[Closed] TdF Stage 6 - One For The Brave [Spoilers]

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I liked that Geraint Thomas described the stage yesterday as 'awesome' with a big grin on his face while being interviewed on the steps of the Team Sky bus.

Got to have a photo of Nibali too, amazing ride...

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This from INRNG sums up the Froome situation...

If you’re a fan then it’s a sad moment and if you can’t stand the sight of him then you should be sad too because you won’t see your preferred rider challenge and perhaps beat him either. For neutrals it means the Alberto Contador duel’s over and we lose a GC contender.

Jamie rises again 😆

I read that the last man home yesterday still rode the 100 miles of the stage in less than 4 hours.

*is impressed*

Daniel Lloyd tipping cross winds today.

With the way Astana are riding, if they get it right they could inflict a whole more pain today. Unless they're blown from yesterday.

Hope to see the Sky train rolling, get Eisel on the front to drive it along.

You owe me a new keyboard Jamie. We need some sort of coffee/keyboard warning for your gifs.

a couple of questions today:

1- why is kittel not going for intermediate sprints? does he want the green jersey or just kudos of stage wins?
all the points he gets on Sagan at the final seem to have already been covered by Sagan getting those intermediates...
will kittel decide to go for a few key intermediates on later stages?

2- Was that ride by Nibali and the rest of Astana TOO good?? i mean 3 guys blowing away sagan and spartacus on the latter's specialist turf?
(3 guys in a team managed by good old Vino)??? can you Really do that?

Time will tell, sorry to sully the thread and raise such thoughts!

I really hope its all genuine as Nibali looked sensational and if he keeps yellow all the way its going off in the final stages big time. 😛

Kittel knows Sagan will get the points in the lumpy stages and easily keep the Green jersey.

Thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. Only hesitancy is that Nibali rides for a dirty team.

1- why is kittel not going for intermediate sprints? does he want the green jersey or just kudos of stage wins?
all the points he gets on Sagan at the final seem to have already been covered by Sagan getting those intermediates...
will kittel decide to go for a few key intermediates on later stages?

Kittel really can't climb, so he's just interested in stage wins. Even if he was contesting the intermediates, he'd lose points (and most likely the jersey) to Sagan on the intermediates on hillier stages, hence he's decided it's not worth pursuing, I guess.

2- Was that ride by Nibali and the rest of Astana TOO good?? i mean 3 guys blowing away sagan and spartacus on the latter's specialist turf?
(3 guys in a team managed by good old Vino)??? can you Really do that?

🙄

I swear some people would go to a kids race and have in their mind somewhere, "that kid seems a lot quicker than the others... maybe too quick..."

1- why is kittel not going for intermediate sprints? does he want the green jersey or just kudos of stage wins?

Stage wins. I think there's an understanding amongst the pure sprinters that someone like Sagan (or Sagan specifically) can pull points off them over the 3 weeks making it really hard to win the jersey. It might be interesting to do the maths and see whether, on the flat stages, they could get enough points from the intermediates to add to the stage wins to get the jersey.

"Because of the mud I didn’t drop into the small sprockets and I couldn’t keep up with the front," Contador said after he rolled across the line.

The article says he had a mechanical but was it just that he was too worried to go quickly? If it was the former, surely his team car could have squirted bottles into the mech and the cassette and cleared some mud.

Was that ride by Nibali and the rest of Astana TOO good??

what about Boom? was he in on it too?

Are we saying Nibali is on some drug that improves bike handling skills?! He had 2 team mates ride themselves into the ground for him. And they still got dropped by Boom, so obviously he's dirty too 🙄

The article says he had a mechanical but was it just that he was too worried to go quickly? If it was the former, surely his team car could have squirted bottles into the mech and the cassette and cleared some mud.

or got on his spare bike while the other was cleaned?

team managed by good old Vino

Regardless of what his team may or may not be doing, he really should not be allowed to manage a team. Same goes for Riis.

Are we saying Nibali is on some drug that improves bike handling skills?

I don't know if he is or isn't, but that is a comical argument. It's a bit like Tennis claiming that there is no benefit in performance enhancing drugs because it's a game of skill 🙂

29mph average, that is so fast - I can barely fathom how fit you need to be to do that.

Are we saying Nibali is on some drug that improves bike handling skills?

whilst I'm not suggesting he is on them at all, drugs that make you fitter, faster, stronger, for longer will directly impact your ability to control the bike through reducing fatigue.

29mph average, that is so fast - I can barely fathom how fit you need to be to do that.

They have fasterer bikes than us!

I'm a bit gutted about yesterday, I normally take a day off work for one of the big mountain stages and discount the flat ones. The highlights did not give me enough.

29mph would give you a very respectable time at the sharp end of a club level 10 mile time trial. To average that over 150k in those conditions with 15k of pave is bloody impressive.

I watched through till 35Km to go when I had to go to bed, everything was just about smashed by then.

Interesting to see how Sky go now, putting Porte up as team leader rather than just declaring stage wins. If it goes too well then they could be back to having too many team leaders in the team. Wonder who Brad will be riding for next year.

Wondering if today will be a little tame as the road rash starts to settle in.

[quote=mrblobby ]29mph would give you a very respectable time at the sharp end of a club level 10 mile time trial. To average that over 150k in those conditions with 15k of pave is bloody [s]impressive.[/s] unbelievable

Fixed

Are we saying Nibali is on some drug that improves bike handling skills?! He had 2 team mates ride themselves into the ground for him. And they still got dropped by Boom, so obviously he's dirty too

Cyclocross world champ innit.

either way nibali is of course a top top bike handler for sure, the skill he has on descents obviously came into play yesterday

Is Froome sneezing in that gif?

Anyway, back to the stage...

If the crosswind tip above is correct could there be a repeat of stage 13 last year when OPQS took advantage of the crosswind and blew the field apart. Obviously they've lost Cav but could be tempted to go for a stage win?

Fulsang is the best team member of all time

[quote=atlaz ]It might be interesting to do the maths and see whether, on the flat stages, they could get enough points from the intermediates to add to the stage wins to get the jersey.

Not all that interesting. Not when Sagan would be contesting the intermediates anyway and only losing a few points on each one, and as mentioned picking up lots of points from the intermediates and at the finish on days when the pure sprinters aren't up there. I think it's quite clear that a pure sprinter who gets no points on the harder days doesn't have a hope against Sagan in the points jersey. Cav who is better at making it over climbs than Kittel struggled to take on Hushovd who isn't as good as Sagan (when the intermediate sprints were also worth less).

[quote=atlaz ]"Because of the mud I didn’t drop into the small sprockets and I couldn’t keep up with the front," Contador said after he rolled across the line.
The article says he had a mechanical but was it just that he was too worried to go quickly? If it was the former, surely his team car could have squirted bottles into the mech and the cassette and cleared some mud.

He just needed a Crudclaw!

I don't know if he is or isn't, but that is a comical argument. It's a bit like Tennis claiming that there is no benefit in performance enhancing drugs because it's a game of skill

No, it isnt. Did you watch the same stage as me? The one where Nibali wasnt the fastest rider and didnt cross the line first? But [i]obviously[/i] Astana are doping, but no ones suggesting Belkin are? Boom solo'ed away from 2 Astana riders who could do nothing to match his pace. There were so many variables yesterday to pin a performance on doping is what's comical. Gee and Porte probably held a higher road speed in the final kms to catch the leading groups after Porte was baulked by crashes, was that down to doping or to Gee relishing the conditions and attacking it?

Astana have a bad rep (Vino, LA, Contador all worn the tainted jersey) but if youre so convinced every good performance is down to drugs why even watch the racing?

crashtestmonkey, I can't really be bothered and don't want to turn this into yet another tedious doping thread... what brakes said earlier ^^^

I agree with Brakes and (to go back to your straw man) strongly suspect there are doped tennis players, but you can't be bothered to actually answer my point and explain why you think Astana doped but Belkin didnt? Fair enough, dont let your prejudices be challenged 🙄

29mph average, that is so fast

effectively tailwind for the whole stage.

Boom solo'ed away from 2 Astana riders who could do nothing to match his pace.

just to keep the fires stoked (sorry),

As anyone who's raced cyclocross knows, riding in those sort of conditions is all about keeping momentum through the corners and slippery bits, rather than over-braking and having to power up again each time.
someone who's been cyclocross world champ would have been able to do just that relatively easily, saving valuable energy for the last miles...!
that could be a sound reason why a cyclocross specialist won it.

explain why you think Astana doped but Belkin didnt? Fair enough, dont let your prejudices be challenged

Don't think that, and didn't say I thought that 🙂

that could be a sound reason why a cyclocross specialist won it.

As much as Nibali went for it, someone like Boom with no GC aspirations was always going to be prepared to take more risks on the run in (win it or bin it!)

It will be fascinating to see who doesn't start or finish today. Standing by.

answer my point and explain why you think Astana doped but Belkin didnt?

Surely the thought process is obvious. Two Astana climbers dropped 2 of the best classics specialists and only lost 20s to Boom who is also a one day rouler type rider who you would expect to be better.

But obviously both arguements are spurious. Performance is not an indicator of doping and never can be. There are too many variables.

Which climbers did that?

Fuglsang (Astana) has a XC racing background, in 2007 he was U23 XC world champ and second overall in the Cape Epic.
In 2008 he won the Cape Epic.
It showed yesterday in the way he excelled on the cobbles.

G looks like he if feaking lovin it in that picture.
Absolute hero/hardman/nutter

/hat

Which climbers did that?

On the face of it Fuglsang and Niballi are climbers. So on the face of it you could draw a crappy conclusion that they must be doping to beat Cancellara and Sagan.

But I don't think this. It's ridiculous. Its so much more complicated than that.

Take into account all we know is the result what we don't know is how much a huge number of factors influenced the result. Just as sample of things that will have impacted Niballi's ability to win include
- Niballi worshiping Paris Roubaix as a kid and therefore having the motivation to do well
- Fuglsang being an ex mountain biker
- Niballi being one of the best bike handlers in the peleton
- Niballi being in yellow and needing time on the other climbers due to a percived weakness
- Kwiatkiowski puncturing which caused Cancellara and Sagan to loose contact
- Cancellara and Sagan not wanting to pull the other one to the finish for the win
- Niballi being a great TTer so knowing how to pace a ride on the flat.

There will be more but this just highlights how ridiculous it is to think that just because Niballi won he must be doping.

But this is the corner that cycling boxed its self into. The only way out is through testing and transparency but this isn't happening. Also the grey area's between clean and cheating are growing thanks to the MPCC (of which Astana are a member) and other bodies setting their own standards rather than everyone just playing by the WADA code.

What is interesting is the Froome got asked on every stage last year about doping. I haven't seen any press about Niballi getting the same questions.

Oops, Degenkolb has ripped his arse

1- why is kittel not going for intermediate sprints? does he want the green jersey or just kudos of stage wins?

As above, stage wins. BUT... Once he's won a few more stages in a few more tours, you may see a tour with far fewer intermediate sprints designed in so a sprinter, previously Cav, can take home the Green jersey.

jfletch - Member
But I don't think this. It's ridiculous. Its so much more complicated than that.

Plus they had Westra doing massive pulls before they attacked the group.

Oops, Degenkolb has ripped his arse

EDIT: Just read the quote

[i]Questioned this morning by letour.fr, Christian Guiberteau who is a directeur sportif for Giant-Shimano gave alarming news about John Degenkolb. The winner of Gent-Wevelgem had high ambitions for tomorrow's stage to Nancy with a hill preceding the finishing line but he's seriously injured. “John has a 2cm muscle thorn in his bum. He managed to walk better this morning than last night. But his confidence is affected now. He's taking the start but in the unknown. It's going to be very painful. Normally, such an injury has to be treated by resting but he doesn't want to quit. On the other hand, Marcel Kittel doesn't suffer any consequence of his two crashes yesterday. Only one thigh is a little bit injured but nothing that prevent him from sprinting today, so we'll do our best for another bunch sprint finish in Reims because this is his last occasion to win until quite a long time from now. Tomorrow's finale in Nancy is too hard for him. It was ideal… for John, but… So we'll put our Chinese rider Ji Cheng at the head of the peloton again today. Yesterday, I followed him on the cobblestones when he was alone at the back because he had some problems to put a rain coat on and he lost contact with the group he was in. He was riding on a too small gear so I advised him to put a bigger one on. He had taken part in Paris-Roubaix before but in wet conditions, it was a very technical exercise. He did well though. We should see him in action as a breakaway killer again.”
[/i]

Bad news for Giant-Shimano. John Degenkolb, who crashed twice yesterday, has not only a big bruise but also a torn muscle in his Gluteus Maximus. The usual treatment is rest, but the German is going to keep on trying to go. However,this "sit" muscle is an important one in cycling, so he will just have to see how it goes.

http://live.cyclingnews.com/

sorry but...

what tyres for the Pave?

they look pretty wide on those (excellent) pics - 28s?

[b]Forza Nibali![/b]

regarding the average speed, 30kph tail wind all day yesterday. still mental fast though, but not unbelievable.

30kph

Nope 47kph ~ 30mph. Yes there was a tailwind and [i]only[/i] 13km of pave. Pretty damn impressive in those conditions.

The tailwind was blowing at 30kph

Am I missing something - no live ITV coverage today ?

Am I missing something - no live ITV coverage today ?

Starts at 2.

Cancellara and Sagan have got history. Sagan sits on and Cancellara sits up. Happens everytime. Great ride by Nibali.

Should be an easy day today but if there's cross winds someone will push on. However I cant see Kittel not winning.

Westra was on the front of that group for a looooong time

Been waiting for someone to say that, it's true.

Ji Cheng is one of the riders of the tour for me, it's a shame he's probably not going to get much in the way of recognition.

they look pretty wide on those (excellent) pics - 28s?

25’s 27’s 28’s and 30’s though what they are labelled means little as some teams use wide rims (like zipp) and some don’t so the profile and width changes

Ji Cheng is one of the riders of the tour for me, it's a shame he's probably not going to get much in the way of recognition.

I assume he's just doing it for sales of Argos Shimano jerseys in China?

Beetroot juice and altitude tents 🙂

best bit of yesterdays highlights was GT with a mud splattered grin on his face that everyone on here can relate to.

he loved it, good on him.

Beetroot juice

Just remember when you go for a jimmy riddle your aren’t bleeding internally, its just Beetroot juice 😆

best bit of yesterdays highlights was GT with a mud splattered grin on his face that everyone on here can relate to.

he loved it, good on him.

Geraint Thomas is one of the best all-rounder bike riders in the world, phenomenal talent. Really hope he pulls out a good Tour now, he deserves a chance to ride for himself a bit. Him and Richie Porte together will be a hard-to-beat double act.

I assume he's just doing it for sales of Argos Shimano jerseys in China?

nothing to do with kittel then or are my sarcasm senses failing

Ouch, that corner looks very shiny. Diesel?

Lots of shiny roads, lots of crashes already. Bugger

Looked like Nibali was neutralising it for a bit tho

Sky riders dropping like flies.

Not relevant this year, but what happens for a team time trial if a team is down to less than 5? Timing on fifth man for Tour TTT?

Even Cancellara seems to think the [url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancellara-turns-against-cobbles-in-the-tour-de-france ]cobbles have no place in a GT[/url].

Sky's bad week continues, Zandio is out now as well.

Echelons... big crashes... anyone think this was going to be a quiet stage?

[quote=mrblobby ]Even Cancellara seems to think the cobbles have no place in a GT.

I'm sure he'd have had a different opinion if he'd won.

midlifecrashes - TTTs tend to be one of the first few stages, if they'd had one this year they'd have had it already. Hence in reality it's never an issue.

France's all time lest popular President gets a free ride, nothing new there 🙁

Maybe you'd like to translate that into English? 😉

Even Cancellara seems to think the cobbles have no place in a GT.

Maybe he thinks they should take a few hills out whilst they're at it?

Sky's bad week continues, Zandio is out now as well.

Possible fractured collarbone and what sounds like concussion according to the Spanish commentators.

Hernandez also out for Tinkoff-Saxo

The Astana full length skinsuit has to be one of the worst outfits in all of sports.

Maybe he thinks they should take a few hills out whilst they're at it?

I think he also mentioned how the tour would be much better if it was just a prologue followed by 3 weeks of flat TTs.

The Astana full length skinsuit has to be one of the worst outfits in all of sports.

This.

I think he also mentioned how the tour would be much better if it was just a prologue followed by 3 weeks of flat TTs.

Now that would be a tour for Wiggins 🙂

The Astana full length skinsuit has to be one of the worst outfits in all of sports.

No wonder Nibali was so keen to get himself into yellow and out of the astana kit.

Roundabouts coming up!