Velogames - Tour de France now Open!

[Alchemist]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/40529614

[jimmy ching]

Luckys Lot takes FISO stage 8, whilst Peoples moves back in front in the Overall.

[SPR]

Contador cooked, Porte out, Martin losing time due to the Porte crash, Bardet's attack coming to naught equals not a great day.

Nice to see Barguil win in the end though. EDIT or not!

TBF the racing was great.

[Mo Bot]

Contador cooked, Porte out, Martin losing time due to the Porte crash, Bardet's attack coming to naught equals not a great day.

Nice to see Barguil win in the end though. EDIT or not!

TBF the racing was great.

The racing was brilliant although the injuries put a slight downer on events. I wish they had put the finish either right at the top of the final climb or at the end of the descent. The final 12k almost spoiled it. Surprised to see Froome just seemingly ordering the other guys about when they were chasing Bardet and then sitting back to conserve energy.

[bluelionman]

Gees - what a crazy day - I lose my second big rider - not domestics but 2 of my 3 most expensive riders (budget wise) on my team now out! First Sagan, now Gesink.
However I'm not alone with the number of big names whov'e gone from this edition of the TdF - Valverde, Porte, Cavendish - crazy how many big names have sucumed!

[jimmy ching]

TDF Bears takes FISO stage 9. Peoples stays top and doesn't lose any riders. It's looking ominous.

[Peoples]

TDF Bears takes FISO stage 9. Peoples stays top and doesn't lose any riders. It's looking ominous.

I lost Demare who was outside time limit & Van Emden. Majka only just about made it after a crash too.

[SPR]

Majka went today.

[forestfan]

TDF Bears takes FISO stage 9. Peoples stays top and doesn't lose any riders. It's looking ominous.

I lost Demare who was outside time limit & Van Emden. Majka only just about made it after a crash too.

Don't they usually just penalise green jersey contenders a bunch of points and let them carry on? They're handing it to Kittel on a plate, unless he goes the same way on a later stage...

Sagan's brother apparently another to miss the cut alongside Cavendish's sidekick Renshaw - they probably wondered why they were still bothering by that stage

[blahblah]

Sagan's brother apparently another to miss the cut alongside Cavendish's sidekick Renshaw - they probably wondered why they were still bothering by that stage

Is Cav likely to be at the Vuelta?

It's definitely been a very peculiar TdF including the Prologue which I avidly watched for a Porte or Froome crash.

I'm disappointed Yates couldn't stay with the Big Boys, but it should be another White Jersey for the Parents.....

[jimmy ching]

SPR takes stage 10 and moves in to 4th overall. Peoples stays top.

[SPR]

SPR takes stage 10 and moves in to 4th overall. Peoples stays top.

guess everyone is losing riders, lol.

[forestfan]

Sagan's brother apparently another to miss the cut alongside Cavendish's sidekick Renshaw - they probably wondered why they were still bothering by that stage

Is Cav likely to be at the Vuelta?

It's definitely been a very peculiar TdF including the Prologue which I avidly watched for a Porte or Froome crash.

It's always "peculiar", remember Froome running up a mountain without his bike, Armstrong cutting across a ploughed field, a TV car side-swiping the breakaway group into a barbed wire fence, and a team bus getting stuck under the finishing banner? All the things that make the event unique!

[murf]

SPR takes stage 10 and moves in to 4th overall. Peoples stays top.

guess everyone is losing riders, lol.

I only really started with 3 riders, am now down to 2 but am still 7th in the FISO league!

[blahblah]

So Robert is now Phillippa. I'm not sure Matt Smith is quite coping with her expertise, but as interesting as always and I hope that she is happy.

[jimmy ching]

Good Tour this year. When nature produces the cross winds the more intriguing it becomes. With the hills you gain kinetic potential but with wind it's just a curse.

[Mo Bot]

Good tour to watch. Not so good when you're bottom of the FISO league though. Doing a bit better in the KOM comp though. Anyone else got a team in that?

[unc.si.]

Well its a good job AG2R are in the race. At least they've livened things up a bit. Some good racing in parts, but the GC 'battle' is as dull as I can remember, despite Eurosport trying to get excited about it.

You can admire Froome's and Sky's approach, but its really really hard to love it.

So today one of the most evocative names in cycling, the Col d"Izoard. Bobet's mountain. The SkyTrain approach seems particularly out of place on the Izoard, a place forever linked with old school rider battles. Coppi and Bartali, Merckx and Thevenet, Bahamontes and in particular Louison Bobet

Bobet said that the mark of a true champion was to crest the Izoard in yellow, alone.

I'd love to see Froome win, alone. A Tour victory without a stage win is a bit hollow, and if he could show a bit of panache and solo in to victory I think people might start to warm to him a bit more.

(actually my real hope for this stage would be to see Bardet attack and win solo, taking the yellow jersey, but fear that its going to be another day dominated by the Borg)

[SPR]

I don't see why it is hollow to win without a stage tbh. In any case, he has a good chance in the TT.

I think it has been a decent Tour to watch despite the GC battle not being great and regarding Froome, I think it's up to the others to be better to force him to be more aggressive.

[Mo Bot]

Froome's tactics remind me of Indurain and Banesto of the early-mid 90's. He's clearly an able climber but rides defensively knowing he'll take minutes out of his rivals on the TT. Sky are so strong that attacking them early is suicide. I hope Bardet rips a minute out of them to make the TT interesting but I can't see it happening.

[unc.si.]

I take back what I said about AG2R. Just about the daftest tactic you can imagine. Ride tempo at the front on the Izoard to give the Sky Train a rest. Landa, Kwiat and Froome will sit behind you all day if you do that.

I guess there's just not much you can do against a team as strong as Sky. Put one of the strongest riders in the strongest team working exclusively for him, and add in the technology and sports science to plan, monitor and control the whole teams performance down to the last watt and there's not much anyone can do. Its very impressive, just not very exciting. One of the great things about the GT's is the tactics. The racing is never going to be as exciting as the Classics and the Go Hard or Go Home mentality thats needed to win one of the Monuments, but when you get a team thats so much stronger then the others (whether thats Sky, Banesto or USPS) then the tactics get a bit dull as well.

OK teams like La Vie Clare and Renault were stellar but there were no wind tunnels and power meters back then and you still got exciting racing (even amongst teammates in some cases!)

I guess I'm just nostalgic for the more romantic cycling of the past. I don't mind progress, but a lot of the soul and panache has gone out of stage racing.


Nice win for Barguil. Worthy winner of the Polka Dot

[SPR]

I still think if you're stronger on the last climb you win when the pace is high, the issue is, no one is stronger. The last time some looked like they might be stronger was 2014.

[blahblah]

Froome's tactics remind me of Indurain and Banesto of the early-mid 90's. He's clearly an able climber but rides defensively knowing he'll take minutes out of his rivals on the TT.

I've been thinking that - maybe a puncture or similar might change tactics in the future?

[SPR]

TBF, Froome's modus operandi is usually to kill everyone on the first mountain stage THEN ride defensively. The early TT meant he never had to do that this year, but also he wasn't as good as other years. The loss of Porte was big for the race as he was the one GC contender that Froome couldn't be sure of beating in the final TT and that could have led to a more attacking race.

[unc.si.]

I still think if you're stronger on the last climb you win when the pace is high, the issue is, no one is stronger. The last time some looked like they might be stronger was 2014.

I'm not really arguing whether he's the strongest or not. The point is that if you have 5 teammates drilling it at the front at a pace that the group can only just live with, knowing that they can drop off and roll in 20 minutes later, no-one can attack. Froome wouldn't be able to attack the Sky Train if he was on another team. Its a team race (which just happens to have an individual winner), so its a perfectly valid way of winning the race and you have to take your hat of to Froome and Sky for executing the plan. Its just not very exciting.

I still enjoy watching, and some of the stages have been great (the short one and the crosswind one in particular), it would just be nice for a 4 time winner to have a little bit of daring or panache (not that Indurain ever did).

The womens race over the Izoard was fantastic if anyone saw that. Nice for Van Vleuten to get the win after her crash in Rio denied her Olympic Gold.
They are experimenting with a kind of reverse handicap time trial in Marseilles, where they start off with the time gaps that they had on the Izoard on a 25km course. No idea how that will pan out (its not TT rules, so you can draft if you catch someone) but will be fascinating to find out what tactics they use.

[murf]

Froome did show real attacking panache at times last year and whilst not being overly attacking has had his moments this year. His, only partly paced, catch after his mechanical the other day when the AG2Rtrain was attacking was truly worthy of a tour great. He certainly isn't a boring wheelhugger like Cadel Evans. Uran probably wins that prize but even he has had moments.

Too few real mountain finishes this year. They are the ones where an attacker can get a good lead and not lose it on the following descent where the pack catch back up.

Been a few years since a mountain TT, I do like those!

------

The women's race was good, the pursuit stage 2 should be interesting at least. A good concept that I hope works. The first 2 need to go out hard to screw the followers. Think it is 3rd to 7th who are close-ish on time and they really need to form a working chase pack.

-----

Robert/Phillippa was a great guest, very informative and clearly has a slightly different outlook to many. Did get strange when she talked about being a male competitor. Didn't hear all her appearances/time but didn't get awkward at all. Presume the co-commentators knew her well enough so it wasn't weird or awkward.

[unc.si.]

I did warm to Froome a bit last year on his attack over the top of one of the Cols and the day he attacked with Sagan.

I'm not really criticising Froome though (although he is a bit dull and looks horrible on a bike, he is a very very good GC rider). More the Sky approach. It was just as dull when Wiggins won (apart from the tension caused by Froome having to hold back due to team orders), although obviously the first ever British win brought its own excitement.

Would be good if something could be done to stop one team being so dominant (Banesto, USPS, Sky etc). Not sure how but banning power meters, restricting teams to 6 riders, introducing a salary cap and restricting radios to official safety announcements only have all been put forwards at some point over the last few years.

[unc.si.]

Been a few years since a mountain TT, I do like those! about 1 I think



Robert/Phillippa was a great guest, very informative and clearly has a slightly different outlook to many. Did get strange when she talked about being a male competitor. Didn't hear all her appearances/time but didn't get awkward at all. Presume the co-commentators knew her well enough so it wasn't weird or awkward.

Philippa York is commentating? on what channel? Or was she just a guest on the womens one? Sorry to have missed that bit.

[murf]

She was a guest on the live coverage on ITV4. Must have been last week some time.

[jimmy ching]

Last night, everybody in the bar was talking about Barguil. Many a cheers on his behalf. I made the mistake of choosing Le Gac as my mandatory Breton. I live halfway between the two.