TDF 2017: 14 July - Stage 13 - Saint-Girons - Foix 101kms *Spoilers*

bobmcstuff

Inrng take:

"The Pole was not chasing Landa, more his acts to contain the Froome group from attacks by Bardet, Urán and others meant the group’s speed was higher."

http://inrng.com/2017/07/tour-de-france ... iew-rodez/

Lanterne_Rogue

inseine wrote:

isn't that often the Caedmon

This is bugging me. Is that a piece of slang I don't understand, or does your predictive text default to anglo-saxon?

Interesting range of views on Sky yesterday, although I did happen across one person who was saying they enjoyed it much more because 'boring Sky weren't doing anything' :roll:

knedlicky

After the stage Bardet complained that the others in his group wouldn’t cooperate with him in trying to close down the gap to the Quintana/Contador minigroup.

So Bardet doesn’t feel Froome and Kwia were chasing Landa.

Bardet's remarks perhaps also mean Sky don’t feel as threatened by Quintana as much as he does.

smithy21

Landa is a threat to everyone on GC bar Froome yet Sky were on the front of the second group.

I just think Froome sh@t the bed a little bit and panicked when he didn't need to. No-one in the group of contenders can TT bar Uran sometimes and he certainly wouldn't beat Froome.

larkim

My take on it as a complete novice was the on the descent and run in Froome and Kwia were simply trying to test out Aru and see if they could get a small break. 6s+ would have put Froome back in yellow, does noone think that was worth chasing from Froome? He knew that up the road both Quintana and Landa weren't making too big inroads into the GC and Froome (as team leader, despite what some people's perspective on DBs attitude to him) was trying to find a weakness in Aru - for the first time Aru was the one being attacked rather than being the attacker.

All looked perfectly sensible to me.

Aru had already been stretched by having to keep the gap down to Landa manageable. We're all focussing on how Froome and Sky rode today, but if you look at it all from Aru's perspective I think it looks a bit different and more comprehensible.

imatfaal

The Froome group took 11 seconds longer to get down the hill than the Landa group - I think we can be certain (bearing in mind that the two best time-triallers Froome and Kwia were in second group) that the effects of Froome and Kwia on the front were negligible if not actually negative.

The finest descender (RBardet) and two best time-triallers lost time to a group driven almost solely by a climber - therefore Froome and Kwia were not trying to close gap.

The only time you want your men on the front of two groups is when one of the groups is being - in effect - slowed deliberately by their presence on the front; and that is what I think was going on. Bardet/Martin/Aru/Yates/Uran/Mentjes would have caught up more without the confusion

The tactic additionally gave Froome the chance to attempt to shake off Aru occassionally - which was always pretty unlikely but worth a shot.

EnacheV

Lance said that you don't take riders to TdF that won't be in your team next year. I agree with that 100%.

If its true Landa signed with some other team i don't quite understand what Brailsford was thinking bringing him here.

disquieting_museeuws

underlayunderlay wrote:

inseine wrote:

isn't that often the Caedmon

This is bugging me. Is that a piece of slang I don't understand, or does your predictive text default to anglo-saxon?

Interesting range of views on Sky yesterday, although I did happen across one person who was saying they enjoyed it much more because 'boring Sky weren't doing anything' :roll:

Rhyming slang: Caedmon's Hymn = dim.

It is in my family anyway.

r0bh

As ever anything involving Sky gets magnified out of all proportion and the bones of it picked until they are bare. The outcome for them, though, was pretty much perfect. Aru still in yellow so his (already weak) team will have to work to control the peloton. Landa up to a position where he is a genuine second GC card to play and Aru, Bardet, Uran will really need to watch him. Quintana not brought right back into the race.

inseine

It's funny that people are saying they don't want Froome to win (presuming they did before) because they don't understand the tactics. The Cycling Podcast thinks they played a blinder.

r0bh

inseine wrote:

It's funny that people are saying they don't want Froome to win (presuming they did before) because they don't understand the tactics. The Cycling Podcast thinks they played a blinder.

Thomazeu and Birnie did, Moore thought they should have let Landa take yellow by a minute (although he passed over the fact that this would have brought Quintana back level with Froome)

blazing_saddles

r0bh wrote:

As ever anything involving Sky gets magnified out of all proportion and the bones of it picked until they are bare. The outcome for them, though, was pretty much perfect. Aru still in yellow so his (already weak) team will have to work to control the peloton. Landa up to a position where he is a genuine second GC card to play and Aru, Bardet, Uran will really need to watch him. Quintana not brought right back into the race.

This is true, but the antics of the race jury aside, this Tour has produced almost sod all to talk about.

Pross

If they were concerned about Quintana I'm not sure why they let him ride away in the first place.

Millar is usually an astute tactician but he was struggling to understand what Froome was doing at times. His opinion was Aru is the leader and should be made to do the work although he did acknowledge that a Tour top 10 is a big deal for most riders and that they would therefore help out if their own position was under threat.

mfin

Aru didn't particularly need to chase, Landa was NOT riding into yellow. If Sky had held back it is not as if this situation would have changed either. I think people think it would have, and they wrongly think Froome was committed and effective at chasing the gap down. Maybe they then think Aru could be forced to chase then Froome maybe could pip him for a few seconds at the end.

The result was good for Sky, Froome was not attacked by Aru for any more time, more people have to watch Landa now, Sky have opened up their tactical options going forward.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

If Brailsford wants Team Sky to win GC but no care about who does it, I'd expect him to have instructed Froome to coast (not pushing the pace, not heading the Aru group) and bring Landa closer to the yellow jersey.

Maybe Brailsford did just that and Froome disobeyed team orders, who knows besides the two of them!

Vino'sGhost

I think landa went rogue and i think thats great. In a team of champions its good to see. Froome wasn't best pleased with jiffy man its the passing of the baton.

RichN95.

r0bh wrote:

inseine wrote:

It's funny that people are saying they don't want Froome to win (presuming they did before) because they don't understand the tactics. The Cycling Podcast thinks they played a blinder.

Thomazeu and Birnie did, Moore thought they should have let Landa take yellow by a minute (although he passed over the fact that this would have brought Quintana back level with Froome)

A few days ago Moore was telling us that everyone who was prominent at the Giro is struggling. Now he wants Sky to back one of the Giro stars ahead of a proven winner. Journalists and their knee-jerk hot takes :roll:

DeVlaeminck

disquieting_museeuws wrote:

Rhyming slang: Caedmon's Hymn = dim.

It is in my family anyway.

I'm kicking myself :?