This is a bizarre sport. I'd say among the best sportsmanship of any sports I follow and then the same people cheat! Then add on the team spirit where a rider takes one for the team leader by literally pushing until his legs can barely move.
Cycling 2017
- Thread starter Barbara Charles
- Start date
I was going to post about Landa as well. One for the very near future. Looking very composed. Not quite like Froome dropping back back to help Wiggins a few years back but still impressive.
You can feel great one day and suddenly have a complete off day the next. That's cycling, can happen to anyone. I don't see why it deserves a green smiley. I though he fought well, some riders would let their heads drop and lose minutes in those circumstances. I like his spirit, he doesn't give up.So Aru said two days ago he was so pumped ahead of this day and the he lost 31 seconds?
I know, i like him. He is up against everybody and without a squad to help him.
Seven skybots at the front.
Others have no chance, right?
Others have no chance, right?
In the final kilometers of the Izoard, the best wil inevitably come out on top. The biggest problem for Froome's opponents won't be the Sky bots but the man himself, who seemed very comfortable nullifying Bardet yesterday. I think he'll just win the stage himself. He'll want a regular (non-TT) stage victory to go along with his Tour victory and today is the perfect day with a finish at the top.
It's much harder to attack Sky and Froome if the pace they set at the front is fast and unrelenting. The more bots you have the more effective that 'train' is. Sky are brilliant at it and once they get to the foot of the mountain their mountain bots, will do the same until one by one they fade
away
.........like
.............. drops
.............,....... in
..,.................... the
......................... rain
Someone attack, gosh darn it!
(someone still in contention, I mean!)
(someone still in contention, I mean!)
Total class the way SKY have kicked on at 6.4kms to go....Dropped half the group in 200 metres.
I am only watching this on the TDF website, but it looks like the leaders are about to devour all the breakaway groups.
Aru's off.
Someone give Kwiatkowski a medal!
Well ok I trust Landa now
What a triumph of tactics from Sky
They remind me the US Postal...
Shhhhh!
Not sure I want to go down that black hole.....
Once doubters provide a shred of evidence then maybe we can have a sensible discussion.
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I'm the same, I tend to keep it to myself but I'm sure that I'm not the only Cycling follower having the same feeling.
Bit of a letdown this stage. Uran has been riding so conservatively, embarrassing to be so close to yellow and not attempt a single attack throughout the Tour. Bardet can't do it alone, especially when Froome, albeit less dominant, is still the strongest rider. Froome is the deserved winner.
The difference is that Armstrong was superhuman, Froome clearly isn't, the team just has the tactics absolutely spot on.
I had the same thought but he's he's probably near his limit. Shame, he seemed to have the legs today. A Dan Martin esque attack would've been nice but he probably thought that bloody Landa is up the road and the chances are he'd not make any move stick.
I do love riders who give it a go but Uran looks like he's consolidating his podium before the final ITT smack down.
I do really feel sorry for Aru. Run out of fuel when it matters.
Well it's always there in the background but the sport I'm convinced is cleaner than ever and teams just operate differently now. You'll always get indivdual cases but I'm not highly suspicious of teams doping their riders en mass in this current Post Armstrong era. Astana gave me some doubts in the Giro not long ago, but I'm getting these feelings less and less thankfully.
As far as Sky are concerned, they've been guilty of being less than fully transparent recently but I don't think it as anything more than that.
Froome is supermechanical, he looks like he is riding a moped.
After extensive search of Google images, I conclude that Froome has never ridden a moped.
Agree with that, but the thing about SKY is that they come with the simple and single plan to get Froome home as TdeF GC Champion.
Every single thing is geared to that - team selection of hard riding frontmen; with no sprinters; no attempt at points winner; no climbing specialist except Froome himself ( and Landa who has been a revelation ); superb tactics; and a team ethic which is to win the GC with anything else just a bonus.
And they do it perfectly.
I agree, though I wish they would give nearly as much attention to the Giro and Vuelta. I think the last couple of years they've made more effort which is great to see. Froome himself seems pretty fixated with the Tour, but how much greater would his Palmares be with Giro and Vuelta wins on it!
Absolutely. Despite his undeniable dominance in the Tour, I have more sympathy for the likes of Contador and Nibali who've ridden and won all three Grand Tours. In doing so they joined a list with the only other names on it Merckx, Anquetil, Gimondi and Hinault. That's a list of true cycling legends. Contador has even won all of them at least twice (despite being stripped of Tour and Giro, which would've made it a hattrick of hattricks) and Nibali even has a classics Monument (Giro di Lombardia) to go along with it. Froome is strong enough to win the other Grand Tours but Sky don't seem to care about anything other than the Tour. It's a shame.
I think Uran and Cannondale are happy that he's in 2nd and do not want to risk it. They need those points a podium place gives desperately after their season.
They obviously are. It's just a bit depressing that such an attitude is so prevalent within the peloton. The respect for, or fear of, Froome is so big that his competitors, with one or two exceptions, are happy to be best of the rest, even in a year when they had every reason to fancy their chances.
Annual team budgets (estimated)
Team Sky – €35m
Katusha – €32m
BMC – €28m
Tinkoff – €25m
Astana – €20m
Etixx-Quick Step – €18m
Movistar – €15m
Lotto-Soudal – €14m
LottoNL-Jumbo – €14m
Dimension Data – €13.5m
Orica-BikeExchange – €13m
Giant-Alpecin – €12.5m
Trek-Segafredo – €12m
Ag2r La Mondiale – €12m
Cofidis – €11m
IAM Cycling – €10.5m
FDJ – €10m
Cannondale – €10m
Lampre-Merida – €7m
Direct Energie – €6m
Bora-Argon 18 – €4.5m
Fortuneo-Vital Concept – €3.5m
The other teams aren't doing too shabby tbh.
Not sure that Bora figure is accurate now that Sagan there. He probably on double that just himself!
Edit: rumoured to be on €6m
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/r...ur-de-france-team-largest-budget-262275#W4qjr
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That was last year. Tinkoff and IAM don't even exist anymore. But, I guess your gist.
Irrespective of whether Sky can be trusted or not, Froome gets no where near the respect he deserves.
From who? He's got it within the Peleton and cycling fans. Those recent Vuelta rides made that respect even more solid. Are you counting things like BBCs sporting personality of the year? Because I don't lend any credence to what is a essentially a popularity contest. Cycling is still a minority sport, relatively speaking.
I mean in the media and especially by the so called expert analysts on TV in traditional cycling countries like Holland, Belgium and France, where cycling is a major sport.
Yeah, perhaps so. Part of that I'd guess is that his helpers are so good. You could substitute his leadership within the Sky team with a number of riders and they'd most likely end up securing the overall. That's not his fault though and I so think it's a bit unfair, as he could quite easily have win the Vuelta least once, even twice.
I do rate the achievements of someone like Nibali and Contador with wins in all 3 GTs a bit higher than multiple tour wins as part of a super team.
I think his Vuelta rides are more memorable than any of his Tour wins, which are more brilliant for the way Sky dominate the Peleton.
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Get in Boasson-Hagen. Finally!
Deserved that after the photo finish defeat earlier. Good ride, although he would probably have beaten the other breakaway riders in a sprint anyway. Pretty funny that such a long stage is decided by a roundabout.