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Tour de France

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Crashes at that distance are very frustrating; not soon enough to catch up, but not late enough to get winners time... And of course ITV4 went on an advert break so we never even saw the crash, we just got told about it. Feel sorry for Cav; he had this one i the bag. Or would have done last year at least...
 

Petacchi, came second in the stage where Cavendish fell. Not really a result, when it comes to sprint stages winning is all that matters.

Petacchi also currently seems to be struggling a bit... Possibly getting a bit long in the tooth to run with the young hotrods such as Cavendish, Greipel and Sagan.
 
Interesting that you included Sagan as a sprinter... There's no doubting that he's an absolute machine, but I don't count him as a pure sprinter; he really shines in all the uphill finishes, but can't seem to keep up on the flat bunch sprints...
I found the racing much more enjoyable last year, HTC was a lot more sprint orientated than Sky, and so the sprint finishes were always...well, more sprinty. More variety this year, but you get the impression that the stage finish is dictated by what happens in the crash.

On a side note, disappointed with Sagan's celebration today, guess he just didn't have time to think one up!
 

Fully agree Sagan is not as fast in a pure flat sprint as Cavendish, Griepel or Kittel, who is sadly out of the tour.

But sprints don't just happen on the flat stages.

Although I really like the flat open blast to the finish line, in my opinion to be a truly great road sprinter you should also be able to win going up a bit of a drag.

Sagan is still young though and we'll see how he develops, possibly a young Laurent Jalabert??

As for how the tour is playing out... For me, it's actually quite refreshing to not see a HTC train overpowering the rest of the teams and Cavendish's one win was sweeter because of that. I do however find the amount of crashes alarming though. I know crashing is part of racing but one would expect that best riders in the world would be able to stay on their bikes.
 
seyiojitdkj\zrtgyjgjecvblk. I just typed a great big reply, and my internet died. So I'll try start again :head

Oh my word I wrote so much and I can't remember it!!

I think that there should be a definition between pure sprinters like Cav, who are average at hills, but excel in flat sprints, and Sagan, who lacks the speed but makes up for it with power in the not so sprinty sprints or difficult finishes. But, in the end, it shouldn't make a difference, as the point of races like the tour, vuelta, giro etc, is teams loaded with variety, to not focus on one type in particular.

Re. the trains; I kind of miss the tactics and focus. They were intended to give their sprinter an advantage, so you knew who the contenders were, and the sprints were intense. It reduced other factors, so it ended up just pure sprinter vs sprinter. Now, the only team tactic anyone seems to have is to keep a certain rider (Wiggins, Evans etc) out of trouble. But this means the finishes are more of a free for all, just a messy scramble to get ahead.

The crashes are also frustrating, especially the one today; it almost took the racing aspect away! But you can't blame them for crashing I guess, everyone wants to have a shot at winning a stage, and with everyone jostling for position, no ones concentrating on racing lines.

The Armstrong case is BS. Whether or not he doped, he's not racing again, so why does it matter? They're just putting doubt in peoples minds, trying to make a media storm. And one must question his team mates reasons for turning snitch... I'd rather ignore it tbh, not bother read the news!!
 
Hmm. That looked longer in the "reply" box. I apologise for subjecting your eyes and brain to that poorly penned cacophany of text!:mute
 
Can I take back what I said about hill finishes?

Sorry, once it is on the internet it is scanned for naughty words and permanently stored in Utah.
 
I've been recording it and watching every day. It was great to get out of the flat stage carnage and into the hills where real men step up. I probably couldn't have walked up that final 20% pitch, but they attacked.

If it were up to me, the Tour would be nothing but mountains and time trials.
 
Well Stage 7 was good for Evans. Wiggins couldn't answer him, and lets face it, when Evans saw Froome, would he have even bothered trying to match up? He did what he had to, and showed he can chew Wiggins up, and on a tiny climb. it only gets more vertical Wiggins...

Mind you, this British sky team, their last 4 riders were : Australian, Australian, Kenyan and Belgian/Australian. WHERE ARE YOUR BRITS?! It's like your cricket teams from the late 90's for gods sake.
 
That crash the other night was impressive. Go the gorilla. 2nd with a dislocated shoulder ain't bad and he does have a good team, especially Greg Henderson, naturally I am biased though!
 
Sky-Pro is kind of the equivalent of HTC really, the sponsor is British, but the riders ride for the team, not the country. And like they say, it's all about the sponsors...

Evans; I still can't get over the fact he looks like my step-father. *Shiver*


@Bill that would make it a race just for climbers really, and you'd end up with something not much different from mountain biking... I like that there's variety, you can never be sure who'll win the next stage. If it was just one type, it would become very boring indeed...
 
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Bill has a point though, I like seeing climbers with more chance to take the race overall. Pantani's win was phenomenal. As for no sprinters stages in the tour, the flat stages minus any accidents of course, never have an input into GC classification. So maybe a tour of climbs and time tirals would only serve to remove spectacle. That said, I do like sprint stages, but they are a world apart from the goal.
(HTC never got bandied about as being America's greatest thing by the Americans though, the way the brits carry on you'd think it WAS a national side.)
But I do like that the topriders are anglophones, used to be shunned in the peleton.
 
I just think it wouldn't be le TDF if they changed it so drastically... By all means make a new race in the mountains, but the tour should stay as just that; a tour.

re. Team Sky; in England, cycling is pretty small; most Brits will know of maybe 5 pro cyclists, and only a couple of them British. I think the hype is just trying to get some recognition for the sport, and get more people giving it a go. As far as the casual supporters are concerned; they'll read the classifications and see a Brit in yellow or green, and assume it's all due to the work of said Brit.

But don't you worry, us cycling fans know the difference
 
Poor Evans needs something special in the Pyrenees now doesn't he?? Looks to be tired.

But the biggest issue is bloody wiggins! DROP HIM!!! Why the hell is he still team leader when Froome can walk all over him. Wiggins has been nothing more than a pathetic passenger in the hills. It's the Vuelta all over again, they support wiggins to the point of losing and poor old Froome is magic. Problem is, Wiggins could never support Froome, he isn't strong enough on the climbs. Wiggins will win (unless Sky wake up) and it won't be due to his riding, it'll be all due to Froome. If I was Froome I'd drop Wiggins. What can they say after he's won the TDF???
 
Yeah, Evans definitely looks off form.

Using the first time trial as guideline, I reckon he'll have to be at least 2mins ahead of Wiggins at before the final TT. Which currently means he'll have to make up 5mins in the mountains somewhere... a very tall order.
 
Sadly don't think Evans will be able to come back at Wiggins now. Unless something happens to his advantage.
 
I think Evans needs a miracle. Shame Andy Shleck is out, he would have eaten yesterday's stage up.

Froome needs a world-wide campaign to put him over Wiggins. Or, he needs a team that will use his full potential, as does Michael Rogers. These boys would do Wiggins in if it was a fair fight.
 

The American TV coverage this morning quoted bitchy tweets by the girl friends/wives? of Froome and Wiggens, and then the team director was quoted as saying he wasn't a marriage counselor.

But maybe it makes sense to protect Wiggens because he'll be so much better in the time trial?

But stuff like this happens pretty frequently. I recall reading many years ago that the team director had to go up to Greg Lemond and tell him to wait for Bernard Hinault. Lemond broke into tears. I believe he switched teams the next year.
 
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