I liked Kelly’s joke afterwards too

Kelly not only talking but making jokes- surely the biggest surprise of this year’s tour after he’s had a decade of snoozing in the corner of the studio?

Yes, he really does seem to have come to life. Very welcome.
Worth putting up with Carlton’s forced cliches 🙂

Kwiatkowski abandons

rusty90 – Member
Kwiatkowski abandons

Tour of Norway coming soon.. 🙄

Sean Kelly is a bloody legend, his dulcet Irish tones are wonderful.

Rear wheel skid from Lemond followed by a close inspection of a crash barrier

Quite enjoyed that. Annoyingly had a call so missed the one on Marion Rousse.

Funny seeing Lemond on a bike. Looks like someone’s dad who’s lined up for a Sportive but I’m pretty sure he’d still destroy most up and down hill.

Kwiatkowski sick.

Just seeing Talansky there, it really has been a pretty anonymous TdF for Garmin Cannondale so far hasn’t it. As I think about it, a fairly poor season full stop so far. How sad.

Oof, Pinot down but back up again.

Pinot’s just fell off, very innocuous, back tyre let go when accelerating out of a corner, got straight back on and is off again.

I think Pinot hit his pedal on the floor.
RM.

And now the fun starts

Pinot’s bricking it (not unreasonably)

Bertie’s got probs…
RM.

Looked to be swapping something bike related with Sagan.

Big 4 (that’s Valverde, not Bertie) smashing the downhill bit, no other Sky men in view.

Pinot’s lost his confidence…again.

Roche still up the road for sky I think, as well as quite a few Movistar riders. Riders all over the place.

Don’t think he is, think there’s only 6 ahead of the yellow jersey group.

I don’t think what they list on the screen is the full picture, the break was 20+ strong and is strung out over the 9 mins back to Froome and co.
RM.

I think we can expect fireworks in about 10 minutes time you know. Valverde is itching for a fight here.

Don’t think there’s 10 minutes racing left, is there?

yellow jersey is 8.5 mins behind the lead group whop are 3km from the summit so I think there is.

Not on the live tracking I’m watching.

3km to go, ignore me.

Anyway, another Movistar man is now in the group, Quintana has had a dig…

quintana attacking

Geskie win for Giant !

Would never have had him down for that..

Interesting battle for Froomie and Quintie 😀

Oh look there is G

I’ve sussed out what the stem thing is with Froome. He’s got a rearview mirror he’s looking in hasn’t he? Because he certainly saw that move coming from Quintana – was accelerating before he was alongside.

Froome and Quintana in together, no real change in GC

While I like the idea of a British (ish) winner it would’ve been great to see Quintana dish out some pain today and haul a gap.

Froome descended like a boss.
Very worthy tour leader.

haven’t seen Porte – they said when Bertie crashed that somebody may have gone off the road ?

Has he turned up yet ?

Porte came in about a minute after G – in front of Contador. They mentioned he was working with G on the climb.

thomas into 4th

Yes G, yes.

Because he certainly saw that move coming from Quintana – was accelerating before he was alongside

Could someone have told him on race radio?

Just looking at the GC now, Richie Porte is 1h 30m back, that is huge. Chavanel is the lantern rouge, Sammy Sanchez in 13th is also nice to see.

Richie Porte is 1h 30m back, that is huge

Yeh it certainly is. I know he did a lot of work for froome at the start and helped get him to where he is now but wtf happened there.

And to think he’s moving to another team as a GC contender, er really?

The GC is fascinating looking again, Sky 1st and 4th, Movistar 2nd and 3rd yet you have to go down to 17th to find the next 2nd rider (does that make sense?), neither Bertie or Nibbles have any other riders in the top 20.

At the other end, Orica have 4 out of 6 in the bottom 20.

Yeh it certainly is. I know he did a lot of work for froome at the start and helped get him to where he is now but wtf happened there.

That’s just how it works when supporting a GC rider. Ride hard as long as you can and when your job is done you peel off and soft pedal what’s left to conserve as much energy as possible. Porte’s position on GC is pretty irrelevant to the team. Being as fresh as possible for the next day is vital.

His position on GC is more a reflection of team tactics than capability.

Can also be advantageous to be low on GC as they can send him up the road to support Froome later in a stage and no one is going to chase.

(Also seem to remember reading he had some bug too. Or was that Roche?)