This is a beautiful climb by the by.
Hmmm.. well I might have got that wrong unless Froome is bluffing...
Ooh, this sounds exciting. I'm now going to try and stay away until I've watched the highlights...
I tell you what, Geraint Thomas is a hell of a bike rider, track, classics and now mountains, that man can do it all.
Can't argue with that.
I think Nibbles has just been left by his team mates, that really is the end of his tour I reckon.
Whoa, Contador going too!! Holy moly!
Phenomenal effort from Gesink to stay ahead of this!
😯
I reckon they all knew that he wasn't on good form, hence the team didn't all stick with him.
Wasn't expecting that from AC though! Pretty happy to see it though 🙂
And TJ!
And then there were three, or rather two.... Sky are pulling this apart!
Come on Richie!!! Drag them up and get the damm stage
Christ on a bike.
How the hell am I meant to get any work done?
Porte, Froome and Quintana left, Nairo to attack in 3, 2, 1...
TJV gone too! Now froome attacking!
RM.
OMG!!
Here we go...
He must be on drugs 😉
Let's hope not... there's a lot of discussion about those hacked figures...
This, this is seriously impressive.
Motor in the bike too. S'obvious.
17s already.... Yellow jersey race could be over..
Putting some distance in now....
You know my prediction earlier?
Yeah, I was wrong...
Quintana vs Froome?
Nibali, Contador, TJvG - have they got anything left for the next 2 weeks? Can Froome hold on like this for the next 2 weeks?
Great race. 🙂
No way he can take this to the top Shirley?
That's a hell of a Maillot Jaune performance, hope he can finish the job for the stage, he's going to be taking some serious time over everyone!
Going to be some seriously sceptical headlines tomorrow I reckon - Brit coming over to France and destroying the race with extraterrestrial style on 14th July..
Outstanding.
The gaps are growing and growing.
ah he started as a mountain biker, that explains it all 🙂
applauds Quintana - what a race
1.30 into Contador and 3.00 into Nibali with less than 5K left. Wow!
RM.
That's what all we MTB-ers can do isn't it....erm..... 😕
Oh excellent, Paul Sherwen is comparing him to Lance.
Great one Paul.
It's true mind - he's doing exactly what LA did (although hopefully without the doping). First mountain stage, set a monster pace all day, blow it to pieces on the final climb.
But I'm not sure it helps to actually voice that.
I think Froome is so desperate to win this year after the disappointment of last....
45 seconds on Quintana, impressive.
Edited.
Sky 1-2-3 come Paris with Porte & GT?
Sky didn't set the pace today, Movistar did. Froome had all his DSs with him at the start of the last climb, the other teams didn't.
Can the pharmacology experts save it for later?
Absolutely glued to this!
COME ON RICHIE!!
He's closing Quintana down.
But I'm not sure it helps to actually voice that.
I'd say that it needs to be voiced. The Lance era showed what happens when you don't at least question the fairy tale.
I sincerely hope that Sky are clean because frankly it'll destroy road cycling if they're not but you can't turn a blind eye to the similarities to the past. The thing I take heart from is that you typically no longer get the best TTers sticking with the best climbers in the mountains which says to me that cheating is much less effective at a minimum.
What concerns me too though is abuse of the TUE system, cortisone, etc and I do have concerns that some, including Sky could be playing the system pretty close to the limit.
Flamme rouge, just over 1 minute up.
Go Porte!
Ohhhhhh
This is ace!
RM.
Now that's the way to welcome in the mountains!!
Porte's nearly got Nairo too, Sky 1-2?
Holy moly. 😯
That's the Tour done for this year then. Sheesh.
Surely he will fall off the bike when he gets there...
Come on Richie, steal this too......
Spectacular finish from Froomey! The ride of a champion!
Destroyed...
Wonder if Porte has signed his new contract yet. Might want to add a bit more to it 🙂
I can't wait to watch the highlights tonight!
Awesome!
Classy there by Thomas. Good man.
RM.
Great to see AC out of it too. Working out to be a good day 🙂
Tour de France? Romeo D. Froome-dog, you absolute beast.
Froome got the tour in the bag now! Awesome stage win.
I was always a wiggo man in the great debate but I now officially like Chris Froome!!
Great ride from Porte and GT as well.
Classy there by Thomas. Good man.
Too right. Still up near the pointy end, I want to see him properly off the leash in a grand tour.
Classy there by Thomas. Good man.
+1, amazing rider.
Probably one of the best all-rounders in the world.
It's far from over - lots of corners to crash on still to come. Plus forgetting to eat, overheating, residual fatigue...
Still, climbing pecking order established. Ride of the day? Geraint Thomas.
Nibbles losing 4 minutes!
Bet Bertie has beef for dinner tonight.
Think the mountains are Portes territory but going up against Froome might be a little tough
Crikey I'd be done in even doing the warm down Froomey's doing now!
Ooh, I missed Adam Yates in 7th place as well, good effort!
3 Brits in top 7.
Doesn't that put Geraint Thomas in top 5 on GC?
Hopefully AC held something back to go on the attack tomorrow.
Second rest day was the time for beef, wasn't it?
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 35:56:09
2 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:02:52
3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:03:09
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:04:01
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:04:03
6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:04:04
7 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:04:33
8 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:04:35
9 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:06:12
10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:06:57
Good work by Barguil to hold on, it looked like the fall earlier really hurt!
2.52 ahead.
Just wow.
On BBC:
[b]16:07
Chris Froome now warming down. Loads of others are still climbing up the mountain.[/b]
Holly Mother of Crap..
Frommie!
and
Porte!
Thats mighty impressive, mighty.
😯
Very un-Sky to have GT, RP and Froome all keep the pace up like that too. I suppose they wanted to get Porte in the Spotty jumper.
Wow, I didn't like road racing, but now I do.
Getting compared to Lance and Big Mig on the same day, Shirley they wouldn't have started to talk like that openly unless they actually had the data to back it up. Oh...
Remind me again why I'm supposed to dislike Froome? He's quiet, polite, gives credit to his team, and seems genuinely pleased to be winning in a race he loves...
Remind me again why I'm supposed to dislike Froome?
He has elbows. Apparently that's not cool.
Also been impressed with Froome's commentary on the race - intelligent and astute, and has something polite yet meaningful to say about the other riders. Seems like a clever bloke, in a good way.
Handed out a serious kicking today though!
Re drugs.. I'm more tempted to think that the others have been exposed without their steaks recently, but I've no idea really that's just what I'd like to think.
I love, love road racing, I love the romance of it all, the characters, the futile French attacks, the pain and suffering. I adore how I have just watched the last 20 minutes and felt real excitement, how it all went off.
But...
But, as the adrenaline has died down, the thought lingers, is this all a bit late 90's? Putting 2 mins into a rival is fine, putting into 2 rivals is OK too, but into 4? And having 2 team mates in the top 10 as well? Well, it "not normal"...
I want to believe, I do believe, but it's healthy to question things, like we didn't with Lance, like we didn't all the way through the 90's and early 2000's, so yes, I'm questioning. You can't prove a negative, I know that, but it does no harm to question.
Remind me again why I'm supposed to dislike Froome?
I reckon most of that comes from his GF. And the fact that he is not friends with one of our greats. He's won me over after today though, reckon a few more will give him the credit he deserve's now as well.
Unless the rumors are true.........I hope they're not though and it's sad that the association has to be there at all. Armstrong is a ****!
You can't prove a negative, I know that, but it does no harm to question.
It does. It sours the spectacle, it tarnishes his reputation, it bores the arse off anyone who's focused on the racing and it gives some deeply tedious people an opportunity to work themselves up into a dunning-kruger circle jerk which spunks gooey droplets of hearsay and rumour all over the delicious biscuits of threads like this.