After 30 odd years of watching stage racing I give up. His doctor is magnificent.

Eh? So after the Armstrong years, the Landis period, the Contador issue, the Millar banning, whole teams being implicated etc etc., NOW is the time you give up? A time when the winner of a stage hasn’t even been found guilty of anything? Bizarre.

If he was dirty, surely the last thing Froome would want to do now is put in a performance that will have people asking questions. I’m not saying there isn’t anything in the current accusations, but it just seems weird that a rider who is currently being investigated would dose himself up and then put on a show like that. It doesn’t make sense.

Great effort by Froome. I only managed to watch the last 2km on a live stream, but he blew the race apart.

Merckx was a drug user also, but in his era there wasn’t a concerted effort to eliminate it.

And yet it was worth watching then and not now? I’m not sure what your point is.

Brailsford will come sliming out of the shadows to belch forth all manner of revolting rhetoric. However, its not over yet. I really hope someone takes it from him on tomorrows stage, however i doubt it.

Amazing stuff and yet somehow I still think he don’t dope. I like the way he comes across in interviews.

PED`s help descending?

Don’t care what anyone says, Salbutamol doesn’t give you the ability to do what he did today. He’s either juiced up to the eyeballs, or he’s the real deal. I think he deserves to win now.

Dumoulin I have admiration for. Always fighting. But he’s boring…

Nice touch for Pinot to squeak in and take the last time bonus. Some choice language from Dumoulin the other day. He had to mark Yates and Froome. Today he didn’t watch his man closely enough. Should have stopped worrying about the others.

Quite timely today 🙂

What butcher said above.

He’s either doped up beyond belief or he’s just a hell of a rider.

Either way he’s just rode to one of the most spectacular stage wins ever in a GT!

Up there with the greatest ride of all time..

Be interested to see what he has left tomorrow . He must be pretty ruined after that effort, and didn’t shine following his last stage victory the day after

To be fair to Froome his best is way better than Yates, Big Tom and Pinot

To be fair to Froome his best is way better than Yates, Big Tom and Pinot

Quite. When was Pozzovivo last touted as a genuine GC contender? A great ride against not quite top rank opposition.

As has already been noted, a few extra puffs of an inhaler does not let you put in that kind of performance. I think the adverse test is kinda irrelevant. He’s either super human, or on something far far stronger

Or he’s just ridden himself into form when the others spent the first couple of weeks taking lumps out of each other.  It was a great solo effort but I suspect made to look slightly better with other flagging at the end of an epic tour.  I think he’ll have plenty in the legs for tomorrow.

I’m all for a break and this particular effort will indeed go down in history as a supreme effort, astonishingly well timed and executed…

Normally I’d be ecstatic over Froomidge’s win, certainly in the manner he made it stick. It’s unusual for him to go off on one, so I’m left wondering why and what was the motivation. Chasing back time seems to obvious one, but where’s the motivation come from?  I ask myself to what end and what’s the reason behind this show of exceptional riding? Why now? And what happened to the moving roadblock Sky employ? Has the machine finally broken? Are we seeing the remnants of what once was such a tight knit squad fall and crack and dissolve into a team that has nothing too loose? A shrug of shoulders and “do what you like, we’re not here much longer”??

Theres poetry to hoofing off the front when you’ve nothing to prove, we’ve seen many breaks and outstanding riders commit to the drag. It’s an art form and stage drama only a few have had the opportunity to realise.

It’s the manner and backdrop and backstory which taints this particular win. Is this his last big effort before being banned? Is this epic ride the last we’ll see from him? We’ll only know once the investigation finally gets underway and the lawyers get involved. For me, I’m more interested in Yates and a squad that’s ridden out of thier bibs to keep him and the history of the Pink Jersey real and untainted.

…

Awesome ride – Froome take it to the others and they came up short. It would be bad for the race if Dumoulin had won by sucking wheels. Reading up on the Salbutomol case there’s enough evidence from reputable sources to suggest the UCI would have serious trouble making it stick – if Sky (as sponsors) had a whiff of suspicion about him he’d have been suspended a long time ago

For me, I’m more interested in Yates and a squad that’s ridden out of thier bibs to keep him and the history of the Pink Jersey real and untainted.

Talking of back stories, do you know who Matt White is? Or doesn’t that bother you despite your zeal for clean cycling? You couldn’t make it up. Are you really that daft?

Don’r get me wrong, I’m a big admirer of Yates, but if you’re going to go the whiter than white route, judge everyone by the same standards. Yates, fwiw, was actually suspended, for no fault of his own, but I can imagine the vitriol if he’d been a Sky rider.

And why do you keep referring to Froome as ‘Froomidge’?

Talking of back stories, do you know who Matt White is? Or doesn’t that bother you despite your zeal for clean cycling? You couldn’t make it up. Are you really that daft?

Fully aware of who Matt White is yes, are you? Are you really that daft?

I do invoke a clean cycling policy, so do plenty of others. You must be daft if you think I think otherwise.

I maintain my position, that position is whilst an investigation for adverse analytical findings is underway the rider in question should not ride any event until the investigation is completed. You must be daft to think otherwise.

So you’re fine with a self-confessed doper running the team you describe as ‘real and untainted’? I’m not saying there owt untoward going on there, but come on, be consistent.

As far as the AAF goes, you can argue the rules are badly thought out, but they’re the rules.

I am consistent, read my posts on here. You must be daft to think otherwise.

If you don’t like Matt White, that’s your problem not mine. Be consistent at least.

If you don’t like froome racing, take it up with the UCI. I thought it was the best days racing I’ve seen in years, and if you have that much of a problem with any of the participants, you could always not watch.

I don’t dislike Matt White, I get that he comes from an era of cycling when doping was rife and he was part of that, what I find hard to understand is how you can praise a team he runs as being ‘real and untainted’. It seems slightly naive.

If there’s an issue with the rules, that’s down the the UCI, not Sky.

I’d have thought the motivation to ride like he did was obvious… he was a good chunk of time behind and frankly 2nd, 3rd or 4th does absolutely nothing for his palmares so why not go all in?  Win or bust.

It was clear on the early ramps of the Fenestre that Yates was cooked and Dumoulin got distanced slightly when Sky pushed on so he just went for it and it stuck.

It is a little uncomfortable knowing that he’s got the AAF hanging over him but there’s not much anyone can really do about that.

While not being a fan of froome.. i have to say that i am impressed with the improvement to his descending. It wasnt that long ago that he was crying like a baby about others descending faster than him and calling it too dangerous.

just watched the highlights program.

I don’t know what to say. It didn’t look possible, but in the end it was ‘only’ 3 minutes against riders who clearly aren’t as good as Froome, who haven’t set up to peak this week in the same way, and who (in the case of Yates) have found the race is half a week too long.

And it still isn’t done, he has to defend it now.

As big an effort as Froome gave today – Dumoulin probably gave just as much effort chasing; he got very little help off the group he was with.

This, the rest of the Sky team having a rest on the way up, they’ll be there for Froome tomorrow.  All the arguments above are ridiculous, just people wanting to pick on Froome because a) they don’t like him b) he’s annoyingly very good c) not the world best media personality d) looks like a Crane on a bicycle.

Nothing has been proven he’s a doper, and lets remember in 5 hours and 12 minutes TD’s dropped 4 minutes to Froome, so mathematically he’s only ridden 1.5% slower, a tiny margin.   Not exactly blasting away on a High is it…

Both of them as pale as ghosts on the finish.

PED`s help descending?

Quite. The biggest gains were from descending, which is a mix of testicular fortitude and handling skills that cannot come out of a syringe.

THIS IS A FUN BIKE RACE TO WATCH YOU GUYS

PED`s help descending?

thc does 😉

great ride from Froome. Think Dumoulin will be suffering more than Froome tomorrow to be honest. Totally gutted for Yates though

Abandon d’Aru.

As a pure sporting spectacle I thought this race was incredible before the rest day. Today has blown it out of the water as stand out one of the best sporting competitions I can recall in my lifetime. How many people saw that coming? Gutted for Yates but bloody hell what a race this is turning out to be. Can anyone recall a better grand tour?

While not being a fan of froome.. i have to say that i am impressed with the improvement to his descending. It wasnt that long ago that he was crying like a baby about others descending faster than him and calling it too dangerous.

Are you sure you’re not confusing him with one of the Schlecks?

Chapeau to both Froome and Dumoulin.

So what actually happened to Yates today?  Is he just literally burned out?

No interview with him in the highlights.  Still a truly valiant effort from him and he must be devastated.

Fantastic!

Go Froome!

That was one of the greatest sporting moments I have ever enjoyed live.

I too was going to ask what happened to Yates as I was in a bar in Germany watching it. It was just mind blowing to see that performance.

Wow. Just wow

He’s either super human, or on something far far stronger

Froomes time up Finestre was slower than in any previous race.

i just watched a video of Landis storming the tour in 06 on the juice, he looks nothing like a cyclist let alone a climber yet he took minutes out of the rest of the peloton. What we saw today was a calculated risk by a supreme athlete that paid off not somebody with a doping agenda and fridge full of blood/epo/HGH

Re Froome – “Or he’s just ridden himself into form when the others spent the first couple of weeks taking lumps out of each other.”

That’s my thinks, interesting to see how long he keeps form for the Tour. So sorry for Yates, sport is cruel – but you know his time will come, a fantastic Giro.

Tough watch. Gutted for him, the face is smiling but the eyes look blank.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=GTwi97SGjs4%3Frel%3D0

I hope he is cheered all the way to Rome, it’s been brilliant.

My 2p is that I agree wholly with this:

“A great ride against not quite top rank opposition.” Nobody in the top 10 have ever been close to him in a Grand Tour.

He’s got a lot of experience riding dirt roads in Africa, which perhaps explains why he felt ok to Take chunk of time on the descent.

TDM et al pretty much matched his pace up the last climb, but the damage had been done already.

Everyone else seems to have been on form at the beginning of the Giro whereas Froome has peaked in the final week. Do people forget how his form used to drop off in the final week of a grand tour? He’s learnt that lesson and also shown that nobody can be at their peak for the whole 3 weeks.

He’d be the dumbest athlete on the planet to risk anything with his salbutamol job hanging over him… not inconceivable but unlikely.

Errmmm – Froome is a proven doper.  that salbutomol result plus lots of other suspicious events. strict liability for doping in sport.  It does not matter how it got there or why the adverse test result.

 Froome is a proven doper. 

No he isn’t. Proven would be if WADA had issued a judgement against him for doping and stated the punishment (in conjunction with the UCI).

None of that has happened. He’s got one AAF which is far from being any sort of positive test or indication of doping. That’s why it’s not called a positive test or “failing a test”. It’s called an Adverse Analytical Finding and further tests are then done to determine how that arose. It could be faulty chemistry or a contaminated sample or instrument. It could be any number of things. It could be a banned substance taken inadvertently (like Alain Baxter, the Scottish skier in the 2002 Winter Olympics) or it could be a banned substance taken with the clear intent to gain an illegal advantage.

They’re supposed to be confidential while all the checks and tests are done and the experts weigh up the evidence. The athlete is perfectly eligible to compete while all that is done and that’s the rules across sport.

You’d be pretty pissed off (in fact you’d be screaming for your rights) if you’re were arrested and charged for something on the basis of circumstantial evidence and the opinions of a bunch of people on the internet.