[Closed] Tour de France stage 20 - Megève / Morzine - in the tour, anything can happen

I feel a bit sad - that it's over but also that the rain buggered it up a bit

Regardless, a good TdF overall, I'd say

... and many, many thanks to RealLunge for doing these threads

I'm oot for tomorrow's formalities

Au revoir, you breeteesh DOGS !!

jambalaya - Member

Ah the age old - we lost because of the budget. If GMC had more money would Porte have avoided a puncture and would his backup car have been closer ?

The reason Porte lost so much time due to the puncture was nothing to do with the team car but the fact that BMC bolloxed their tactics and had all the team supporting that donkey TVG. Richie didn't have any team mates with him to give him a wheel (or a bike) in 15 seconds, Can you imagine that happening to Froome?

@forza indeed, my post was tongue in cheek

Sky News had a special on Froome tonight, I'm sure it will be repeated or maybe even online.

Its been great to watch, Froome was in decent knick and no one threatened really. Sky where very professional. Great to see Sagan and Yates win a jersey, Bardet got second which is great for the French interest and finally of course to Cav, in yellow for the first time ever and another 4 stage wins. Roll on Rio.

Its been great to watch, Froome was in decent knick and no one threatened really. Sky where very professional. Great to see Sagan and Yates win a jersey, Bardet got second which is great for the French interest and finally of course to Cav, in yellow for the first time ever and another 4 stage wins. Roll on Rio.

Spot-on. I've watched every second of the live coverage on ITV4 and have enjoyed every minute of this Tour. You want to hear some of the moaners on the BikeRadar forum going on about how poor this Tour has been. For me, every day has been enthralling with races within races for stages and jerseys, epitomised by today's final racing stage.

We've had drama and controversy with weather, accidents and mechanicals and as Jens Voigt pointed out the Brits have won a third of the stages. What's not to get excited about?

The only downer is we have to wait 49weeks for it to start all over again. There's always the Olympics to look forward to though...

I'd love to see 4 or 5 guys fighting for yellow on stage 20,

I think its been a great tour race wise and some great stages with great moments

Who can forget the Maillot jaune running up hill sans bike 😆
Or the great crash as the inflatable fell - thankfully its impact was largely comical

the only real disappointments are

1. Nairo - I know its fast but he never even tried to threaten [ ok once] never mind threaten to challenge
2. Porte was unlucky in team roles and puncture
3. cav shame he is not there to win it tomorrow.

Yates - One for the future and the next on the procession line as we claim the tdF as ours 😉
Cheers Lunge appreciated

I thought it was a very entertaining first couple of weeks when it's often just warming up... Cav in Yellow. Froome attacking at every opportunity. Froome running! Flamme Rouge collapsing! Sagan bossing it.

Would have liked to have seen more firepower from the GC men in the Alps. Today's stage was a bit of an anti-climax, but then I kinda expected it to be.

But Yates in 4th, very almost on the podium... They surely have to ride for the GC next year? Fantastic effort from Porte too, who has struggled in grand tours in the past. Only a shame he lost time completely out of his control.

Today's stage was a bit of a damp squib but the tour on the whole has been great. Sure Froome and Sky bossed it but the number of incidents, battles for 2nd-10th and the sheer number of times Pantano attacked (chapeau that man) made it very entertaining.

I thought yesterday's stage was pretty good, sure not from a g.c. Perspective but the Nibali, Pantano, Allaphillipe battle up the last hill then what's his name who won on the way down was gripping. Would have liked Pantano to win again really

Nibali's pedal action is so smooth.

I thought it was quoted here sky was 35m euro, best paid rider is Sagan at 5m

28m Euros was mentioned on ITV4 IIRC. Interesting:

http://inrng.com/2016/07/the-finances-of-team-sky-2015/

The reason Porte lost so much time due to the puncture was nothing to do with the team car but the fact that BMC bolloxed their tactics and had all the team supporting that donkey TVG. Richie didn't have any team mates with him to give him a wheel (or a bike) in 15 seconds, Can you imagine that happening to Froome?

Weren't they also driving the peloton trying to set GVA up for a stage win?

So the Vuelta then... Contador v Quintana? Wonder who else will ride? There'll be a few who misfired at the Tour with a point to prove.

T'other Yates lad at Vuelta with sibling rivialy to push him on?

mrblobby - Member

The reason Porte lost so much time due to the puncture was nothing to do with the team car but the fact that BMC bolloxed their tactics and had all the team supporting that donkey TVG. Richie didn't have any team mates with him to give him a wheel (or a bike) in 15 seconds, Can you imagine that happening to Froome?

Weren't they also driving the peloton trying to set GVA up for a stage win?

Amounts to the same result then. Sky have one obsessive objective, all the other teams split their effort and people wonder why there is no viable GC challenge for Froome.

The only stages that didn't have any real excitement were the two very long stages where the peloton just ambled along like it was a club recovery ride. Friday's stage was one of the best (from a spectator's point of view) for a long time. Time trials - well they are what they are and often the most exciting thing about them is the rising hysteria of the commentators. I would have liked to have seen a team time trial, the Morzine mountain TT would have been "interesting" in that format.

Quite like Boulting and (especially) Millar, early days for them but they'll get better Half of Paul Sherwin's commentary seemed to be reading verbatim from the local tourist boards' brochures. Millar's insights into the tactics are great - he'll say something along the lines of "they need to do this now" and a minute later exactly whatever "this" is happens. I thought Jens Voigt was working for another broadcaster during this Tour so possibly on loan to ITV4 following Chris Boardman's departure after his mum's death.

Not a fan of the team time trial. I wonder how it would have changed the race though. Bardet would probably not have finished second, which would have been a shame. Sky might have brought one or two less climbing domestiques too which may have made for a weaker team on some of the tougher stages.

I love the TTT for the sheer brutal mechanical simplicity. But agree it distorts the GC. As a spectacle for a stage town that might not otherwise be on the route I thinks a good thing for le tour, perhaps it needs it's own GC neutral day