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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.
[s]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.[/s]
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...
In other news, Froome says never offered triamcinolone in [url= https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/23/chris-froome-never-offered-triamcinolone-team-sky ]Guardian interview.[/url] Good that's all sorted!
Also good to see Cummings winning the national TT ([url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/british-national-road-championships-2017/time-trial-men/results/ ]here[/url]). Bodes well for the Tour.
Also Ulrika Green Hedge announce team ([url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/orica-scotts-tour-de-france-squad-built-around-yates-and-chaves/ ]here[/url]) 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.
It's all that zwifting he's been doing 😉Also good to see Cummings winning the national TT (here). Bodes well for the Tour.
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
[url= http://payload470.cargocollective.com/1/0/22833/11717197/TourDeGif_Froome.gi f" target="_blank">http://payload470.cargocollective.com/1/0/22833/11717197/TourDeGif_Froome.gi f"/> [/img][/url]
from last year, but very good. more in the clicky
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.
[img] 
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Bouhanni reckoned he'd been chopped (karma n'est pas?) but it's hard to argue.
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...
https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/richie-porte-tour-de-france-qa-im-just-excited-anything/
Can't seem to find Cummings on Velogames Fantasy league thingy am I being special?
[quote=xc-steve ]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
Nice little teaser video. God I'm excited!
Would think that for DD the squad will largely depend on whether Cav is deemed well enough to start.
In the same vein, Coquard has NOT been selected by Direct Energie after telling them he'd be leaving no matter what at the end of the season.
Anyway, fireworks in the tour between these two no doubt
For what? 10th place on some flat days? 😉
Dimension Data have declared, so Cummings has now appeared on the rider list.
Does anyone need Steephill pirate feeds to watch the Tour? It's live from start to finish in the UK on ITV4, on Eurosport in UK and Europe and on major channel in US?
It's live from start to finish in the UK on ITV4
ORLY?!
Now that'g going to eat into either riding or sleeping time watching the recordings in an evening.
[url= http://road.cc/content/news/224985-trek-segafredos-andre-cardoso-out-tour-de-france-after-testing-positive-epo ]
Trek Segafredo rider tests positive for EPO....
[/url]
Of course, you were all thinking it, weren't you?
CaptainFlashheart - MemberTrek Segafredo rider tests positive for EPO....
Of course, you were all thinking it, weren't you?
POSTED 6 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
To quote someone off another forum...
"That's going to leave Froome and Team Sky with some difficult questions to answer. What, you didn't think somebody would ask Contador about doping did you?"
ORLY?!Now that'g going to eat into either riding or sleeping time watching the recordings in an evening.
yup
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week27/tour-de-france-2017
This year marks the first time ITV4 has shown live daily coverage of every stage from start to finish, with a total of 110 hours of live cycling to be shown during the event, plus 23 hours of highlights.
A few of the doping zealot types I follow on twitter are cynical about the test
Spit in the soup (Retweeted UCI_media)Must be an election coming up soon
The first World Tour rider caught since 12 March 2016
Pro cycling has been scandal-free for 463 days
Replying to @SpitinthesoupRiders should know better. When an election is on the horizon, stay off the juice. Especially if not a big star on team.
I share Phil Gaimon's disbelief that riders still come out with the same old lines when they test positive...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/phil-gaimon-critical-of-cardosos-epo-positive-defence/
TBH though, Gaimon is pretty selective. I also don't think Danielson's panicked denials were any more believable given his history and the potential career-ending nature of the offence. The difference is that Gaimon knows Danielson really well so he's prepared to believe him more than some random former teammate despite the fact Danielson copped a 4-year ban.
There's only 4 ways to handle this
1, Admit it
2, Strenuously deny it across social media, press rleases etc (the Danielson method)
3, Issue mealy mouthed press release (the Cardoso method)
4, Total silence
The thing is there's little to choose between 2 and 3. Neither are believable if the B-sample comes out positive too. Nobody other than die hard fans believes Contador didn't cheat, it doesn't matter how many times he denies it.
Gaimon's written a fair bit about Danielson and how he was initially taken in by the denials as he thought he knew the guy so well.
The A and B sample thing, has a B sample ever contradicted the findings of an A sample? I don't recall I ever happening.
Also some cynical comments floating around about the coincidence of a low level World Tour rider testing positive on the eve of UCI elections after a long spell of no positive tests.
cynical comments like on this page you mean? 🙂
Anyway, the friterie closes just before the caravan arrives so my afternoon is sorted. Short ride from work, fried stuff and beer, another short ride along the course to a hairpin, then sit down until the race arrives.
Short ride from work, fried stuff and beer, another short ride along the course to a hairpin, then sit down until the race arrives.
Win!
cynical comments like on this page you mean?
Ah yes 🙂 Not been following the thread properly the past couple of days!
First +ve in over 400 days meaning one of three things, less doping, smarter doping, or some sort of cover up. I'm more inclined to believe the second than the third (or the first!)
Tour preview of the day over at cyclingtips...
https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/preview-guide-2017-tour-de-france/
I decided to have a flutter on this years race. As you'd expect the odds were very short on Froome and Porte so I went for Quintana at 7/1 for the overall and Bardet at 25/1 (but i chickened out and went each way).
Hoping this years race is going to be as good a watch as the Giro.
Quintana at 7/1 is a decent bet. That said, he really is a shitty "racer". He won his giro with a dubious attack when the rest thought they were neutralised, won the vuelta off the back of what sounds like a Contador plan and nearly won this year's giro with another dubious attack. He does seem to lack that instinct for when to put the boot in unlike some of the others including his team mate Valverde.
That said, he really is a shitty "racer".
I'd agree with that. One trick pony (though he is admittedly quite good at that one trick.) Rubbish at riding on the flat, in wind, downhill or TT. And seems to lack tactical nouse.
He won his giro with a dubious attack when the rest thought they were neutralised,
People say he was a deserved winner and obviously the strongest, citing his win in that uphill TT. But his winning margin over Uran on GC was less than 3 mins. He put over 4 mins into Uran in the confusion of that Stelvio "neutralised" descent, much of that time on the actual descent. Take out that shambolic stage and Uran may well have won that Giro.
won the vuelta off the back of what sounds like a Contador plan and nearly won this year's giro with another dubious attack
He just about hung on to Contador's attack. I think he was the last man to bridge across. Final GC he was 1'23" ahead of Froome. Froome lost over two and a half minutes on Stage 15. Take out that shambolic stage and Froome would have won that Vuelta. Remember Contador being quite bitter too about the lack of help from Movistar later in the race when Chaves was up the road threatening his place on GC given how much he'd assisted Quintana.
You need luck on your side to win a GT, and you need to be an exceptional rider to put yourself in a position to take advantage of that luck, but he got very lucky when his rivals got very unlucky. Barring a similar incident I think he'll make the podium but is an unlikely winner.
Hah... Froome has to comment on a Trek rider's doping. You know the question was something like "Why should fans trust YOU when riders like Cardoso are still doping"
He acknowledged however that the sport still had to win people’s trust given this week’s revelation that Andre Cardoso, who was due to play a key supporting role to Trek Segafredo’s Alberto Contador, had been provisionally suspended after testing positive for EPO.“It's difficult, we just had a positive yesterday, a positive test, which is a really, really big disappointment to see in this day and age,” Froome said.
Quintana at 7/1 is a decent bet. That said, he really is a shitty "racer". He won his giro with a dubious attack when the rest thought they were neutralised, won the vuelta off the back of what sounds like a Contador plan and nearly won this year's giro with another dubious attack. He does seem to lack that instinct for when to put the boot in unlike some of the others including his team mate Valverde.
That's a bit harsh, he very nearly cracked Froome on the alpe, froome was saved by a team mate that day.
I agree with comments about Quintana as a racer. Never shown more clearly when Froome attacked over the top of a climb in last years race (can't remember the stage). Rather than instinctively go after him he looked around for teammates (esp. Valverde) to show him what to do.