Le Tour 2015

[Magicscreen2]

Bobke, did I miss a thread about this?

I was sorry to see Cancellera already withdrawn. Nasty crash.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Wow, great finish by Greipel. The big German is off to a strong start.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Ouch. Tough break for Tony Martin.

From Yellow to DNF with a compound fracture in a quick second.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Chris Froome continues to look solid and stay out of trouble. I wonder if he might not want to loan the yellow jersey to someone else for a while to dial back a bit of the pressure. If BMC keeps it together in the TTT today, it would be fun to see Teejay van Garderen lead the GC.

 

[albertaboy]

I love the TTT, but can't watch it today.

It's a very cool thing to watch.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Hopefully you have access to a DVR, AB, as this was a great day of racing. A very wicked, wicked course with a >10% grade at the finish.

I don't want to ruin it for you - suffice it to say Froome is looking very, very fit.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Such a bummer about Ivan Basso. Hopefully this coincidence will lead to a great outcome for him.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Tremendous show of strength from Chris Froome. I mean just absolutely amazing. Completely dispirited poor Quintana in his own element. Froome is clearly the class of the field -- and by quite a wide margin.

Richie Porte also put on quite a show after leading Froome up the mountain, dropping back to recover a bit, and then also catching and dropping Quintana for second.

Teejay took something of a beating, but hung in there. He stays in third place and put a good deal of distance in front of Contador et al. who would challenge for a spot on the podium.

But, it's still very early yet.

 

[albertaboy]

Tremendous show of strength from Chris Froome. I mean just absolutely amazing. Completely dispirited poor Quintana in his own element. Froome is clearly the class of the field -- and by quite a wide margin.

Richie Porte also put on quite a show after leading Froome up the mountain, dropping back to recover a bit, and then also catching and dropping Quintana for second.

Teejay took something of a beating, but hung in there. He stays in third place and put a good deal of distance in front of Contador et al. who would challenge for a spot on the podium.

But, it's still very early yet.

I suspect Quintana will rise again, I wonder if all the work Movistar did driving the pace trying to break Froome et al hurt them more than Team Sky

 

[Magicscreen2]

I suspect Quintana will rise again, I wonder if all the work Movistar did driving the pace trying to break Froome et al hurt them more than Team Sky

Yes, you are right! Quintana still trying to show he's in the game for yellow. While still incredibly impressive, today's was the first stage I've seen Froome make what I'd consider a tactical mistake, riding away from his support in a pointless attempt at breakaway from the chase. He was lucky that Thomas was able to cover and come back up to ride him home. Froome definitely owes Thomas a beer after today.

Tejay is riding very strong and smart. No one will catch Froome, but if he crashes or is otherwise tossed out, Tejay will be in great place to assume the lead -- or at least finish very high on the podium. Not a bad strategy for a him -- especially given the thin support he's received as of late.

 

[Magicscreen2]

Congrats, Chris Froome.

This was an excellent Tour. Beautiful weather and routes. A nice way to see parts of Europe that typically get little exposure. I only wish TeeJay would have been able to finish this race and make it to the podium.

Something to look forward to for next year.

 

[albertaboy]

A good tour, I wish Quintana had attacked more often in the alps.