Slick Mongoose Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 If Quintana hadn't lost all that time in the crosswinds on stage 2, tomorrow could have been really exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 If Quintana could have cut the lead down to less than 2 minutes he might have had a chance but to gain 2:40 on just a single stage is going to be next to impossible, especially as I don't think Froome has really had to burn nearly as much energy as any other yellow jersey due to having Sky around him (up until yesterday). Good fightback from Nibali but if Froome goes on to win this, he's earnt it by being the only guy to consistently not lose time. Everyone else has had a bad day or two but he's been sailing straight through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baitac Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 In the beginning of the race, Froome was aggressive. He won it (and team Sky) then. Now he's riding smart (a little boring.) OMG, I remember the old lady with the handbag and Lance. I started crying on the spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karaddin Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Jeor that's exactly where I had it too, under 2 minutes and it would be really game on. Still, he dropped Froome and that's enough to give me a sliver of hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karaddin Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Great final (actual) stage. 2:40 was too much for a single stage, but pulled it right back. 1:12 difference in the end, he lost it in the cross wind and that's it. Sky as a team were phenomenal this year and earnt the win. Quintana gets 2nd, White and I think Polka Dot again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Well done to Quintana, he made it a very exciting stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Yup, 2:00+ was too much to haul back but Quintana really made a dash for it. He really does well in the last week of a Grand Tour and finishes strongly. I'm sure he will win the Tour at some stage - he's still so young. What he'll need is a good team to be built around him - Valverde has been good for Quintana but I doubt he will be around for much longer. Congrats to Froome on the victory. He is a worthy winner and while I had been rooting for Quintana to unseat him, Froome really did play his cards right all Tour and for him personally hopefully this makes up for his early crash out last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Great final (actual) stage. 2:40 was too much for a single stage, but pulled it right back. 1:12 difference in the end, he lost it in the cross wind and that's it. Sky as a team were phenomenal this year and earnt the win. Quintana gets 2nd, White and I think Polka Dot again? No, Froome gets the KoM by 11 points from Quintana, first person since Merckx to do the double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 It's been an amazing Tour. It's lived up to its billing, highly anticipated and even though Nibali and Contador arrived to the party late ( or underdressed) , we have seen so many excellent stages. The commentators have been saying throughout that this has been the best Tour in years, and I fully agreed. Have loved watching every stage in which there was even something to ascend. So some thoughts to close with: While Froome was excellent, he does indeed owe his team for this Tour. Without Poels and Porte, he would have lost more time today, and probably the Tour. This is a team win, bolstered by a magnificent and untouchable Froome the first two weeks. But this is also the best team, and Froome has benefited from that. Credits also to a phenomenal Tour from Thomas, who closed every single gap for Froome in the Pyrenees. Quintana, well this was a Tour without a long TT. We don't know if those 40km plus TT's will be back in the next editions of the Tour, they may not. But their absence should give a guy like Quintana a very good shot, and it does. He now fell short 1;12. He lost 1:28 in the 2nd stage in Holland. Obviously if he has not lost that time, the Tour would have unfolded differently again, so you cannot compare 1 on 1, but you can see that the time lost there put him at too much of a disadvantage. Still it's been a revelation to see that he is ale to drop Froome, who admitted to going at his max, and still lost more and more time as the climb went on. Valverde: 3rd, and very happy with that. Might be back one more year, but then it will be over. Contador: Has already said no more 2 GC's per year so should be focusing fully on Tour 2016. Nibali: Showed how excellent he really is the last week. I'm not sure Froome can drop him when fully fit, he's that good. And has a good TT as well. I'd love to see him and Fabio Aru in the same Tour next year. Gesink & Mollema: Both have had superb Tours, but you can see this is their plateau. They should also go for stage wins in future editions. Bardet & Pinot- yeah these young French guys are class and we will be seeing much, much more of them. On a note of shame though, Froome was spit in the face again today during the climb to Alpe D'Huez, and obscene gestures and constant booing accompanied him in many places where the French were found. The fact that Pinot, after being dropped many times already this Tour, can suddenly keep Quintana and a pack of howling wolves at bay today, that did not raise a single French eyebrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 On a note of shame though, Froome was spit in the face again today during the climb to Alpe D'Huez, and obscene gestures and constant booing accompanied him in many places where the French were found. The fact that Pinot, after being dropped many times already this Tour, can suddenly keep Quintana and a pack of howling wolves at bay today, that did not raise a single French eyebrow. I hope you're merely commenting on the apparent double standards of the French media and not implying anything about Pinot? I didn't think anything suspicious, Quintana was steadily closing the gap after he attacked but he just didn't quite have enough time - the gradient slackening off in the last km just gave Pinot enough to stay ahead. Apparently one of the Sky team cars in the convoy ahead of the race had spectators hitting it at Dutch Corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 so i think that there is about 100% chance that if the landa who rode the giro turns up at the vuelta, he walks it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I hope you're merely commenting on the apparent double standards of the French media and not implying anything about Pinot?I was indeed referring to the obvious double standard amongst the French public & media.Pinot is a big talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karaddin Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Pinot is fantastic but he needs to learn to descend to win a GC I think. The time he took on the climbs the previous day he flushed away on a descent that probably reinforced his fear. No, Froome gets the KoM by 11 points from Quintana, first person since Merckx to do the double. I was forgetting Froome would also get points for the finish lol, so was comparing his points after the first climb to Quintanas finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayyoth Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 On a note of shame though, Froome was spit in the face again today during the climb to Alpe D'Huez, and obscene gestures and constant booing accompanied him in many places where the French were found. The fact that Pinot, after being dropped many times already this Tour, can suddenly keep Quintana and a pack of howling wolves at bay today, that did not raise a single French eyebrow. How anyone can look at Froome's tour and think doper is toucan for me. All this shit started in 2012 when he rode away from Wiggins in the mountains, it was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. Froome's performance riding up to Alp d'Huez was only possible because he had a great team to pace him and he still nearly killed himself finishing over a minute behind the winner. Compare this to what Armstrong and co were doing a decade ago. Doper my ass. If anything is going to kill professional cycling it's journalists and fans labeling any winning rider they take a dislike to a doper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 For those who have followed cycling much deeper and longer than I have (the extent of my knowledge is watching about the last five Tour de Frances and nothing else) has there ever been an instance where this Champs Elysees stage was actually contested by the GC riders? And how entrenched is the convention of not contesting it - e.g. if Froome were to suffer a crash early on, would the other teams have a gentleman's agreement not to attack and to let him catch up again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Mongoose Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 For those who have followed cycling much deeper and longer than I have (the extent of my knowledge is watching about the last five Tour de Frances and nothing else) has there ever been an instance where this Champs Elysees stage was actually contested by the GC riders? And how entrenched is the convention of not contesting it - e.g. if Froome were to suffer a crash early on, would the other teams have a gentleman's agreement not to attack and to let him catch up again? In 2005 Vinokourov won with a late breakaway, gaining a few seconds and moving up to 5th. Before that, in '89 it was a very famous comeback win for Greg Lemond, but it was a time trial. In the early 80's and before it was tried a few times as well, but that was before there were strong sprint teams, and the difference between the top riders and the domestiques was much greater. These days, all the riders know that if they tried something, the sprint teams and their rival GC teams would work together to bring them back. If there were only a few seconds in it you'd see people trying late breakaways, for sure. The main area where tradition comes into it is that nobody tries an early break, so the peloton can just coast into Paris. Today, it's very difficult to imagine the miniscule climber Nairo Quintana riding away on the flat and the combined efforts of Sky, Quickstep and Lotto failing to bring him back. :P As for Froome crashing, if it was before the sprint teams got going then I imagine that yes, everyone would wait for him. If he crashes late on when the race gets hectic, tough luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Pinot is fantastic but he needs to learn to descend to win a GC I think. The time he took on the climbs the previous day he flushed away on a descent that probably reinforced his fear.I was forgetting Froome would also get points for the finish lol, so was comparing his points after the first climb to Quintanas finish.I'd be surprised to see Pinot ever win a Tour. Certainly the next few years seems very unlikely.Contador ( 32) & Valverde ( 35) are on the way out ( Contador said in February that he will retire end of 2016), but Froome is only 30, so he's potentially looking at say 4 more peak years ( riders peak differently in cycling than in for instance football). Geraint Thomas is 29. Nibali is 30.Due to his severe lack of TT abilities, both he and Bardet are at a big disadvantage as well.However the Tour may be reducing the TT's more and more in order to minimize the differences by it, and you can bbe sure they will be extra motivated to do so when they have two young French guys who could finish on the podium with fewer TT miles :)And of course Quintana is only 24,and so is Fabio Aru. I see someone like Pinot more like a Robert Gesink type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 I see someone like Pinot more like a Robert Gesink type. if all of the stars aligned pinot could win a GT, gesink never could. also pinot has panache and charisma, gesink sucks. however you are mostly correct, he ain't winning the tour anytime soon, but the vuelta route normally would suite his characteristics. really want cav to win number 5, he used to be boss on the champs elysees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Greipel completely dominated your man Cavendish, once again.If Kittel comes back to the form he had last year, Cav's days are already over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 The Vuelta is looking to be quite a feast, maybe unexpectedly so. Astana is arriving full force. Nibali is joining Fabio Aru and Landa! Quintana confirmed this morning that he will ride as well, alongside Valverde ( Valverde has an unbelievable amount of racing days). Froome is considering the Vuelta but he is the last of the great contenders to decide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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