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

Kaisr Sose

MPFGLB wrote: »

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

But the small issue of twenty days of potential mishap and a few bumps to navigate. Fingers crossed for a close third week....If all else fails, there is always the Vuelta for a bit of excitement and suspense!

TheBlaaMan

Quintana is going to miss Valverde's support later on. While it might be the case that they compete within the team, Valverde was definitely going to support Quintana and you'd have to think this is a hammer blow for Quintana's chances in this tour......
And with Froome putting nearly 40 seconds into the other GC guys and three Sky riders in the top 10.......? I'll not be holding my breath for an epic GC battle.
****

WinnyThePoo

Don't worry, Betancurs your man.

pelevin

pelevin wrote: »

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.

Just to show I'm not going down a shallow moral-outrage path over nothing, this from CN is an earlier Movistar reaction to Valverde's crash:

'"The most difficult thing is [the kneecap seems] to be broken, and then because of the crash against the wall, there is a deep cut in the leg," the Movistar team representative told NBC.

"There was a lot of blood, and they have to clean out the area before doing the x-ray to see if both bones are broken or not. It seems that the knee has a terrible injury."

The team later confirmed the kneecap fracture.'

Bizarre reaction from Kirby to be focusing on a supposed light side of the crash & Quintana's pleasure in it.

Somedude9

I wouldn't pay much heed to what Kirby says.

I hope that doesn't prove to be a career ending injury for Valverde.

neris

https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/881250883375378432

Kaisr Sose

neris wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/881250883375378432

I wish him a speedy, uncomplicated recovery. The tour will not be the same without him. Always willing to have a go.

Recovery is going to eat into whats left of his career at 37 he's 2 or 3 season maybe?

Kirby's comments unsurprisingly not in the highlights :rolleyes:

MPFGLB

Deleted User wrote: »

Kirby's comments unsurprisingly not in the highlights :rolleyes:

They were in the Le Mond show

ThisRegard

The reaction to Kirby's comments are overblown. He wasn't watching the crash live and didn't know the extent of the Injuries at the time either. The campaign is nonsense in my opinion.

Lusk_Doyle

That face on Tony Martin in the highlights reel is something else!

at1withmyself

ThisRegard wrote: »

The reaction to Kirby's comments are overblown. He wasn't watching the crash live and didn't know the extent of the Injuries at the time either. The campaign is nonsense in my opinion.

The reaction is definitely not, it's a terrible thing for anyone to say, never mind a professional commentater. The campaign is ott alright but he should apologise to Quintana on air today.

CrowdedHouse

I know this is probably difficult to know but in conditions like yesterday,on a short course is there much to be gained using a TT bike over a road bike (with disc wheels)?

Miklos

I was there yesterday, the conditions were absolutely brutal. It was gas to see the difference between lads properly going for it with full pain face and the fellas dawdling along looking like they'd rather be at home in bed.

pelevin

Well I'm not part of any campaign regarding Kirby & I was writing whilst angry about it & I'm not going to be pursuing anything about it. It's definitely not an ott reaction though imo to view him here as way, way out of order. As I said, he's there in a very public & professional capacity, not talking to friends down the pub. This is a top cyclist - though his standing is irrelevant - after a desperate high-speed crash. Even if you don't know how bad the crash is, the idea a commentator sees the funny side of it before finding out its full nature is itself totally out of bounds stuff.

MPFGLB

pelevin wrote: »

Well I'm not part of any campaign regarding Kirby & I was writing whilst angry about it & I'm not going to be pursuing anything about it. It's definitely not an ott reaction though imo to view his here as way, way out of order. As I said, he's there in a very public & professional capacity, not talking to friends down the pub. This is a top cyclist - though his standing is irrelevant - after a desperate high-speed crash. Even if you don't know how bad the crash is, the idea a commentator sees the funny side of it before finding out its full nature is itself totally out of bounds stuff.

I agree but everyone knows how I feel about Kirby...but not part of any campaign