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Lovely photo of Froomy and Didi.
That's just fabulous.
😀
they are not really at the races in the spring classics.
Strade Bianche and Milan–San Remo this year, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and E3 last year, Omloop and E3 the year before. Some teams would trade their entire seasons for the two one-day races Sky won this year.
10mins ahead and 10k to go. Looks like a good one for the (remainder of) the break
Well bloody hell.
EBH.
Ferck yeah!
Great bit of riding there, EBH did the group by having a better line through the roundabout!
I seriously had him well down, thought the poor lad was pooped.
😆
wonder if that was luck or somebody told them to go to the right ?
had to laugh when the sunweb rider flicked the elbow and EBH just ... went
Very happy for EBH, been rooting for him all Tour.
Talk about ringing the last bit out of your legs. When he gets on the bus he'll be working out the likely cut-off time for the TT tomorrow. He deserves to soft pedal it after that. Chapeau.
I hope Edvald Boasson Hagen gets it, he's come agonisingly close a couple of times.
Success!
I missed most of the stage, how come the sprinters teams didn't pull the break back? I guess lotto had de gent up there, sunweb didn't have loads to ride for as their man was having a play at the front, but Katusha? Cofidis?
Ransos - best TdF photo ever. Winners come and go, Didi is eternal.
#FroomePaysProperHomage
I doubt they could've managed itI missed most of the stage, how come the sprinters teams didn't pull the break back?
Greipel was huffing & puffing right from the start
Matthews wasn't bothered
Who else have you got and is their team up to TTing it's way back onto what was a pretty classy 20 man break ?
Yep, love him and the way he wins stages. Great to see him back to his best.PJ266 - MemberVery happy for EBH, been rooting for him all Tour.
Cheers, I was thinking of Alexander kristoff, Nacer Bouhanni?
But if their teams didn't have the legs, they didn't have the legs. A couple of years ago Tony Martin could have closed things up, or at least smashed himself trying. Though with a TT tomorrow...
EBH'll be re-signing for Sky next 😉
So pleased for Edvard.
I missed most of the stage, how come the sprinters teams didn't pull the break back? I guess lotto had de gent up there, sunweb didn't have loads to ride for as their man was having a play at the front, but Katusha? Cofidis?
Several reasons.
Sky specifically didn't want a bunch sprint - too much risk of a pile up and Froome out of the Tour so trying to pull it back while Sky yell at you is going to be no fun at all.
Matthews has nothing to sprint for anymore as he's got Green sewn up. Might have been a different story if Kittel had been there and the battle was still very close. So Sunweb weren't going to do anything.
Greipel was nowhere all day so he's probably saving himself for Paris and it's pointless wrecking his team to pull back a 10 minute gap (while having Sky disrupt it all). And Lotto-Soudal are down to 6 men anyway.
It was a big breakaway - it was always going to be that way - so trying to pull back 20+ riders was never going to work out unless the entire peloton was up for it which they weren't. Most seemed to want a steady transition day. Uran will have wanted that as well to save himself for the TT so Cannondale-Drapac won't have contributed to any chase either.
Looking good for my 500 euros on Bardet (winnings, not stake). Won't get those odds next year I bet 🙂
Excellent from Higgs-Boson there!
When I saw them go to the other side, I thought, "Eddy will have done the recon on this one, either as a potential lead out for Cav, or as a break for himself. He's doing that on purpose!" and he was!
Felt sorry for Arndt, though! Got the right side, got ahead, flicked the elbow, then looked across to see EBH. You could almost see him sag down in despair!
But I'll go with old baby face, EBH, for the win today.
Called it.
I thank you.
Tomorrow Froome will win or monster the TT. I struggle with this as he is a beanpole climber with no TT track record until he joined Sky. How does he get so good in 4 years compared to rivals?
How does he get so good in 4 years compared to rivals?
Being diagnosed and treated for bilharzia might have had something to do with it...
Maybe he trains for it??
And his rivals don't?
Maybe he trains for it??
Especially with the background Team Sky have with British Cycling track program, and guys like Wiggins, Thomas, etc. Froome was also a pretty good TTer even as an espoir.
And his rivals don't?
Obviously they all do. But to a greater or lesser extent. You see Froome out on his TT bike all the time. Even doing recon and rest day rides on the TT bike when the rest of the team are on their road bikes.
Froome is like Dumoulin as a climber, he's not explosive, he likes to pick a pace and go on it. A TT plays to that strength and unlike someone like Quintana he's put the work into perfecting the position, getting back into it quickly after corners etc. Dr Hutch at the Giro said that Quintana's team could save him 30s on the TT by putting a sticker with "Sit Down" on it on the bars. Look at Yates' Stage 1 TT, it was surprisingly good and I'd bet a lot of that was just applying his undeniable power uphill to the specific requirements of TTs.
Funny thing with Froome is he does have those explosive accelerations and has used them in the past (who can forget the crazy high cadence bursts.) Is curious that we've not really seen that this Tour. All too often these days though attacks just boomerang and you end up out the back. Maybe he's confident he's going to smash it in today's TT or maybe he's just not on peak form.
Those roundabout tactics absolutely made my day 😀