TdF 2016 Stage 15 *Contains spoilers*

gsk82

DeVlaeminck wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

But Yates is being protected in the early parts of a stage by his teammates too; it'd be easier for Sky to burn off four or six of Yates' team than eight, and then he's left facing Froome + AN Other on his lonesome for an even longer distance. And in any event today you had Orica alert in case Meitnjes went and BMC all over the front, whilst Sky hid in the middle of the pack - Sky would have had fresher legs and an even bigger advantage on today's stage if they;d had fewer riders as they'd done absolutely nothing for the first thirty km.

If Sky had fewer riders they couldn't sit on the front of the bunch for as long - simple as that. Smaller teams makes it harder for one team to control the race.

Your argument seems to be that all teams are the same size and reducing that size to say 7 riders makes no odds because it's the same for all - that misses the point because Orica aren't trying to control the race - a bigger team is far more useful in controlling than in attacking therefore larger teams make the race more controlled - more controlled means less exciting.

Sky have had riders drop out in both of froomes previous wins and they were both proclaimed as boring as well. If someone you don't like is winning it's boring. I don't watch anything nibali is doing well in for example.

bobmcstuff

The other thing is everyone talks about sky strangling the race with money but it's not really true - by all accounts BMC are there or thereabouts in terms of salary, where's their attacks?

Bo Duke

I would 've thought yesterday was a great chance for the other GC riders to pull some time back before the rest day but instead they sat behind a slow Sky lead out all race instead of attacking in ones and twos and worn Shy's nerves down. There just seems to be no energy or imagination coming from the other teams. The breakaway wasn't that exciting and the peloton was only along for the ride. I don't understand how they other lads intend on winning this without actually showing some desire. Porte's game plan seems to be the same as Aru's and Quintana - lets just watch and maybe he'll fall off.

I see Quintana was towards the back of the GC group quite a bit of the time which Froome could have used if he wanted to.

DeadCalm

Above The Cows wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

Ou est Monsieur Boardman?

Family issue, I think.

Turns out that it's really bad. His mother has been killed after being hit by a car riding her bike.

Holy crap

Very, very sad news indeed. Condolences to her family and friends.

His written tribute to her posted on his Twitter is very moving. Laugh out loud funny which makes it all the sadder.

Yes, very moving indeed. She will clearly be sorely missed.

DeadCalm

gsk82 wrote:

Sky have had riders drop out in both of froomes previous wins and they were both proclaimed as boring as well. If someone you don't like is winning it's boring. I don't watch anything nibali is doing well in for example.

Speak for yourself. Some of us don't have this football fan mentality where you nail your colours to the mast and follow your team through thick and thin. Yes I am happy when my favourites do well but I can certainly enjoy good racing even if my rider isn't winning. I'm no fan of Froome or Contador, for instance, but the 2014 Vuelta was fun to watch. I really dislike Aru but the 2015 Vuelta was a great race.

DeadCalm

Duplicate.

Richmond Racer 2

Bo Duke wrote:

I would 've thought yesterday was a great chance for the other GC riders to pull some time back before the rest day but instead they sat behind a slow Sky lead out all race instead of attacking in ones and twos and worn Shy's nerves down. There just seems to be no energy or imagination coming from the other teams. The breakaway wasn't that exciting and the peloton was only along for the ride. I don't understand how they other lads intend on winning this without actually showing some desire. Porte's game plan seems to be the same as Aru's and Quintana - lets just watch and maybe he'll fall off.

I see Quintana was towards the back of the GC group quite a bit of the time which Froome could have used if he wanted to.

That's the feeling I'm getting. It's as though the other contenders have allowed themselves to be mentally defeated so early on. Having said that, re yday there were two things going on: Super Poels, dishing out the pain whilst so coolly swigging a can of coke, and the fierce pace at which the cols were climbed by the MJ group had everyone on the rivet.

Piti: "The uphill pace set by Team Sky is the maximum you can climb."

Bo Duke

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Piti: "The uphill pace set by Team Sky is the maximum you can climb."

That's a killer of a realisation.

Richmond Racer 2

With all this said, many more Tours like this with a non-GC battle, and I won't be rushing to watch any more, just like in the Lance era

Luckily it ain't all about the Tour

yourpaceormine

DeadCalm wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

Ou est Monsieur Boardman?

Family issue, I think.

Turns out that it's really bad. His mother has been killed after being hit by a car riding her bike.

Holy crap

Very, very sad news indeed. Condolences to her family and friends.

His written tribute to her posted on his Twitter is very moving. Laugh out loud funny which makes it all the sadder.

Yes, very moving indeed. She will clearly be sorely missed.

Very very sad news. Feel guilty for asking about his whereabouts

hypster

DeVlaeminck wrote:

hypster wrote:

It's the pathetic parcours which is to blame for boring stages. What's the point of making the riders covers 200km+ over six categorised climbs and then finishing with 14km of downhill and flat? Just who from the GC contenders is going to risk going for it on the last climb and then getting pulled back over the descent and run to the finish?

The Vuelta is much more exciting because they generally have a bias in favour of uphill finishes which means that people like Purito, Valverde, Contador and even Froome can go for the win and gain time over GC rivals. How many times have we seen Froome blitz early uphill finishes to dominate the race? If there were more uphill finishes spread out through the Tour then it would give more scope for others to attack.

EDIT: I think the organisers deliberately set up these sort of stages to give non-GC breakaway type riders like Pantano the chance to win a stage. If the GC teams don't want to fight it out then that's down to them.

Loads of uphill finishes would make it more boring as Froome would have about 10 minutes by now. Make them race it's not a contest to see who has the best power to weight.

Yeah, heaven forbid that the best climber, time trialist and all-round rider should win the Tour de France. Several boring* stages to give others a chance or an all-out war of attrition and may the best man/team win - you can't have it both ways just by juggling with the concept. Formula 1 tries that and look where it has got them.

* And that is just a matter of opinion from obviously non-fans of Froome. As far as I am concerned, 4 Cav wins, 1 win from Cummings and Froome and Froome in yellow with Adam Yates on the podium is about as exciting as it gets for a British fan. Give me more of the same every year I say.

r0bh

yourpaceormine wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

Ou est Monsieur Boardman?

Family issue, I think.

Turns out that it's really bad. His mother has been killed after being hit by a car riding her bike.

Holy crap

Very, very sad news indeed. Condolences to her family and friends.

His written tribute to her posted on his Twitter is very moving. Laugh out loud funny which makes it all the sadder.

Yes, very moving indeed. She will clearly be sorely missed.

Very very sad news. Feel guilty for asking about his whereabouts

On the ITV4 highlights show they skipped the usual post-stage analysis and ran Boardman's tribute to his Mum instead, very poignant.

above_the_cows

greasedscotsman wrote:

Just what is she doing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUKEdrt ... e=youtu.be

She's lucky those outriders didn't hit her like that woman in 2009 who died.

above_the_cows

Rick Chasey wrote:

Some good stories from Groenewegen who is learning a lot from Cav......in the bus.

Aparrarently Cav get's 'stung by wasps' on a regular basis, almost 3-4 times a stage...always uphill. So that means a trip to the Drs car .

Oh in the grupetto. I was trying to figure out how we was in the same bus as Cav when they are on different teams.

inseine

where's Froome's lefthook when you need it?

bobmcstuff

Zubeldia fans - he's interviewed on yesterday's cycling podcast

tailwindhome

Anyone know why Julian Alaphilippe has the twitter handle @alafpolak

RichN95.

Bo Duke wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Piti: "The uphill pace set by Team Sky is the maximum you can climb."

That's a killer of a realisation.

It's not true though. 12 of the top 13 on GC went over the top of the final climb together. Previous climbs produced some gaps, riders were dropped.. Valverde is just making excuses for an underperforming team.

above_the_cows

bobmcstuff wrote:

Zubeldia fans - he's interviewed on yesterday's cycling podcast

Oh yes I meant to tell everyone this. Yesterday really was a cornucopia of Zubeldia. We saw him more on the coverage than we have in his entire career and we got to hear the man speak. Henceforth 17th July shall be known as Zubeldia Day.