TDF 2018, Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Mende 21/07/2018 - 188 km *Spoilers*

davidof

Voekler vs Madiot on French TV talking about Sky.

Madiot "the tour is in danger, cycling is not credible, I understand the people are revolting, we are told for months the dossier is complicated then suddenly just before the tour everything is sorted"
Voekler "maybe WADA should have said a long time ago that their test is not reliable?"

RichN95.

underlayunderlay wrote:

All it's confirmed is that the top three riders are indeed the top three riders.

I'd put Roglic in there with them as well.

blazing_saddles

davidof wrote:

Voekler vs Madiot on French TV talking about Sky.

Madiot "the tour is in danger, cycling is not credible, I understand the people are revolting, we are told for months the dossier is complicated then suddenly just before the tour everything is sorted"
Voekler "maybe WADA should have said a long time ago that their test is not reliable?"

I'm definitely not buying any French wine from this vintage.
The grapes are far too sour.

davidof

Bardet "it was brutal again today, I'm knackered"

davidof

Alaphilippe "I went too late but I couldn't have gone before, I don't know the climb, it is easy to say watching the playback, I was cooked at the finish"

RichN95.

In 21 seasons of running FdJ, Marc Madiot has only won two races at World Tour level (excluding stages). Egan Bernal who was born in the same year as FdJ already has more WT stage race wins than FdJ.

Madiot tells the French media what they want to hear and blames his failures on other teams so no-one questions whether the failings of French cycling are to do with having dinosaurs like him running the teams. The French treat him like he's cycling's Alex Ferguson, when he's more like its Harry Redknapp.

DeadCalm

I realise I'm going to be bitterly disappointed but I so, so, so hope Tommy D. wins the Tour this year.

davidof

RichN95 wrote:

In 21 seasons of running FdJ, Marc Madiot has only won two races at World Tour level (excluding stages). Egan Bernal who was born in the same year as FdJ already has more WT stage race wins than FdJ.

Madiot tells the French media what they want to hear and blames his failures on other teams so no-one questions whether the failings of French cycling are to do with having dinosaurs like him running the teams. The French treat him like he's cycling's Alex Ferguson, when he's more like its Harry Redknapp.

I must say the commentators were not really aligned with what he had to say on Sky. Voekler was very annoyed at the way Froome has been treated both by ASO/UCI and the "fans".

Even Madiot has won more WT races than FDJ !

onyourright

Madiot has an impressive gravitas, though. He wins arguments – and with him, everything is an argument – by force of personality rather than logic or evidence. Basically a bully. Voeckler was brave to stick up to him there (and had the last word to say that Froome was innocent without doubt as proven – a bit of an exaggeration).

Wouldn’t mind seeing that Madiot studio session again if anyone finds it online. I missed most of it.

DeadCalm

OnYourRight wrote:

Madiot has an impressive gravitas, though. He wins arguments – and with him, everything is an argument – by force of personality rather than logic or evidence. Basically a bully. Voeckler was brave to stick up to him there (and had the last word to say that Froome was innocent without doubt as proven – a bit of an exaggeration).

Wouldn’t mind seeing that Madiot studio session again if anyone finds it online. I missed most of it.

That can't be right. 'The French are an amorphous blob that all think and do the same. Apparently. Or, at least, as some on here would have you believe.

davidof

above_the_cows

RichN95 wrote:

In 21 seasons of running FdJ, Marc Madiot has only won two races at World Tour level (excluding stages). Egan Bernal who was born in the same year as FdJ already has more WT stage race wins than FdJ.

Madiot tells the French media what they want to hear and blames his failures on other teams so no-one questions whether the failings of French cycling are to do with having dinosaurs like him running the teams. The French treat him like he's cycling's Alex Ferguson, when he's more like its Harry Redknapp.

Marginal gains for Madiot is playing La Marseillaise down the radio.

blazing_saddles

I really should tune into France 2/3 for their end of stage chinwag.
Voeckler sounds like good value.

tim000

watched the stage after a ride this afternoon . 3 k to go for the GC group and i got "recording ended" NOOOOOOOOOO

e17blade

tim000 wrote:

watched the stage after a ride this afternoon . 3 k to go for the GC group and i got "recording ended" NOOOOOOOOOO

Me too. Not happy.

tailwindhome

Out for the day. Didn't see the stage.

Sagan 4th?

hypster

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

RichN95.

hypster wrote:

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

He's not going to beat Thomas by two minutes in a TT.

takethehighroad

RichN95 wrote:

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Interesting the order the graphics listed the riders in the peloton

It went:

R. Bardet
T. Dumoulin
C. Froome
P. Latour
G. Thomas

Yeah, that’s how the alphabet works

Or the French anti-Sky, anti-British agenda

You heard it here first

hypster

RichN95 wrote:

hypster wrote:

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

He's not going to beat Thomas by two minutes in a TT.

Always assuming he's still 1:50 down at that point.

It's funny, Dumoulin strikes me as being exactly the same sort of rider as Miguel Indurain. Dogged in the mountains and devastating in time trials. Indurain gets a lot of stick for that so why do so many people admire Dumoulin?

blazing_saddles

hypster wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

hypster wrote:

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

He's not going to beat Thomas by two minutes in a TT.

Always assuming he's still 1:50 down at that point.

It's funny, Dumoulin strikes me as being exactly the same sort of rider as Miguel Indurain. Dogged in the mountains and devastating in time trials. Indurain gets a lot of stick for that so why do so many people admire Dumoulin?

He only managed to take 49 seconds from Geraint over 40kms in last year's Giro ITT and that was after Thomas had banged up his knee so badly that he then had to quit the race.
So, as long as Geraint doesn't break, he doesn't need to break Dumoulin.

What time gap were you assuming in order for TD to nick it?

larkim

Froome today reminded me of Froome at about 2 weeks into the Vuelta. Which should be ominous for TD and GT.

tim000

why did Bardet have no number on ?

Lanterne_Rogue

Going back to Tommy V, I suppose it's apt that he's now going on the attack on TV. Does he still stick his tongue out whilst he does so?

above_the_cows

hypster wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

hypster wrote:

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

He's not going to beat Thomas by two minutes in a TT.

Always assuming he's still 1:50 down at that point.

It's funny, Dumoulin strikes me as being exactly the same sort of rider as Miguel Indurain. Dogged in the mountains and devastating in time trials. Indurain gets a lot of stick for that so why do so many people admire Dumoulin?

Because he looks like Cary Grant.

DeVlaeminck

Looked like Thomas held back a bit there, suppose it might be a tactic of managing his energy over the 3 weeks rather than team orders not to attack if it risks putting Froome in difficulty.

Is Roglic the guy who descends amazingly well ? If he is we might be in for some entertainment on a few of these stages to come if he attacks on the downhill - if it's not him then probably not!

topper_harley

hypster wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

hypster wrote:

Tom Dumoulin (impressively) doing just enough to hang on in there. Froome looking a bit tired and lacklustre to me. Thomas probably could have gone a bit more I think but didn't want to be seen to be putting anymore time into Froome.

If Froome and Thomas can't break Dumoulin in the Pyrenees then he might just nick it in the TT.

He's not going to beat Thomas by two minutes in a TT.

Always assuming he's still 1:50 down at that point.

It's funny, Dumoulin strikes me as being exactly the same sort of rider as Miguel Indurain. Dogged in the mountains and devastating in time trials. Indurain gets a lot of stick for that so why do so many people admire Dumoulin?

except in TT's when he is fighting out for the GC win he isn't really devastating in the TT

mrb123

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Looked like Thomas held back a bit there, suppose it might be a tactic of managing his energy over the 3 weeks rather than team orders not to attack if it risks putting Froome in difficulty.

Is Roglic the guy who descends amazingly well ? If he is we might be in for some entertainment on a few of these stages to come if he attacks on the downhill - if it's not him then probably not!

Yes, especially on skis.

hypster

Blazing Saddles wrote:

He only managed to take 49 seconds from Geraint over 40kms in last year's Giro ITT and that was after Thomas had banged up his knee so badly that he then had to quit the race.
So, as long as Geraint doesn't break, he doesn't need to break Dumoulin.

What time gap were you assuming in order for TD to nick it?

I dunno maybe a minute and it wouldn't be too comfortable for Geraint but I hope you're right. I'm not particularly a Dumoulin fan in fact I am a Froome/Thomas fan so I hope they can fend him off. It just seems to ominous me that they can't seem to shake him off, Froome especially at the moment. I thought he'd cracked it on l'Alpe d'Huez but Dumoulin just motored back up to him.

bm5

E17Blade wrote:

tim000 wrote:

watched the stage after a ride this afternoon . 3 k to go for the GC group and i got "recording ended" NOOOOOOOOOO

Me too. Not happy.

Me too.