Tour de France stage 17 – Berne/Finault-Emossen – welcome to The Alps

give the lad his due, he’s turned himself inside out to stay in contact with froome – quite cleverly he didn’t try to kick to stay on, he kept turning up the power to be able to go full gas for the line and because froomeporte sat up on the finish he clawed a little back. Really hope he gets that podium.

given the effort and parsing the tactical position and trying to handle the media which he’s new at, not really surprising he’s only talking in snatches – I’d be on the oxygen !

Damm damm damm, too many late finishes and I fell asleep before the end. Great attack by Porte and you would be mad to write him off for an uphill TT.
http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/article/2016/07/21/porte-climbs-closer-podium-finish-paris

Has anyone else noticed that Yates seems only to speak in tweets? Very short, rapid bursts of words. Is it because he’s knackered or cannot string more than 8 words together?
It’s a strange way to communicate or maybe I’m just an old fart.

Glad it’s not just me- I find I have to concentrate just to make out what he’s saying!

If it wasn’t for Porte’s puncture we might have a bit more of a race.

Dunno about that. While I reckon Porte could give Froome a run for his money, BMC just aren’t there, same as Movistar, Quickstep or any of the other teams who have riders touted as GC contenders. BMC and Movistar have maybe hedged their bets a bit too much with 2 top guys, and I guess we won’t know what Tinkoff could have done for Contador. But someone like Dan Martin is never going to be a serious contender until they’re on a team that are able/willing to take it to Sky. Being able to stay up at the front on mountain stages without teammates like Yates, Porte and Martin always are might yield a stage win but it’s never going to lead to winning the GC.