.
What does Froome have in his nose when he's warming down? Looks like a nose ring but that seems unlikely
He wears it before the race as well, you seem him sat in the group waiting to cycle and has one in, figure he pulls it out and chucks it as soon as the race start
Well you live an learn...cheers!
Dan Martin would be in Yellow by 3s if Porte hadn't crashed in to him, I had never considered him GC material.
Maybe. More likely he'd have been marked much more closely.
Well there is that, still impressive considering his lack of team support
Impressive win by Mollema, good ride Sir.
Well there is that, still impressive considering his lack of team support
He's riding really well and I'm hoping he can get back a bit more time as it'd be great to see him on the podium.
Just watching this stage on the highlights. Nuts once again, Froome will be chuffed he didn't lose time and equally chuffed that it's a rest day tomorrow as he had to go very deep indeed.
Hella ride by Bauke....chapeau
I reckon the other gc contenders will be a bit concerned that froome was able to get back on and stay back on. When he was a minute down with ag2r pushing on the front it could easily have been game over.
That was good - just watched the highlights on ITV4 having been completely out of touch with it all day so it all came as a surprise to me!
Not sure why Sky seem to have so many mechanicals, usually at the worst possible time...
Brailsford said it was a (slow) puncture, didn't he? Said he had a soft tyre and had to quickly decide whether to ride with it or make a change?
Brailsford said it was a (slow) puncture, didn't he?
Oh no, this will give Chris Boardman an excuse to push his tubless tyre agenda again. 🙂 Makes me wonder if they're a feature on the more expensive Boardman bikes?
How dare he extol the virtues of something which is better.
Amazing by Froome to get back but did ag2r slow a bit? Maybe the faster out of the group (assume, Bardet, Aru, Uran) should have attacked.
Makes me wonder if they're a feature on the more expensive Boardman bikes?
They're a feature on pretty much any decent set of wheels now and frankly there's no excuse not to be using them in an event like that where the difference between winning and outside the top ten can be a matter of a couple of minutes - it can easily be that long, especially on mountain roads before a car can get there.
A mate recently converted his TT bike to tubeless. A few weeks later he got a puncture as he rolled up to the start line. A few spins of the wheel, it was sealed and he won the event. On a regular tyre or a tubular, it would have meant a DNS since he wouldn't have had time to fix it before the start and he's not a pro with spare wheels and bikes to hand.
That interview in the highlights with Aru's team met was rather telling! Especially the before and after versions.
Missed rgatinterview flashy - what was the gist?
In summary -
Michael Valgren, immediately after yesterday's stage - "Aru screwed up. Didn't talk to us on race radio, couldn't hold my wheel, wasn't saying anything to any of us. Idiot. Froome is in yellow? Good!"
Michael Valgren, at the start of today's stage - "We all have bad days, I let him down, he lost seconds as a result. He's a great guy and we all love him."
One can only imagine the hauling and hot coals he got over dinner yesterday.
In a nutshell:
Where was Aru?
Don't know, wouldn't hold my wheel. Did Froome take yellow?
Yes.
Good.
Bit of backtracking this morning!
Edit - too slow...
Ah, interesting.
Bardet and Aru should have attacked as soon as Froome came back .
I seemed to have watched the right two stages, yesterday and today ! Impressive by Froome to get back on and I too am a bit surprised AGR/Bardet didn't attack when Froome was trying to bridge the gap. As per ITV commentary (I think it was there) Landy today looked a bit like Froome / Wiggins on that climb where Froome was ordered back. Landy made a p(nother) statement today.
I do wonder as the route this year doesn't have so many mohntain top finishes if Froome has trained differentiy ? He's clearly not as dominant uphill as he was, loss of Geraint seemed significant today imo
Maybe - but there was a long way to the finish from the top of the climb, and a few others who would probably work with Froome and Landa. Or maybe they couldn't.
[quote=jambalaya ]I do wonder as the route this year doesn't have so many mohntain top finishes if Froome has trained differentiy ? He's clearly not as dominant uphill as he was, loss of Geraint seemed significant today imo
😕 he wasn't exactly sluggish on the climb today - effectively he took almost a minute out of the rest of the top 10! Nor was he looking slow yesterday.
Think Aru and Bardet were possibly knackered themselves. Wonder if they'd really practised the Sky train kind of high speed grinding down beforehand.
Must've something like that, Froome must have been expecting them to go once he'd got back to the lead pack and seemed so strange not to have happened.
I think they (AG2R) put the hammer down as a team, everything went their way (with Froome's puncture) and when Froome and Landa rode back on they realised they couldn't beat them, and without Estana being able to help out they realised it was game over - I thought it was a massive morale boost for Sky today.
AG2R have a target to win the team classification, no fans give a stuff about the team classification but apparently the teams care. Sky were leading AG2R at the start of the day by 19minutes and at the end of the day by 9minutes, so it was quite a successful day for AG2R in the regard
I think the block head wind forced them to give up hope for Bardet to gap people on the climb and descent and put some time into the others as well, so they had to be happy to just make Froome dig deep going in to rest day
It looked to me as if Landa deposited Froome back on the group and then rode forward to cover attacks rather than make any kind of statement.
That has to be pretty demoralising for the others too 😆
Gonna be fun seeing how Quintana and Landa interact next year if they keep similar form
fun seeing how Quintana and Landa interact next year if they keep similar form
Landa simply has to be the team leader, and Nairo left to go stage hunting in the mountains. On current form at least!
Listening to the interview with Dan Martin, he was pretty much saying that no one attacked as they were all in the red from the efforts of AG2R. Which makes Froome's recovery all the more impressive. Huge save too as if they'd got over the top with Froome on his own or with just Landa for help it could have been a very bad day for him.
Froome was struggling prior to his mechanical - gaps kept opening in front of him.
Slow puncture affecting rolling resistance do we think?
Certainly seemed a different man after the wheel change.
Swapped to the wheel with the motor in it 😆
The rest at full tilt and in their red and he caught them UPHILL. What fact do you need to reconsider this statement ?I do wonder as the route this year doesn't have so many mohntain top finishes if Froome has trained differentiy ? He's clearly not as dominant uphill as he was,
FroomeThings had been going perfectly, I broke a spoke and the wheel wasn’t straight any more. We changed the wheel as fast as we could, but the speed was at its highest and my team-mates had to empty themselves to get me back.
Spoke not tyre then.
would've been OK with discs - no binding 😉
would've been OK with discs
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I don't suppose Froome has explained what was going on with Nieve (or was it Lopez?) shortly before the wheel swap? Looked like he was having a bit of a strop and waving Nieve/Lopez off, only to have to rely on him shortly after. Not having a go, must have been pretty stressful to have a rubbing wheel whilst AG2R were driving things on but kinda funny if it was a strop.
Ultimately it was a good day for Froome though and finally showed how strong he was after a couple of iffy performances on the really steep stuff. Pretty sure Aru & Bardet would have attacked if they thought they had any chance of staying away, they were likely worried they'd blow on the last climb if they killed themselves attacking into the headwind for 20km.
I'd guess they might have been telling him to stop so they could swap a wheel maybe? Perhaps he thought he'd be okay and just getting them to front to slow things down.
I think there's very much a case with Bardet and Aru that they're starting to look nervously over their shoulders. Top 7 separated by two minutes, last year at the same time two minutes was almost Froome's lead over 2nd place, in 2015 he had 3 mins over 2nd, in 2014 Nibali had over 4 mins over 2nd and 2013 Froome also had over 4 mins.
My guess is until a summit finish, half of the effort of Astana and AG2R will be in neutralising the rest of the top 10 as much as controlling Froome.
Team Sky site says puncture but they may have been responding to DB who maybe didn't have the details
https://www.teamsky.com/article/63cb9171-4a63-482e-abb2-fb3330cca220
and even later in that article Froome says 'a bit of a mechanical problem'
I think - he got Nieve to follow him briefly so Nieve could look at the wheel and see what the problem was. Then he sent Nieve ahead to catch their breath so that he and Kiriyenka could join with Henao and empty themselves to get him back. i don't think what the commentators identified as anger was that, more mild panic and an animated discussion about what they needed to do to overcome.
