Yeah, think some of the GC guys will give it a go. Probably Froome or Bardet, they look stronger than Aru right now.
Cycling 2017
- Thread starter Barbara Charles
- Start date
+8'52'' from leader to yellow jersey group, pretty much the highest I've seen in this year's Tour.
Let's do this thing!
Come on, Bardet!
Come on, Bardet!
Coordinated attack from AG2R. Froome is struggling
Shit, Froome's got a puncture. These last 40km
come on Kiriyienka, do your magic!
come on Kiriyienka, do your magic!I thought AG2R overloaded their roster with climbers but these guys are racing brilliantly.
Will be interesting to see if Froome can recover now.
Landa should drop back! Damn him
fecking Eurosport. Has commercial breaks, but hardly any adds, mostly stupid top 10 things, and previews of their own programme. cnuts, put the live action on!
ITV4- it's much better me thinks.
Very likely. Don't have it, though.
Anyways, looks it'll be very interesting now.
Anyways, looks it'll be very interesting now.
Landa waiting
Wow! Froome a bit in crisis! Fantastic Tour so far!
Thank god, well done Landa! This is freaking awesome 
Froome back with the group at last.
They need to attack Froome better. C'mon!
Good recovery by Froome but disappointing not to see the other GC guys test him more. Surely he must have been on his limit when he finally made contact with the group. As always, no guts from Froome's competitors. He really does look beatable this year and still they seem content with making the podium.
Hopefully Froome has wasted many energies today.
Good stage this.
It's like everyone is trying to help Froome. They do really fear him.
Yeah, it's ridiculous. Don't know why they even bother setting the pace when the GC contenders are too scared to lose their precious podium places to attack. Today was a golden opportunity and they didn't even try to take it. Hope Froome wins now, none of the others deserve it.
Yep, I really wanted to see the group go on an attack just after Froome got back with them.
Only two possible explanations: Either all of them were on their limit, or they're all too scared. Any sane person would know that that was the moment to attack. I think it's the latter, gutless bunch.
I miss Pantani. He would said "feck it! Let's go out all gun blazing!".
I think especially Aru. He has to be so scared after what happened yesterday.
If only it was that easy. Not many riders could have got back like Froome did, just look at his comebacks on the recent Vuelta's. He is an outstanding GT rider. The only rider that seems capable of doing major damage is his teammate Landa, but seems like he's pulling for Froome, as he should be.
True but after closing that gap by himself, Froome would have struggled to react to a full-blown attack immediately at the moment he got contact. To not even try is an admittance of defeat.
They are all connected with radios to their team coaches/managers/what-ever-they-are-called, right?
Yep.
They attack Froome now
A shame, have a feeling today for example would've been more interesting without them in play.
It's an on-going discussion. Many purists want them gone and there have been experiments with stages where no radio communication was allowed. Today, though, I'd say Bardet and Aru have probably both had a sporting director in their ear frantically telling them to attack. Didn't help. Usually the riders are bigger chickens than their sporting directors.
Mollema wins.
I think we're too far down the road with radio comms to turn back now. It would be almost like a different sport without them, the way teams try to exercise control or plan tactically. I dont mind tbh, although I wouldn't mind the use of power meters to be scrapped .
Well at least Martin is trying to claw back time
Brilliant performance from Froome. What a great day's racing.
Dan Martin just saying AG2R were absolutely flying right from the bottom of the climb, when everyone was in the red. Doesn't think anyone else (other than Froome) could have got back on.....
Rest day tomorrow, massive, massive stage for the GC on Wednesday with the Telegraphe and Galibier.
Rest day tomorrow, massive, massive stage for the GC on Wednesday with the Telegraphe and Galibier.
You have to hand it to SKY....They just steamroller their way through every stage....