Can’t have lost more than an hour surely.

Well the stage only finished 25 minutes ago so he’s not lost that much time yet…

128. POL KWIATKOWSKI Michal 74 OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP 04h 01′ 22” + 25′ 59”

Blimey that was a lot in a short space of time. Ah he’s back on the virtual leaderboard thing now.

Out of interest will there be any punishment for Majka’s creative use of the motorbike to help get clear of Visconti?

20 second penalty if they decide to do him, pretty pointless though, it’s not like he was racing for time and he won the stage fair & square.

Nibbles is looking ever more ‘unbelievable’ with every attack, I really hope I’m just being cynical but the way he sticks it to the chasers whilst looking like he’s out for a Sunday jaunt is becoming a touch unnerving.

Contrast this with Majke drooling and gurning his way to the top, that’s what that level of effort should look like.

Yeah it’s deja-vu all over again.

Did you see the Boulting/Vinokourov interview on ITV a couple of days ago? “I believe every rider has a right to win”.

Good stage today. Nibali was disgustingly strong again. Glad to see Valverde suffering but not enough to loose his podium place. The rest of the top gc blokes are putting on a good show. Be interesting to see if any of the sprinters were out of time.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Awesome racing today, as much as I’d have liked to see as some folks said Nibali getting put under pressure it was good to see him really stamp his authority on the race. Majka = class act, a deserved polka winner(which he hopefully keeps) and whilst Sagan has romped away with the green a convincing stage win would have been nice. I still stand by my comment a few weeks ago that sprintings a sideshow this is GT racing.

Arggghhhhh suck it Valverde you ****! Really thought he’d been dropped there.

Nibbles is looking ever more ‘unbelievable’ with every attack

Comments like this come up on every related thread and I don’t think we should get too carried away. Nibali got his time early in the race, mainly through being smart rather than super strong. Now he is racing very much second and third tier GC guys (besides perhaps Valverde but even he has shown very little since his time away from racing) and mostly very young, exciting guys with little GC experience/ results. If Froome or Contador were still there then I think it would give Nibali’s solid performances a bit more context. Sure it sucks he is riding for Vino but Majka is riding for Riis, etc, etc

Nibbles is looking ever more ‘unbelievable’ with every attack, I really hope I’m just being cynical but the way he sticks it to the chasers whilst looking like he’s out for a Sunday jaunt is becoming a touch unnerving.

I think he just has a better game-face and isn’t going too deep. Look at the Vuelta last year against what I think we could consider more than slightly suspicious Chris Horner, he was dumped repeatedly but never looked like he was going to fall off his bike with exhaustion, he just looked slower. With Contador and Froome gone and Quintana not there, the three best climbers in grand tour racing are gone and he’s able to keep the others at bay. Also, the fact he doesn’t have a single team mate with him late in the race shows that Astana (who have 8 riders still) are burying themselves for him, meaning he has more energy for the last climbs. Valverde has the same advantage; a team focused around one leader like Sky has been for the previous 2 years.