How nasty is that for Cav, that sort of behaviour is not on. They are not commenting on exactly what it was but its sounding like the “wee” leak could be true… (did you see what I did there?)

quintana looks about 15 years old in that close up

I’ve used cyclingfans to get a Eurosport stream, so it’s just the official player that’s broken.

There’s a new computer game being developed, Mark Cavendish’s Sprint Cycling. Exclusive to Nintendo Wee.

He has picked up sponsorship for childs bike seat, WeeRide.

I think froome will catch Valverde here

After a close up of the strings of snot and phlegm hanging off Ten Dams facial hair, they seem to have settled on rear shots…

Froome!

froome goes quickest at split 1 by 1s

I think froome will catch Valverde here

valverde is going to need to go pop for that to happen

but it would be good

Froome’s flying.

Valverde only 24 down on the first split, Froome won’t make up 3 mins.

Edit: blimey that is quick! What was Martin’s first split?

Froome is on fire, fastest at Checkpoint 1

Valverde only 24 down on the first split, Froome won’t make up 3 mins.

2 mins is the time gap at the start according to the tour website

surely Froome will have calculated what speed he would need to do to catch Martin? so first split would always be achievable. will he fade?

Froome is flying, absolutely twatting it. incredible to watch (on an S3 at work)

surely Froome will have calculated what speed he would need to do to catch Martin?

I expect he knows exactly his sustainable power for that distance, and is sitting on it via a power meter.

ah, but might he try and push it further than what he thinks is sustainable to beat Martin? presuming Martin’s is higher.

Hmm thought the top few riders went at 3 min splits.

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

from cyclingnews.com

Froome has a powerful pedal action but moves his ankles very little

TTs are really devoid of interesting things to comment on aren’t they?

2.5 seconds up, 1.27 up on Valverde….

Because I can’t understand that sentence – what did the Ligno-got with the painfully striated voice* actually do?

In some sort of vague chronological order:

Lance didn’t dope
USADA are a “nefarious agency” and bribed witnesses
Other riders who confessed and implicated Lance are liars
USADA have no proof Lance doped and said “I’ve no reason not to support Armstrong.”
Said he’d retire if Lance had actually doped
Eventually accepted Lance was a doper, didn’t retire, didn’t apologise

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

A skinny climber who came in 20s behind Martin in the Olympics though. He’s hardly a shock as a solid TT rider

very solid from Froome, now, have his team got what it takes in the mountains?

To destroy the field and win a mountain top finish, then beat the TT world champ on a flat course. Just saying it will raise eyebrows.

ah, but might he try and push it further than what he thinks is sustainable to beat Martin? presuming Martin’s is higher.

It wouldn’t be wise. As the commentators are saying, he doesn’t need to beat Martin, what he needs to do is put time into Valverde and Quintana. Any time spent over your threshold has a big effect on your fatigue, so he’s better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks. Especially as he’s going to need all he’s got in the Alps.

(NB I am not a pro racer, a coach or a team manager 🙂 )

To destroy the field and win a mountain top finish, then beat the TT world champ on a flat course. Just saying it will raise eyebrows.

Aye, it will. Any strong performance will. However, any evidence of doping is more likely to reveal itself in the pattern of performance rather than the performance itself.

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

I think the shocks the other way round, tall people generaly don’t make the best climbers.

It wouldn’t be wise. As the commentators are saying, he doesn’t need to beat Martin, what he needs to do is put time into Valverde and Quintana. Any time spent over your threshold has a big effect on your fatigue, so he’s better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks. Especially as he’s going to need all he’s got in the Alps.

+1

He doesn’t need to beat everyone every day, just the other GC contenders. He’s 1:25 up, and they’re not even properly in the moutains yet!

looked like he was pushing it to me

he’s better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks

true, it looks like that’s what he’s done. faded at the end. well done Tony Martin!

What have whats left of his team got for the mountains 😉

atlaz – Member

At least one of those statements is true.

Solid result for Thomas De Gendt. There’s a GC condender of the future in there somewhere!

My three transfers IN for Road.cc… Martin, Kwiatkowski and Castoveijo…. all scored points (and K’ski got more for taking the white jersey) so together with Froome that should be a soild day

How d’you get on Lifer ?

There’s a GC condender of the future in there somewhere

Yep K’ski

Going to have to be some full on attacking next week on thurs/fri/sat

1st and 2nd for my virtual team 🙂

[un-educated input alert]

I agree with what trail_rat is saying, however great a 3.25 minute lead is surely this just means that the Sky team are going to get battered by everyone else over the remaining mountain stages. It doesn’t seem like they have any other option but to go on relentles attack after atack to try and bring down such a massive lead.

with depleted numbers and injuries can Sky defend that lead to Paris?
Is there something else i am missing, if so please fill me in (not literally)

[/un-educated input alert]

Wondering when was the last time genuine GC contender led the tour by over three minutes this early on? Got use to there only being seconds between GC contenders.

You lot shouldn’t take me too seriously, I thought Froome was going to win, and Evans was going to do a decent time. And I knew Andy was gonna suck, but not that much… This next week should be good.

It doesn’t seem like they have any other option but to go on relentles attack after atack to try and bring down such a massive lead.

True they have no choice but it relies on having riders who can take that time out of froome and then do the same the next day which is quite unlikely.

with depleted numbers and injuries can Sky defend that lead to Paris?

Yes they can ride tempo – remember tempo really means riding at threshold . Attacking takes more energy and involves red lining for a considerable period to get away and stay away.
They alos only need to mark a small number of riders all ohf whom seem weaker than Froome who has shown he can stay with them on his own,
Without a crash no one will ever get that much time on him IMHO but there will be some interesting attempts

Without a crash no one will ever get that much time on him IMHO but there will be some interesting attempts

We might end up in an interesting situation where the other GC guys aren’t paying Froome much attention, and just attacking Valverde, racing for 2nd..

I think they will likely try to attack him for one or two days but they must realise he has the legs of them by now and nothing is more demoralising than that.
Will they just race for second? MM good point actually. Ceetainly they all have to mark each other so perhaps not just one team doing tempo to get them back if a GC contender attacks.