TdF Stage 20 – The Alpe d'Huez

This is brilliant !

Yep 3 in the sky group will do it… Would be nice to see them reeled in but no point is blowing up.

Oh and a naked man at Dutch corner

That and euro sport commentators are dull… I want liggwin

Dutch corner more insane than ever!

Worried something stupid might have happened on dutch corner, glad it’s done and gone.

This could be close – 30 seconds and growing. Great tactics by Movistar. But running out of road

Someone spat on Froome again???

Minute gap between Q’a and Froome…3km to go! He still has Porte, lots of booing.
Froome needs to get up and go NOW!

Apparently…

Think there will be a great pic of the sky boys if they make the line together

A lot of what sounds like booing for Froome.

That gap keeps growing

1km for Pinot! Allez Pinot allez!!

I have to say I much preferred racing in alp d huez in the other direction….

Riding a mtb up the final roads through town made you think a bit about the TdF finishes.

Anyway sky tactics were spot on, early wins make the time and let everyone else stress about it

epic from Pinot

Just think what could have been without that storm in the first week.

And Froome crosses the line, Porte not far behind , good on you Richie.

Yeah first thing Froome did on crossing the line was look for Porte proper mates, smile from Porte said it all

Amazing.

Oh, and well done ITV4 for not having any advert breaks during the climb!!

Quintana will win this in the next couple of years.

@msp unless it turns out he is actually 30 already

Well that was awesome. Put to bed the myth of Froome’s indominability but what a team performance to keep him on the top step of the podium. Fantastic from Quintana and from Movistar, did everything they could today.

@msp unless it turns out he is actually 30 already

Yep that is true

I wonder what would have happened without a team member for the last 5k for Froome, I was also wondering if he should/could have struck out alone.

One of the best Tours for a while. Great result. Now I have to go watch my beloved Bokke get their arses kicked by the All Blacks .

It looked like Froome was riding hard enough to limit his losses and win but not so hard as to risk blowing (staring at power meter). I suspect he’s not 100% well.

Fantastic stage and great tour. It was good to see Quintana going for it too. I can’t wait to see him win next year.
Well done Froome

On the team thing I’m guessing from the last few days poles is there to be the climbing guide next year as the go to guy from the 2 key stages moves on.

But once again sky tactics say it all, from start to end they played their hand very well.

As for quintana did you see how he rode faster than other people? Drugs I tell you drugs, 2 kg of coke and he saw a sniffer dog in the valley

Did Bardet retain polkadot jersey?

I have a question. Why did the sky riders hide the flags on their sleeves at the bottom of the climb?

cchris2lou – Member
Did Bardet retain polkadot jersey?

Froome takes it.

@nickhart- Neither poels or porte have been national champs so don’t have their flags on their sleeves and hence nothing to hide

Chris Froome won Polka dot jersey as well, first person to win Tour and KOM since Merckx.

Although I think the polka dot jersey was a bit distorted by the points today, I can see why they did it, but it snubs too many other fine efforts on other mountains for me.

But who has climbed the mountains better than Froome and Quintana? Usually it goes to an opportunist who is a decent climber but far from the best. Would probably have been more fitting if it had gone to Quintana – I’m now wondering where Froome gained points on him (I suspect the answer is he kept outsprinting him at the finishes when they were together).

He’s clearly had a cough at the finish for several days. Generally worn down – though actually still good enough to drop Contador and almost everybody else.

But who has climbed the mountains better than Froome and Quintana?

I don’t know, it would have been easier to work out if normal points had been awarded today 😉 Might have ended the same anyway.

The cough has been covered, he frequently has that (EIA), and he always looks at his power meter (stem)

Cheers spawn but I’m sure it was thomas and Roche rolling their sleeves.

@nickhart – I completely missed that. Very odd, have never seen that before. Seems that theres been lots of knobishness to sky riders this tour which is a bit rich that movistar get away with it despite having a known doper in their squad and the team was built out one notorious back in the day for dopers

Maybe just a bit of a who is who game, cover the riders that are not there or convince others that all the climbers are up front