TDF 2018, Stage 11: Albertville > La Rosière Espace San Bernardo 18/07/2018 - 108,5 km *Spoilers
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I really wish I could find it (I've seen it online), but there's some footage somewhere from around 2010/11, with Geraint being interviewed by Welsh TV with his then girlfriend (now wife) down in Cardiff Bay. And Froome is there as a friend his been riding with and he's just there as a third wheel as far as the story is concerned.Twitter: @RichN950
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We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
it was a poor year of luck for cav.... regroup give it one more year. he needs the milage in his legs.
if it doesn't come off next year then hang up the wheels. you can't read too much into cav this year due to all the crashes and down time."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
iainf72 wrote:TailWindHome wrote:When Thomas attacked every other rider needed to hold their nerve and let Froome chase.
If they're not prepared to do that Sky will walk away with this race.
If they don't chase, they lose. It's like if Froome attacked now, Thomas can just sit there and let them chase and react to it.
basically this
there is nothing to say sky don't let Froome ride off the front on another day while G covers the wheels. they had to try and bridge to G. holding Froomes tour hostage to G's attack assumes one has read the politics of the situation correctly AND that g will crack."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:Hincapie made a good point on the Armstrong podcast - if Thomas was genuinely co-leader who would have worked with Dumoulin.
If Thomas doesn’t collapse it’s pretty awkward for Froome to grab it.
It’d have to be a Sastre esq move while Thomas shadows.
everybody thinks that's going to happen tomorrow on the alp...and I think Froome will try. problem is I think he will get chased down and G will counter over the top."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
Great stage today! Impressive ride by G. Thomas, really wasn’t expecting this from him, given he was never known to follow (and drop!) pure climbers in the mountains...0
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Somewhat relieved that EBernal fell back and rolled in on Valverde's wheel(!). Had he been able to take a turn after Kwiato imploded it would have been freaky for a 19 year old0
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Great stage, well done Gee.
It terms of the Froome/Sky lets Gee win the tour, lets remember that Gee is not paid to win the tour: Froome is. Rather likein F1 where Hamilton/Vettel wouldn't consider for a moment letting the No2 driver win the championship if they had the chance. It would undermine Froome's position within the team but equally important it would deny him the chance to win 4 GT's on the trot and the Giro/TdF double in the same season.
Gee can keep the shirt warm but Froome is the protected leader until Froome decides he can't win.'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP0 -
Such a lovely piece and despite knowing he was well outside the time he still rode to the finish is not just a testament to Rod but also to Mark himself showing huge respect to the race.ddraver wrote:
IF and that's a big if he were to end his GT career on that note I'd say it wouldn't actually be a bad thing and would no less reduce nor take the shine off one of the greatest and most exciting cycling careers.0 -
Surely Froome can't attack Thomas?!
If Thomas can at least stay with the rivals, its his tour to lose in the TT.http://www.snookcycling.wordpress.com - Reports on Cingles du Mont Ventoux, Alpe D'Huez, Galibier, Izoard, Tourmalet, Paris-Roubaix Sportive & Tour of Flanders Sportive, Amstel Gold Xperience, Vosges, C2C, WOTR routes....0 -
Other way round I'd have thought. Landa just lost 48 seconds to Quintana on this stage. Neither are going to trouble the podium though.ds2288 wrote:Movistar need to re-assess their team. Quintana is done for this Tour. Best hope looks to be Landa but tven then, this team must be bitterly disappointed in their performances both last year and this year.
I was surprised it was Valverde they sent on the hail Mary attack. It would have made more sense to me to have sent Landa up the road and for Valverde to suck wheels.0 -
The race for white is now looking to be a three horse race after SK Andersen sacrificed himself for Tom D.
Bernal finished a minute and change ahead of Latour but is still 7:35 behind the Frenchman. I know nothing about Martin Guillaume who is in second but would imagine that Bernal might fancy his chances of taking the white jersey before the Pyrenees are done.0 -
'Team orders'. A Sky/Froome Giro-Tour double has to take precedence. 4 GT's on the trot etc..durhamwasp wrote:Surely Froome can't attack Thomas?!
If Thomas can at least stay with the rivals, its his tour to lose in the TT.
Ram the Badger's words back down his throat.... :shock:'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP0 -
He needs to get a ride first, that might not be so easymididoctors wrote:it was a poor year of luck for cav.... regroup give it one more year. he needs the milage in his legs.
if it doesn't come off next year then hang up the wheels. you can't read too much into cav this year due to all the crashes and down time.0 -
mididoctors wrote:Rick Chasey wrote:RichN95 wrote:Hincapie made a good point on the Armstrong podcast - if Thomas was genuinely co-leader who would have worked with Dumoulin.
If Thomas doesn’t collapse it’s pretty awkward for Froome to grab it.
It’d have to be a Sastre esq move while Thomas shadows.
everybody thinks that's going to happen tomorrow on the alp...and I think Froome will try. problem is I think he will get chased down and G will counter over the top.
I’ve been on here for a while and all the time I’ve been saying if you have the riders and the commitment to the team, two leaders is much more powerful than one.0 -
I see a strengthening of Sky’s position.
Team leader position sorted out in the Pyrenees once a comfortable lead is confirmed.The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.0 -
it might be fun to watch them attack and exhaust each other. Then Valverde the last man standing can pop out and to the front of the GC in time for Paris.0
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I still see Froome as the favourite at this stage.0
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No way does Froome just sit and let Gee win, but I don't(...much...) think that he'll openly stab him in the back either.
I should imagine both of them may have some quiet words with Mr Martin about judicious attacks that they can "follow"We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
Hendrix2430 wrote:Great stage today! Impressive ride by G. Thomas, really wasn’t expecting this from him, given he was never known to follow (and drop!) pure climbers in the mountains...
The gradients on the final climb yesterday were quite shallow, averaging less than 6%, which tend to suit G. Historically he’s lost time to other GC riders on steeper slopes somewhere along the line, but today should tell us more.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Froome will be the one to attack today on the Alpe, giving G the opportunity to sit in and follow wheels. The questions are can Froome drop everyone and keep his level up after a hard Giro, and can G go the whole 3 weeks without a single bad day? Tbh if Dumoulin falters then Froome and G don’t have much competition in that final TT, and G could quite feasibly lose time on several stages and still win it if Froome doesn’t. Froome has to be the big favourite still at this point.0 -
I think Froome will race as hard against Thomas as he would race against his worst enemy … while holding no hard feelings toward him unless Thomas starts something. Froome is insanely competitive. We’ve seen that throughout his career. Remember what he did to Porte at the Dauphiné. Porte didn’t see the fun in that and their friendship reportedly suffered a bit. I get the impression Thomas would take it better but you never know until he’s tested. He is not without ambition.ddraver wrote:No way does Froome just sit and let Gee win, but I don't(...much...) think that he'll openly stab him in the back either.0 -
We're obviously a way off being able to talk about a Froome/Thomas battle but it'll be fascinating to see if Thomas hands it to Froome or they really fight it out on the road. I'm not sure Froome can guarantee a big gap over Thomas in the TT.0
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Bo Duke wrote:Great stage, well done Gee.
It terms of the Froome/Sky lets Gee win the tour, lets remember that Gee is not paid to win the tour: Froome is. Rather likein F1 where Hamilton/Vettel wouldn't consider for a moment letting the No2 driver win the championship if they had the chance. It would undermine Froome's position within the team but equally important it would deny him the chance to win 4 GT's on the trot and the Giro/TdF double in the same season.
Gee can keep the shirt warm but Froome is the protected leader until Froome decides he can't win.
Or until G decides to take control of his future. If Froome cracks/falls (and G manages somehow not to fall or crack) then this could be the best opportunity for him to take a tour.
I dont think Thomas will win.
I do think it would be arrogant to decide to win with froome to get a double / hat trick whatever. Therein lies the path to nothing.0 -
You could hear it in Thomas' interview yesterday that he doesn't have the belief that he can get himself to Paris in yellow. Also talking about himself as being a pawn, Froome being the leader etc etc. Those weren't over-thought weasel words at a press conference (it seemed to me) they were honest accounts of how he saw it. And I think in his heart of hearts he knows he's not as good as Froome, and therefore just expects nature to take its course.
Equally, I'm sure he'll take every day as it comes and if circumstances conspire and his legs feel good I can't see Sky getting too much in the way in the last 2-3km of a MTF and forcing him to sit up in the way that they did with Froome / Wiggins so long as Thomas remains in yellow. From Sky's perspective, they've got a plan A and a plan B and that's not a bad position for them to be in.2015 Canyon Nerve AL 6.0 (son #1's)
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inseine wrote:We're obviously a way off being able to talk about a Froome/Thomas battle but it'll be fascinating to see if Thomas hands it to Froome or they really fight it out on the road. I'm not sure Froome can guarantee a big gap over Thomas in the TT.
Hopefully a bit more professional than the Armstrong/ contador time trial where they left AC behind at the hotel and then told him he was losing time
it would def make a timetrial more interesting.0 -
As it stands their strategy is still going to be built around Froome and that's a big advantage. You can have two leaders and it can be an advantage but that only works if they follow a team strategy and in any given situation that strategy will favour one over the other. That's not to say they wont let Thomas win in any circumstance or that he wont prove insanely strong this Tour and win but he's up against it.
Hopefully this develops into civil war in the team, unless Dumoulin can do something special a battle within Sky is looking like the only battle we are going to get. It really is depressing when we see riders like Quintana, Landa, Zakharin etc - who at times in their careers have looked like they could challenge in the high mountains fall away behind Sky's best so predictably.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
Come on. It’s only predictable after the fact, which is why yesterday’s racing was fun to watch. We didn’t know who would fall away.DeVlaeminck wrote:It really is depressing when we see riders like Quintana, Landa, Zakharin etc - who at times in their careers have looked like they could challenge in the high mountains fall away behind Sky's best so predictably.
Even Froome and Sky have bad days and they will probably lose time somewhere in this Tour. It seems only Dan Martin is immune to the Sky aura of invincibility, which is weird since you only have to watch a few races to break that spell.0 -
Thomas pushed the limit yesterday for the stage. It should be a tough day out today holding wheels.0
