[Closed] TdF Stage 17 - A Hectic Stage [Spoilers]

A good and deserved win yesterday. Looks a bit like the fizz has gone from the GC race though.

Looks a bit like the fizz has gone from the GC race though.

Yep it looks like Nibbali just has to stay on his bike to Paris and it's his. However, I thought I detected a bit of weariness on him (and team) yesterday.

Rest of the podium is all to play for. Pinot looked good yesterday. I don't think that the rest of the places will be sorted out until the TT though.

Just read on twitter that Reto hollenstein crashed at 1km into yesterday's 227(or however long) rode in alone and finished. With a collapsed lung. A collapsed lung. Mind: boggled!

GC is all but done and dusted though I'd expect a fair bit of attacking today,at a push Mibali might loose a bit of time. Possibly another breakaway with some top 5 duelling coming in at the back of it. I'll go for Pinot being the first placed GC guy and Nieve or J-Rod FTW.

Thought yesterday was brilliant, Pinot really put it down and was going all out to the line, was great to see Bardot really giving his all to make up the time on the descent to limit losses as well.
Was some great racing, Rogers was great and as soon as he was off the front he was not going to lose.
Looking forward to today, be interesting to see if Bardot can do anything to make back time and the other podium places are still pretty contentious with today and tomorrows mountains and a ITT to come it should be great racing.

Nibbles looks like (barring an unforeseen disaster) he's got the GC pretty sewn up.

The rest of the podium however... Would love to see Bardet, Peraud and Pinot give Valverde a good kicking and drop him off the podium.

All to play for in a KOM as well.

Been a good tour, the downside has been the number of early crashes that have denied us a proper Cav vs Kittel sprint battle and I'd also would have loved to see some proper Froome vs Contador action in the high mountains.

Am I a bad person in wishing that Nibali has a bad day and has his lead cut right down, just to blow the GC competition wide open again?

always like Pinot since he showed his flaws last year (poor descender, possibly a manifestation of the pressure he felt to be the Great French Hope) so have been rooting for him all Tour. It looked like Nibali was working hard to try stay with him just before the summit when he realised he'd dropped Bardet, and it was nice to see his team mates burying themselves for him (to the extent of pointing out potholes on the hectic final run through the city centre to the finish). Podium and white jersey please (though I love the FDJ blue kit!).

Interesting situation with AG2R with twin prongs (Bardet, Peraud) who do seem to be riding independently.

The rest of the podium however... Would love to see Bardet, Peraud and Pinot give Valverde a good kicking and drop him off the podium

this x eleventy million.

oooh i do hope theres some attacks on nibbles today (theres a joke in there somewhere) to spice it up. I think its time Valverde stopped playing second fiddle and got moving, always the bridesmaid.

Would love to see Bardet, Peraud and Pinot give Valverde a good kicking and drop him off the podium.

Nibbles has it in the bag barring accident

He seems peerless at the minute in a very much reduce GQ race.

That last climb is pretty much the way the Grand Raid des Pyrenees Ultramarathon descends, it starts and finishes at Vielle-Aure.

Outside bet: Majka to gun up it for another stage win.

my prediction-
Nibali to lose a surprising amount of time today/tomorrow.

why? he just looked a bit sheepish in the interviews last night. nothing more scientific than that.

😛

Is Pinot not off to SKY next year? Could completely foil uncle Dave's plan of giving France their first GC winner in ages if Pinot could overtake Valverde (conceivable) and Nibali were to abandon... If Pinot is off to SKY then he would fit in well with the other talented GC climbers who also have an aversion to descending 😆

^ He's been a long time in yellow and his team are beginning to falter. Movistar looked strong yesterday. Pinot has taken this years man crush trophy, to turn his descending from tears to smoking has really impressed me. Was Nibali faltering or just super calm yesterday? We'll find out today!

Pinot looking a class act. His descending looks on the mend too.

Mind you, he doesn't have the skills of an ex-mountain biker at speeds of up to 100km per hour in this, the month of July*

*copyright Phil Liggett

why? he just looked a bit sheepish in the interviews last night. nothing more scientific than that.

[img] [/img]

I would like to see more from Valverde - there will be a lot of Spanish fans out today, although he is from Murcia not the north, he will be getting a lot of encouragement !

I don't see how Nibali can lose a lot of time, he looks strong enough individually just to hang with any GC contenders and follow a break containing any - am I wrong ?

It does seem to me he has it won barring a crash, I like the way he's put time into people on that epic cobbled stage and in the mountains, seems quite a complete performance.

jens is in a break

I can't see the winner coming from those in the break unless the peleton completely gives it up again though.

I'd be happy to see Valverde drop off the podium; one less unrepentant cheat we have to look at. Two French riders on the podium in Paris would be fantastic

Having someone decent targeting the KOM is really spicing up the race.

Or maybe Rodriquez's inability to make the break is spicing up the race. If he'd made it today the competition would be as irelevant as always.

Kiryienka giving it some beans again today, what a machine. Be good for Sky to have something to show for this tour.

...and has something happened to Kwiatkowski or is he just struggling?

As much as I want Nibali to win i'd like him to have a least one bad day. Pinot and Bardet have spiced things up now and Valverde has been boring as hell and is still in second. Like others have said i'd happily see him off the podium.

This is a pretty crumby story if it turns out to be true:

Europcar boss accuses Michael Albasini of racism
Orica-GreenEdge's Swiss rider reportedly called Europcar's Kévin Réza a "dirty negro"

Would imagine alarm bells starting to go off at FDJ and AG2R with Mollema in the break. He's handy at a TT.

Quite puzzled by the Eurosport commentary. How was the FdJ team (or lottery) created because of WW1? Are they just saying random things on the off-chance that nobody notices?

How was the FdJ team (or lottery) created because of WW1?

At a guess, French government needed revenue?

It was reintroduced in 1933 I think, so a good few years after WW1. Were the French not one of the first countries in the world to have a lottery way back in the 1500's?

cracking battle between Pinot and Bardet, should make the final climb interesting to see if one or other can put some time in!

Valverde going backwards, AG2R working Nibali as hard as they can...

Now nibali working AG2R as hard as he can...

Great work from Majka to pull back Visconti

And off he goes, 2km to go!

Jesus Christ I might be right for once...

Dammit, how did Valverde get ahead of the Pinot group?!

I feel like the win will come from the break, and so perhaps Majka maybe?

Ahem.

He's like a low fat version of Sagan. Brilliant riding.

Funny that, RealMan.

Something feels dodgy about that stage win.

What did happen to Kwiatkowski? Can't see him in the top 30. Can't have lost more than an hour surely. Did he abandon?

Can't have lost more than an hour surely.

Well the stage only finished 25 minutes ago so he's not lost that much time yet...

128. POL KWIATKOWSKI Michal 74 OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP 04h 01' 22'' + 25' 59''

Blimey that was a lot in a short space of time. Ah he's back on the virtual leaderboard thing now.

Out of interest will there be any punishment for Majka's creative use of the motorbike to help get clear of Visconti?

20 second penalty if they decide to do him, pretty pointless though, it's not like he was racing for time and he won the stage fair & square.

Nibbles is looking ever more 'unbelievable' with every attack, I really hope I'm just being cynical but the way he sticks it to the chasers whilst looking like he's out for a Sunday jaunt is becoming a touch unnerving.

Contrast this with Majke drooling and gurning his way to the top, that's what that level of effort should look like.

Yeah it's deja-vu all over again.

Did you see the Boulting/Vinokourov interview on ITV a couple of days ago? "I believe every rider has a right to win".

Good stage today. Nibali was disgustingly strong again. Glad to see Valverde suffering but not enough to loose his podium place. The rest of the top gc blokes are putting on a good show. Be interesting to see if any of the sprinters were out of time.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Awesome racing today, as much as I'd have liked to see as some folks said Nibali getting put under pressure it was good to see him really stamp his authority on the race. Majka = class act, a deserved polka winner(which he hopefully keeps) and whilst Sagan has romped away with the green a convincing stage win would have been nice. I still stand by my comment a few weeks ago that sprintings a sideshow this is GT racing.

Arggghhhhh suck it Valverde you ****! Really thought he'd been dropped there.

Nibbles is looking ever more 'unbelievable' with every attack

Comments like this come up on every related thread and I don't think we should get too carried away. Nibali got his time early in the race, mainly through being smart rather than super strong. Now he is racing very much second and third tier GC guys (besides perhaps Valverde but even he has shown very little since his time away from racing) and mostly very young, exciting guys with little GC experience/ results. If Froome or Contador were still there then I think it would give Nibali's solid performances a bit more context. Sure it sucks he is riding for Vino but Majka is riding for Riis, etc, etc

Nibbles is looking ever more 'unbelievable' with every attack, I really hope I'm just being cynical but the way he sticks it to the chasers whilst looking like he's out for a Sunday jaunt is becoming a touch unnerving.

I think he just has a better game-face and isn't going too deep. Look at the Vuelta last year against what I think we could consider more than slightly suspicious Chris Horner, he was dumped repeatedly but never looked like he was going to fall off his bike with exhaustion, he just looked slower. With Contador and Froome gone and Quintana not there, the three best climbers in grand tour racing are gone and he's able to keep the others at bay. Also, the fact he doesn't have a single team mate with him late in the race shows that Astana (who have 8 riders still) are burying themselves for him, meaning he has more energy for the last climbs. Valverde has the same advantage; a team focused around one leader like Sky has been for the previous 2 years.