Froome was struggling prior to his mechanical – gaps kept opening in front of him.

Slow puncture affecting rolling resistance do we think?

Certainly seemed a different man after the wheel change.

Swapped to the wheel with the motor in it 😆

I do wonder as the route this year doesn’t have so many mohntain top finishes if Froome has trained differentiy ? He’s clearly not as dominant uphill as he was,

The rest at full tilt and in their red and he caught them UPHILL. What fact do you need to reconsider this statement ?

Things had been going perfectly, I broke a spoke and the wheel wasn’t straight any more. We changed the wheel as fast as we could, but the speed was at its highest and my team-mates had to empty themselves to get me back.

Froome

Spoke not tyre then.

would’ve been OK with discs – no binding 😉

would’ve been OK with discs

I don’t suppose Froome has explained what was going on with Nieve (or was it Lopez?) shortly before the wheel swap? Looked like he was having a bit of a strop and waving Nieve/Lopez off, only to have to rely on him shortly after. Not having a go, must have been pretty stressful to have a rubbing wheel whilst AG2R were driving things on but kinda funny if it was a strop.

Ultimately it was a good day for Froome though and finally showed how strong he was after a couple of iffy performances on the really steep stuff. Pretty sure Aru & Bardet would have attacked if they thought they had any chance of staying away, they were likely worried they’d blow on the last climb if they killed themselves attacking into the headwind for 20km.

I’d guess they might have been telling him to stop so they could swap a wheel maybe? Perhaps he thought he’d be okay and just getting them to front to slow things down.

I think there’s very much a case with Bardet and Aru that they’re starting to look nervously over their shoulders. Top 7 separated by two minutes, last year at the same time two minutes was almost Froome’s lead over 2nd place, in 2015 he had 3 mins over 2nd, in 2014 Nibali had over 4 mins over 2nd and 2013 Froome also had over 4 mins.

My guess is until a summit finish, half of the effort of Astana and AG2R will be in neutralising the rest of the top 10 as much as controlling Froome.

Team Sky site says puncture but they may have been responding to DB who maybe didn’t have the details

https://www.teamsky.com/article/63cb9171-4a63-482e-abb2-fb3330cca220

and even later in that article Froome says ‘a bit of a mechanical problem’

I think – he got Nieve to follow him briefly so Nieve could look at the wheel and see what the problem was. Then he sent Nieve ahead to catch their breath so that he and Kiriyenka could join with Henao and empty themselves to get him back. i don’t think what the commentators identified as anger was that, more mild panic and an animated discussion about what they needed to do to overcome.

Froome said broken spoke and binding wheel.

My guess is until a summit finish, half of the effort of Astana and AG2R will be in neutralising the rest of the top 10 as much as controlling Froome.

I would have thought AG2R’s next attack will be the descent off the Galibier to the finish.

Froome was phenominal to get back on. I have to say I was pretty gutted. Not a Sky hater but I’d have loved to see Bardet in yellow. Liked the Bardet post race nochalence of “we tried, it didn’t work, we’ll try again”

Imagine Dave B was playing the sponsorship game. Punctures are an everyday occurrence. Breaking a wheel designed for this event doesn’t look as good for your suppliers. “buy expensive shimano wheels, yes the ones that cost Froome the tdf” isn’t a fantastic tagline for the adverts

I would have thought AG2R’s next attack will be the descent off the Galibier to the finish.

Getting a decent sized team across the top of Galibier won’t be as easy as that hill yesterday. That looked like a proper planned event. Sky train dragging their guts out will peel off most of Ag2r well before the summit. Especially with a couple of cheeky Landa attacks to cover as well on the ascent. Or even Martin having a pop. Ag2r haven’t a massive cushion of time to play games with

Getting to top of climb with Froome un your group then hoping to blast him off the back of a fast descent doesn’t feel like decent tactic to me, you’d need a bit of time over him in summit so he’d need to ride into the wind himself.

Won’t AG2R attack off of Or’non to destroy the peleton and again off the Croix to isolate Froome so he’s alone by the Galibier? Much easier said than done

It could be a dangerous move to go all in on that one. Expend your team (and Bardet as well, don’t forget, he’s still gotta cling onto their coattails and he’s a climber not a roleur) then turn round with 80km to go and see eight Sky riders waving at you. sky have all been picked solely do that job.

Uran is only a couple of seconds behind him too. If he keeps his powder dry for final last kilometre he could be in third.

Do they just accept a podium finish in Paris, or see if they can jump over Aru for second. Whilst I don’t think Sky are controlling enough to do it, having such tight top ten behind them actually works nicely for them – strong enough to cover most things but other teams need to be up there for their riders in the minor placings.

How longs it been since a tdf winner didn’t win any stage?

Ornon is too early and on the lower parts the consequences of getting a corner wrong will have a rider paying the ultimate price .

The only thing stopping you coming off the edge of a very long drop is a curb of about 15cm .

I think the Telegraph will see the first GC action .

Cadel?

Cadel won stage 4. Off to check…

Edit… looks like Óscar Pereiro in 2006 after Landis got popped.

Double edit… need to go back to 1990 to find the first one where the winner didn’t win a stage and didn’t inherit it due to doping, that was the last of LeMond’s wins.

Having done Astana and Aru… flip side to that, have we done Tim Wellen’s abandonment? Refused treatment that would have meant he would likely have been able to continue but would have required a TUE…

Tim Wellens refuses TUE to treat illness and abandons Tour de France

Awe, damn.

Wellans is ace.

Good on him. Got a few column inches for Lotto team as well that he’d probably not got otherwise.

Hopefully signs of a brighter future for cycling.

Is it good though? The process is in place for these situations and now a rider who could compete, wont, potentially because of fear of being smeared by the press

I’d agree with him, pull out now. Stay out of the spotlight, rest, get better and come back without controversy or any hint thereof ?

Like.. wow ! Sounds well thought out to me.

Get well soon Wellans, I know you are reading this 😆

I support the action. If you need a TUE pull out of competition until you’ve recovered.

vvvv what he said in the last sentence vvvv

Is a moral maze as the system has been so abused and had a lot of recent negative publicity that riders don’t want to be associated with. Agreed that if a rider genuinely needs some medication then they should be able to take it. Though you could argue that if a rider needs such medication then maybe they shouldn’t be riding a 3 week GT anyway.