TdF 2017: Stage 18 Briançon - Izoard, 179.5kms *Spoilers*

rick_chasey

Yeah. Can't remember where I read it now.

Richmond Racer 2

RonB wrote:

That's wonderful on many levels

Lanterne_Rogue

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Something I've just been reminded of. Uran got a 20s penalty for an illegal drink, then got let off when they didn't penalise Bardet. That would be a controversy if it is the deciding factor.

Wasn't the mavic mechanical adjustment also against UCI rulez?

For whom? Uran? Not that I've heard, maybe you've heard different.

Aren't mechanical repairs supposed to be undertaken whilst stopped? Seem to recall a 1 minute penalty, but might be wrong.

It's universally overlooked though, because a) it looks cool, b) it means the race goes on without being badly affected through luck, and c) did we mention it looks cool?

Lanterne_Rogue

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. Can't remember where I read it now.

Think Cosmo may have mentioned it.

StillGoing

Rick Chasey wrote:

54x11.

54x11


54x11


Better than sticking your hand up and moaning about people attacking you.

Oh please! Uran has sat on all tour and Cannondale have done SFA work. Uran was on a descent when his RD jammed/battery failed unlike Froome who was on the ascent when his gears failed.

tailwindhome

Above The Cows wrote:

RonB wrote:

Is that one of those lightweight, skinny climbers Toblerones?

It's the 2017 route in chocolate and nougat

StillGoing

Lookyhere wrote:

Froome deserves his victory and i would nt want an incident to rob him of his win but i ll be looking forward to the Vuelta, which is great racing because Sky dont target the race, todays stage was possibly the most boring ever, they may as well have just re run the La Course race, now that was a cracker!

I'm suspecting Sky and Froome are targeting a TdF and Vuelta double attempt with his delayed form.

Lanterne_Rogue

TailWindHome wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

RonB wrote:

Is that one of those lightweight, skinny climbers Toblerones?

It's the 2017 route in chocolate and nougat

You're saying they took out all the lumpy bits to keep the price down?

The_Boy

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Something I've just been reminded of. Uran got a 20s penalty for an illegal drink, then got let off when they didn't penalise Bardet. That would be a controversy if it is the deciding factor.

Wasn't the mavic mechanical adjustment also against UCI rulez?

For whom? Uran? Not that I've heard, maybe you've heard different.

Inrng quoted he rule in question the other day. Can't remember which post, mind.

Edit:. And he obviously may not have been correct. Rules open to interpretation, as is what happens on the road.

Lanterne_Rogue

The_Boy wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Something I've just been reminded of. Uran got a 20s penalty for an illegal drink, then got let off when they didn't penalise Bardet. That would be a controversy if it is the deciding factor.

Wasn't the mavic mechanical adjustment also against UCI rulez?

For whom? Uran? Not that I've heard, maybe you've heard different.

Inrng quoted he rule in question the other day. Can't remember which post, mind.

Edit:. And he obviously may not have been correct. Rules open to interpretation, as is what happens on the road.

Interestingly, I just went looking for it, and found an inrng article from 2015 about them clamping down. http://inrng.com/2015/03/no-more-mechanics-on-the-move/

Even there it suggests that in the case of a mechanical as the result of an accident it's discretionary. Also, no time penalty is mentioned, only a team fine, and how can a team be fined for the neutral service car's actions?

Hey ho, cycling in 'making it up as we go along' shocker...

The_Boy

Here you go. Fucksd if I can be arsed cunting about with screenshots, you can fine the relevant passage.

http://inrng.com/2017/07/rest-day-review-le-puy/

It's all moot anyway, the race commies have obviously looked at it and have no issue.

bobmcstuff

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

I think LRP has been missed...

Really? Who misses LRP?

How fickle women are...

(edit - there goes my right-on credentials, and all for a cheap gag :roll: )

It's all right carpet man, I was being facetious.

I know, I was- Never mind.

If it cheers you up, my youngest came downstairs about half an hour after she should have been asleep so I rewound the highlights to show her Kwia coming to a halt. She was very impressed.

Kwiato stopping and unclipping was awesome.

Highlights showed De Gendt giving a little handshake to Barguil as he got dropped - class.

LeePaton

Anyone see Froome targeting the three GTs at once?

Sky have famously never cracked the Giro and it's not like they like real leaders for the tour.

bobmcstuff

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

I think LRP has been missed...

Really? Who misses LRP?

How fickle women are...

(edit - there goes my right-on credentials, and all for a cheap gag :roll: )

It's all right carpet man, I was being facetious.

I know, I was- Never mind.

If it cheers you up, my youngest came downstairs about half an hour after she should have been asleep so I rewound the highlights to show her Kwia coming to a halt. She was very impressed.

Next time I stop on a climb I'm going to pretend I'm just doing a Kwiatkowski.

You have to chuck your £120 Oakleys into a ditch shortly beforehand

RichN95.

LeePaton wrote:

Anyone see Froome targeting the three GTs at once?

No. Look how well Quintana's effort at the Giro/Tour double went.

Lanterne_Rogue

RichN95 wrote:

LeePaton wrote:

Anyone see Froome targeting the three GTs at once?

No. Look how well Quintana's effort at the Giro/Tour double went.

I don't think he would, but if he doubles Tour/Vuelta then there's space to recover for the Giro.

Whether he'd do that and compromise the next tour is questionable. Holding all three jerseys at once might be tempting though. Has anyone done that before?

LeePaton

RichN95 wrote:

No. Look how well Quintana's effort at the Giro/Tour double went.

Yeah I was meaning he'd drop next years tour...

Maybe a stretch but what a way to swrite yourself into the books than hold all three at once.

RichN95.

LeePaton wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

No. Look how well Quintana's effort at the Giro/Tour double went.

Yeah I was meaning he'd drop next years tour...

Maybe a stretch but what a way to swrite yourself into the books than hold all three at once.

Ah, right. I mistook what you meant (I thought you meant all three in a season). I don't think so. I think if he wins the Vuelta (and this Tour which is not a given), he'll just do the Tour next year - full on to join the five time winners. I think he'll only get one shot at it.

m.r.m.

For me Kwiatkowski has been the best rider of the Tour.

Route has actually made the final TT mean something. There is certainly some suspense there, since a puncture could derail Froome with the gaps being this close.

Froome won't target all three tours. He isn't able to hold form for that long. Only few can (Valverde comes to mind). He will continue to focus solely on the Tour de France and ride the Vuelta as training for the next Tour. If others falter at the Vuelta he will gladly add that to his palmares without having it as an objective for the season.

Richmond Racer 2

LeePaton wrote:

Anyone see Froome targeting the three GTs at once?

Sky have famously never cracked the Giro and it's not like they like real leaders for the tour.

No. Not in a million years. He's just about holding on here. Look at how others who competed for GC at the Giro are doing. Shagged out is a non-technical term. And frankly he ain't getting any younger.

Bo Duke

It seems to me that Sky as a team as are strong as ever but Froome isn't. That said Aru and Quintana have been put to the sword and Uran Uran isn't good enough to beat Froome. It's difficult to say there's a better GC rider out there but its a lot closer than last year.

The lads who've left Sky to lead teams, principally LRP and Uran Uran are't good enough to win 3 week tours. Would Landa be any more successful?

wombly_knees

underlayunderlay wrote:

I think LRP has been missed - I suspect he'd have beaten Froome so far, albeit not by much.

Going to disagree here. A bit like Thomas, Porte seems to screw up every big target he tries. While in theory he's best placed to knock Froome off the top, his presence would've offered him another 12 stages to puncture/crash/snap his bike in 2 or some other, which he seems to achieve better than his targets.

tailwindhome

It would be interesting to get the riders perspective on the route.

My feeling is that the were every bit as 'spent' on that last climb as on previous tours with more climbing.

I think Froome was on a bad day (by his standards) and Sky done an excellent job of bluffing and nursing their man to the finish.

iainf72

After stage 1 Uran was 51 seconds down, Bardet 39.

Pretty much all of Froome's losses on the road were to Peyragudes. Uran and Bardet have a few bonuses in there as well. Interesting, they both lost a few seconds on stage 5 - I suspect Aru messed up the Sky plan on that day

wallace_and_gromit

TailWindHome wrote:

My feeling is that the were every bit as 'spent' on that last climb as on previous tours with more climbing.

I think any GT route is far too hard to go flat out all day every day, so whatever the route they measure their effort so they're cooked by the end of the mountain stages.

greasedscotsman

bobmcstuff wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

I think LRP has been missed...

Really? Who misses LRP?

How fickle women are...

(edit - there goes my right-on credentials, and all for a cheap gag :roll: )

It's all right carpet man, I was being facetious.

I know, I was- Never mind.

If it cheers you up, my youngest came downstairs about half an hour after she should have been asleep so I rewound the highlights to show her Kwia coming to a halt. She was very impressed.

Next time I stop on a climb I'm going to pretend I'm just doing a Kwiatkowski.

You have to chuck your £120 Oakleys into a ditch shortly beforehand

I thought he was going back to get them!

FocusZing

above_the_cows

underlayunderlay wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

RonB wrote:

Is that one of those lightweight, skinny climbers Toblerones?

It's the 2017 route in chocolate and nougat

You're saying they took out all the lumpy bits to keep the price down?

smithy21

The route effectively seems to have managed to present us with a veneer of competitiveness going into the final weekend. In reality we know it's done.

On Rigo, I am completely biased but he has looked strong, closed moves down where necessary and nicked some bonus seconds. It's called riding an intelligent race.

Maybe people prefer the Dan Martin crazy attacks from 5-6 km out which blow up in his face sometimes and nick a few seconds on other occasions.

nickice

philthy3 wrote:

Lookyhere wrote:

Froome deserves his victory and i would nt want an incident to rob him of his win but i ll be looking forward to the Vuelta, which is great racing because Sky dont target the race, todays stage was possibly the most boring ever, they may as well have just re run the La Course race, now that was a cracker!

I'm suspecting Sky and Froome are targeting a TdF and Vuelta double attempt with his delayed form.

That's a risky game to play given the disparity in the amount of attention (both public and media) that the two races receive. Maybe Froome is just starting to decline a little and I think this is the last TdF he'll win. I'd love to see him target some other races (that aren't TdF warm-ups) but I think he'll really be in decline before Sky let him do that.