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sanrensho
Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 835
Location: North Vancouver7/20/18 2:46 PM |
Agree with PLee, the flares and smoke bombs should be permanently banned.
Did not expect a small group sprint finish for the stage win on Alpe d'Huez.
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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield7/20/18 5:20 PM |
In its wrap up segment on ESPN, the discussion show PTI showed footage of Nibali on the ground from a motorcycle and a couple of different telephone angles. The discussion was basically "Can't they control these crowds?" No results of course, but also no doping reference. I guess that counts as progress.
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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield7/21/18 3:40 AM |
Stage 21, Sunday
https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-21 - maps, etc
Last edited by daddy-o on 7/30/18 10:23 AM; edited 8 times in total
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dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6884
Location: Maine7/21/18 2:55 PM |
Cool stage
Great effort to win, and awesome how Sagan grabs fourth on a steep finish more or less for the hell of it.
I turned it on early and a great women's race, The Course, was on from a couple days before. After a descent, with maybe six flat kilometers to go, Olympic Champion Van Der Breggen had about 10 seconds on the world tt champ, Van Vluyten, and it was a drag race to the end. She still had about 5 seconds with a km to go, but at the end Van Vluyten launched a savage, big gear, standing sprint and passed with about 50 m to go for the win. Awesome..
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX7/23/18 8:49 AM |
Looks like Sky will let sleeping dogs lay. Not making Thomas move over for Froome up on top of the Podium.
Probably start some rioting given current conditions/sentiment otherwise.
[the guardian]
"the anti-Froome sentiments were even stronger with no less than 87% of French people favouring a sanction against Froome over his salbutamol case. The television ratings reflect that disenchantment also, with
the Bastille Day stage on 14 July drawing its lowest audience for 10 years.
"
My question is can/will Dumoulin toggle Froome outta second spot by Sunday?
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX7/23/18 10:20 AM |
Maybe if Froome defects to France. ;)
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH7/23/18 3:24 PM |
There are still a lot of KMs to go before we get to the TT. It's all going to come down to which one suffers more from "Giro legs". Thomas is riding great, but considering how fresh he should be, he's really not riding all that impressively compared to Froome and Dumoulin. He's vulnerable in the TT too, so it's at least possible that Tom could pull off a surprise victory.
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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield7/23/18 5:28 PM |
Tuesday is like the perfect lead-in to the week. If someone screwed up their rest day they have over 100km to get the blood flowing. Lots of HC to come this week.
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Pino
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 168
Location: Apeldoorn - The Netherlands7/23/18 11:25 PM |
And rain is predicted with some nasty descents. Could be an interesting day. My dark horse is Roglic.
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henoch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1690
7/24/18 7:48 AM |
Man sure am going to miss Nibai, today would seem like a day tailer made for him.
BTW Bardet is a really good descended as well, but for sure Roglic is a good pick.
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Pino
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 168
Location: Apeldoorn - The Netherlands7/24/18 1:47 PM |
Alaphilipe showed awesome descending skills today. A real pleasure watching.
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH7/25/18 5:32 AM |
He seems to be sort of the Peter Sagan of climbers, in that he just seems to love riding his bike, even on bad days.
Dan Martin seems to be the new Tommy Voeckler, the "never say die rider.
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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield7/25/18 8:21 PM |
Dan Martin! dynamo
Nairo Quintana, welcome back
The GC shuffle
Philippe Gilbert yesterday rode two passes and stood on the podium with a broken kneecap!?
Brass
Any word on Sagan?
Is this a change of the GC guard?
This stage format is a winner, F1 blocks and all, even if "F1" is a mere formality. They still need to put in the mega KM to arrive at an exclamation point like this, but this was a race that delivered.
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH7/26/18 9:23 AM |
The F1 start was just plain silly, as none of the GC contenders was interested in attacking from the gun. I suspect they won't bother with it again.
I'm hoping that it's a changing of the GC guard, but it seems most likely that Froome is simply suffering from the effort in the Giro. Dumoulin is likely in the same boat, but seems to have recovered better. If neither had ridden the Giro, I suspect that Thomas would be in third place. That said, we're seeing an incredible crop of young riders who may be future GC riders. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be on team Sky.
Petey is on the road today and it will be interesting to see what happens in the sprint.
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henoch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1690
7/26/18 11:01 AM |
I agree with Dady-o an all points but the last, I agree with Brian 100% on the grid start, it did nothing to the stage at all, it went like a regular stage with no GC action until the final few K's.
Tom D is a huge star in the making, if Sunweb had just one top level climber to help, and if he didn't get that flat that one day with like 5k to go (cost him a minute), he would most likely be the winner this year.
Primoz Roglic is also looking amazing I believe that those 2 will well be who we are talking about for a few years to come, they are both younger then Froome/Thomas.
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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH7/26/18 1:38 PM |
I think I'm even more impressed with Egan Bernal. I don't know if he can TT well, but he sure can climb! On top of that, he's only 21, so he'll be around for a long time.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX7/26/18 1:45 PM |
Oops..
Chris Froome was left furious after being pulled off his bike by a police officer as he made his way to the Team Sky bus at the end of stage 17 of the Tour de France. The four-time champion was filmed telling a member of the Gendarme 'fuck you' after returning to his feet. According to Cycling Weekly, the officer mistook Froome for a fan and caused the rider and his bodyguard to crash after asking them to stop.
That incident took place one day after police used either pepper spray or, reportedly, some type of tear gas on protesting farmers who had tried to block the course with hay bales. The Tour's leading cyclists were forced to halt and wash their eyes and faces with water before the air could clear and the race could resume.
New Zoo Review?
__________
Green:
1 PETER SAGAN; 467 PTS
2 ALEXANDER KRISTOFF; 196 PTS
Going to have to quit using the word competition for the green jersey.
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henoch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1690
7/26/18 2:07 PM |
pretty sure Bernal will win the Tour one day, but not in the next year or two.
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henoch
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1690
7/27/18 10:14 AM |
Froome off the Podium boom bang!
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daddy-o
Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3307
Location: Springfield7/27/18 11:21 AM |
Highly recommended
For the viewers who tune in for the aesthetics, this is one to get them to the den. The production of the final descent was great, and the producers had a lot to work with. Even Paul said ~"The best descent I've seen in years."
Wouldn't it be great to descend through town like they did after the Tourmalet?
Okay Sky has a couple of winners hitting their mid-30's.
I'm betting Froome will disappear until June of 2019 and win that year's Tour de France.
How about I put a phrase to use as a search term that's easy to remember so we can all get a laugh late next July.
Chris Froome will win the 2019 Tour de France.
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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX7/30/18 2:41 PM |
Anyone note the pie plates on TT bikes SAT?
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