Well, that makes the build up to the tour a little more interesting……

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Fascinating stage and congratulations to Garmin and Talansky for a great race. Stirs things up nicely for next month…

Not sure what make of it really. I thought Contador and Froome had made a tactical pig of it but Froome looked cooked at the end. Be intresting to see how Wiggo does in Suisse.

Hopefully Contador is clean now. No more cheating.

4 posts was all it took 😐

Froome could have done with a few puffs on his inhaler

Well he is a cheat. Always tainted. Only caught once.

Enough of Contador and Froome they can grab all the headlines next month, let’s have a bit of credit to Adam Yates, first Brit and sixth overall!

Matt

Great finish. Contador got it wrong tactically (concentrated on Froome too much) and where was his team?? However both Contador and Froomes rides today show the value of having a superdomestique that can hang with you to the end of a big decisive stage. Sky will be fools not to take the strongest team and the second strongest rider for the TdF is Wiggo.

I doubt if Contador is too bothered about losing to Talansky. He wanted to measure himself against Froome before the Tour. I suppose we don’t know how much Chris’s crash took out of him – but Contador does look pretty good.

Hat to Yates though.

I’m pretty certain there will be a Yates winning grand tours in a few years.
As for Froome and Contador, I think Froome is hurting more than anyone realised from the crash which looked pretty nasty. Contador seems to have just assumed Froome was baiting him until it was too late. Pretty epic ride from Bertie to go away from the group and almost ride upto the break on his own.
It’s all very interesting now for the Tour, Sir Dave is going to have a hard time picking his team if Wiggo does a ride in the ToS as there is now a doubt over Froome.. Was he just injured or is there something else wrong.! It’s going to be an interesting few weeks until Yorkshire.

great ride by Yates, I bet Brad was loving it too

reports of Froome taking some medication in the tour of Romandy for a cough . All approved by the UCI .

Hats off to Yates he’s certainly getting some great results, Contador playing mind games with a lack lustre Froome doesn’t didnt do him any favours so glad it played out as it did. Just shows you how a race can be blown apart on such stages brilliant finale!

Froome’s had one bad day. I don’t think it rules him out of the TdF.

Nieve could well be replacing Porte at this rate though. And very well done to Adam Yates!

Eurosport highlights were pants. Showed the last 20km but didn’t explain what had happened before that.

Of course it doesn’t. It does suggest he might not be in top form and might need a little more help from the best riders on his team though.

One bad day like that on the TdF would probably be enough to lose it though.

Of course it doesn’t. It does suggest he might not be in top form and might need a little more help from the best riders on his team though.

Nieve said that Froome hadn’t recovered from the crash 2 days ago and that the crash plus chasing contador the day after wiped him out.

Anyone who followed Euskatel knows just what an excellent and talented rider Nieve is.

Great result for Talansky, not often something like that happens in a Tour, excellent!

Good result, and good to see none of the favourites for the Tour is strong enough to dominate.

Froome was an idiot the whole tour whipping the Sky train to self destruction every stage and all for his massive ego. Contador didn’t need a strong team, he had Sky do all the work for him. Once he’s got his Tour squad around him he’ll have the power and tactical ability to make Froome look like the spaz he is, lets just hope he looks at the wrong rival again! I was screaming for Talansky at the end, brilliant result for him and it’ll be interesting if he can carry some belief into the Tour. Loving the fact Contador kept looking to Froome and let the victory slip.

Now, now monkeyfudger, I’m sure Froome was only doing what his girlfriend told him to do.

Haha!

Oh and +1 for the moan about the Eurosport coverage on the final stage. Bloody rubbish. Anyone else read the report on CyclingNews? I came away more confused about what happened.

..he’ll have the power and tactical ability to make Froome look like the spaz he is…

Loving the fact Contador kept looking to Froome and let the victory slip.

I think Froome was just a bit battered towards then end but I also think he was over-confident at the beginning. He’ll certainly need to be on his toes come the TdF, and I doubt he’ll be able to ride it like he did in ’13.

Froome was a bit battered and I’d have to agree with everyone else about the Eurosport highlights. How did Talansky get away? Where were SKY and Contadors team. However Froome didn’t just lose he completely blew up. Not a good sign

So whilst Contadors effort was great he was very isolated. I can’t think that he’d be happy about that and his team’s performance. The SKY team wasn’t great either. Only one rider with Froome at the end and given he was getting dropped, not a great team performance.

I’d presumed that Froome wasn’t up for it when 3 of his team mates went up the road.

Reckon the tour is going to be exciting based on what we’ve seen so far. Froome has a bit more firepower than Contador, but Contador is a much smarter racer. Throw in a bit of Garmin kamikaze action and there should be plenty to see.

Presumably Froome won’t fall off or have to chase Contador at all in the Tour, so doesn’t need his strongest teammate?

Great tactics from Garmin – send the Talansky and Hesjedahl off on the first mountain; Contador and Froome reckoned, that an all day attack would leave them cooked by the last couple of mountains…
ooops 😆

Froome was an idiot the whole tour whipping the Sky train to self destruction every stage and all for his massive ego

They’ve always ridden like that. They have huge strength and depth as a team so they sit on the front and keep the pace so high that no one else can attack and so protect their man i nthe Jersey. They had little other option which is why it is not always a great idea to take the leaders Jersey early on in a tour.

I think Sky knew Froome was in trouble (or something else was going on), hence why they sent men up the road so they could get something out of the day and avoid just pulling the peleton along.

Yep and it was obvious on stage 3 they didn’t have the strength to do it, should have let the jersey go and reclaim it later on.

Presumably Froome won’t fall off or have to chase Contador at all in the Tour, so doesn’t need his strongest teammate?

Na, def no chance of falling in the cluster **** that is the first week of the tour, not like there’s cobbles or nuffin…

A great race and superb work by Garmin to pull of the victory.
More of the same in the tour please 😀

Yep and it was obvious on stage 3 they didn’t have the strength to do it, should have let the jersey go and reclaim it later on.

I think it’s a bit of cycling-lore bullshit that somehow it’s destroying to a team to defend a jersey and also that you HAVE to defend the jersey. I don’t see how Froome would have raced any less hard if Contador was wearing the yellow. He would only have to mark him, sure, but one day he’d have to do what Contador did and get away in order to win.

I agree, they could have let it go and worked around attacking later but orthodoxy suggests once you’ve got it, it’s best to keep it and have to mark all the others rather than let it go and try to win directly.

What they need is somebody to put Contador in a headlock and punch him a couple of times.

Ahh… That’s what the Brad fans want him there for.

it’s all a bluff – Froome was acting. sacrifice the Dauphine in order to take the pressure off on the Tour and make the ultimate victory all the more outstanding.

Be intresting to see how Wiggo does in Suisse.

he’s riding in a sulk, rolled in 2 mins back today looking like he was out on a sunday ride to the pub.

Yep. Hardly a way to contest for a place in the TdF or gain another teams interest.

I reckon he’s done with Sky and we’ll see him specific to the track before the years out.

But he wasn’t contesting a TDF place, he’d already been told he wasn’t going to go. Rumour is he isn’t even team lead for Switzerland, so Wiggo, being Wiggo toys out of pram and very visibly.

That’s what Wiggins said, Brailsford maintains its not a done deal.

Watching the TdS though its hard to see if anyone is leading sky, there’s no train, nothing. I wonder as you say with Wiggins in a sulk he’s not communicating with them and therefore effectively they don’t know what else to do other than ride individually for themselves.

Or perhaps they are waiting for the mountains and this is a ruse? e.g lets not get the yellow too early….. but Wiggins is about 3 mins back now isn’t he?

he’s riding in a sulk

so Wiggo, being Wiggo toys out of pram and very visibly

Who, Wiggins? Surely not 🙂