders his form that he kept hidden in Romandie and the Dauphine where it seemed to me he was riding easily to his own plan and not Vinokourov's.
He then shook them all on Stages 2 & 5 where he set the GC standard for 2014 that others could not follow.

Forza Nibali, he is not a Jumped up single day racer trying to suddenly win a GT as he has won the other TWO.

iainf72

Via the wonderful Mikkel Conde

mrconde: Update on Alberto Contador. No need for surgery. No tendon or ligament injured. Vuelta España "almost impossible".

adr82

Some rest day viewing: http://cyclocosm.com/2014/07/how-the-ra ... tages-1-4/

above_the_cows

There's been a disappointing number of stuffed animals and novelty roadside attractions so far. The next half of the race better deliver.

iainf72

Dr Ferrari's first Tour posting

http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=indepth.view&id=147

Jez mon

6.98 is a very high value for W/kg isn't it?

I'm never sure what Ferrari is aiming to achieve with his blog posts, beyond looking clever and sports science-y. What I want to see is him putting his money where his mouth is as to how clean the tour is, but I guess that opens up a legal bag of worms.

iainf72

I think Nibali's power files showed the output was higher than a mountain stage or something like that.

I don't think Dr F seems cycling in terms of clean or dirty. He's got a different morality about these things.

I reckon here he's saying Nibali has learnt to use lipids as fuel, which there are a few articles about. Sky do it a lot with their fasted rides etc

Jez mon

Hmmm you're almost certainly right that Dr F has a different morality about these things. I guess I'd just like some reassurance that, well, cycling might have moved forwards...

frenchfighter

iainf72 wrote:

Via the wonderful Mikkel Conde

mrconde: Update on Alberto Contador. No need for surgery. No tendon or ligament injured. Vuelta España "almost impossible".

Thos really is a disaster for the cycling fans. Rather than adding two to his tally of 9 he is going home with a quarter of the days and not even a high mountain. Maybe he will be ready for the Worlds. It is a tough and hilly circuit but could possibly have too much fast flat included as shown in the Spanish road race. Maybe even Lombardia and the smaller one day Italian races.

I just hope he prepares the same way next year and doesn't use a different approach due to the accident.

frenchfighter

Above The Cows wrote:

There's been a disappointing number of stuffed animals and novelty roadside attractions so far. The next half of the race better deliver.

Fear not as we have not even been on a proper mountain yet.

frenchfighter

Holm on Kwiatek:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/ ... ski_336453

inseine

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?
They're not necessarily the most exciting two riders (one especially, some would say) so there's no reason it can't still be a great Tour. Maybe just a shame that Nibali has such a good lead.

frenchfighter

See Contador's comments post seeing the dr...I am not going to rule out the Vuelta just yet:
http://cyclingquotes.com/news/contador_ ... he_vuelta/

tailwindhome

inseine wrote:

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?

It's a shame as it was nicely poised between Nibs and Bertie.
I reckon if you were to give Nibs a head start into the mountains to make a great race of it, 2 1/2 minutes was just about right.

The next 2 weeks depends on wether or not Sky&Movistar race for second or go for first.
Don't see any other teams in the top 10 being strong enough

frenchfighter

inseine wrote:

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?
They're not necessarily the most exciting two riders (one especially, some would say) so there's no reason it can't still be a great Tour. Maybe just a shame that Nibali has such a good lead.

Eh? Who is more exciting?!
Contador is unparalleled in this regard. Froome is not dull by any means. Nibali is an exciting rider certainly. No one else springs to mind and being a more exciting GC candidate.

SCR Pedro

TailWindHome wrote:

inseine wrote:

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?

It's a shame as it was nicely poised between Nibs and Bertie.
I reckon if you were to give Nibs a head start into the mountains to make a great race of it, 2 1/2 minutes was just about right.

The next 2 weeks depends on wether or not Sky&Movistar race for second or go for first.
Don't see any other teams in the top 10 being strong enough

I agree. No ill will towards Froome, but I'm not a Sky fan, and never will be. For that reason, I would like to see Movistar taking the fight to Porte. I think Valverde had the right just to sit on his wheel yesterday, but only if he's racing for 2nd. If he chooses to race for the overall, then I would like to see a real duel, and none of the boring Sky processional bullcrap from the last two years.

iainf72

inseine wrote:

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?
They're not necessarily the most exciting two riders (one especially, some would say) so there's no reason it can't still be a great Tour. Maybe just a shame that Nibali has such a good lead.

There aren't many riders more exciting than Contador and Froome when they're riding for the win.

With all the names lining up, a lovely route it was being billed as a great Tour. But it's not going to be. It'll have good stages but the likelihood of it being a classic are very slim

joelsim

Surprised that Cancellara has pulled out today rather than in a couple of days' time. Odd.

Ferrari - he knows it is still going on.

The French - have a few good young riders, and I like them, but I can't see them getting one over Quintana when required. Or Kittel.

inseine

frenchfighter wrote:

inseine wrote:

How to people feel about the top two riders being out?
They're not necessarily the most exciting two riders (one especially, some would say) so there's no reason it can't still be a great Tour. Maybe just a shame that Nibali has such a good lead.

Eh? Who is more exciting?!
Contador is unparalleled in this regard. Froome is not dull by any means. Nibali is an exciting rider certainly. No one else springs to mind and being a more exciting GC candidate.

Calm down, I didn't mean Contador. It was a reference to the fact that anyone with a SKY shirt will always be accused of being boring by someone. I'm hoping Porte doesnt conform to that impression.

Macaloon

What. A. Rest. Day.

Not read the threads - fasting - but I just overheard the BBC's golf correspondent bemoaning the fact that golf is losing the juicy (mid-life crisis) demographic to cycling. And that getting golf into the Olympics is critical for the 'game' to compete and reverse the decline.

BBC. Olympics. Golf. En garde for the bores.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

I reckon here he's saying Nibali has learnt to use lipids as fuel, which there are a few articles about. Sky do it a lot with their fasted rides etc

Any explanation or links?