[Closed] Tour de France stage 22 - Time to look back

Thanks lunge and mike, great threads these.

Did check to see if inrng had his "where the race was won" up yet. I'm not really sure where Froome won it. Some daring moves early on to snatch an advantage, the downhill win, the break with Sagan. The gap on the Ventoux before the crash. A smaller gap than some expected on the first TT. And then a real stamp of authority on the mountain TT. Just consistently better everywhere while the other big favourites faltered. Great support too from a totally focused team.

Oh and one of the best and least predicted things about this Tour... the resurgence of Cav 🙂

Standouts for me:

1, Froome - Attacking at any given opportunity but knowing when to let his opponents do the work to get time back
2, Sagan - Almost as above and for burying himself for teammates as soon as the green was guaranteed
3, Cavendish - Proving naysayers (I was one of them) wrong
4, Bardet - Audacious attack and stage win to get into second place
5, Yates - A British rider who arrives on the scene without masses of press but lets his riding do the talking

Disappointments:
1, Kittel - Never really seemed to get going
2, Quintana - Didn't seem to have come to the tour at his best. Seemed content to race for a podium place
3, Pinot - Off form then had generic "illness" when it became clear Majka was going to take the polka dot jersey home again

Nothing yet up on Inrng, I'll add it when it's there.

I think you've summed it up well, Froome was just a bit better than everyone else. He was also a bit cleverer than everyone else too, the downhill attack, the break with Sagan, he just did the right things at the right time.

I also think he was the only person with a 100% dedicated team, BMC split their resources, Movistar did too, Tinkoff had Sagan and Bertie, etc. Saying that, Yates did alright and he basically had no team around him once the road pointed up hill.

Another thanks to Lunge and Mike for these threads.

Is it just me that has an image of Sky doing training sessions on the crossing the line shot? Marginal gains and all that 😀

Pinot - Off form then had generic "illness"

Had bronchitis.

Yates did alright and he basically had no team around him once the road pointed up hill.

I wonder if he'll ever get proper GC support at OBE? A team packed with stage winners, I doubt they'd ever be able to put personal ambitions aside.

Oh and...

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Oh and also...

http://inrng.com/2016/07/the-moment-the-tour-de-france-was-won/

The big question for me is - what is going on with David Miller's hair ? Is that a wig ?? That would explain the terrible hats.

For me it's all about the smaller teams, the way they apply themselves to what is really only ever a 3 team race from day one.
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Speaking of small teams, feel a bit sorry for Direct Énergie, they always seemed to be doing a huge amount of work in either chasing breaks or setting up Coquard, only to come away with nothing (other than a good chunk of tv time.)

So many stand out moments for me and I'm gutted I missed 3 or 4 stages. I thoroughly enjoyed the penultimate stage with Izagirre, Pantano and latterly Nibali thrashing it out in the rain though, but no doubt it was special seeing Froome stunning the naysayers - well, everyone in fact - with his downhill attack.

Just read the inrng article and it mentions that attacks on the mountains not being made to stick. I wonder if is because there is a more level playing field these days. Lets hope all the big boys are clean.

I wonder if (Yates) 'll ever get proper GC support at OBE? A team packed with stage winners, I doubt they'd ever be able to put personal ambitions aside.

Watching/listening to the ITV4 coverage yesterday they spent a good while talking to Matt White, the OBE DS, and he made a few comments about them "morphing into a GC team". Between the Yates brothers and Esteban Chaves they've got potential high GC riders now so it may be that they do.

Many thanks to Lunge and others for these daily threads. An excellent way to review events.

A brilliant tour I thought

Meant to comment yesterday; why are they still using podium girls to present the flowers etc? Surely they could give that privilege to more deserving candidates? Youth racers / local kids etc. Just seems wrong each time I see it 🙁

Panache.
Outstanding candidate for overused word of the tour.

popped the longer version in the other thread
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tdf-2016-review

I wonder if (Yates) 'll ever get proper GC support at OBE? A team packed with stage winners, I doubt they'd ever be able to put personal ambitions aside.

and from the general down under vibe most impressed by Porte, rode back up from being down, showed some great mountain riding and proved he needs the full backing of the team.

Problem for Yates now will being known, he won't get that chance early on for a pop off the front 🙂

Stage 11:Carcassonne - Montpellier. It was all set to be a boring transition stage until Sagan and Bodnar decided to attack 10km from the finish with Froome and Thomas tagging along.

why are they still using podium girls to present the flowers etc? Surely they could give that privilege to more deserving candidates? Youth racers / local kids etc. Just seems wrong each time I see it

That would just be weird and uncomfortable for all involved. Plus, they make a nice change to skinny blokes in lycra. I'm all for variety

a bit of a look back from Porte
http://www.espn.com.au/sports/endurance/story/_/id/17132605/tour-de-france-2016-richie-porte-diary-stage-20-meg%C3%A8ve-morzine

Just got back home to Glasgow a few hours ago after spending yesterday afternoon in a grandstand on the Champs Elysée. What an experience ! First time ever, for me and my 13yr old bike daft son. We got into CDG early afternoon, train into Paris and spent an hour walking up to the finish, where our seats were. Happy, bike mad folk everywhere, warm, sunny, relaxed. A lot of welcome security - we had overnight bags, which were searched on various street barriers on way up.

The carnival atmosphere was amazing, and once the riders came onto the main drag it was just electric. It only got better, and even the presentations, which were maybe 70m away from us, were good. A leisurely wander through the throngs to our nearby hotel and back home today.

Have always been a fan, and these threads so much add to the enjoyment and understanding of it all.

Well done lunge 🙂

Yates did alright and he basically had no team around him once the road pointed up hill.

He does well on his own. Can see him having a harder time next year though. There'll be more respect for him, and more attempts at dropping him. Which is where the team comes into play.

[img] ?itok=MyN6TBLo[/img]

OBE are going to need a bigger budget to keep Yates (quite rightly)

Dan McLay was another revelation as was his team which seemed to make most of the breaks in the first two weeks, hopefully a lot more wild cardrides for them

Yes OBE have a big decision to make - continue with the same old. Or become a GC team. Most of the time Yates was a lonely figure in the final selection, since many of the team are ageing rouleurs or otherwise unable to keep up in the mountains. But if you put both Yates brothers as super domestiques for Chaves or vice versa, you'd surely have a better chance at a podium.

I think I heard that Matthews is off to Giant Alpecin so that reduces their stage hunter options a bit.

Thanks lunge for all the work, and iainc - glad to hear of a a happy ending after the fears of Nice.

I thought it was a great year of the tour. Some in the media thought it was another one of Sky stifling it but I disagree. There was a fair bit of variety, drama, and oddity. It seems that much of the racing is a lot more 'human' compared to the EPO days, and that's why there are smaller moves and time gaps, and more fallibility amongst GC contenders. I enjoyed watching Froome being diverse and attacking, and being a 3 time tour winner is massive. It was also brilliant to see 3 brit riders in Yellow, Green, and White. What do I do at 7pm now there's no tour to watch?

Froome just tweeted this pic and it's bloody awesome, I thought I should share.

[img] :large[/img]

@ianc glad it all worked out so well.

Podium Girls. Remember this is France, they are not yet overcome by misguided political correctness. Young slim and pretty women is what the public, male and female, want to see.

Hoping there will be a few good summary roundups to get the final fix. Looking forward to 2017 already, I wonder how the teams with develop around Quintana, Yates, Bardet and Porte ?

aye, we had a not bad view, just after the finish line 🙂

[img] ?oh=1cde764a40286d1d445db715884f920b&oe=581A3AF2[/img]

Yet more drivel from Oleg...

http://road.cc/content/news/198893-team-sky-unbeatable-and-contador-past-his-best-–-oleg-tinkov

(Full blog [url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/author/oleg-tinkov-blog-cycling-existed-before-me-and-will-exist-after-me/ ]here[/url].)

I found this amusing...

“To understand why Team Sky is currently unbeatable, just look at the money they have and how they use it wisely. They have an investment of around €10 million riding alongside Froome and helping him win the Tour de France. I have about €2 million to do the same role for Alberto. That’s a huge difference when it comes to building a team. Dave Brailsford can afford to buy anyone to make Team Sky stronger, and so make his rivals weaker.”

Well Oleg, weren't you the one who blew the budget on Sagan, making him the highest paid rider out there. If you were single minded about supporting Contador for the Tour GC then probably not the wisest deal. But then by doing that one of your riders has won the World Champs, Flanders, Tour Green and Polkadot twice (with Majka) along with numerous Tour stage wins and a load of other races, along with generating huge amount of great publicity.

Some nice Tour images over at CyclingTips [url= http://cyclingtips.com/2016/07/from-the-cutting-room-floor-highlights-of-the-2016-tour-de-france/ ]here[/url].

Also missed The Secret Pro's Tour blog [url= http://cyclingtips.com/2016/07/the-secret-pro-at-the-2016-tour-de-france-sky-is-conserving-cav-is-back-and-squabbles-in-the-gruppetto/ ]here[/url].

Caught it on the descent to Morzine.....damp!

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@Krembo Scots in the first picture felt right at home, less midges too 🙂

Nice photo link @mrblobby