he has been unwell for 2 days, he was calling groupetto on the opening climb.

Blimey! What happened to him?

He’s not well apparently, was close to getting cut yesterday

With in 5km he was off the back with team mates, think they hoped to pace him around to the rest day but must of been struggling more than expected

Just crossed the line at 59 minutes with three team mates, cut off was 40

Incredible stage. Brilliant climbing, ridiculous descending, crashes, controversy, just incredible.
The best stage of racing I’ve seen in a long time,.

Incredible stage. Brilliant climbing, ridiculous descending, crashes, controversy, just incredible.
The best stage of racing I’ve seen in a long time,.

Definitely exciting. But disappointing to see 2 big GC contenders go out in crashes, and another to lose time due to it.

Wow, just finished catching up

Quite an attrition rate this year 2, maybe 3 green jersey contenders gone in various ways and now 2 of the likely top 10 including a co-favourite (?)

It’s hard to watch those descents when the roads are damp

Great stage of racing and plenty of talking points. Great work by Sunweb early on to get Mathews the points and set up Barguil. Sky as an unit looked the most solid by far, I expected more from Movistar. Quintana looked poor, he was lucky to get into the Martin group and have some help on the flat after the descent or he’d have lost a lot more. Shame for Contador too, who knows how much the two crashes contributed to his losses. I was really liking Aru’s style before today but that was a bit poor, be interesting to hear what he has to say about it post race. Then the horrible accident for Richie, you felt like something was going to happen on the way down and unfortunately he did look the most likely. I really hope he’s ok.

Shame for Barguil having done so much work. But great to see Uran back at the front of races.

And Demare and half of FDJ gone. Who else missed the cut?

Also looks like Froome walked out of the press conference after questions about Aru’s move. Looks like Aru is saying it was a coincidence and he didn’t see Froome’s hand go up.

Also from George Bennet on twitter…

What a hectic day. Mont chat my pants many times

Porte should’ve used the berm.

Hope Porte isn’t badly hurt & goes the way of Beloki after his crash bitd.

And Demare and half of FDJ gone. Who else missed the cut?

Renshaw, Trentin and the other sagan

So froome going to get a sagan type penalty for pushing Aru?

As is normal for the corrupt uci no sanctions for sky however they cheat!

yes that is the reason there is no sanction here

If only everyone were so free of bias as you.

Well I enjoyed that.

Glad to see Uran back on form even with his mechanical issue.

As for the Aru/Froome incident I couldn’t see anything wrong with Aru punting off the front when Froomy had “an issue” (what ever issue he had, looked like he just wanted a bottle) so no justification for being nasty. Aru should have just rode on, you don’t need to be told to hold back whilst the “leader” has an issue which wasn’t detrimental to the race.
Portes off and punt into the wall looked horrible, must have been clicking 70k too.. glad to hear he’s ok, glad to see Dan Martin back on and riding to the end.
As for the time cuts, well they’re there for a reason.. I mean the commisairs have to open that first bottle of red before 5pm or the race in its entirety is cancelled.
Good fight by Bardet, really good and sad to see him caught by the Froome bunch, but hey.. Froomy put some effort in and can’t say fairer than that.

Uran, really cool to see a nice bloke win.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1075463105

😯

I’m getting a bit annoyed at Brian Smiths commentary, squealy Scottish accent. Someone ought to just tell him to calm down and speak slowly.

And he should back off Aru bashing..

As is normal for the corrupt uci no sanctions for sky however they cheat!

You are the Donald and I claim my £5.

Just catching up on this after a day with zero internet/TV/social media.

I picked the wrong weekend to be away!

I’m getting a bit annoyed at Brian Smiths commentary, squealy Scottish accent.

He’s dreadful.
ITV4 have been amazing – now they’ve got shot of the useless Liggett/Sherwen, upgraded Boulting from interviewer to commentator and brought in Millar, the commentary and general chat is superb. It was good last year but this is a step up again.

Reports from mavic neutral service saying Urans hanger was bent and he told them just to put it into the 11t cog 8)

I’m getting a bit annoyed at Brian Smiths commentary, squealy Scottish accent.

Mentioned this in the Philippa thread. The guy must be pretty knowledgable being a former pro rider and team principal but he doesn’t come across that way when commentating. He might just be trying to dumb it down a bit but it just comes across as being uninformed. Either way he’s annoying.

I’m guessing they’ll be lenient on the time cut today cos of the weather and the sheer number of riders caught out by it.

Willing to bet there’ll be an agreement “in the interests of the race” to reinstate them.

I know Brian’s history, his background in the sport, his knowledgeable insight but ye’ Gods, stop squeezing man.

As for the time cut off, you could be right. Booting off a Frenchie like Demare would be equivalent to wearing Sarkozy shoes and running up Monmatre.

know Brian’s history, his background in the sport, his knowledgeable insight

Indeed, does make me wonder why he’s as bad as he is. When asked for some knowledgable insight the stuff he comes out with is either hugely dumbed down or plain wrong, does he really not know his stuff? Puzzling.

Looks like Aru is saying it was a coincidence and he didn’t see Froome’s hand go up.

He might be saying that but the footage clearly shows him right behind Froome when his hand goes up and him then forcing his way to the front and attacking.

Millar and boulting live on periscope from a maserati laying into Aru. I love social meeja sometimes 🙂

Tweets by millarmind

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1dRKZAYlOdmxB

Interesting that on the 7pm highlights they mention that in the Richie Porte crash, as Dan Martin somersaulted over Porte his foot hit Uran’s rear mech and was the possible cause of the problem.

BMC just tweeted, fractured collar bone and pelvis for Porte

Crazy stage.
Aru scores maximum tool points
G does what he does best
Gutted Porte is out, and shame for Martin to be caught up in an incident that wasnt his fault at all
Delighted NQ has lost time
And they better not let Demare back in, if you are dropped in the first 60s of the stage you don’t deserve to be there.

BMC just tweeted, fractured collar bone and pelvis for Porte

Nasty but could have been a lot worse, that was one hell of a crash and a great days racing. I’m also over the moon about Quintana losing time.

Got to say I’m getting fed up with the preciousness of the ‘not attacking the yellow’ unwritten rule.

I see it like this:

1) Froome’s issue was apparently with his front mech, reminded me of Schleck vs. Contador.

2) To me this says either poor technique from Froome (shifting under power or an acceleration?). Probably unlikely though. So what? Poor set up by the mechanic of probably the biggest and most well funded team in the race? Or just poor equipment choice, those ovoid rings that Froome chooses to run can’t help the front shifting, perhaps he could ‘choose’ to do away with the advantage they give him in order to guarantee better shifting?

3) In the era of race radio and riding to power meters, is it really what the race needs to ‘neutralise’ any attack which is deemed to have been launched at a ‘dishonourable’ time when the leader of the biggest and most well funded team in the race is momentarily inconvenienced?

I shared Aru’s frustration when the other guys pulled it back. I’m sure the guys who used to ‘tour’ France whilst repairing their own bikes in the local smithies workshop would have an opinion too 8)

Bugger. We drove past Nantua on our way out of Geneva this afternoon… Missed it.

Brilliant stage!

Was lucky enough to be in Chambery today, 2k away from the finish. Here’s a wee vid of the front runners:

[video]https://youtu.be/xwGz1DInJSY[/video]

Glad to hear Richie’s ok, sore and a bit broken … but ultimately ok.

I hope he reads STW 😆

Personally I’d rather see a race decided by cycling and tactical skill than mechanical failure.

Do the teams even have full say over what components they choose? suppose a team was sponsored by shimano but felt that campag were more reliable, I doubt they would be able to make that choice.

Glad Ritchie is not completely broken, that looked horrific. Geraint… I’d love to see him win a tour, and you could say that his repeated crashes in this years tour were mostly bad luck, but you need to be lucky and talented to win!

Uran.. legend. That must have been horrific grinding away in that gear and then to still win.. awesome.

Apparently Porte will be off the bike for 4-6 weeks, so plenty time to go for the hat-trick and **** the Vuelta too!

I shared Aru’s frustration when the other guys pulled it back

He could have just cracked on himself – they just wouldn’t go through so he was just annoyed that nobody else would work with him.

To be honest I don’t think it would have been any different had Froome not had the mechanical, he was a major GC contender who put in a dig, Porte etc. shut it down and sat on him which is pretty much standard practice.

Got to say I’m getting fed up with the preciousness of the ‘not attacking the yellow’ unwritten rule…..and so on

I’m coming round to this way of thinking too. One thing to all agree to stop for a single fish, or slowing to grab food/water. But it’s so well supported these days does it still need an unwritten rule to neutralise ordinary cycling bad luck? I can’t think of another type of race where everyone stops to allow someone to tie their laces or fix a puncture or unwedge their underpants or whatever.

Personally I’d rather see a race decided by cycling and tactical skill than mechanical failure.

Well yeah, but it’s part and parcel of cycling at the end of the day, everyone else has to accept the risk of mechanicals, it seems a bit perverse that the only guy who is ‘protected’ is the guy who’s actually winning. The ‘honourable’ thing would be for the yellow jersey to wait every time one of his competition has a problem. Did Froome slow down when Contador had his wee off?

Re: tactics, if this was purely a mechanical, then what was at fault? With Schleck it was suggested that he had ditched the chainkeeper to save weight. To me that is tactics. Perhaps Froome should have been running stock rings, designed for perfect shifting, rather than wobbly rings designed for a small power advantage.

Uran.. legend. That must have been horrific grinding away in that gear and then to still win.. awesome.

Exactly, mechanical failure and he still managed to win the stage and nobody expected the rest to sit up 😉

Off the bike to 4-6 weeks with a broken pelvis?

No chance, if he’s broken his pelvis, that’s potentially career ending.

Can’t have broken pelvis if back on bike in 4 weeks.

Off the bike to 4-6 weeks with a broken pelvis?

No chance, if he’s broken his pelvis, that’s potentially career ending.

I guess there’s broken and there’s broken. Presumably they are calling a crack in the pelvic bone “broken”

I’m getting fed up with the preciousness of the ‘not attacking the yellow’ unwritten rule

well you either want to know who is the best rider who or is the luckiest rider which is it?

You dont attack because it could happen to anyone and that is no method to decide who is the best cyclicist. Your win would be tarnished by you having won only due to luck.Thankfully some still understand why this matters
This was worse, he saw the arm go up and then attacked deliberately, which is the actions of a scoundrel.

I can’t think of another type of race where everyone stops to allow someone to tie their laces or fix a puncture or unwedge their underpants or whatever.

Safety car at the f1?
Football players kicking out the ball
Triathlete helping brother to finish race
Yachts stopping racing to go rescue someone
sure there will be others

Winning matters but not at all costs and one still has to have a sense of fair play