Froome isn’t bluffing. Sir Dave’s taken his inhaler. All Froome needs to do is get his fitness back and move to Israel Start Up. There’s no way he’s racing the Tour. Everyone’s form is all over the place. Over cooked, under cooked, half baked, boiled to mush. Is Bernal up to the job? Well he’s been at altitude while Thomas has been in the valleys. Has Thomas got the form? Or is he a bit disillusioned? I want to see a resurgent Quintana and a GT Doumalin. Quintana may not happen, Doumalin though…

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

Dumoulin isnt looking great, nor is Yates,

Good to see Ineos off form – could this be the end of the Sky/Ineos snorefest that has blighted recent years?

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

You look back through cycling history and its full of pics of Armstrong, Hamilton, Pantani et al on safari and juiced up to the eyeballs…..🤔

Yay Eurosport live coverage ending with 3km to go – or was it just my Sky playing up?

I think given all the issues this year you can’t draw that many conclusions on form for now, although there’s not that long left until the Tour. I hope Froome is locked in the Tour and finds some decent form, not too bothered if he actually wins it as I’m not a massive fan but I’d like to see him get a decent shot at a 5th Tour.

I don’t understand what Sagan is doing at the Dauphine though…

I don’t understand what Sagan is doing at the Dauphine though…

Training, no one is writing off his chances yet but he’s been way off so far this season.

Good to see Ineos off form – could this be the end of the Sky/Ineos snorefest that has blighted recent years?

Looking like it’ll be a Jumbo snorefest to me.

Yay Eurosport live coverage ending with 3km to go

According to the Spanish commentators the Eurosport Player servers fell over Europe-wide, affected all their channels. It recovered with about 2.5km to go. (I watched it in the evening, so wasn’t affected).

And yeah, the season could just turn into a Jumbo snorefest which wouldn’t be great, either.

Fuglsang dominated the Dauphine last year, how did the tour go for him. The fear for Jumbo is that they have peaked too soon. Can Roglic hold his form through a 3 werk stage race that doesnt start for another 2 weeks?

Yep watching it last night and I reckon Froome will more likely be riding into form during the Tour and Roglic out. Dumoulin might be the bigger threat to Froome/Inneos/anyone else at the Tour. I can’t wait 😀

Roglic is just looking astounding isn’t he, especially with the team he’s put together to help out there, the whole squad is just riding with such intent and such ability, it’s awesome to see. Sure, we can sit here and call it a snooze fest like INEOS/Sky of previous years, but it’s harsh to do so, they’re just doing their job.

I’m not sure how long it takes to ‘ride into form’ or whether the main INEOS guys are taking it 2% easy and not going fully into the red to save fatigue for the upcoming Tour, but at the moment you just can’t see past JUMBO winning this one..

Certainly, no-one else is standing out for me, with Bardet, Quintana, Yates, etc etc all looking a good chunk off the pace when we get to the pointy bits.

Sure, we can sit here and call it a snooze fest like INEOS/Sky of previous years, but it’s harsh to do so, they’re just doing their job.

Oh yeah, I fully understand why they do it – but it makes for crap spectating.

Stage 2’s Groupetto punishment was a bit harsh

Savage!

Although am reassured to see some familiar looking Kinesio taping on that guys lower back, I mean, if the professionals do it then it CAN’T be snake-oil right?

Training, no one is writing off his chances yet but he’s been way off so far this season

It can’t be great training though to plod along at tempo in the bunch then get dropped on a climb and then plod along in the groupetto the rest of the stage?

And that hail looked pretty brutal!

I’d say this is more the level Froome should be, now he hasn’t been able to ‘train’ in Kenya with all the ‘supplements’ that brings

You look back through cycling history and its full of pics of Armstrong, Hamilton, Pantani et al on safari and juiced up to the eyeballs

Didnt work too Well for Fausto Coppi!!

That left hand pic of the hail up there ^^ looks like some kind of weird romantic painting from the 18th C, with a Jumbo-Visma rider pasted in. 😀

It can’t be great training though to plod along at tempo in the bunch then get dropped on a climb

I have a feeling they were doing a bit more than plodding along. Yates went pop before Froome for example.

Froome looks like he’s struggling at the back of the peleton up the col de madeleine

dodgy descent road surface !

That left hand pic of the hail up there ^^ looks like some kind of weird romantic painting from the 18th C, with a Jumbo-Visma rider pasted in. 😀

Ha, yeah. There’s a subreddit dedicated to this (https://www.reddit.com/r/AccidentalRenaissance).

I’m really enjoying the Dauphiné and I’m not too worried about a Jumbo snooze-fest:

– Look at the size of the lead GC groups in yesterday’s and today’s stage. We’re getting bunch sprints at the end of mountain stages. I think it’s cool.
– Jumbo look good, but not Sky-in-their-prime-all-conquering-good.
– Roglič looks amazing but he’s not invincible – see last year’s Giro.
– If Ineos do improve between now and the Tour, the ding-dong battle between them and Jumbo could be quite something, or open the door for someone opportunistic to upset the apple cart.

I’m fully prepared to accept that I might just be being very optimistic because BIKE RACING IS BACK ON TV AND IT’S GREAT.

Ol’ (not so old 😀 ) WVA is an impressive rider…. towed the peleton up the madeleine and a quarter of the final climb. he was winning the sprinters classic a week ago !

Loving the cycling on the telly at the moment, especially today’s stage.
When I was in France a couple of years ago we stayed quite close to St Martin (villeranger) and also rode up and back down the Col de la Madelaine. The weather today looked equally as nice as when we were there.

We even got to watch a cycle race that we had no idea was happening until we saw them setting up the finish line. The race was the Tour de Savoie Mont-Blanc. It was class sitting in the sun drinking a cold Kronenberg Blanch watching the finish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Savoie_Mont-Blanc

The climb up to Val Thorens is class too.

After chatting to a British builder in a St Martin bar when we were there. I got a deluded idea into my head that I could move there, not sure the wife and kids would be up for it. 😭

Interesting factoid about the Col de la Madelaine is that despite being labeled as a 2000m col it’s actually only 1,993m they just thought it sounded better being 2000m.
You would think they’d have just dumped a 7m high pile of rocks and dirt at the top but why bother when you can just change the sign, I just love the French way of doing things.

As for Ineos’s lack of form, I can’t see Dave Brailsford getting it so wrong. I think they’re bluffing in order to get Jumbo to burn themselves out in the first week or so in the Tour then in the last week they will attack, attack, attack!

I do find it funny how Froome gets slated for being boring yet Roglic is unbelievably more boring. I like Froome, especially after reading his autobiography. He’s very intelligent, shrewd, tough as old boots and absolutely ruthless in his pursuit of achieving his goals. If he was actually as poor as his current form indicates I think he would just retire rather than suffer every day with no chance of winning. Bring on the Tour!!! 👌

^^^ not ‘arf didnthurt ^^^
Go Froome-dog

Looks like Bernal has pulled out of the Dauphiné:

https://www.itv.com/itvcycling/articles/egan-bernal-abandons-the-criterium-du-dauphine

A real shame IMO – he’s the kind of rider who has the chops to come back fighting after losing some time, and I was kind of hoping he was going to have a pop at Roglič this weekend.

So Egan’s abandonment in light of the earlier comment on Froome:

ruthless in his pursuit of achieving his goals

🤔?

I think that Ineos are running two strategies for the Tour.

1. Kwiatovski, Sivakov and Bernal will peak for the earlier part of the tour and plan to take the lead.

2. Thomas and Froome to peak in the latter part of the tour and will attack on a big mountain day where it will force all the other teams to chase them down towing Bernal along. Essentially Jumbo and and the other favourites will be working for Bernal because if they don’t Thomas or Froome will win it.

Bernal being pulled out of the Dauphine could be to help him recover from a genuine niggle or it could just be Brailsford playing mind games. I think letting Jumbo go into the Tour super confident could make them complacent and open to attack from everyone.

Roglic does look the strongest out there which doesn’t always translate to winning the Tour, if anything it makes you a marked man where no one will let you get an advantage.

I’m so excited about the Tour that I hope something like what happened last year doesn’t ruin it for the fans.

Nice to see someone else getting a win today. Shame about the crash and abandonments.

Has anyone seen any images/video of the descent that did for Kruiswijk?

As bad as they say, or is Dumoulin doing a Schleck and whinging about descending?

As bad as they say, or is Dumoulin doing a Schleck and whinging about descending?

Unlikely, he’s a really good descender. In the ‘toilet’ stage of the Giro he made time up on the descents vs the likes of Nibali.

I think Pinot said in an interview that he’d ridden the road in training and was surprised that they didn’t resurface it.

Kind of agree with @didnthurt. But Ineos have to stop leading the train. Let the Yellow Jersey team do the work. I know tactics are much simpler in hindsight, but Ineos need to let Jumbo represent the Yellow and let them work harder earlier on. I still think Bernal has a chance, but he does need other riders to get in the break to make LJ work. No point in dragging 3 or 4 LJ riders to the last KM then letting Roglic or Dumoulin attack. Make them work. Them use G or Froome to attack, leave Bernal to sit in the wheels. Then Bernal attacks on the high mountains.
Massively over simplified I know. But anyway, it’s getting closer and I’m incredibly excited!! (And drunk!!!)

Roglič has abandoned this morning due to injuries from the crash he had yesterday:

🇫🇷 #Dauphiné

As a result of his crash yesterday, Primoz Roglic – leader in the GC and points classification – won’t start in the ultimate stage today. The evolution of his injuries will determine the plans for the upcoming races. Speedy recovery, @rogla 🤞 pic.twitter.com/xvam2hlX69

— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) August 16, 2020

That puts Pinot in the lead today, with a lot of folk very close behind:

Sad to see someone so strong leave the race because of a crash, but it will be interesting to see how the race develops today.

As for what this all means for the tour? Who knows?

Wow… that’s going to make today massively interesting then. You’d expect to see Jumbo Visma shattering it for a win today then instead of going for the GC bunching….

I’m going LAnda…

It’s already kicking off…

No spoilers from me. But, just saying, if you're not going to follow it live today, I really do recommend having a watch of tonight's #Dauphiné highlights at 7pm on @itv4 @itvcycling with Gary, @friebos, @millarmind and me. It's going to be a good 'un.

— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) August 16, 2020

That was entertaining. If you didn’t watch it seek out some highlights. It’s a great shame though that we don’t get full stage coverage of most races. There is so much action early on that we miss as became apparent when we started to get full coverage of TdF.

tough ol’ race.