The 100th Edition Of The Tour de France: Chirps, Opinions, News, Updates.

[E-man]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34llrFyv5Jg

[Wez-O]

After that fantastic fight for the yellow, the fight for green continues tomorrow.

Sagan would want to minimise damages and keep his awesome points lead intact.

 

Rolland seems to have his hands firmly on polka.

As well as Quintana with his white jersey. Any deficits in the TT will surely be made up again in the Alps.

 

 

I recon Michal Kwiatkowski might take the white jersey back in the time trail. I see Kwiatkowski as a future GC superstar, the youngster has shown he can climb and sprint AND apparently he is a pretty good time trailist as well.

For me, Quintana is a little too one dimensional to be a current or future GC threat (unless they place a cat 1 mountain in a TT).

[dracs]

Yah, Quintana is quite a revelation, but not sure how a tiny lightweight will do at the TT, anyway I guess we will see.

I dont think the stage was as tough as all are making it out to be, these are professional athletes, its what they do and there were quite a few non climbers in the peleton most of the way, Jens been one of them, so if he was able to hold on the pace wasn't that tough for the GC guys.

Personally, I think they just measured their efforts, SKY made a mistake yesterday I think and in hindsight the other teams didn't want to do likewise, I can also say I dont think Movistar or Saxo want the jersey just yet, so keep the pace up, move Valverde into second keep the pressure of the jersey on SKY and as a by product of the day they eliminated a good climber Kiryienka and ensured it will only be one rider from SKY on the platform if thats how it goes.

 

Good day for Saxo and Movistar.

I think what actually happened is the start driven by Movistar was incredibly hard and this was proven by how quickly the pelotpn was splintered all over the road. There is no doubt it slowed down later though once Valverde failed to dislodge Froome with his early attacks (proof being that Cadel and many others who were shelled early were able to get back). After that it seems Movistar were happy to race for second on the GC... Or more likely that Valverde in particular didn't have much more to give - so Movistar went at or close to his maximum.

 

Nail on the head Grumpy, many guys that you wouldn't see in the same group as the main contenders managed to stay with the group. If you look at the numbers you'll notice that the pace was nowhere near the pace on Saturday. Porte sat up and stopped chasing thats why he lost so much time, not because he was "broken". Froome never looked in difficulty and only Quintana tried a couple of very brief attacks. Here is Jens' SRM data, ave speed 40kmh

Its not like Porte took a rest day though... He was genuinely dropped on the second climb of the day and spend most of the rest of the race trying to pace back. After getting within a minute he only sat up once it was clear Movistar were not going to allow him to reintegrate (near the end of the second last climb). Huge effort until that point.

 

Sky team is looking particularly fragile - Kiryienka missed the cutoff, Siutsou and Lopez are in the squad to help Froome and Porte in the mountains but they have been nowhere. I think the reason for Sky's poor showing yesterday was down to these guys - When Kennaugh (who did way more work on Saturday than he should have had to do) took his tumble it meant Porte had to pick up the pacing way earlier than would have been planned and he clearly burned too many matches too early after his previous days efforts - and he could never recover from that.

Edited July 8, 2013 by dracs

[T-Bob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34llrFyv5Jg

 

Who took him out? That was a bad bit of riding and a tough wipe out. Did you see how long it took him to climb back up from where ever he ended up. So scuffed up, really did look like he'd been dragged through a bush backwards!

[Wez-O]

I know very little about team road racing but it seemed that Sky actually caught the other teams napping a little by going very hard in the first mountain stage, building a lead in yellow which they would then defend and mark their adversaries.

 

I guess then Sky knew Movistar et al would be stung and come out firing and maybe that the Sky team and Porte in particular had "burnt plenty matches" getting Froome into yellow. But then a rest day to hopefully recover.

 

Going to be very interesting.

Sky used the same strategy on stage 8 that they used in last years tour for Wiggans, whereby they grind out a strong pace over the hills and burn out the contenders.

However unlike last year it seems as though they burned out themselves for the following day as the Garmin and Movistar attacks on stage 9 absolutely hammered them.

 

I was particularly surprised to see Porte disappear but that was probably due to the early effort he put in to bring Froome back into the initial group as well as his extreme efforts to not only assist Froome in stage 8 but also to drop the group on the climb and take second.

Sky are also missing a fully fit Geraint Thomas who looked super strong in the Criterium du Delphine climbs but is clearly still struggling with injuries in this years tour after his stage 1 crash.

[jcza]

 

If you are suggesting Porte took a rest day thats just wrong. He was genuinely dropped on the second climb of the day and spend most of the rest of the race trying to pace back. After getting within a minute he only sat up once it was clear Movistar were not going to allow him to reintegrate (near the end of the second last climb). Huge effort until that point.

 

Sky team is looking particularly fragile - Kiryienka missed the cutoff, Siutsou and Lopez are in the squad to help Froome and Porte in the mountains but they have been nowhere. I think the reason for Sky's poor showing yesterday was down to these guys - When Kennaugh (who did way more work on Saturday than he should have had to do) took his tumble it meant Porte had to pick up the pacing way earlier than would have been planned and he clearly burned too many matches too early after his previous days efforts - and he could never recover from that.

 

I agree he was dropped early on but after chasing back (and nearly making contact) was told to save his energy and just cruised to the finish. He lost 7 mins on the descent which clearly illustrates the point.

[dracs]

I recon Michal Kwiatkowski might take the white jersey back in the time trail. I see Kwiatkowski as a future GC superstar, the youngster has shown he can climb and sprint AND apparently he is a pretty good time trailist as well.

For me, Quintana is a little too one dimensional to be a current or future GC threat (unless they place a cat 1 mountain in a TT).

I wish we could see Quintana fully unleashed. Unfortunately I think he is racing to Valverde's tune at the moment. Wonder what he could have done agaisnt Froome on the final climb on Saturday if the team had not sent him out so earliy on the first climb.

[dracs]

Who took him out? That was a bad bit of riding and a tough wipe out. Did you see how long it took him to climb back up from where ever he ended up. So scuffed up, really did look like he'd been dragged through a bush backwards!

I think it was Ryder Edited July 8, 2013 by dracs

[jcza]

I wish we could see Quintana fully unleashed. Unfortunately I think he is racing to Valverde's tune at the moment. Wonder what he could have done agaisnt Froome on the final climb on Saturday if the team had not sent him out so earliy on the first climb.

 

Yip all about getting Valverde up in the GC although I think the group was too big plus there was 30km to the finish after the top of the climb during which guys could get back.

[dracs]

I agree he was dropped early on but after chasing back (and nearly making contact) was told to save his energy and just cruised to the finish. He lost 7 mins on the descent which clearly illustrates the point.

Sure but he put in a huge effort to get back. By the time he sat up he had gone from just over a minute to around 3 minutes... He would have kept at it if there was a chance he could have held onto a high placing but I think reality hit home for Sky management esp given how poor the rest of the team is looking

[urbanroyal]

Just watching stage 9 now...respect to Froome for withanding all those attacks..what a stage.

[andydude]

I've done a quick comparison with a few local races and a training ride with Saturday's stage 8. I simply plotted the elevation from the gpx files with no editing. Thank you for the help jcza. The left hand scale is the elevation.

[Wez-O]

I've done a quick comparison with a few local races and a training ride with Saturday's stage 8. I simply plotted the elevation from the gpx files with no editing. Thank you for the help jcza. The left hand scale is the elevation.

Hectic!

Apparently the 94.7 would have no categorised climbs with the only categorised climb in the Argus being Suikerbossie at a cat 4.

I'd be interested to know what the climbs of the Panorama/Jock would be? Long Tom Pass perhaps a Cat 2 or 3 max?

I guess the only cat 1 and HC this side of the continent would be in Lesotho.

[SwissVan]

Haha nice one

 

Depending on your screen setting you need to click on the picture to get the real full view of the TDF stage comparison

[Daideron]

Personally I think Froome handled it well yesterday. The race lead was his to defend and he did just that. Alone.

I am impressed that the other teams have taken the fight to SKY in the manner that they did. If anything, they have shown that they can break the dominance of SKY simply by not allowing SKY to dictate the race. Attacking early showed that SKY were not expecting any resistance to their setting the pace as per the usual. And thats what cost them their hiding yesterday!

Froome had to cover some serious moves, in particular that tandem escape by Valverde and his teammate as they attempted to cross to the lead group. So well done Froome.

I am shocked that Contador is riding so poorly. I was hoping he would have more in his legs and challenge more. Seems he is a spent force and a shadow of his former mountain goat self.

I was glad to see Shleck up there. But I dont think he deserves all the adulations he is getting. He simply followed wheels. Phil and Paul make him sound like he is the huge threat. He simply followed wheels.

Evans. What is up with Evans? Two years ago he showed such class and wisdom in the Tour, the past week he looked set to challenge. Saturday he got a proper hiding. Sunday he was lucky to be a passenger?

The BELKIN boys are riding well, and it is great to see fresh faces.

Quintana and Valverde are strong. Valverde seems to have the form of his life, but he is going to need to get away in the mountains to challenge Froome, as it is not going to happen in the TT. Quintana looks like a class rider and I wonder if he was allowed to race freely would we see a mountain battle between him and Froome?

 

I feel sorry for Kennaugh, that was a nasty spill he took. But thats bike racing. Porte is a class rider, and in all honesty I am shocked that someone of his calibre was ridden off like that yesterday. He should have never have been dropped like that.

That said in my eyes the peloton now know how to beat SKY, dont let them control and descend the race into chaos.

[andydude]

Hectic!

Apparently the 94.7 would have no categorised climbs with the only categorised climb in the Argus being Suikerbossie at a cat 4.

I'd be interested to know what the climbs of the Panorama/Jock would be? Long Tom Pass perhaps a Cat 2 or 3 max?

I guess the only cat 1 and HC this side of the continent would be in Lesotho.

 

If somebody can send me those gpx files I can include it...

 

For those that's interested in how mountains are classified, http://inrng.com/2012/07/tour-climbs-categories/