TDF 2018, Stage 10: Annecy > Le Grand-Bornand 17/07/2018 - 158,5 km *Spoilers*

carbonclem

Listen to Brads comments within the podcast in full and it isn’t nearly as outrageous.

blazing_saddles

Pross wrote:

Should be interesting having Brad on, shame I'll be away. Matt Rowe will probably be entertaining on Friday too when he's on with Dani.

I caught that too. I'd say so.

RichN95.

pat1cp wrote:

Has Cav been swept up yet ?

The back markers made it in on time. Tomorrow may be a tough one for them if the GC battle kicks off early.

knedlicky

RichN95 wrote:

pat1cp wrote:

Has Cav been swept up yet ?

The back markers made it in on time.

But apparently by only by 3 seconds!

Correction, by 38 secs, but evenso.

blazing_saddles

Above The Cows wrote:

Meanwhile Wiggins bites the hand that fed him...

Bradley Wiggins wrote:

Wiggins continued, describing the Team Sky principal, Dave Brailsford, as “divisive” and “self-serving.” He said: “Does Dave B come in and do his usual and be quite divisive and get in each other’s ear and kind of keep them both motivated for the same goal and there be a natural selection?

“Dave will be telling them they can both win it, as a way of motivating them, as a way of playing these cards deep in to the race. He’s quite self-serving. For him it’s about the team winning, it’s not about the individuals or the characters. He will always be in those riders’ ears constantly, and he has been, up till now as you can see.”

And Jeremy Whittle laps it up.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jul/16/bradley-wiggins-stirs-pot-warning-danger-rift-team-sky

It should be patently obvious to all by now, that Sky won't waste a single drop of sweat to reward Geraint for all his years of unfailing support, with even a day or two in yellow.
If it comes, it comes, but it won't be down to SDB telling them to go out and fetch.

bobmcstuff

Blimey, some ride by GVA then? Although yes that Olympic ride in Rio should have been an indicator. Was chatting about this with my GF while we were walking today, she mentioned about the Olympics but I said I thought this would be too hard. Clearly she know more about cycling than me!

Pross

knedlicky wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

pat1cp wrote:

Has Cav been swept up yet ?

The back markers made it in on time.

But apparently by only by 3 seconds!

Correction, by 38 secs, but evenso.

Surprised that last little lump to the finish didn't take any victims if they had to push it, I wonder how much is luck and how much is down to the experience of the bus driver?

above_the_cows

FocusZing wrote:

And after three, one, two, three, air your balls!

above_the_cows

CarbonClem wrote:

Listen to Brads comments within the podcast in full and it isn’t nearly as outrageous.

You mean Whittle is being a bit sensationalist? Well I never :shock: I am shocked to my very core.

above_the_cows

Gweeds wrote:

http://www.manspreading.com

Competitive manspreading by the looks of it. The guy behind is hampered by his denim, meanwhile Alaphilippe has a marginal gain in lycra.

tailwindhome

Pross wrote:

Has anyone commented on how unreal it was for a puncheur to go solo for 30km and barely lose any time to the marauding Sky machine or for a cobble specialist to hold on over 4 major climbs and increase their yellow jersey lead by the way? No? Thought not

Ya want to introduce this to the spoiler threads?

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

pat1cp wrote:

Has Cav been swept up yet ?

The back markers made it in on time. Tomorrow may be a tough one for them if the GC battle kicks off early.

We can hope but I feel this is rather ambitious.

shipley

Milton50 wrote:

Plus literally everyone wearing a Sky jersey.

You think so ? Makes for yet another yawn fest tour for viewers.

shirley_basso

Unfortunately doesn't make it less of a fact. Even Bernal with allegedly a handful of broken fingers wasn't really tested?

Vino'sGhost

Rick Chasey wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

You gotta say, like ever year, the tactics do work for sky but holy moly they are dull as sh!t.

You could point the finger at everyone else, but why would they bother turning it into a race when they'd just get hoovered up 3km later.

The truth is that with three hard mountain stages, back to back, nobody was in the least bit interested.
Nobody forced them into line. They had the whole stage to send riders up the road or wotnot.
Sheep is sheep.

Aye; the line up is intimidating though.

They have the numbers and talent to control the stage from cradle to grave if it's less than 200km.

You can go as nuts as you want, you'll just be pooped.

This is my argument for longer stages; they're harder to control, so the final 30 mins or so might actually be more selective.

All the "short stages" i.e. 80/90 miles in the three GT of the last few years have proved to be gold short stage in the mountains yield the most aggressive racing.

RichN95.

Shirley Basso wrote:

Unfortunately doesn't make it less of a fact. Even Bernal with allegedly a handful of broken fingers wasn't really tested?

He's got nothing broken, he just sprained his wrist.

Dorset_Boy

Shame you're all unimpressed with the stage.
Was able to see the ladies roll out this morning, then the caravanne, then the men, then caught them again at the top of the Col de Bluffy, then in St Jean de Sixt, and finally the last corner in Le Grand Bo, with 2 extra circuits from the Caravanne. Then a ride back round the bottom of the lake to St Jorioz.
Not many stages where you can get to see the race than often by bike.
Glad Cav made it, he was last on the road in St Jean de Sixt.
Would post photos except don't have an online account, but some on my Strava feed:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1709004290
Also discovered I m ahead of Mr Froome on a segment!

Lanterne_Rogue

Its fun to whinge, and it turned out not to be the all fists swinging mountain madness of our fevered imaginations. Basically, it was the first mountain stage and we fall for it every year. It wasn't actually that bad - if the order of races had been swapped it would have been pretty good, but we got the most exciting moment early on and the Tour was always liable to be an anticlimax!

Sounds like you had a really good day out.

Pross

Shipley wrote:

Milton50 wrote:

Plus literally everyone wearing a Sky jersey.

You think so ? Makes for yet another yawn fest tour for viewers.

Nothing stopping Movistar using one of their three contenders to mix it up was there? Sky always get the blame for making these stages boring when the reality is it is the other teams that just play into their hands. If Movistar don't risk sacrificing a pawn in the next stage or two (Quintana would be most logical) you have to question their team selection.

onyourright

Dorset Boy wrote:

Also discovered I m ahead of Mr Froome on a segment!

Climb of the Col de Romme maybe? The GC guys didn’t really race today. But that makes little difference to standing by the roadside. Thanks for the pics that nicely show today’s story: a long, uncontested Sky train.

RichN95.

Lots of riders are saying there was a strong headwind on the later climbs which meant no-one could really do anything.

Pross

RichN95 wrote:

Lots of riders are saying there was a strong headwind on the later climbs which meant no-one could really do anything.

Didn't seem to bother Alaphilippe much despite having been in the break all day. I think riders are just too scared to go for it on the first mountain stage. If it had been an MTF they may have had a few digs in the last couple of kms though.

tailwindhome

onyourright

Dan Martin didn’t let a headwind bother him the other day. And he won. The mathematical effect of a headwind at climbing speeds is much, much less than it feels to the rider. It’s psychological as much as physical on a proper climb. And it’s almost as tough for the chasers who on mountains are often solitary riders or small groups confined by narrow roads and motorbikes to poor drafting positions, etc.

But headwinds take a lot of blame for inaction these days …

underlayunderlay wrote:

Basically, it was the first mountain stage and we fall for it every year.

Sky used to hit the first mountain stage full-gas and gain time for Froome before the others knew what had hit them. This time they didn’t do that and yet no-one else attacked.

This was the stage selected for l’Etape du Tour! It was a waste of good racing terrain and a few hours of my life (I was dumb enough to watch it).

The sport is hard enough to televise without the apathy of today. I think eventually something will have to be done to encourage racing because that was dire and yet all too common.

hypster

Pross wrote:

Shipley wrote:

Milton50 wrote:

Plus literally everyone wearing a Sky jersey.

You think so ? Makes for yet another yawn fest tour for viewers.

Nothing stopping Movistar using one of their three contenders to mix it up was there? Sky always get the blame for making these stages boring when the reality is it is the other teams that just play into their hands. If Movistar don't risk sacrificing a pawn in the next stage or two (Quintana would be most logical) you have to question their team selection.

Spot on. I thought this stage would play out pretty much like this because there was a long downhill finish and two more much harder mountain-top finishes to follow. Anybody expecting serious GC attacks on the final climb was fooling themselves.

On another note Ned Boulting's commentary was exceedingly annoying today especially all the hyperbole for Alaphilippe at the finish was especially sickening.

Lanterne_Rogue

OnYourRight wrote:

underlayunderlay wrote:

Basically, it was the first mountain stage and we fall for it every year.

Sky used to hit the first mountain stage full-gas and gain time for Froome before the others knew what had hit them. This time they didn’t do that and yet no-one else attacked.

Yeah but even when Sky ground everyone into the dust everyone was straight onto the internet to say how boring it was.

We've had one stage live up to the hype so far - the cobbles - and that's probably a better hit rate than 90% of tours.

onyourright

hypster wrote:

On another note Ned Boulting's commentary was exceedingly annoying today especially all the hyperbole for Alaphilippe at the finish was especially sickening.

Is it possible to be hyperbolic about Alaphilippe?

RichN95.

OnYourRight wrote:

Sky used to hit the first mountain stage full-gas and gain time for Froome before the others knew what had hit them. This time they didn’t do that and yet no-one else attacked.

The first mountain stage was a mountain top finish in those cases though. They'll test everyone tomorrow without doubt. Particularly as Alpe d'Huez is increasingly difficult to properly race on.

hypster

OnYourRight wrote:

hypster wrote:

On another note Ned Boulting's commentary was exceedingly annoying today especially all the hyperbole for Alaphilippe at the finish was especially sickening.

Is it possible to be hyperbolic about Alaphilippe?

Well as it was his first ever Tour stage victory I think it was a bit excessive. And it's not like he destroyed the field with a devastating, long-range breakaway either. He just did what plenty of riders have done before to take a stage. Boulting made it sound like he had blown the race apart.

Bo Duke

Pross wrote:

Nothing stopping Movistar using one of their three contenders to mix it up was there? Sky always get the blame for making these stages boring when the reality is it is the other teams that just play into their hands. If Movistar don't risk sacrificing a pawn in the next stage or two (Quintana would be most logical) you have to question their team selection.

Sky had no reason to floor the pedal today. Froome is still recovering from the Giro so the longer the Tour goes on 'being boring' the better. Movistar should be hammering Froome this first week to knock him out and force Sky to make G the No 1 rider. Froomie's going to wait til week 3 when Quintana usually wakes up, then light the touchpaper and blitz them all. Until then every boring day is a victory. Same for Big Tom. (with a far lesser chance).