Criterium Du Dauphine 2017 *** SPOILERS***

rick_chasey

Good.

We need some competition.

yourpaceormine

Thomas DeGendt 22" down at halfway

TheBigBean

Froome 37s down on Porte. Hasn't looked good the whole season.

gsk82

TheBigBean wrote:

Froome 37s down on Porte. Hasn't looked good the whole season.

Even slower than Contador. Not inspiring confidence for the tour (for himself not the race)

blazing_saddles

Froome flops.
Lost a load of time on the climb, which says it all.

TheBigBean

Valverde 24s down on Porte.

bigmat

Valverde learns to time trial better than the other GC big hitters (Porte excepted) - what an Indian Summer he's having!

blazing_saddles

Valverde just 4 seconds slower than Porte on the second half, so he also out climbed Froome by a significant amount.

TheBigBean

Froome's odds largely unchanged for the tour (still favourite). Porte has shortened. If Porte keeps this up he could start as favourite which is not bad considering his previous best GT results of 5th and 7th.

rick_chasey

Valverde?!?!

Woof!

What was he looking like on the bike? Strong?

rick_chasey

This is all excellent news. Very welcome.

Richmond Racer 2

People, we have a contest on our hands....

kingstongraham

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Froome flops.
Lost a load of time on the climb, which says it all.

He didn't look strong and stable - rocking a bit I thought.

milton50

Aha.

The Tour suddenly looks pretty interesting.

And Valverde's supposed to be working for Quintana at the Tour? Sure.

above_the_cows

MY MAN!

(Not Señor Hairplugs)

TheBigBean

Stage results:

1 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:28:07
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:12
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:24
4 Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:28
5 Chad Haga (USA) Team Sunweb 0:00:32
6 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team
7 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:35
8 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:37
9 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:42
10 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:45

General classification after stage 4:

1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 13:05:53
2 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:27
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:51
4 Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:55
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:02
6 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:04
7 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:01:12
8 Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:15
9 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:17
10 Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:22

larkim

Maybe he's just sandbagging to give himself a target for a monster time clawback on a climbing stage??!?

Or perhaps this week is really just a training week this year for Froome?

onyourright

Or perhaps he’s aiming at the double and, like Quintana, flopping.

RichN95.

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until 24km on the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

In 2015, when the Tour only had 14km of TT, Froome's TT results were:
10th in Andulucia (14s behind J.Moreno)
13th at Romandie (34s behind T.Martin)
then
39th in the Tour itself (50s behind Dennis)

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

No hiding though in a TT.

I think it's a fairly good indicator.

They're all prepping for the same race, so they'll all ahve prepped for fewer TT kilometers.

onyourright

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form.

True, though Froome seemed worse precisely in the climbing today. Suggests his aero is as good as ever or better, but the power’s not there. Too early to call anything, but I’m sure Froome isn’t thrilled with how that went. Earlier he was talking about the time trial putting one of the GC guys into a position of not needing to attack in the mountains. The impression given was that he hoped that would be him. Instead he’s left himself everything to do.

We’ll see.

milton50

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

Agreed that it's the mountains where the true 'reveal' will come. However, the fact that Froome lost 37 seconds to Porte in a relatively short TT suggests he is not at the same level he was at this point last year.

RichN95.

Rick Chasey wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

No hiding though in a TT.

I think it's a fairly good indicator.

They're all prepping for the same race, so they'll all ahve prepped for fewer TT kilometers.

But will they have all done the same though? Have they all put the exact same emphasis on it?

Plus we know Froome has a bad back, so he's probably kept TTing to a minimum.

RichN95.

Milton50 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

Agreed that it's the mountains where the true 'reveal' will come. However, the fact that Froome lost 37 seconds to Porte in a relatively short TT suggests he is not at the same level he was at this point last year.

He's won the Dauphine by very narrow margins in the last two years. Contador smashed him in the uphill prologue last year - 13s in 11 minutes - (but finished 5th in the end)

Ultimately the Dauphine is a bit like an opinion poll a month before an election.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

I think we have to see the climbing before we judge everyone's form. TTing isn't really a key component for this year's Tour. A 14Km stage 1 and nothing until the last Saturday, by which time there's a good chance the race will be largely done and dusted.

No hiding though in a TT.

I think it's a fairly good indicator.

They're all prepping for the same race, so they'll all ahve prepped for fewer TT kilometers.

But will they have all done the same though? Have they all put the exact same emphasis on it?

Plus we know Froome has a bad back, so he's probably kept TTing to a minimum.

In my experience, back stuff is more of an issue when climbing than TTing.

Though I don't know enough about the injury, but usually TTing is alright.

RichN95.

Rick Chasey wrote:

In my experience, back stuff is more of an issue when climbing than TTing.

Though I don't know enough about the injury, but usually TTing is alright.

Fair enough. My experience is basically nil.

blazing_saddles

Froome's splits were far from negative.
3rd quickest to the intermediate, 19th quickest after.

rick_chasey

Very curious. Did he look uncomfortable?

He looks ok on the TT bike.

bigmat

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

In my experience, back stuff is more of an issue when climbing than TTing.

Though I don't know enough about the injury, but usually TTing is alright.

Fair enough. My experience is basically nil.

Don't worry, so is Rick's.

yourpaceormine

Stannard has gone home early, he's sick. As is often the way with sickness in a team during a race, it does make you wonder if Froome is too. Kwia wasn't on top form either.