Go Froome and those elbows, I knew there must be a marginal gain somewhere for that ugly ugly riding style!! Almost thought he was going to take the win too.

Of course if his elbows didn’t stick out so far he wouldn’t have needed to elbow the rider out of his way… 😀

Ok … so I’m defo no Realman… but here you go ….

Stage 4…. Cobblers 😀

“If the crosswinds of stage two, and the steep finishing climb of stage three haven’t created havoc in the GC, this stage will.”

More of the same then…. Can Nibali get some time back and who will be today BIG losers… ?

The Great French Hope… Pinot … has all but written off his chances even before today

“I didn’t have any strength, I had nothing. It was very difficult. I’ve put in a lot of preparation for this Tour so to be three minutes down on GC after three days is disappointing. But that’s sport.” … “I’m pessimistic for tomorrow, at least if my legs are like this, because on the pavé it’s decided by your strength,” Pinot said just before boarding the bus. “I won’t make a plan for tomorrow. I’m going to see how I recover, how I sleep but if I feel like I did today, then it’s going to be hard.

While Wolfman Ten Dam soldiers (or shoulders) on … “I said that they had to pop my shoulder back in. I have trained very hard, so I don’t want to abandon the race even before we enter France. As long as I’m in the race, it’s possible that I can recover. Tomorrow, I’m going to try it on the cobblestones. It will be painful, but afterwards, I have four days to recover. The Alps are just in two weeks and maybe everything is different at that moment.”……. Nails !!

Weather today in Brussels (not too far away from the route) … more of the same … sunshine and showers … although Pave is reported to be a dust fest… with a fairly stiff head wind mostly today …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2800866

So which classics rider will get the win today? Boom, Vanmarke, Kristoff, GVA, Degenkolb

Seems as if using them to protect your GC has been thrown into the road side ditch…

“Last year there were many classics specialists who stayed with their team leader. For example, all Garmin-riders were supposed to stay with Talansky. Two days later he crashed so that tactic turned out to be a missed opportunity, especially if you have two specialists. You don’t need to ride with seven guys around two team leaders but that’s what they did. I expect a bigger battle.”… said LottoNL-Jumbo DS

Although doubt Sky will let Thomas off the leash… and to be fair, he seems a real team player.

For me … Sagan has looked, as ever, super strong…. Just 40sec down on Rodriguez yday.

As for yellow … we all want to see der Panzerwagen in gelb …. Nein ??

I’m not, you’ll be glad to hear 😀 , going to be doing this everyday.

But why don’t we take turns ?

Maybe someone can put their hand up this afternoon to do it tomorrow (so as not to get a doubling up and a wasted effort)

Nice work there Ro5ey. Not much in the way of pave today so I’d expect a reduced bunch sprint. Thankfully we get some nice weather so less of a lottery.

Disappointed for all those out yesterday. Can’t imagine the work that just goes into getting to the start line of the Tour, so for it to all be over this early must be gutting 🙁

Boom, Vanmarke, GVA, Degenkolb, Thomas

FIFY, I’d place Stannard up there too if he can get a ride in first, but heart goes for Boom. After his Cortisol readings, the Astana rebuttle, Nibb’s not so good couple of stages so far and I think an angry Vino’.. all make me think Boom will have a lot to say about today. Plus he’s a hard man, I like him and he’s a pretty good CX rider 😉

Harsh poin made about Dan Martin, he did really well. 4th! C’mon ok it took him a little while to ride through the other riders up the hill but he did it. He even matched Purito for a little while.

Outstanding ride by Froome’idge.. flapping his wings to gain axtra momentum might just be taken up by a few more riders 😆 If you watch the last 50mtrs he actually rides harder knowing the extra seconds here makes a huge difference to today. If he can stay upright and in the pack it wouldn’t be a bad stage to loose the jersey…

Roll on, cap on, clip in.

Dan Martin

It was harsh but fair 😛 No prizes for fourth, especially when you’ve kicked the arse out of the climb. Garmin could maybe watch a few GCN videos on positioning 😉

Watch out for Simon Yates now. Orica-GreenEDGE were severely affected with five involved in the crashes yesterday with Daryl Impey and Simon Gerrans the team leader now out.

Yates was also involved in a crash but got up and still managed to finish 8th alonside Nibali and Quintana, only 11 seconds back from Froome. With Gerrans out Yates might be given a free rein to go for it on the mountain stages and he climbed really well in the Dauphine a few weeks back as well.

He’s just over 5 minutes back from Froome on GC so I don’t seriously think he will challenge, especially with the TTT coming up but he might well embarrass the likes of Contador, Nibali, Quintana etc.

Today will be a fascinating stage as, since a lot of teams lots people yesterday, there will be less people to be protect and so more people after the win. I’d say you can remove Sky, Saxo, Astana and Moviestar people from the mix which sadly mean Thomas (my rider of the day yesterday), Sagan and Stannard won’t be in the mix.

I had a feeling that an angry and frustrated Etixx-Quick Step would fancy it today, Stybar maybe but I guess they may still fancy Uran to be up there in GC so maybe not. Sep Vanmarke it is then.

Boom, Vanmarke, GVA, Degenkolb, Thomas

Boom, Thomas and GVA will be on shepherding duties I suspect. Degenklob a good bet. I’d expect to see Cav contesting the finish too. Won’t be a repeat of last year’s stage.

Also to put it in perspective, 223k stage with 13k of cobbles on a dry day. I suspect it won’t greatly impact the outcome on the day. I’d still be expecting a reasonable bunch at the finish.

Having said that… all the pave is towards the end of the stage, and the two longest bits are saved for last.

No prizes for fourth, especially when you’ve kicked the arse out of the climb.

He’s in with a shout of the Strava KOM, surely some consolation 😉

I’m going to stick my neck out and say Sagan for the stage win today.

Stybar !

Good call Sir. Forgot about him 🙄
Anther great CX’er, hard man in the Heartlands too.. Should go well if EQS let him ride on and you know what, after Marks angry state t’other day and yesterday I think he’ll but his support behind him FTW. Marks a good hacker on the cobbles when he puts his mind to it. Add Tony to the mix and you have a bow wave coming through..

I predict GC changing crashes today. I reckon it’s going to be super fast with teams trying to capitalise on yesterday’s gains or trying to get some time back. Crashes might not happen on the cobbles but on the run in to the pave.

The fear of the cobbles will do more damage to the race than the actual cobbles. I’m rooting for the big Germans today, I want to see Martin in yellow and Gripel with another win!

*rubs crystal ball*

Sagan in the yellow jumper later but not win the stage, Contador crash, Quintana to lose time, Nibbles and Froome to be more or less level tonight.

Sky are in an interesting point here – Geraint is very close to froome in the GC so they may need to think carefully about who supports who, maybe let Yogi and Rowe look after froome

Contador is the one to watch though, if he’s going to do anything for the rest of the race he has to start chipping away at the deficit but cannot afford to lose anything

nibali will be ok, Nairo will have to charge as well

GT will just be supporting CF. His current position will be of no relevance unless it somehow affects Sky’s likely plan to let someone else take the jersey for a bit.

AC could well improve at the tour goes on given his Giro antics. Or hopefully he’ll be being tested to destruction so he can’t do a rest-day special beef BBQ.

Quintana looks the most threatening I reckon. In his position, he’s got the potential to blow things apart when the mountains start and that could affect any of the fab four (well, three others) indirectly by changing the shape of the stages.

edhornby, there is never a “plan B” for Sky, they’ll put all their resources into helping Froome and if that means Thomas is sacrificed then so be it. Stannard and Rowe may well do the majority of the work, perhaps along with Kennaugh but there sole focus will be to get Froome through unscathed with a minimum of time dropped.

Re the Sky thing. I’ve wondered right from the start if in fact they do have a plan B this time, not Porte who does seem to be struggling a bit for form, but Thomas. This objective being kept under wraps. Think it could become clearer after this afternoon, if Thomas does feature in the finale, or not.

Porte was the emergency plan b last year and the pneumonia kind of got in the way, his form up to the Giro was enough to put him up there as a contender. Not sure how he’s doing post Giro crash though. Looks like he’s being used more strategically this time round (like punching through a chunk of the climb after the restart) GT looks to have the last man standing role of being the final support though could imagine it changing once they hit the mountains.

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he’s never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.

nemesis – Member

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he’s never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.
I disagree.
I’m hoping that in a year or two he is the new GC contender.
This is the first year he’s been on the full-on climbing program. Look at how lean his face is.

I’ve always rated him as one of the most complete riders. Really looking forward to seeing how he does in this tour.

I think he’s fantastic but I still hold to my point.

Podium on the right year, with the right course? Maybe

Win it? I just can’t see it

I’d love to be proven wrong though.

Check out Geraint Thomas’ cobble-friendly bike.

Hardtail

Tony Martin will do well and will wear the yellow jersey at the end of the day, he has got the right characteristics for cobbles and rode well last year, although he has always avoided the cobbled classics – however that lack of experience is mitigated by: far fewer cobbles and the experience within his team (Lefevre knows the cobbles better than anyone). Also an ideal person to carry the jersey for the overall contenders as he has a strong team to carry the burden.

That photo makes it look like a fork- can you imagine the ugliness?

Retro man

Looks interesting, wonder if it locks for the road, given how they are generally below the weight limit and bulking them up it’s could be very good.

Sorry. Not a hard tail. It’s a full sus.

Bin dun. Noobs.

Today’s stage is all about Risk. The risk you crash out v’s the risk you slip down the field.
Avoiding crashing out by careful protection of team riders and sensible speeds on the cobbles can help but at the same time the further forward you are in the long stretched out peloton the less risk you get caught behind an incident or fall to far behind the head of the race. Any breaks that form will be difficult to catch because of the nature of the terrain and differing approaches to it. Too fast and you crash / break something / puncture, too slow and you get lost in the pack where things slip from your control.

I expect the lead teams to fight for position going into the high risk sections but then try and control the race through them. I’d imagine team Sky will just be looking to get everyone home safe but with that in mind some ambition from a small number of teams or group to really hammer into and through the pave and down the narrow roads could see a significant break form and chaos in the chase.

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he’s never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.

Sorry but I’m with AlexSimon, I think he’s one of the best and most capable all-rounders in the peloton.
He’s been cursed with a lot of bad luck and occasionally can have real problems keeping it rubber side down but the main reason he’s always pretty low key is that he’s such a brilliant domestique.

That year that Brad crashed out – G was in the white jersey which he then lost because the whole team got brought back to support Brad.

I’d love to see G just let loose with Ian Stannard, blow the field to smithereens. Sadly that won’t happen today – maybe Sagan or Stybar for the win I reckon.

Lemond just been spouting about full sus being the right choice for today… hmmmm.

Have just also seen a horrible shampoo advert starring Kittel. Good god man, No!

I love Eurosport for the live feed before ITV4 starts the day, but sheesh it has to be muted

Whereas in Oz we just had an interview with Eddie Merckx, they asked if he was 2mins down on Froome today would he attack? Glint in eye and YES!

Then the strange caffeine shampoo ad and the cooking slot on mint creme brule

crazy-legs – Member
Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he’s never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.
Sorry but I’m with AlexSimon, I think he’s one of the best and most capable all-rounders in the peloton.

I’d love G to win the TdF but can’t see him staying with the big climbers. And this year is a big climbing tour. (Please let me be proved wrong!)

Have just also seen a horrible shampoo advert starring Kittel. Good god man, No

That’s a fantastic ad, especially the Degenkolb one. Makes me giggle every time, it’s so bad. But, guess what? I know what it’s advertising. Job done.

cooking slot on mint creme brule

One of my climbing partners ordered a mint creme brulee in an auberge outside Montargis once. I can say with absolutely no hesitation that it’s the worst pudding I’ve ever tasted. Toothpaste with a sweet crunchy topping.

Gone live here, Sky and Astana up front ready for the first batch 🙂

Eurosport just said that Bonnet broke his neck in two places yesterday. 😯

He’s undergone surgery to prevent ‘anything worse’.

Is it just me who finds the Lotto Jumbo jerseys very confusing?

yep, ready for the first bit of cobbles…

and I had promised myself an early night this evening

Hill climb sprints for me tonight then catching the 9pm slot on Eurosport.

Spoilers/updates/tickertape reporting please lads..

Please, no really….

😀

Eurosport repeating Flecha’s 2 tech reports twice now. Means I have to put Ligett on, jeez he’s boring.