Tour de France 2016

Gutted it's been shortened, but it's still one hell of a place to attack. It's essentially this - https://www.strava.com/segments/7400863?filter=overall

Which is actually probably perfect for Nairo, it compares very favourably to Alp d'Huez which he loves, and probably has the best "clean" climb on record on from last year when he ripped 80 seconds out of Froome. I'd say 80 seconds is asking a lot, but he's very capable of taking the yellow tomorrow. Which if I'm Froome and feel any remote danger in staying with him, leave him to it knowing full well he'll more than likely reel him back in the time trials. No way he takes a lead of anything over a minute anyway.
 
Zen said:
Gutted it's been shortened, but it's still one hell of a place to attack. It's essentially this - https://www.strava.com/segments/7400863?filter=overall

Which is actually probably perfect for Nairo, it compares very favourably to Alp d'Huez which he loves, and probably has the best "clean" climb on record on from last year when he ripped 80 seconds out of Froome. I'd say 80 seconds is asking a lot, but he's very capable of taking the yellow tomorrow. Which if I'm Froome and feel any remote danger in staying with him, leave him to it knowing full well he'll more than likely reel him back in the time trials. No way he takes a lead of anything over a minute anyway.
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I don't even think he'll take the risk to be honest. If Quintana goes, Froome goes too I think.
 
16s ago16:00

I’ve never seen anything like this. Froome, after jogging about 200 yards, tries a neutral bike, but looks like he’s going backwards – and now he’s stopped again! He’s been overtaken by several GC contenders, including Quintana, but the commissaires will have something to say about all of that...

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2m ago15:58

There’s been a bizarre crash, with crowds forcing a motorbike to stop suddenly – and Porte rode straight into the back of it. Mollema and Froome went down too – and Froome, unable to remount his bike, is running up the mountain!
 
That was mental... got to feel for Froome there. He must be livid!
 
What the hell was that? Feeling sorry for Froome, but was one of the most comical things I've ever seen in cycling. Yellow jersey running up the Ventoux!
 
It's a scandal, plain and simple. Froome was about to add another 30 seconds (if not more) to his lead, and suddenly he's 39 seconds behind Quintana now. He's not lost anything yet, but think about if he ends up losing the Tour because of this.
 
Lurpak99 said:
It's a scandal, plain and simple. Froome was about to add another 30 seconds (if not more) to his lead, and suddenly he's 39 seconds behind Quintana now. He's not lost anything yet, but think about if he ends up losing the Tour because of this.
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Meh, he slowed the leading group down on purpose to get his teammates on after the earlier crash. THis isn't fair, but it's part and parcel of cycling. Has happened a bunch of times before.
 
NM said:
Meh, he slowed the leading group down on purpose to get his teammates on after the earlier crash. THis isn't fair, but it's part and parcel of cycling. Has happened a bunch of times before.
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He didn't slow anything down, they slowed things down themselves. Movistar could've attacked if they wanted to, the yellow jersey doesn't call the shots.
 
Good call. Just hope he's not too banged up from the crash.
 
Why can't the spectators just let the riders pass through ffs! It's a complete farce when this happens. At least common sense prevails and Froome stays in yellow.
 
Just watched it, absolutely ridiculous situation, put barriers up and double them up where needed including sprint finishes and put two motorbikes side by side where there's no barriers.
Did you see the fan who got hit head on and knocked down because he was on the road on a tight right hander, luckily the rider wasn't knocked off and froome back fisting that guy before his attack on the descent :lol:.
 
1. I think it's right that Porte and Froome were given Mollema's time but why was Quintana compensated??? He had even been dropped by Yate's group at the point where the crash happened. It's not fair on Mollema, who's basically been punished.
2. Froome should receive a penalty for running without his bike. The rules are you're allowed to run, but only as long as you have your bike with you!
3. The official race organization mechanic's car doesn't even have a spare bike with clips that fit the shoes the cyclists use.
4. Why on earth hadn't the race organization ASO put up barriers in the last 3km's????
5. Something needs to be done about the amount of fans and the behavior of certain fans on the descents, it can't go on like this.

All in all, this is a professional sport watched by millions of fans all over the World run by a bunch of amateurs. Still, makes fabulous TV!
 
Seems he's been given the same time as Porte because after the crash and while he was getting to his feet, one of the official Tour motor bikes ran over Froome's cycle while it was still on the floor and snapped the front forks.

To make it worse, when the SKY back-up car tried to get to him, further up the hill, hundreds of spectators waving Columbian flags blocked the road and the back-up car literally had to push them out of the way as it inched forward.

Common sense, I think - hardly any of the shambles was Froome's fault.

In fact, I reckon he might have got another minute on Quintana without the crash, although there were plenty of whistles and boos at the yellow jersey ceremony and which will probably continue right through to Paris.
 
spwd said:
Just watched it, absolutely ridiculous situation, put barriers up and double them up where needed including sprint finishes and put two motorbikes side by side where there's no barriers.
Did you see the fan who got hit head on and knocked down because he was on the road on a tight right hander, luckily the rider wasn't knocked off and froome back fisting that guy before his attack on the descent :lol:.
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I didn't catch that part
 
Mad, mad, mad. How is Quintana so empty it seems? Froomes awesome, an absolute nutter. And despite all this, this has to be the closest top 10 in donkeys even if everyone else is pretty much out of it, tomorrow should split it up a bit though.

Riot act of a stage, not sure whats up with the fans though, not entirely sure how people want them to fix it though, they can't organize security measures for 100 miles...just the key areas. It's on the fans themselves to behave themselves and leave space for the most part.
 
MY MAN! I am eating my words about Dutch success right now. 2 stages for Dumoulin, Mollema 2nd place with a chance to ride into Paris with a podium place in his sights. I suspect Dumoulin will not do much more this tour, saving himself for the olympics.

Froome did great business too. Won time on all his rivals, and Quintana fecked this one up royally.
 
Apart from the fact that Dumoulin beat Froome with over a minute, it was almost as expected. Quintana was always gonna lose a lot of time today, and he simply needs to be better in TTs, otherwise he'll end up like Andy Schleck as the eternal 2nd. Apart from Pantani I can't remember a Tour winner who wasn't good in TTs, some like Indurain and Wiggins even won their Tours almost purely because of their abilities in that discipline.
 
Lurpak99 said:
Apart from the fact that Dumoulin beat Froome with over a minute, it was almost as expected. Quintana was always gonna lose a lot of time today, and he simply needs to be better in TTs, otherwise he'll end up like Andy Schleck as the eternal 2nd. Apart from Pantani I can't remember a Tour winner who wasn't good in TTs, some like Indurain and Wiggins even won their Tours almost purely because of their abilities in that discipline.
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It's a good point. A good time triallist can put several minutes into his opponents if the conditions are right. It seems to be the best way to get ahead of the other GC contenders, who tend to all be mountain specialists in the modern era.
 
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