The Tour de France

brilliant move from aru in yesterdays stage underestimated by everyone which surprised me because he came 5th in 1st race back after 2mths at dauphine & has won the vuelta, so we all knew coming in he was a threat. but despite 2mths out he looked very good as he was powerful. only 14 secs he could be main player

Thomas looked like sky had let him have ago alongside froome to keep the yellow jersey & didnt have to do any domestique duties. but in the aru chase he was just found wanting but not that he did badly because if you wouldve said yesterday that thomas would finish in a group containing quintana & contador then yoh would be very happy. to be honest i was waiting on quintana to get dropped. because based on giro where no disrespect to dumoulin outstanding but if he lost to him. how can you expect to challenge the top climbers like froome & porte
 
G is still 2nd, and was def riding for Froome. I think that the Planche is not Gs kind of climb. I was so happy to see him in yellow for 5 days though.

Quintana surprised me. He will need to do better than that.

Aru looks goox and fresh, and he can climb. He is in with a shout along wirh Dan Martin.

There are many mountains to climb yet though.
 
Today is the first one with a real mountain top finish; will anyone decode early in the climb that it is their's if they go for it? Rather unlikely I am afraid.

A
 
Geraint Thomas is out with a fall on one of the descents, the first one I think. He joins the long list of broken shoulder riders (or was he on it before?).

A bit of a blow for Froome, he was definitely the best helper.
 
that Crash from Porte was pretty distressing, what he was doing on that inside grass verge I'm not sure, that chucked him across the road as bike digged in . apparently ive heard from BMC on twitter its concussion Broken Clavicle & pelvis. which is almost not bad considering the terrible way he looked as he bounced off a rock wall then got run into by Daniel Martin & at 45mph when he crashed which is in a car is bad enough nevermind a bike.
 
The first bad day for Froome for some time but even so ne only lost 20 seconds. Last Sunday Froome did virtually all the work in the final part of the last climb, including dropping Aru by 15 seconds, and then organised the chase over the last few kilometres, so I don't think that we have heard the last of him; the day of the Col d'Izoard should be the one that wins or loses the race this year. Quintana has simply not lived up to expectations and it has got to the point where Contador needs to do a Charly Gaul to get back in contention.

When you look at the standings this is the closest Tour for some time, even Mikel Landa could be on the podium with a fair wind. Tomorrow is Bastille day so the French will be giving their all, but will it be enough?
 
caught up on tour the last 2km were absolutely fascinating & great to watch. i had feared of 2012 when riders were stuck behind landa, most of climbs were anti climax as noone attacked wiggins. i was so bored thaf despite being 100% behind wiggins i kept thinking please someone any someone attack. stop being so dull. but then it happened finally. i was shocked because i think its the 1st time ive ever seen froome cracked on a mountain in the Tour de france. but even though i thought aru had it, Bardet was brilliant to just suffer just enough to get to that line

but really looking forward to tomorrows stage shortest stage in Tour de France history since they have started having 1 stage a day. 101km with 3 cat 1. everything could be turned on it head again in 18hrs time. but it helps entertainment for sky to have to chase
 
The team size this year was reduced to nine in an attempt to place more onus on the team leader. Sky are still the team who control much of the race, on the final climb on Sunday they looked to have at least two more riders looking after Froome than the other teams had with their leaders.

Today's stage has 27 km of downhill after the last climb, unless someone really gets away it looks set to be all the leaders in one bunch.
 
I struggle with this.

Yeaterday, the Sky train was rampant, very kindly providing a lead out for Froome, Aru, Bardet, Martin et al.

Fair enough, the other riders had no one to steal a bike from, or get bottles, but having lots of domestiques on the climbs is only of use if you can force another roder to set the pace. E.g push Aru go the front.

It was fairly obvious that the main guys in the group were not going to be dropped.

I think this kind of tactic would work on the Izoard, a longer higher but less steep climb, but Aru is looking strong.

Maybe Sky should send Landa up the road and force Astana to chase and have Froome attack on the last climb and descent.

Quintana is a spent force and seems unable to cope without Valverde..

I amm missing Porte and G from the race, that would have added somme more spice.

Oh, and Aru looks ridiculous out of the saddle!!
 
impressive achievement from froome 4 titles in 5 yrs. wasnt in his best form in Mountains but got job done, the difference was the teams gc were very equal i think without the quality of Mikel Landa & Michał Kwiatkowski. froome couldve won but it very tough gaining time back in the tt. as they were only team who has domesitques who had fitness for whole climb. & as great as froome has been this is tour has had luck on his side.
Porte crashed out

Quintana was finished in fitness terms after 5 consecutive grand tours & olympics

Dan Martin wouldve only been 51secs off before today TT but lost so much time in porte crash & crosswinds

Aru coming back from injury. only had 2 weeks of legs in him not 3 weeks needed

Uran in the trechouious wet opening stage lost 1 min & 1 to froome, but lost the tour by 54 secs

the booing was wrong. the lies french tv sprouted 2yrs ago dont help. which lead to some ugly scenes which some people still believe but is expected in a pantomime way because its only like Wimbledon. he was competing v the home fav & also in any sport dominance breeds contempt. i can only think of Usain bolt & to a point Roger Federer bar 08 & 09 of popular dominance
 
Great achievement by Froome, I'm not a huge fan but I'll defend him for his skill and I think he's a nice guy.
Booing by fans has no place outside wrestling.
French TV is shite, like their coffee.
 
Froomes task this year was to ensure he matched the other GC contenders in the hills, withe the race being bookended with TTs. The other guys needed to attack and distance him. AG2R did a great job of trying, Aru and Martin were unfortunately not strong enough to overcome their team's weaknesses. Uran was strong but never really made a decisive enough attack, very good at following others though.

I think that had Porte still been there, that he would have provided a stern challenge, he looked very strong. As did G.

Quintana missed having his key lieutenant with him. Contador is fading now, but still knows how to race.

Paris will be interesting, especially with the sprinting line up so impacted. I wonder if Landa will go for a bonus second?
 
In the past I was having some medication which initially had no side effects. Then one night I woke up with my heart rate very high, when I looked up the side effects this was one of them so I stopped taking the medication; I had a recurrence the next night it was at a lower level and a couple of days the side effect had gone. Some years later I was put on what I did not know at the time was a similar medication (differing trade names) and guess what - the result was as before.

In both cases it was due to a build up owing to my body not clearing the medication out completely so it just built up until the level was too high. Reducing the level of the medication was tricky si I gave it up completely.
 
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