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*Tour de France - Stage 10* Tuesday 14th July
*Tour de France - Stage 10* Tuesday 14th July
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Replies: 127
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I haven't seen a rider dominate a climb like that since Rasmussen.
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Yates and Gallopin had a wonder of a day. Wouldn't have either of them up in this company before the stage started.
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good bet on porte. has been the first one dropping out each day to save himself.
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A performance like that should always be rated highly suspect. It's the price cycling pays for condoning and covering up drug use for years. Froome put a minute into Contador and 40 seconds into Tejay in one kilometre. I don't believe that was clean.
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All over bar the Shouting
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Autocue, the likes of Gallopin Thomas and Yates all put big time in to Contador. After riding the Giro Bertie was never going to be at his best here and was always going to struggle to go with Froome and Quintana, the fact he cracked so early showed how much the giro too out, and NOTHING to do with being suspect you idiot. As fpr TJVG he pften cracks and goes nbackwards on big mountains in the heat.
You know nothing about cycling an should keep your narrow minded opinions to yourself you fool. Sky and Braislford are just about the most vocal anti-doping people there are in the sport. |
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They're ****g Trolls CJ -- don't ever see them here -- one big stage, one big performance, in one big race, and they're all time experts. Forget about it, it's not like you're going to convince idiots, but I guess you can try.
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well said Happy ..
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Hopefully we won't here any more rubbish on Bastille Day next year about French riders and their 'desire' to win the day.
I did expect at least an attempt for a small group to get away and try and steal the day ...... |
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Gesink gave it ago very impressed by that ride
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Looking back Barguil was very late in getting dropped. I wonder what he could have done if he didn't have that heavy bang and the long chase earlier in the day.
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Nibali in 10th after being wiped out today and already 2 minutes back.
I would have expected some of the younger guys talked as contenders to have at least beaten that , but a number of them were very disappointing today. |
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p.s Autocue - Contador has come out and said he struggled with his breathing and didn't feel great all day, hence why he went backwards quickly once the climb ramped up!
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I think some of the big names got a peak at Froome's power data and were beaten mentally.
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That smelt as fishy as my misus knickers
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You couldn't half see this coming with the way Brailsford was going on the offensive in the media.
“It’s part of the game, isn’t it?” he said. “If he does well tomorrow [in the first Pyrenean stage], the rest of the Tour it’s ‘How do you know he’s not doping?’ We’ve thought about [what we can do to convince the doubters] but again we’ll be back to [discussing] pace of climbs, physiology, power data etc. Well, actually we have done something about it ... we think someone has hacked into our training data and got Chris’s files, so we’ve got some legal guys on the case there.” |
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Contador loooked out on his legs at the end of the Giro , only his big lead got him home.
He is coming to the end of his career and to win the Giro and Le Tour is for a man in his peak .....if possible at all . I expected the race to be a shoot out between Froome and Quintana .....but it is a mis-match. Quintana did nothing other than sit behind Froome looking like he was going easy , not even the hint of an attack from him , a very big let down . |
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The long-range breakaway was allowed to build a big gap since they only numbered two and neither was an expert climber, moreover the predicted difficulty of this stage potentially causing gaps to form between the GC riders equal to that of the next two Pyrenean stages, allowed the GC teams to ride tempo, closing the course for better equipped riders to try their hand at forming a break closer to the start of the climb. Once the peloton got onto the climb proper, I think riders such as Gesink, Valls, and Valverde -- the only three that gave it a crack -- fell into the trap of attacking on a more comfortable section to their characteristics, when the nature of this climb prevented riders from setting a rhythm and would essentially disrupt their riding, eventually. Froome attacked on the steep section, where his whirling cadence is best suited, however by that point everyone else was too tired to regain time -- this was seen in the flatter section where a solo Quintana was going backwards when he should have been closing.
Quintana was probably the biggest loser today since he failed to enter the psychological game which began on the Mur de Huy. Froome was never going to follow wheels because things like that haven't been happening since the 90s, and he had improvement in hand. |
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I think following wheels is more closely linked to races with riders being in strong positions because of time trialing expertise , Indurain , Wiggins , Evans etc. Not applicable this year due to lack of a long time trial.
Wasn't this years race setup being talked about a year ago as not suiting Froome ? |
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I guess it can be argued that Contador was a bigger loser on today's stage than Quintana, losing 3 mins on the road and going from striking range of Froome to joining Nibali in the Autobus, however as CJ has said and many expected, Contador was always going to struggle in so far as the Giro was going to catch up with him eventually in this race.
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2013 TdF deja vu. At the 2013 TdF on the first mountain top finish (Ax-3 Domaines) it was Froome winning from Porte 2nd at 51sec behind, Valverde 3rd at 1:08 behind and Quintana who worked for Valverde was 1:45 behind. Today on the first mtf of the 2015 TdF it was Froome winning from Porte 2nd at 59sec behind, Quintana 3rd at 1:04 and Valverde who worked for Quintana was 2:01 behind.
I could see what Movistar were trying to do with their tactics by riding on the front so early, they were trying to shed Froome of his helpers and leave him more isolated later on in the climb. The end result was that Movistar burnt up all their riders first leaving Froome with more teammates at the key part of the climb. It was plain to see Froome was super strong at this point of the race and with a suitable stage for him (see 2013 tdf) it might have been wiser for Movistar to let Sky ride on the front. Not that I think it would of made much difference to the outcome but the gap might not have been so large. |
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Yeah I think the writing was on the wall with Contador at the Giro. He was lucky to win it and if Astana had of played their cards right they could of won that Giro.
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Autocue, the likes of Gallopin Thomas and Yates all put big time in to Contador. After riding the Giro Bertie was never going to be at his best here and was always going to struggle to go with Froome and Quintana, the fact he cracked so early showed how much the giro too out, and NOTHING to do with being suspect you idiot. As fpr TJVG he pften cracks and goes nbackwards on big mountains in the heat.
You know nothing about cycling an should keep your narrow minded opinions to yourself you fool. Sky and Braislford are just about the most vocal anti-doping people there are in the sport. You are trolling yes? this is not a serious reply.... surely not?? |
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I'm surprised with the reactions of posters here who are quick to condemn other posters for being suspicious of a riders performances. I mean if Chris Froome didn't want to be accused of being a doper then he should've chose another sport. You have to feel a bit for Froome but really with cycling's track record it's just part of the territory. Any long time cycling followers must have had favourite riders in the past who were doping and I'm sure if you were shrewd enough to now the signs you would of made some coin. It is a bit funny that some are so quick to jump all over someone else who is a bit suspicious of a riders performance and accuse people of being ignorant or stupid and act like it's such an outrageous accusation. It's not like this would be a new thing for cycling.
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I particularly like to read the libel forums of Cycling News each time Froome/SKY has a good performance. It's full of Contador fans whining, the same thing seems to have spilled over here.
I don't mind, I call a doper a doper. Was there anything suspicious in todays performance? Not particularly. Numbers for Froome are lower than you'd expect but the outrage is because of Contador and Nibali not being close. Same in 2013 where Laurens Ten Dam(One of my favourite riders) was put up as the yardstick for Froome being exceptional. If I were most of the commentators who have pitched up here I'd be looking at why Contador isn't performing in the biggest cycling race since his ban. |
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C'mon now, Contador started on Lance's Team Discovery Channel. Contador has his bad meat and Froome has his mystery illnesses.
tbf to Froome if you look down the top-15 of todays stage and take out the "big names" you would probably say he didn't beat much and he underperformed. I think maybe Froome fans get a bad rap because most of Armstrong's fans probably jumped on his bandwagon. |
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Reading the lines, I suspect most of the Armstrong fans hitched to the Contador wagon.
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I still can not comprehend what people found unbelieveable about Froome's peformance today??? The figures and times were nothing unusual, the man who has dominated most mountain top finishes he has competed in for the last 4 years won again?? Nibali who rarely if ever has beaten Froome on a mountain top finish gets blown away so??
The only rider I thought at the start of the stage would be able to live with Froome on the climb if all was together was Quintna, but this was based on Quintana of last year. The Colombian has done very little of note this year, and so would seem he is just not in the same form as last year, hence why the likes of Thomas, Gallopin , Yates were only just behind him. Quintana himself would have blown away the likes of them in last years form but he just isn't. Froome won the final two stages at the Dauphine, all the facts said he was the strongest rider in the best form coming in to the race, and he is just backing that up. What is such a shock about that??? I don't know what other result you people expected today?? The only mildly surpising thing to me was that Quintna wasn't more competitive and that the two of them weren't further clear of the rest, as that was what I was expecting. I presumed Quintana would be in better strong form and I may just have misjudged that, and gicen him too much credit for last year, not taking this years form in to account enough. I think at the start I said I could see Contador and Nibali struggling on the big mountains against the big two and thats what happened. So please somebody tell me where the surprise was today because I didn't see one. |
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Maybe all the clean riders in the top-10 made Froome's performance look better than what it was.
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the East African true brits shining very brightly in their respective sports
 Quintana looked to be pretty comfortable(as comfortable as one can be on a mountain climb) but found nothing off the bridle in fact it looked to me as if he never came off the bridle maybe that's just the way he rides & he was extending himself even tho'he appeared to just be relatively cruising end result being..'they think it's all over' & barring an act of God(if such a being exists) it appears to be very much the case..now 1/6..free money? |
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Nearly all top sports stars are doping -they're not going to get caught because noone wants to catch them. Too much $$$ at stake.
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Wasn't TJ's sort of climb so I think he did well to manage his losses and stay well on the podium. The guys that you would have thought would have jumped him all did worse than expected bar Quintana.
Last seasons dominant players.. Nibali 16th +4,02 Peraud 25th +5,38 Pinot 49th +10,03 |
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Yeah probably free money jtb but I have a Froome-Dauphine/TdF double going so I'll pass on the 1/6, I personally couldn't believe Froome was still better than evens when he had a 2min advantage. This stage was similar in route and result to the first mtf in the 2013 TdF. Froome punished the opposition with Porte 2nd and Movistar 3rd. Interesting to note that in the last 2 mountain stages in 2013 Froome looked to be fatigued and Quintana took 1:30 back off him and Quintana was riding for Valverde for half the race. This time Froome should see him coming though and I just dont think the route is hard enough this year for Quintana to take back the required time even if Froome fades and Quintana finishes strong again.
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Nugget I think your analysis of the stage and how panned out was spot on regards Movistar and Sky's efforts, a great summary of what happened.
With regard to TJVG being closer to Froome at the dauphine, i think that was to be expected. TJVG is a very good one week rider and was in no doubt in top condition to try and win the Dauphine. However Froome was trying to peak for this, and has a much stronger 3 week pedigree. So I think it was fully expected Froome would put a lot more in to TJVG here than in the Dauphine especially in the heat on a climb like todays. And yes Froome should have won more grand tours, and undoubtedly will. Unfortunatey in 2012 he was chiefly riding for Wiggins, and though he did go to the Vuelta its hard to back up the tour and Vuelta. He had only narrowly missed out the year before when beaten by Cobo whose performances did definitely come out of leftfield. Then 2013 he won the tour convincingly his major goal for the year, before crashing out last year when big favourite to follow up. he did go on to ride the Vuelta but his injuries from the tour meant he was not in peak condition there. If he stays fit and well, I would fully expect him to win at least a few more grand tours, as of the riders about at the minute I believe only Quintana can really live with him when he puts the hammer down on the big mountains. |
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The gap between Froome and TJVG didn't surprise me. Despite his consistency I think TJVG's chances have been a bit overated. Gesink, Yates, Thomas, Rolland and Gallopin all finishing in front of him is evidence of this albeit a touch surprising.
Agree with you about Froome, should of won more and should win more, as long as he can stay on top of the illnesses that have plagued his career. |
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nice bet there NUGGET..not tempted to lay off @1.18?
you're in a strong position you never know with these falls what can happen |