((((( 'LE TOUR' de FRANCE 2016 )))))

Totally agree was the only sensible decision and one which I would imagine all or most teams would agree with.
As for Froome getting special treatment??? Ha ha you are funny nugget I've lived in France 5 years and believe me Sky are the least likely team to get any special treatment from organisers or fans over there! Far from it!

great pic of situation immediately before crash

https://twitter.com/veloimages

Insane there is no road ,deffo caused by Crowd MC has nowhere to go

Think that photo is right at the time.

Think that's the Polish banner guy that seemed to be everywhere on the right.

So... that looks like a clear path, bar the 4 (5/6?) motor bikes ahead.
I wonder if this is purely another moto incident?

Decision is made by UCI jury, not by the organisers (ASO). Froome still lost time by the incident, as Mollema also crashed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnVowVjWAAE3XR5.jpg:large

Three riders on the floor

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnVhp7vXEAAeqMa.jpg

Froome's broken bike (that may have been subsequently knicked)

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/753617220664786944

Tweet from Froome - still in yellow

Riders behind got held up too why don't they get time an adjusted time as well.  What if Mollema had of been held up too, what time would they give Froome then.  Ridiculous.

from Bauke Mollema ‏

@BaukeMollema 7m7 minutes ago

"What's going on? Seems like everybody gets time bonuses. I wonder what would have happened if I would have been the only one to go down..."

So Froome gets adjusted time(same time as Mollema?) to be 47secs in front of Yates in the gc.  Surely Yates was held up by the crash too.

Froome would of been in the lead by over a minute after tomorrows time trial anyway but it's still the wrong decision.

Anyone know who the Secret Pro is on http://cyclingtips.com?

there are reports of someone in yellow and black running on the middle of the road disrupting the riders in the race near the top of the climb

The organisers need to do something about people running on the middle of the road during the race, could lead to accidents or injury, rider safety should be paramount.

Fela Kuti 14 Jul 16 18:53 
Anyone know who the Secret Pro is on http://cyclingtips.com?

Not sure anyone knows for sure but the name that comes up most often is Greg Henderson

Not too sure Le TOUR will go ahead tomorrow after the Nice attack tonight.

Let them race and give them f room to race,crazy, france is a mess. RIP to lorry victims in nice

some doubt about ITT IM times on le tour

Cummings' 2nd IM could be wrong by 1'

wind is subsiding now

still windy but less so than before

After watching the crash from some different angles I think there was some rider error involved.  The moto stopped but there was definitely room to go around, Porte didn't have enough time to react because he was drafting the moto pretty close.

There is no such thing like free money
But dumoulin 1.25 is almost free
cant see anybody getting close Not eventuell froome

The procession begins

anyone know where marychain, clay davis, swinging pick et al have gone. diff forum?? they were real enthusiasts and of real value

Obviously on the saddle more often

Is this going ahead during the 2 days of Mourning for Nice

Jul 15, 2016 -- 11:37PM, KIMBLE wrote:

anyone know where marychain, clay davis, swinging pick et al have gone. diff forum?? they were real enthusiasts and of real value

marychain is the #1 tipster and poster in the cycling forum I'm sure he'll be back.  never heard of the other two

I think Kittel can hit back today.  McLay at e/w odds in a suitable stage.  I find it a liitle odd that Greipel is the shortest quote he's been so far even though he's yet to win a stage.

To me Cavendish should  be favourite today and looks decent value at 3/1. Coming in to the tour I thought Kittel would dominate the sprints but he just hasn't looked in that sort of form. The only sprint Kittel won was when Cavendish got trapped further back (don't think Cav even finished in the top 10 on that stage). Every time they have gone head to head so far on this tour Cav has had his measure, mainly down to superior tactical nous, and so I see no reason why he wouldn't today?

Agree, Cav should be outright favourite.

Kittel not been the same since 2014.  Cavendish definitely looks to have taken a step forward this year compared to other sprinters, possibly could coincide with his Olympic ambitions.

To be fair Kittel had been having a great season this year, with 8 stage wins including the outright at Dubai, and looked unbeatable in sprints at the Giro. But it maybe that he peaked his season too early, as its got to be very hard to win so impressively in Dubai and then hold on to that form all the way to July??
He will probably go and win now today to prove me wrong!

This will be a headwind sprint most likely.  You need to leave it late as possible before hitting the front.  That is usually in favour of Cavendish and also I think here it favours the likes of Coquard and the other young sprinters (McLay, Groenewegen).

Cav does it again!! Kittel protests like a big beaten baby after he sees Cav fly past with a lot more momentum than he had.

Money man CAV

Wtf are kittel and team using that same tactic though?

There has been plenty of races where fans interfere with the riders and they don't neutralize the result.

spot on. Cancellara lost a Paris Roubaix cos he got stuck at a level crossing imho on year.

What happens on the road happens

Good win by Pantano the Colombians finally have something to cheer about in this race.  Big ride from Alaphilippe I think he should of won were it not for some bad luck.

Sagan in the break today or will he play it safe for the green jersey?

Albasini for today

good stage for him

another Swiss rider Cancellara is very short, I think he's from Bern

could be one for the classics riders

noone wants it more today than Spartacus, Martin is doomed to fail.

noone wants it more today than Spartacus, Martin is doomed to fail.

the finish is taylormade for him, but Sagan and the likes of GvA, Kristoff will make it not that easy

probably Martin is going to sacrifice himself for Alaphillipe

Sagan! nowhere but on the line

Sagan puts Cav in his bag

usually it is Cav who is seen nowhee but on the line, while esp in this forum Sagan is confronted with winning far too less compared to his efforts being tactically inapt, but he's shown he isn't!

riders who leave the tour early should get paid only half their price money at best, going for early stage wins and then drop out is far too easy to be compared with what real champions like Merchx or Hinault have achieved!

At least Sagan is finally winning some stages, the green jersey wins he had over the last 2 TdF's were a bit hollow imo considering he didn't even win a stage.  Good to see he has rectified that and is getting the wins to match his talent and amazing consistency.  Since he became road race world champion he cant stop winning, he's certainly repping the wc jersey better than most have.

Cavendish (31yo) 30 TdF stage wins
                 15 Giro d'Italia stage wins
                 3  Vuelta Espana stage wins
                 --------------
                 48 grand tour stage wins


Sagan (26yo)     7 TdF stage wins
                 0 Giro d'Italia stage wins
                 4 Vuelta Espana stage wins
                 --------------
                 11 grand tour stage wins


a little respect please...

moving on to todays stage, stage 17 which although not the hardest stage has probably the hardest mountain top finish of the race.  I wonder what tactics Movistar will try to employ.  Many were critical of their tactics last year and it doesn't look like they've learnt their lesson. I mean what on earth were they doing on the Ventoux stage, Team Sky definitely seem to have them rattled.  It seems like their main goal is to get Valverde on the podium and win the team classification, it doesn't look like they believe in Quintana.

I think cycling is moving too far in the direction of F1 racing with regards to equipment.  Maybe they should look at standardizing sprockets/chainrings and do away with onboard computers.

stage 17

h2h multi
Yates @2.0 vs Valverde
Porte @1.65 vs Mollema
Aru  @1.75 ys Bardet

pays 5.8

Hills have enhanced Froome to win Stage 17, 5/2 out to 4/1.  Think it's £25 max.

Jul 20, 2016 -- 10:26AM, Wildcat Army. wrote:

Hills have enhanced Froome to win Stage 17, 5/2 out to 4/1.

Sneaky. You pretty much could have guaranteed a break would go today unless Movistar/Astana killed themselves before tomorrow's TT,

Probably teams are too big also to show vivid racing, should be not more than 5 or 6

Jul 20, 2016 -- 2:19PM, bb66 wrote:

Probably teams are too big also to show vivid racing, should be not more than 5 or 6

Would be the same problem as far as I could see. The strongest riders would still be on the strongest teams with less scope for tactics.

Another follow the leader yawnfest , with none of the contenders willing to leave their comfort zone and attack until right at the end where if you are lucky you might make a few seconds .

It's a lot cleaner these days  , but crikey it also very dull.

Zakarin finally

although I thought he was going to crash there zipping his jersey up inside the final km.

I know Tom Dumoulin is a beast but not he should be so short (3.35, 2nd fav) for this mountain time trial. It's a 10.5km climb at 6.2%.

1st Froome, 2nd Porte for me tomorrow.

The time trial on stage 13 started with a 7km climb at 5% and finished with a climb of 3.3km at 5%.  Dumoulin was the fastest up the first climb and also had the fastest final split which included the final climb to the line.  He also won from a break on stage 9, a big mountain stage which finished on a 10.1km climb at 7.2%.  The climb was regular and he was dropped on the previous climbs but paced himself back each time.  Dumoulin took it easy yesterday finishing over 20 minutes behind the gc riders but the gc riders only really raced the final 5-6km and had a rest day 2 days ago so there's probably not a lot in that.  My initial thoughts were that Froome would be a certainty for this stage but the way Dumoulin has been climbing and going in general makes me think he has a chance here.

stage 13 TT splits

start to first intermediate- 7km @ 5.0%
Dumoulin
Porte +10
Oliveira +15
Clement +16
Boasson Hagen +17
Froome +17
Thomas +18


3rd intermediate to finish- 9.5km incl. 3.3km @ 5.0%

Dumoulin
Froome +15
Oliveira +35
Coppel +41
Dennis +24
Mollema +26
Thomas +50
Boasson Hagen +53
Valverde +1:02
Porte +1:05



Stage 18
Todays time trial(17km) - The first 4km are flat.  The next 2.5km are at 9.2%.  The next 4km are at 4%.  The next 4 individual km are 8.3%, 0.2%, 8.2%, 2.5%.  The final 2.5 km are slightly downhill.

So 9km out of the total 17km are less than 2.5% gradient. 4.5km of the course has a gradient over 8%. The other 3.5km's are between 4.3% and 5.1%. 

The irregularity of the climb wont help Domoulin but the flatter sections should favour him and he could gain time there.   

The first time check comes after 6.5km.  The final 2km's before that first time check are at 11% and 10.1% and could be decisive. The steep sections suit Froome and he'll certainly be looking to take his advantage there.  The greater number of flattish km's should suit Dumoulin but time differences are usually greater on the climbs than the flat which should favour Froome.  Tough call.

small bet on dumoulin, the 3.7 you can get now doesnt look too bad

Big advantage for Froome by going after Dumoulin.  Paced himself the best.

I wonder how Froome would go if he used a normal chainring.

Not sure what Astana are doing today, this may be inspired or ridiculous

Hope this is not the end of Dumoulin's olympic aspiratons

Jul 22, 2016 -- 2:50PM, bb66 wrote:

Hope this is not the end of Dumoulin's olympic aspiratons

Looks bad. I really feel sorry for him. He couldn't have asked for a better route.

Pierre has no luck. Nasty off.

I'm starting to warm to him now he's not in the French team.

Porte down as well. Conditions absolutely horrendous, hope no serious injuries here.

Froome down.

40            £74
42            £115
44            £184
46            £217
48            £4
50            £112
55            £118

Bardet delivers

allez Bardet

great ride

good overs on the exchange

how short was froome traded today?

Jul 22, 2016 -- 4:33PM, dom888 wrote:

how short was froome traded today?

Froome was down to 3
Porte was down to evens small stakes thou

Dumoulin said to have his wrist fractured

Astana working the whole day for nothing

Astana were in a great position at one stage.  When Cherel and Bardet attacked, Diego Rosa was coasting on their wheel but for some unfathomable reason he chose to drop back to the Aru group.  On the climb Rosa cut Bardet's lead in half but had he been in front they had a much better chance of winning the stage

Jul 22, 2016 -- 5:23PM, bb66 wrote:

Astana working the whole day for nothing

true, but at least they tried something and it made the stage entertaining.

Who chases the break on stage 20?
I can't see Astana working all day again. BMC or Orica who have riders just off the podium may chase or Katusha or Etixx could chase for the stage win maybe?  Hard stage for breakaway riders to stay away with all the climbing but there's not a lot of incentive for the peleton to chase that hard.

The only reasons someone chases is to get the bonus seconds into play. After yesterday I doubt if Porte will fancy it and Orica don't have the team to do it. We are left with Astana and Movistar, the latter seems fundamentally unwilling to do any work so Astana seems the only hope.

Sky have Henao up the road which maybe interesting later in the stage if that break doesn't go that far out.

Astana working on the front, more to do with Kreuziger than a plan imo.

All that work by Astana and Aru off the back at the first sign of any pace.. Tactics!

Panatano's form is very dubious imo

Izagirre is a master descender in the wet as evidenced by his prologue win at Romandie and tt win in Tour de Suisse.

Salvage job for Movistar

meanwhile Sky neutralize the race for the podium positions

good ride from Purito, surprised Katusha didn't try and set him up for the stage win.

What a woeful second half of the tour.  Flat stages were so much better than the stages with gc implications.

Unlucky for Porte who would of finished 2nd on the podium in Paris if it were not for his puncture on stage 2.

Van Garderen really should of stopped and given Porte his bike.

Too easy for Froome.  US Postal are just too strong of a team.

I think they should issue a new jersey at the end of each stage - the pink girl's blouse. Plenty of contenders over the last couple of weeks.

Not one of the riders from fourth down made any attempt to grab a podium spot on the last racing day ......wft is that all about !

any value amongst sprinters today? Is Kittel spent?

Yes

Gripel wins

jaysus what diabolical camerawork at the finish

Great for Greipel to salvage something at the end. What on earth the rest of the sprinters were up to is anyones guess.

Why did they neutralise the times on the last stage? Rodriguez fall? Preliminary results had him in 10th and then he got shunted back up to 7th.