Le Tour de France 2012

A lot of the contestants for places 3-5 in the final GC have lost quite some time today. Gesink, Mollema, Schleck, Hesjedal, Valverde,...

Good for Van den Broeck this :D

Stretch said:
Wow, that's courageous but what I'd like to know, shouldn't he be off to a hospital rather than the hotel first?
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I imagine they went to the hospital immediately afterwards.

When a rider finishes the stage, you don't expect it to be that bad. But the cooling down in the bus, sitting still for 1 hour made it much worse and they realised then that he had to go to the hospital.

Cyclists are really crazy in the amount of pain they can endure. It amazes me all the time.
 
King_Eric said:
I'm not sure if Cav is really going to go for the green. Good chance he'll leave the Tour before the finish, since the Olympics is much more important to him than the green jersey.
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I don't think he'll leave the Tour as long as Wiggins can realistically win it. He's also there as a team mate and Sky are already down to eight men through injury, so Cav's is going to be important until stage 18 (stage 19 is an individual time trial and stage 20 is the last one and the GC guys don't actually race there). So if he leaves early it will be nearly the end of the third week anyway, I guess.

But he's clearly not really going for green. He may try but it's not a big target and his physic is already tuned in with the demands of the Olympic course. Way behind Sagan as it is.
 
Tomorrow the Tour really starts. First serious uphill finish, 6km at approx. 9% average.
 
Two more amazing stories.

First, there's Oscar Freire who was riding with a collapsed lung and a broken rib the whole day.

And even more remarkable, Wout Poels, one of the worst victims of the last crash, was immediately carried into the ambulance afterwards, jumped out, got back on his bike and continued to ride for 10km, before realising he's not in any shape to continue. The diagnosis afterwards was three broken ribs and a tear in both the spleen and kidney.

Amir said:
I don't think he'll leave the Tour as long as Wiggins can realistically win it. He's also there as a team mate and Sky are already down to eight men through injury, so Cav's is going to be important until stage 18 (stage 19 is an individual time trial and stage 20 is the last one and the GC guys don't actually race there). So if he leaves early it will be nearly the end of the third week anyway, I guess.

But he's clearly not really going for green. He may try but it's not a big target and his physic is already tuned in with the demands of the Olympic course. Way behind Sagan as it is.
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To be honest, I don't think Wiggins' ambitions are going to stop Cavendish from doing what he wants. He's the only one in that team not there to help Wiggins winning the Tour. Also, he's useless when the road goes up.
I also don't think anyone is expecting Cav to help Wiggins.

I'd be very surprised if I'd see him working for someone else in this Tour.
 
King_Eric said:
And even more remarkable, Wout Poels, one of the worst victims of the last crash, was immediately carried into the ambulance afterwards, jumped out, got back on his bike and continued to ride for 10km, before realising he's not in any shape to continue. The diagnosis afterwards was three broken ribs and a tear in both the spleen and kidney.
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That's just sick. Apparently after the 10km he got in the team car which drove back the finish. He then waited another further 50minutes at the finishing line before an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital. All of which was happening whilst he's suffering internal bleedings...

Can only happen in pro-cycling.
 
Breakaway looks like it will be reeled in
And wonder what we'll see between the GC contenders
 
Sky are all conquering. Wiggins will 'easily' take the yellow home to Paris if he stays fit & in one piece. Froome looks very strong as well. It's a shame Contador isn't riding because it would have been fascinating watching him battle Froome, Wiggins & Evans.
 
Rams said:
Sky are all conquering. Wiggins will 'easily' take the yellow home to Paris if he stays fit & in one piece. Froome looks very strong as well. It's a shame Contador isn't riding because it would have been fascinating watching him battle Froome, Wiggins & Evans.
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Put Andy Schleck in there as well, and we'd have one heck of a battle on our hands. I still won't write off Nibali this year though, even if he lost a few seconds. Could easily be day to daily form, and he's still in with a good shot in terms of the time in the GC.

I was hoping Pierre Roland of Europcar would stay with them as well, but he seemed quite shaken today. Still believe he'll be able to conquer one or two of the mountain stages as the others tire though.

Great to see the tour finally start though, this is the most fascinating aspect of it by far, as far as I'm concerned!
 
Need gifs of the winners coach or whatever going crazy at him in the car.
 
This was a great stage.

Nice to see Van den Broeck not giving up after the bad luck he had yesterday.
 
The helicopter passes over the various towns & villages really are pretty spectacular.

I can't imagine you get the same if you passed over comparably sized UK towns & villages, it would be dominated by new housing estates & out of town supermarkets.
 
Rams said:
Sky are all conquering. Wiggins will 'easily' take the yellow home to Paris if he stays fit & in one piece. Froome looks very strong as well. It's a shame Contador isn't riding because it would have been fascinating watching him battle Froome, Wiggins & Evans.
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You think? I still think Evans might get the better of him.
 
That was simply stunning by Wiggins today, we know he can do it, but being able to and doing it are different things. As much as this may be the tour a Brit wins it, I think we are also seeing the second Brit to win it in Froomes. The guy is the natural successor to Wiggins. If Sky can keep hold of him, Froomes, Wiggins and Thomas could be an all powerful team for the next 2 or 3 years on the tour.
 
You do wonder how long Cavendish will want to stay if the team are going to back GC contenders
 
Wiggins will win this Tour if nothing bad happens to him, that much is clear.

Froome really is confirming all the good things he showed in the Vuelta last year. He should have won that one if it weren't for Sky making the wrong decision and backing Wiggins.


EdWeatherall said:
You do wonder how long Cavendish will want to stay if the team are going to back GC contenders
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He's never really had much help from the team this Tour. The whole team was built around Wiggins this year.
 
The cynic in me says that Froome is good, but not that good. Beating the finest time triallist in recent years by nearly a minute? He's shown good form in the mountains, but today was simply stunning.

Evans is going to have to take chunks out of Wiggins in the mountains now. Even so Wiggins has a final time trial to make up any lost time. It's all coming together for Sky.
 
spinoza said:
The cynic in me says that Froome is good, but not that good. Beating the finest time triallist in recent years by nearly a minute? He's shown good form in the mountains, but today was simply stunning.
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Not really. Last year in the Vuelta, he was second in the time trial. Just behind world champion Tony Martin but more than 20 seconds faster than Wiggins and 30 seconds faster than Cancellara. So this result isn't really a surprise if you have followed him the last year.

I thought last year he wasn't going to last the whole three weeks, but he did. I'm quite confident he can go for the podium in this Tour. Likely even the second place.
 
vanthaman said:
What about now?
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Harder than before. Evans probably expected to lose a bit of time but not quite that much although it could have been much worse. Still not over with the mountains still to go with Evans being a good climber and an even better descender.

Although if Wiggins shaves those ludicrous sideburns off the reduced wind resistance will give him the edge IMO.
 
King_Eric said:
Not really. Last year in the Vuelta, he was second in the time trial. Just behind world champion Tony Martin but more than 20 seconds faster than Wiggins and 30 seconds faster than Cancellara. So this result isn't really a surprise if you have followed him the last year.

I thought last year he wasn't going to last the whole three weeks, but he did. I'm quite confident he can go for the podium in this Tour. Likely even the second place.
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I remember the Vuelta, and that was a surprise too. Where's the previous form before that? I don't remember him gradually improving through the ranks. The good time trial results are from 2011 and 2012 as far as I can see. He wasn't that good when riding for Barloworld.
 
spinoza said:
I remember the Vuelta, and that was a surprise too. Where's the previous form before that? I don't remember him gradually improving through the ranks. The good time trial results are from 2011 and 2012 as far as I can see. He wasn't that good when riding for Barloworld.
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He's only been cycling for about 4 years or something. Not everyone is a Peter Sagan, being top at 22 years old.
Before he started professional cycling, he was living in Kenya. We don't know what he was doing in those days. Was he training the way he's been training last two years? Did he have the same possibilities? Probably not.

And even with Barloworld he was 16th in the long time trial of the Tour, which is very impressive for a first year pro.
 
King_Eric said:
He's only been cycling for about 4 years or something. Not everyone is a Peter Sagan, being top at 22 years old.
Before he started professional cycling, he was living in Kenya. We don't know what he was doing in those days. Was he training the way he's been training last two years? Did he have the same possibilities? Probably not.

And even with Barloworld he was 16th in the long time trial of the Tour, which is very impressive for a first year pro.
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Or maybe the pharmacies are so much better in Europe.

It's true that there isn't much available on the internet on Froome before 2008. Even so, it's an amazing story he's got. In cycling, amazing stories tend to have a sordid explanation.

Not that it matters one way or another. I've always thought doping should be permitted in the Tour. It's a lot harder riding dirty than riding clean.
 
I thought the stage was set up perfectly for Evans to attack today - 2 BMC riders in the breakaway, all he needed was someone to pace him up to them. Instead it was Nibali who went on the descent, but couldn't keep ahead.

Maybe Wiggins and Froome do indeed have the best legs.
 
Absolute beast of a stage today. Two huge out of cat climbs and another small 2 cat and then the 1 cat up to the mountain top finish. This is what the tour is about for me. Wiggins will be attacked today, surely? Evans, Nibali et al all have to go on that last climb and try put time into Wiggins.

Would have been a perfect stage for someone like Andy Schleck :( though I suspect we might see brother Frank try a surprise move today for a stage victory, that's if he has the legs for it.
 
Evans has lost a minute to Wiggins on the last climb with some distance to go. Game over barring a miracle I'd say.
 
Eventful stage. Evans is all but out of it, but with a decent time trial on the penultimate day he will probably still get Nibali's spot on the podium unless he continues like this in the mountain stages.

Froome really seems strong enough to take it all, but Sky will never let him. Wiggins said they had agreed to let him go to put some time between him and Evans today, but when he couldn't keep up they had to call him back. I'll be suprised if they give him another chance to leave Wiggins, because that could, given what we've seen so far, mean that he'll usurp him of the yellow!

Great stuff, even though I was hoping Nibali could get some time on Wiggins and Froome today.
 
Interesting stage today. As I suspected, Froome is actually the better climber than Wiggins. Too bad he got called back by the director when he attacked.

I actually hope Sky lose the Tour now, just like they lost the Vuelta last year betting on the wrong horse. Although I realise the chance is small since Wiggins is still quite good as well in the mountains and there's still the long time trial to take extra time if necessary.

There was a little catfight on Twitter between both WAGs as well I heard :devil:
 
It's a bit ridiculous that the best rider in the peloton (Froome) isn't going to win the race.
It's happened a few times before that an eventual winner had some very strong team mates alongside him, like Armstrong & Azevedo or Heras and Riis & Ulrich in 1997(?) who finished very high up in GC.

But to see a leader being actually dropped by his domestique on a final summit was a bit weird, to say the least.
 
At the end of it all, Froome races for team Sky and he signed up for following the necessary instructions to get Wiggins to win. There's nothing 'unprofessional' about that. All that's happening is that Froome is riding himself into being a leader for another team. I personally don't get what the fuss is about.
 
Stretch said:
At the end of it all, Froome races for team Sky and he signed up for following the necessary instructions to get Wiggins to win. There's nothing 'unprofessional' about that. All that's happening is that Froome is riding himself into being a leader for another team. I personally don't get what the fuss is about.
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Who has said anything about it being unprofessional? If anything, restraining yourself to further help your team captain is as professional as it gets, and we saw Van Garderen do the same (all the while risking his position in the contest for the white jersey) for Evans yesterday too.

Cycling is a team sport, and this is quite common, but I think people are just discussing that Froome looks stronger than Wiggins as it stands. And there's bound to be some extra fuss when Froome had obviously been given the go to put time between himself and Evans, but was then called back because Wiggins couldn't keep up.

I hope he leaves Sky to captain another team next year, he's proven himself good enough both now and in the Vuelta!
 
Stretch said:
At the end of it all, Froome races for team Sky and he signed up for following the necessary instructions to get Wiggins to win. There's nothing 'unprofessional' about that. All that's happening is that Froome is riding himself into being a leader for another team. I personally don't get what the fuss is about.
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I just think it's a shame he's about to lose his second great tour because the team want another rider to win. I understand that Wiggins might be commercially more interesting for Sky than the unknown Froome, but I don't have to like it.

Also, by holding him back, Sky are taking a (little) risk as well. If something happens to Wiggins, or he fails in the mountains still to come, they could end up empty handed again. Just like what happened last year.

Froome should do 'a Cunego' and just go for it :p
 
RedLars said:
Who has said anything about it being unprofessional? If anything, restraining yourself to further help your team captain is as professional as it gets, and we saw Van Garderen do the same (all the while risking his position in the contest for the white jersey) for Evans yesterday too.

Cycling is a team sport, and this is quite common, but I think people are just discussing that Froome looks stronger than Wiggins as it stands. And there's bound to be some extra fuss when Froome had obviously been given the go to put time between himself and Evans, but was then called back because Wiggins couldn't keep up.

I hope he leaves Sky to captain another team next year, he's proven himself good enough both now and in the Vuelta!
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I apologise for using the word 'unprofessional'. However, my point is just that unless something really bad happens to Wiggins, well then Froome has to race for Wiggins. It is what he's paid for. I agree that he should be captain of another team as he's shown clearly he can beat the best there is.

King_Eric said:
I just think it's a shame he's about to lose his second great tour because the team want another rider to win. I understand that Wiggins might be commercially more interesting for Sky than the unknown Froome, but I don't have to like it.

Also, by holding him back, Sky are taking a (little) risk as well. If something happens to Wiggins, or he fails in the mountains still to come, they could end up empty handed again. Just like what happened last year.

Froome should do 'a Cunego' and just go for it :p
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Whilst it might be a shame, again, at the end of it all he's part of team Sky who have come to the tour for their leader, Wiggins to win it. If Froome wants to win a grand tour, then he should get to a team where he's the GC candidate. Right now it is a bonus that he's up in 2nd so that if something happened to Wiggins then he'll be able to win it as well.

Also, it's not just about being 'commercially' interesting but rather that they are a team and Froome is a part of it. They have trained specifically for this and will only change team leaders if absolutely necessary. Don't lose sight of the fact that it could be down to the training Froome has had with team Sky that he's got the form he has and has developed the way he has.

I'm not even a fan of team Sky but I don't see what the fuss is about at all. But hey, that's just my opinion.
 
I don't know what all the fuss is about either. Sure, Wiggins may have felt betrayed. But Froome would need to make up at least 3minutes to stand any chance of holding on to a lead in the final TT. He's unlikely to have made up that time what ever happened. They were riding side by side yesterday laughing & joking again so it seems to be a storm in a tea cup.
 
Tacks thrown on the course? What the?..

Something tells me nobody want's Cadel to win back to back.. Fair play to Wiggins.
 
ghaliboy said:
Tacks thrown on the course? What the?..

Something tells me nobody want's Cadel to win back to back.. Fair play to Wiggins.
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I don't think that's the case. It was just mischievous. Even Wiggins suffered a blow. It would difficult to pin Evans down out of a bunch in such a narrow road so to say they 'targeted' Evans is a bit daft.
 
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