2015 Tour de France

['Dale]

That'll warm me up hey

 

 

Km 15.5 – Col du Chaussy (1 533 m) (D77-VC), 15.4 kilometre-long climb at 6.3% – category 1
Km 83.0 – Col de la Croix de Fer (2 067 m), 22.4 kilometre-long climb at 6.9% – category H
Km 103.0 – Col du Mollard (1 638 m), 5.7 kilometre-long climb at 6.8% – category 2
Km 138.0 – La Toussuire (1 705 m), 18 kilometre-long climb at 6.1% – category 1

[Thor Buttox]

A moerse day in the AlpsGO QUINTANAAAAADON'T GO FROOME DAWG  http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2015/1900/PROFIL.png

Froomey... Froomey... Quit-tana

[Patchelicious]

All of LA's results have an Asterix... By toutatis!

That they do!! Touché!!

[duringd]

Jislaaik, how many meters of climbing today? Could that profile be wrong??? 

[scotty]

Go Froome, 

 

Only real GC threat is the Movie star pair,  El Pistolo is firing blanks so you have nothing to fear from him. 

[tombeej]

All of LA's results have an Asterix... By toutatis!

 

Waaaahahaha!!

[Nedrider]

Quintana and Valverde have one last chance to try and get sometime else tomorrow Froome will fight tooth and nail to go to Paris with seconds. I don't see him losing 3minutes if he carries it intact tomorrow. Conti as i said at the start, doing a double would have been a miracle. Maybe needed to call on his butcher with the "special steak" like in 2010.......just saying!

[deanbean]

Interesting comments by the top riders on Peloton site

Froome

 

Froome himself thinks the dual challenge facing the Movistar team — between defending the second and third places of Nairo Quintana and Valverde, and attacking the yellow jersey — could work in his favor. 

“I can really see the race developing with lots of races within races,” said the 30-year-old Briton.

“Guys a lot further back in the general classification are attacking and those in sixth, seventh and eighth position are having to do a lot of the chasing and committing men to bring back the breakaway.

“We (Sky) are concentrating on the two guys: Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. If anyone else attacks its their (Movistar’s) responsibility to protect their podium positions.”

and Quintana

 

Valverde had briefly been distanced on the Gladon climb and Quintana said he had tempered his own pace to allow his teammate to recover.

But the 25-year-old Colombian said things would be different on the next two days’ summit finishes.

“Alejandro had a little crisis and we had to be a little calmer to give him the chance to recover,” said Quintana.

“Today we needed to be a bit quieter as it was a stage where you couldn’t really gain any time.

“For me it’s really important to have Alejandro close by, he’s always helping me by closing down gaps to our rivals.

“But tomorrow we’ll race in a different way.”

Does that mean that he's not going to be looking over his shoulder to protect Valverde's position on the podium, and going for the yellow himself, they've made it complicated IMHO, having 2 on the podium, and it's almost too late now.

Saturdays stage is gonna be good

http://pelotonmagazine.com/feedzone/contadors-podium-hopes-fade/

[Gen]

Quintana and Valverde have one last chance to try and get sometime else tomorrow Froome will fight tooth and nail to go to Paris with seconds. I don't see him losing 3minutes if he carries it intact tomorrow. Conti as i said at the start, doing a double would have been a miracle. Maybe needed to call on his butcher with the "special steak" like in 2010.......just saying!

I don't think we'll see any fireworks.. moviestar are going to consolidate their GC positions. . If we do see an attack it'll be from Nibbles and bert and for some or other bizarre reason moviestar think they need to close those down.

 

If they do however manage to get froome isolated they may try attack.. and he may just be silly enough to chase down attack after attack and get tired and lose a little time.(he has done this before)

 

Porte is not looking strong (unless he has been bluffing) and Thomas is showing signs of tiring... but so is everyone.

[tombeej]

I don't think we'll see any fireworks.. moviestar are going to consolidate their GC positions. . If we do see an attack it'll be from Nibbles and bert and for some or other bizarre reason moviestar think they need to close those down.

 

If they do however manage to get froome isolated they may try attack.. and he may just be silly enough to chase down attack after attack and get tired and lose a little time.(he has done this before)

 

Porte is not looking strong (unless he has been bluffing) and Thomas is showing signs of tiring... but so is everyone.

 

I think Thomas will crack today/tomorrow and might lose a lot of time on these last days. He's done so much work already, and these last days will be a bridge too far for him. I can see him giving one last all-out sacrificing effort for F-Dawg on the final climb to the La Toussuire summit finish today and then collapse. Same tomorrow for Alpe d'Huez. We shouldn't be surprised if he falls out of the top 10 before Paris.

[nochain]

I don't think we'll see any fireworks.. moviestar are going to consolidate their GC positions. . If we do see an attack it'll be from Nibbles and bert and for some or other bizarre reason moviestar think they need to close those down.

 

If they do however manage to get froome isolated they may try attack.. and he may just be silly enough to chase down attack after attack and get tired and lose a little time.(he has done this before)

 

Porte is not looking strong (unless he has been bluffing) and Thomas is showing signs of tiring... but so is everyone.

Bert is to close to Valverde and they know how dangerous he is when he gets a sniff...he's only option will be to go away with Froome and Quintana on the final climb and then he will be asked to do all the work.

Movistar is in a unique position and what will happen I think is Quintana will test Froome on the final climb, probably as far from the top as possible and if he does not show weakness they will ride to protect 3rd place.

I actually hope Conto can get away with Nibs and make things interesting.

[Gen]

we must actually just hope that Froome gets isolated and chases down every attack until he cracks, else we'll just see a fast but boring 2 days.

 

This rubbish that moviestar waited for the Alps was a stupid thing, not enough tar or days left to do anything really.

 

It's a pity Bertie crashed and has lost so much time, at least he is one of those.. everything or bust riders.

[scotty]

we must actually just hope that Froome gets isolated and chases down every attack until he cracks, else we'll just see a fast but boring 2 days.

 

This rubbish that moviestar waited for the Alps was a stupid thing, not enough tar or days left to do anything really.

 

It's a pity Bertie crashed and has lost so much time, at least he is one of those.. everything or bust riders.

We must ?? 

[Gen]

Interesting article with Sean Yates on Sagan's physique and future ambitions

http://www.tv2.no/2015/07/24/sport/7184605

 

just translate from Norwegian 

[Gen]

We must ??

Lol.. yeah.. especially me.. cause I am not thaat set on the GC race and want to see exciting stuff man... entertainment value

[nochain]

we must actually just hope that Froome gets isolated and chases down every attack until he cracks, else we'll just see a fast but boring 2 days.

 

This rubbish that moviestar waited for the Alps was a stupid thing, not enough tar or days left to do anything really.

 

It's a pity Bertie crashed and has lost so much time, at least he is one of those.. everything or bust riders.

I will put a couple of bucks on Bert going today...he is smart and will know that tomorrow will see the black sky train dominate.

There is no doubt Froome wants the win tomorrow and nobody will be allowed to move.I think people will see Froome at he's best tomorrow...its payback time for him on that climb.