Forum menu
Obviously etiquette / tradition dictates that none of the GC candidates will attack Froome today, and that the nature of the stage makes any such attack relatively simple for Sky to deal with in any event. So is it just a terminal crash outwith the final km that could bugger it up, or is there anything else they have to be careful of?
They only need to worry about injury. My guess is if he crashes trying to drink champagne and the team take 5 mins to get him a new bike, the field will slow to let him catch up. Short of an injury that stops Froome riding, it's his.
But if he has a mechanical won't Nibbles feel duty bound to attack again? Seems to be the rule of thumb.
I did love Nibali's excuse that there is a precedent for attacking the yellow jersey when they have a mechanical then citing Contador attacking Schleck, something which most watchers though was outside the spirit of sporting behaviour (as established at the tour).
One example to batter tradition with. Bless him.
It would make it more interesting it he went off the front on a loan attack early doors 😈
French vs non French rule book. Nibs can do what he likes h cause he's a Frenchman in a French race fighting against a non French leader.
Were it the other way around, it would be totally different.
Nibbles is French? The one I've been watching is the champ of a different flag 😕
Maybe Vincenzo is short for Jean-Paul or Claude?????
😆
French vs non French rule book. Nibs can do what he likes h cause he's a Frenchman in a French race fighting against a non French leader.
Check out the French flag!
[img] 
?t=229163407w=500[/img]
There is not a tradition of not attacking the yellow jersey on the last day. It's because it's a mainly flat stage so realistically no one is going to take a minute off the leader when he has a team to chase.
My only worry is that some nut job spectator tries to push him off or throws something at him.
Nibs can do what he likes h cause he's a Frenchman in a French race fighting against a non French leader.
The Italian flag on his jersey is a good clue here.
edit: demonstrated better by @thegreatape above
yeah no real attacks as sprinters teams would reel it in. So unless the weathers wild and rips the bunch to pieces it'll be a bunch finish.
They had a timetrial on final day in Paris ...Lemond (USA) took the Yellow Jersey from Fignon (FRA) that day by 6 seconds.
who said something like "Great riders don't follow tradition...they make traditions" was it Coppi?
I would love to see nibali attack again. A bit of extra excitement would be fun as the last stage of the tdf I always find an anticlimax.
I was aware of Lemond/Fignon in that TT, but can't think of another final day were anyone has made an effort to take the GC. I'd always thought etiquette dictated that they don't, but perhaps it's just down to the near impossibility of it as spangalsaregreat says?
The traditions suck and rob us of great racing. Sean Kelly said during his Eurosport commentary "Nibali was right to attack" ~ I agree with him! Sport is all about exploiting your opponents' weakness and to not attack is wrong.
And race till the end of the race for god's sake! We could have awesome last days and stage finishes in Paris if they raced. It might do something for TV viewing figures if there was the prospect of some action today 🙂
Raimondas Rumsas gave it a go in 2002 to try and get a handful of seconds to move from third to second iirc. He was given very short shrift.
Sorry, (hangs head in shame. My excuse is that I've only just women up). Really should clear the sleep out of my eyes before firing up stw.
Im not even sure now who I was thinking of!
It is a tradition, it's kinda set in some annal of French Law that was set around the time of Louis XVI and therefore anyone attempting such revolution would find themselves on a block of wood about to have a 2 stone weight loss programme initiated.
However, the raison d'etre is purely a combination of respect and a flat stage. Out of respect for not only the Leader but the institution that is the TdF and respect for combatively. The flat stage has been in the last stage as a tribute to the "roll" into Paris that formed the French Revolution BITD. It symbolises the commoners march into and against what is seen as Royalty in the Capital by a proven Leader leading commoners... . Simple when you think about it, but thats really the reason.
As for attacking, it has been done but it's always held back.
In my eyes today is a celebration for all those domestiques, the bottle carriers, the guys that have turned inside out with illness and duties to contend with. Those that have had endless mechanicals and flats that no one reported one, the shoes that didn't fit, the bugs that smacked into the eyes and wasp stings that still smart. It's about suffering at the back trying to enjoy, when endure is the feeling. At least some of these guys got chance to actually see the views they were riding in, the locations and fans that made them smile as they rode through in the big ring feeling shite.
To all the Fans and supporters who made the effort to dangle banners, shuv kids into tractor shovels and raise them high, to the granddads and grandmas in tiny villages peering out of their kitchen window craining their necks for a glimpse of the boy in yellow or a Frenchman in the break.
To all those school kids who got the day off and ran around in a field dressed in red/green/yellow in endless circles waiving bunting whilst not realising the image of the bike they could't visualise looked like a bike with a flat front wheel. But who cares, that they did't get to see the riders go by, they saw and heard the crowds, spotted the helicopters come down the road and felt the pang of excitement that the "Tour" is came to Town.
It's more than a race, it's a physical and emotional rollercoaster of excitement, passion, sorrow and defeat.
And a winner.
Beautiful.
.....
I've enjoyed the banter on here, some great comments and viewpoints, some very insightful thoughts and some quite bonkers left of field opinions.
Cheers..
Same time next year ?
Ohh.. prediction?
Greipel
8)
Renshaw is gone, isn't he? Can't see past Greipel for the sprint, and not just because he's huge. I hope Cav manages to hang on the coat-tails and nip past, though.
The bit about 'the roll' is interesting bikebuoy, after as many years as watching it as I have I did not know that. I may now see it in a different light, ta.
Sagan win.
Onza - coffee quickly. You're getting into more trouble with predictive text now! I "womened" up ages ago when I learnt the wife is always right.
Second coffee here and just about functioning.
Greipel here albeit to see Cav streak past him again would be rather special.
Man of the Tour has to be Gee IMHO. Anyone found his shades yet. He doesn't look right in those Radars.
The shades, or at least the same version, were found: https://twitter.com/SaraEls90/status/623233346961850368
timbur - Member
Man of the Tour has to be Gee IMHO. Anyone found his shades yet. He doesn't look right in those Radars.
POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
Yes agreed. How did he get on yesterday? I only watched the last 45 minutes and didn't see or hear anything of him. In a way it's a shame he wasn't still in 4th, but at the same time it sort of shows he turned himself inside out rather than sipped on some undetectable doping chemical and spun around as some were saying
I'm tied for man of the tour between G and Valverde who I also think has been excellent at helping set up Quintana on the mountains as well as maintaining his podium finish.
LOL @ Onza, twice! 🙂
Hoping for a win by Cav, although it's been great to see Greipel winning after so many turns being the bridesmaid (now there's an image).
I really couldn't muster any outrage against Nibali for attacking Froome like he did. I don't think think the comparison with Chaingate really holds, as he presented comparatively little threat to the yellow jersey. I like him as a rider, but feel ambivalent because of the Astana association. So, good to see him win a stage, but sort of glad he isn't on the podium if that makes sense. I didn't think I could dislike Vinokourov any more than I did, but his comments in the press have proved otherwise.
As for Froome, I really don't think that his overall performance (fantastic though it's been) justified the level of speculation/ire that we're seeing. He's looked nigh-on human in the last couple of stages.
I suppose we won't be seeing claims that Quintana is doping, based on the way he whopped Froome on 2 successive Alpine days? I've been reading the comments on L'Equipe and a more rabid bunch of Anglophobe rubbish you'd be hard put to imagine.
To my mind its the dullest day of the tour. Last 30 seconds are worth watching as you know it will be a sprint otherwise its a procession with various French riders going for a break that even they know will be pointless. 20 k out the big sprinters teams will start to get themselves in order and the yellow jersey team will try to stay up front as well. They can't all be there so it will be a scrum. Last lap but one, the modern version of David Millar will go for a long one and be caught.
A individual TT would make less to watch in one way but would also make it worth having from the overall point of view. Watching Lemond v Fignon was nail biting. I would love to see a last stage with 1 second between the first 2 riders. That would change things I bet. Bugger etiquette there I reckon.
Never got the respect for the leader thing. To my mind he is the one you should be having a go at, at all costs. If you are going to wait after crashes or mechanicals then waiting should be for everyone. And that's not racing.
As for chaingate. Good on him. Why sit up for mechanical balls up/stupidity.
According to the BBC, Police were firing shots at a car that tried to break through the barriers earlier 😯
Beaten to it by seconds!
Sod it, I'm going back to bed before I hurt myself.
As for chaingate. Good on him. Why sit up for mechanical balls up/stupidity.
Because it's not the done thing, if Froome had dropped the chain with a bodged shift reacting to a Nibali attack, then fair play, but to notice the mechanical, and then attack is not right.
Wiggins (in Yellow) slowed his bunch after the summit in 2012 when he had a gap on Cadel Evans after carpet tacks had been thrown on the road causing Evans to puncture, if you're going to win Le Tour, at least do it because you're the best.
its not as if Nibali was challenging for GC anyway, not sure what the fuss is about
Dirtyrider you are Nibali and I claim my £5.
Its not a great tradition in that it creates a lot of confusion. It would be a hole lot more interesting if all the teams just agreed to race until the finish, makes for dull watching as it stands.
Some people just don't get it.
A individual TT would make less to watch in one way but would also make it worth having from the overall point of view. Watching Lemond v Fignon was nail biting. I would love to see a last stage with 1 second between the first 2 riders.
But that only worked because there was only a minute or so in it. If Fignon (or Lemond) had been six minutes up, then it would have been the dullest stage ever as the result would have been even more pre-set than today - no bunch sprint, no sense of drama, just a long procession of tired riders coming in. Now a 100km time trial - that might loosen things up - but it's not the thing to have on the last day. I prefer the traditional procession and doomed attacks approach.
Its not a great tradition in that it creates a lot of confusion. It would be a hole lot more interesting if all the teams just agreed to race until the finish, makes for dull watching as it stands
There's not been a whole lot of GC riders suffering mechanicals at crucial points, so not a lot of racing has been lost (if any).
If you're referring to the procession that is today's stage, No GC rider has any chance of taking any time out of Froome today anyhow, so even if they decided to race today, The chances of a break succeeding are tiny, the chances of break staying away with a GC rider in it are non existent.
What's wrong with having today as a GC formality? It's been 3 weeks ffs - surely the top guy having a day to ride around and show off the jersey is a good thing. As Chipps said an ITT worked in the Fingon/LeMond year because of the circumstances of the the time gap and the attributes of the riders involved - otherwise it would have been dire. A Paris stage is ripe for a good rip around and sprint finish so let's just have that and be grateful. Nothing will every beat seeing Wiggins in yellow at the front of the train bringing in one of the most perfect sprint lead outs ever - not sure we'll ever see that again.
As an aside, I've missed having a more telling ITT at the latter stages of this year's (and last year's) tour. A combination of crucial time trail and mountain top finishes in a grand tour gives a better spectacle of different rider attributes being tested against each other than we saw this year.
How about if the organisers reserved the right to invoke the 'Time Trial Rule' with the option of making the final stage a time trial if they thought it would spice things up? So a day before the final day, you get to find out if it's a regular stage, or a 60km time trial? I can't see Cav going for that one though 🙂
I can't see Cav going for that one though
His reaction after 4 days trying to make the time cut through the alps would make for great TV.
Tradition is overrated - 1979 Tour
Before the last stage, Hinault had an advantage of more than three minutes on Zoetemelk, and almost 25 minutes on the next cyclists. Traditionally, the last stage is run at a slow pace, because the winners are already known. But Zoetemelk attacked, and Hinault chased him. Together they stayed away from the rest, and Hinault beat Zoetemelk in the sprint, winning his seventh stage of the race
Pissing down in Paris as we speak. Women's race is on Itv4 now and there has been a big crash on the wet cobbles.
After the way that Sky have been treated on this tour by a minority of the French press and public, Froome will probably get Porte to check his champagne for piss before he sups it.
Hinault had an advantage of more than three minutes on Zoetemelk, and almost 25 minutes on the next cyclists
I love how folk say the performances today suggest drug use. They are tiny in comparison to the good old days!
As the sprinters have had to haul their sorry backsides over the alps for the last four days, the very least they deserve is a day in the spotlight again in Paris.
Carnage in Paris, been watching the women's race for 30 minutes and there's been about 5 crashes already. Fingers crossed it clears up and dries out before the big boys roll into town.
What would happen is Froome has a mechanical or with only 2K to go, would Quintana be compelled to stop and wait?
Froome will still win, if you crash or have a mechanical in the last 3km you get the same time as every else that finished.
Outside the 3km it could potentially cost him the Tour.
The traditions suck and rob us of great racing. Sean Kelly said during his Eurosport commentary "Nibali was right to attack"
I think it's right if it's down to misfortune out of your control - Evans puncturing due to tacks on the road, Wiggins slowed the field down (except for Rolland who didn't realise). Lance got yanked off the bike by a spectator's musette and they waited for him (and he then rode straight past them, he never did have any class).
In the Contador/Mandy Schleck scenario I was all for contador; Mandy fluffed a gear change, went small-small and dropped the chain so some rider error, and manufacturers make big claims (having spent big $$$ sponsoring pro teams) about their kit, so the technology is just as relevant. They're not all riding around on standardised bikes and kit.
In the Froome/Nibali scenario, if that fugly Pinerello struggles to clear stones then tough luck, but Nibbles gave credibility to the idea of their being an unwritten rule by saying "I didn't see him, it's his word against mine, not saying any more so ner ner", when he should have said "I'd always planned to attack to win a stage to save my tour, I'm no threat to his GC position, so why the hell wouldn't I attack then?!".
Nibali's problem is also that he already proved he was a classless git by throwing a water bottle at Froome when Tony Martin caused a crash.
Not sure the rule applies to a mechanical. I think it's only a crash.
The womens race is carnage.
If it doesn't get any drier, the rain could have the biggest say in the result of today's stage.
Tour de France: Police fire at car in Paris square ahead of race
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33668196
Car in Paris bin dun.
If you were Peter Sagan, how would you ride today? Him winning on the Champs Elysees would be epic and somewhat fitting for a rider who had dominated the green jersey for so long. But I don't see him winning a straight sprint over the likes of Cav, Greipel, Degenkolb etc. Mini break in the last lap and Sagan to just hold on for the win?! I'd love to see it - although can't really see it. He's got to be thinking of something though, right?
Parisian roads are still wetter than an otter's pocket so there is a chance that we won't have a normal day for the sprinters...
Would be epic if Sagan wins!
In the women's race there is a solo attack with 3km to go, it's is 1km to go and lead is 7sec! And another crash!
And she wins!! Solo break from 3km, sounds like a Sagan type move!
Edit, listening to commentators she went from 6km!
According to the rule book the result is effectively taken as the first time they cross the line in the event of a wet Champs Elysees. Riders still have to finish the whole ten circuits though.
In that case we could be treated to Sky crossing en masse on the first circuit and then just free pedalling around at the back drinking champgane and finishing two circuits down on the rest of the field!
I should think they will stay well off the barriers and out of gobbing distance too. 🙂
My prediction for "organic material hitting Froome" today is dog turd. There's a huge amount of it in Paris.
Why are ITV4 not showing it?
EDIT: Ta sputnik
They show it from 4pm. Race started later as well so they hit Paris late afternoon so the celebrations look better in a lit up Paris. Race starting 3:30
[quote=arrpee ]I didn't think I could dislike Vinokourov any more than I did, but his comments in the press have proved otherwise.
Which has also removed some of the doubt by association over Nibbles - clearly he's not fully signed up to the system.
As for Froome, I really don't think that his overall performance (fantastic though it's been) justified the level of speculation/ire that we're seeing. He's looked nigh-on human in the last couple of stages.
Ah, but is it a deliberate ploy to look fallible to deflect some of the flak, when he's actually had plenty in reserve if necessary 😈
Agree with aracer, Froome sandbagged the last couple of days to calm the speculation down. He could have ripped the legs of Quintana two days in a row if he wanted to.
He is still clean though.
Agree with aracer, Froome sandbagged the last couple of days to calm the speculation down. He could have ripped the legs of Quintana two days in a row if he wanted to.
did you watch it? he was struggling, Porte dragged him up that last climb and he's got Majka to thank for taking it up for some reason the day before
Has Froome not got a yellow waterproof?
he was struggling
Or is he just better at sandbagging than you are at reading body language?
And the coughing after the stages is fake too. FACT
I reckon he just slowed down to attract more spittle and win the sympathy vote.
Froomey, not just a pretty face , eh! 😉
Well, I just see Froome cruising around at a sedate pace and Quintana not attacking him. Where's the fun in that? Why call it a"stage" if it's just a parade lap?
I really think that as things are, riders are too easy to identify. Quintana would have a chance of slipping away if he went out in a plain black strip, different helmet, mirror shades ~ maybe even a bit of make up. Ok, his sponsors might not be too pleased about dropping his Movistar strip, but they'd be very happy if he won the tour.
There'll be plenty of racing today, just watch the trains vying to position the sprinters for the last lap in Paris.
None of the GC boys have a chance in the sprint though so they'll concentrate on keeping out of trouble.
And if any of them did try to go for a breakaway win to nick the overall then there is no chance that would work due to the aforementioned sprint trains
Not even going to be a last lap in Paris ~ "race over" at 41k. We're robbed again.
i thought that was going to end in tears then 😆 porte nearly took out froome
"race over" at 41k. We're robbed again.
the clock stops but the racing doesn't. there'll still be a sprint for the stage win.
Not even going to be a last lap in Paris ~ "race over" at 41k. We're robbed again.
No. GC race over (which is pretty normal anyway on the last day) but still a race for the stage win - which might be more interesting, since no-one feels obliged to protect the GC men.
Ignore
Having seen the carnage of the women's race beforehand, I don't blame them for it. No one wants 3 weeks of racing to be spoiled by a stupid crash.
Reluctant, why don't you find something to whinge about?
Was just about to ask who is wearing the Maillot Pois, but had the question answered - Bardet it seems as presumably the Blanc is also more prestigious. Has to be kind of strange wearing a jersey on the final day which you don't then get presented with on the final podium. Does Froome actually get any Maillot Pois to take home as he's never worn it whilst racing, just on the podium?