http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-2017-stage-maps-and-profiles-revealed/

definitely no tom on the roster
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oko4XFnLjrA[/video]

What is it about Spilak and the Tour de Swisse?

It’d be nice to see AC get something from the race, as it’s possibly his last TDF. The stars will need to align though, but hopefully Froome won’t have found much more form come July. Otherwise, I think it’s game over for AC and everyone else.

Tweet from Taylor Phinney racing at the Tour du Suisse raises an eyebrow…

Feeling like I am racing against cyborgs, very proud of my Earthlings @JoeDombro @rusty_woods #Huge @ryanmullen9 @PaddyBevin @sepvanmarcke

Well those are his team mates, you could never accuse Cannondale-Drapac of overperforming could you?

CaDra have been OK recently – they’ve often got someone top 5 and have had a few stage wins as well. I think the Moneyball style recruitment policy is starting to come good.

Wildcard prediction – Landa, after Froome blows up/crashes out.

I can’t help but ponder whether Quintana might be the beneficiary of all the fireworks at the Dauphine. Last year’s Tour he appeared lacklustre and boring, only to destroy all comers at the Vuelta. One could call his Giro lacklustre and boring… perhaps he learned last year he needs a 3-week block 5/6 weeks out to hit his peak?

only to destroy all comers at the Vuelta

He didn’t though. He got lucky and just about made the break that Contador forced on that freaky stage. If it wasn’t for the time lost on that one stage Froome would have won that Vuelta.

CaDra have been OK recently

A queen stage win for Rolland at the Route du Sud too.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6g1gOm2sMzAOElxMUJMNzFwMTg

Many thanks Paton, for those that are unsure about the link it’s a folder containing race roadbooks, including the TdF 2017.

Stage 3… I can either ride to the finish or go for a proper ride then sit in a friterie with a beer and some fried stuff and watch the caravan and race go past.

option 2

Option deux 🙂

We have a winner then! Plus it beats a 30km back home in the heat in rush-hour re-opened roads.

Dropper posts in the world tour.

To avoid the Ventoux Froome on a kids bike debacle Mavic neutral service bikes (which I don’t think they expected anyone would ever actually use) will be fitted with KS dropper posts so they can be quickly adjusted to suit.

They’ll also be using common sense and having specific bikes set up to suit the GC leaders, and also not fitted with the Mavic pedals that no one uses.

(Info courtesy of velonews podcast).

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttK0JMMnq8[/video]

Millar on Porte and that day at the Dauphine…

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/author/robert-millar-blog-the-making-of-richie-porte/

Problem with that analysis that is it fails to explain why on that final day in the Dauphine Porte couldn’t hold on going up the penultimate climb and then failed to stay with Kwiatkowski on the descent.

Yes the BMC team will be stronger at the TDF, but so will pretty much all the others.

Fantasy league is up and running – http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-fantasy-tdf-2017

Problem with that analysis that is it fails to explain why on that final day in the Dauphine Porte couldn’t hold on going up the penultimate climb and then failed to stay with Kwiatkowski on the descent.

Not seen the stage in full, but on the penultimate climb didn’t Porte have quite a bit of defending to do as they all took turns attacking him?

As for the descent, Kwiatkowski is one of the best, and he’d have been going full gas as he wasn’t worried about getting up the final climb. Maybe Porte figured it wasn’t worth the effort and he’d try and recover a bit on the descent and save something for the transition and final climb, if he’d held on then Kwiatkowski would just have got off the gas and sat on Porte’s wheel.

Must watch that stage sometime as it sounds a good one.

And all that still doesn’t tell you if he can manage 3 weeks without a bad day or a tactical blunder.

Sky’s Tour de France lineup announced:
Froome, Henao, Kiryienka, Knees, Kwiatkowski, Landa, Nieve, Rowe, Thomas.

Very similar to last year, (ctrl-c)Kwiatkowski(ctrl-v) in for Poels, Knees for Stannard.

Sky Tour team announced…

Chris Froome (Gbr), Geraint Thomas (Gbr), Mikel Landa (Spa), Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol), Christian Knees (Ger), Vasil Kiryienka (Blr), Mikel Nieve (Spa), Sergio Henao (Col), Luke Rowe (Gbr) and Christian Knees (Ger).

No place for Poels, Kennaugh or Stannard.

Beaten to it by 34 seconds 🙂

Nicely balanced team that, Knees is more of a bodyguard type domestique than the flat road hardman that is Stannard, Kwiatkowski a lesser climber but perhaps more well rounded than Poels. Still a lot of very good climbers in there.

A Tour riders to watch from cyclingnews…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNTml_76xts[/video]

In other news, Froome says never offered triamcinolone in Guardian interview. Good that’s all sorted!

Also good to see Cummings winning the national TT (here). Bodes well for the Tour.

Also Ulrika Green Hedge announce team (here) focused on GC with Yates and Chaves.

BMC announce team too…

BMC for the Tour de France: Damiano Caruso (Ita), Alessandro De Marchi (Ita), Stefan Küng (Swi), Amaël Moinard (Fra), Richie Porte (Aus), Nicolas Roche (Irl), Michael Schär (Swi), Greg Van Avermaet (Bel), Danilo Wyss (Swi).

Claim to be “all in” for Porte. Say no support for GvA but he’s free to try for stage wins.

Also good to see Cummings winning the national TT (here). Bodes well for the Tour.

It’s all that zwifting he’s been doing 😉

Slightly surprised to see Landa in the Sky team.

Given his exertions at the Giro and the fact he’s off at the end of the season – probably to Movistar – I wouldn’t expect much of him

from last year, but very good. more in the clicky

https://inews.co.uk/cycling/chris-froome-favourites-not-great-form-stand-gripping-tour-de-france/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rSkkrEGkB4
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rSkkrEGkB4[/video]

Also good to see Cummings winning the national TT

Wow. Fantastic.

And the road race! Stripes on all his kit for the next year

On that form he’d be in my virtual Tour team. A good bet for a stage win or two.

I like Steve Cummings. Despite the fact that my wife said that she fancies him.

Funny that he said after the TT that his Tour spot still depended on how he went in the road race. I think he’s likely done enough now 🙂

Sounds like a great ride by Aru to win his national champs. Looks to be in excellent form for the Tour.

Also from the nationals, but French this time. Look how pissed off Bouhanni is… no love lost there.

Bouhanni reckoned he’d been chopped (karma n’est pas?) but it’s hard to argue.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2j63oybf4[/video]

Anyway, fireworks in the tour between these two no doubt

didn’t look like he had the pace to go past him anyway.

didn’t look like he had the pace to go past him anyway.

Does look that way from the overhead.

A Q&A with Porte over at cyclingtips…

Richie Porte Tour de France Q&A: ‘I’m just excited more than anything’

Can’t seem to find Cummings on Velogames Fantasy league thingy am I being special?

Teams are not yet finalised, Dimension data certainly haven;t announced their roster yet and as Cummings has been out for several months after a crash, he probably wasn’t in the provisional listings. Velogames update the riders list as each squad is finalised and it can change up till the last minute. DD due to announce their list later this week I think

edit – checking the rider list page shows this. AG2R have TEN riders listed, DD only have four!

https://www.velogames.com/tour-de-france/2017/riders.php