2017 Tour de France Stage 1 - 13km - Dusseldorf TT

Inquitus

Kung 1 sec down at the intermediate, he's probably the last person who can take it away from Thomas, bar Froome I guess......

Gutted for Valverde, heading to hospital according to cyclingnews.

Thats my velo team down a man

Inquitus

Deleted User wrote: »

Gutted for Valverde, heading to hospital according to cyclingnews.

Thats my velo team down a man

I took him out of mine yesterday when I did a rejig.

Inquitus

Only Froome can take yellow away from Thomas now!

Weepsie

Got mixed up when looking at the start times, forgetting they were in "local time" and missed a good chunk of this.

Kaisr Sose

Oh no, not another 3 week procession in yellow if C Froome gets 40/50secs on GC contenders on Day 1?

Raymzor

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Gutted for Valverde, heading to hospital according to cyclingnews.

Thats my velo team down a man

I had him on mine too , but I also had G

neris

Be nice to thomas in yellow tomorrow just hope that it wont be held by sky for the next three weeks

Daroxtar

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Thats my velo team down a man

Mine too. He was in massive form this year, hope it's not too bad.

velo.2010

Kaisr Sose wrote: »

Oh no, not another 3 week procession in yellow if C Froome gets 40/50secs on GC contenders on Day 1?

Yep, that's how it'll go, all things being equal. Better off having a regular stage start and then throwing in the lumpier stages after a few days.

Djoucer

Ah lads. Calm down. It's a slender lead.

You can't be writing off rest of tour over a very wet 16min prologue.

MPFGLB

Jon Izzaigre also DNF

retalivity

MPFGLB wrote: »

Jon Izzaigre also DNF

Lol i was laughing as i rejigged my team and took valverde out - izaguirre was one of those who came in

MPFGLB

Porte is 35 seconds down on Froome

Its not that ...its the fact that SKY also have Kwaito and Thomas up there
They have so many cards to play

Somedude9

So will Froome ride for Thomas now? :pac:

I expect a 2012 repeat, but with Froome in the Wiggins role this time around.

Inquitus

Froome
Yates +25"
Porte +35"
Quintana +36"
Majka +37"
Talansky +37"
D. Martin +37"
Bardet +39"
Aru +40"
Contador +42"
Fuglsang +42"
Meintjes +01'00"
Chaves +01'01"

Good ride from Dan

MPFGLB

Dan Martin didn't crash ??
With these parcours he has a very good chance of at least a top 5

Somedude9

Yep, nice one Dan, solid TT

Weepsie

Would the rain have been a bit of an equalizer in some respects and nullified one of Froome's strongest assets a little. I mean had it been dry, Froome would likely have finished ahead of the other GC guys too, but in the wet, everyone (Valverde excepted) was a little more cautious.

pelevin

Is it time to bail out from watching the rest of the Tour?!

Somedude9

Real shame to lose Valverde, the race is lessened with his loss Always seem to lose one GC guy in first week, but to lose one on the first day must be a first? Here's hoping we lose no more.

Weepsie

Somedude9 wrote: »

Real shame to lose Valverde, the race is lessened with his loss Always seem to lose one GC guy in first week, but to lose one on the first day must be a first? Here's hoping we lose no more.

Didn't the Giro lose Dan Martin on the first day in Belfast a couple of years ago? Maybe he wasn't a bona fide GC guy, but still.

MPFGLB

Ion Izagirre also a GC guy gone...Bahrain Merida have invested alot without the results

Homer1798

Year in year out Dan Martin is one of the best climbers in any GT race he takes part in, but perhaps not the top climber. is it time Dan went for the KOM jersey, insuring he gets on the podium and by doing so also finish in the top ten on GC ?

Eamonnator

pelevin wrote: »

Is it time to bail out from watching the rest of the Tour?!

Yeah, done and dusted!!

pelevin

I try to avoid talk about commentators by & large, not that I necessarily always stay out of things. Specifically in terms of criticism of Kirby- which is the usual issue - whilst I know he can be tough going particularly so if being smug about British success, still I prefer him to the other ES commentators who imo are professional but maybe dull whilst I can find him quite cololurful . . .

Anyway the reason I am posting on the subject here is I think Kirby should be facing at the very least a serious talking to for what I heard from him earlier on the Valverde crash. I was in & out so actually missed the incident but I did catch Kirby joking about how Quintana would be smiling about Valverde's crashing. I'd not yet seen the incident at this stage & presumed it was more of a minor incident where Valverde lost a bit of time. However it seems Kirby would have already had access to the footage of the crash which it was immediately obvious was potentially very serious - high-speed going hard into barriers, & unsurprisingly out of the race. Kirby is someone who sometimes gets crazy emotional about incidents happening riders, their efforts after suffering, etc and here he thinks it's appropriate to be seeing the funny side of how Quintana might view the incident. I don't want bland pc commentary with people afraid to speak their minds but Kirby isn't down the pub talking to his bloody mates. That is just way out of order. If in the Giro Landa had managed to escape the crash with the motorbike, would Kirby have within a few minutes have been laughing about him smiling at Thomas's misfortune - and Valverde's cash was a lot heavier immediately taking him out of the race.

I think that a commentator can't be allowed that kind of leeway & Kirby should actually be made make a public apology or leave the ES commentary booth. Just totally out-of-bounds stuff.

velo.2010

I believe someone on Twitter is trying to organise a petition or at least give out the contact details for viewers to complain about Kirby. Wholly inappropriate for him to come with such nonsense. Quintana will be gutted over losing Valverde who had promised to work for him.

pelevin

velo.2010 wrote: »

I believe someone on Twitter is trying to organise a petition or at least give out the contact details for viewers to complain about Kirby. Wholly inappropriate for him to come with such nonsense. Quintana will be gutted over losing Valverde who had promised to work for him.

Just to clarify I'm not looking in general to get rid of Kirby & I'm guessing it's more an ongoing campaign you're referring to. As I said I actually quite enjoy his commentary but this was as you say totally inappropriate & shouldn't be just let go by ES.

And though it's not the crux of it, Valverde I remember doing some great disrupting work to the chasers from behind on the Vuelta deciding stage last year after Contador's early attack. Movistar & Quintana are surely weakened considerably by his crashing out.

rtmie

Wow, speed of Valverde going into that turn. Most of other crashes were lads marginally overcooking it for the conditions but he would have been close to edge in the dry. Always a pity when someone crashes out but in prologue/ opening TT, especially so.

Somedude9

Weepsie wrote: »

Didn't the Giro lose Dan Martin on the first day in Belfast a couple of years ago? Maybe he wasn't a bona fide GC guy, but still.

Aye, how could I've forgotten that distressing moment. A rain soaked TT too, if a team one. He did have GC status, at least with etixx anyway, as he was their team leader if I remember correctly.