TDF Stage 12: 214.5km Pau-Peyragudes

Burial.

Burial. wrote: »

Ah the Peyresourde. Lovely flashbacks to a young Contador and a freakish Rasmussen dueling their way up. Mighty stuff.

Fancy a break or else Aru. Think Froome will attack but won't make too much ground. Think Quintana, Contador et al. will struggle. Contador looks shagged from crashes and mentally is a wreck and too soon for Quintana. Bardet should fare well too.

Not too far off

Cmon Aru and Bardet, they'd make a fine alliance against the bots.

Landa is hilarious. What on earth are you doing.

ILIKEFOOD

just had a sneaky peak on my phone there via the eurosport app - has Dan taken some seconds back?

Eamonnator

I think I must have been watching a different race to the rest of you.
I thought that stage made for great viewing.

dastardly00

Weepsie

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

just had a sneaky peak on my phone there via the eurosport app - has Dan taken some seconds back?

He rolled in ahead of Froome. Froome looked like he was concentrating on his watts and cadence when the others were busy trying to win the stage

donfers

Froome not in great shape but will still win this with his strong team and time-trial...Porte had a real shot if he didn't crash out.

I think Froome, Aru and Bardet are nailed on for top 3 but thought Dan had good shout for fourth - surprised by the form being shown by Uran though.

Be interesting tomorrow , that was 6 hours in the saddle today for them.

dastardly00

Deleted User wrote: »

Be interesting tomorrow , that was 6 hours in the saddle today for them.

Tomorrow is the stage for an early GC attack.

pelevin

Eamonnator wrote: »

I think I must have been watching a different race to the rest of you.
I thought that stage made for great viewing.

The last 500m or so was exciting which is lot better than nothing but I don't really see how in terms of gc one team controlling everything until the last km makes for great viewing.

dragratchet

pelevin wrote: »

When Sky domestiques are that good, it stops the plausibility of attacking racing - and that makes for very uninteresting viewing - like the dirge of last year's mountain stages. The idea the rest of the cycling teams are making "half assed GC efforts" is just the equivalent of moronic propagandist garbage.

this.... look at the last 3 men for sky before froome, all serious gc contenders in their own right, and Poels and Thomas could potentially have been there too barring crashes and injury. Ive been in races where the climbing pace has been so high the only thing you can possibly do is hang on for dear life..

good to see bardet and aru showing that they are above froome when it comes to the final few hundred metres but id say todays result was simply down to the gradient and froomes weight relative to the lighter lads. Landa had the same bored expression on his face in the last few k's that ive had watching the tour.

Weepsie

donfers wrote: »

Froome not in great shape but will still win this with his strong team and time-trial...Porte had a real shot if he didn't crash out.

I think Froome, Aru and Bardet are nailed on for top 3 but thought Dan had good shout for fourth - surprised by the form being shown by Uran though.

Aru if he had a fit Fuglsang and hadn't lost Cotaldo could have done a lot more damage over the mountains you'd think.

Dan has a team with split ambitions and they're always going to make sure that they've a team for Kittel to get wins with. Hard to have one for him and enough people to work for Dan too.

velo.2010

I just hope that wasn't an attempt to make Froome look human and/or to give the jersey away for a few days.

pelevin

Landa who I think is out of contract this autumn should surely be the rider to sign for any team looking to have a serious gc rider in the big tours. After riding the Giro & though able to measure his efforts to stages rather than the overall after his crash & injuries he was still very impressive and is now 7th here less than 3 minutes down - over a minute up on Quintana for instance. That he is a domestique here is just a ridiculous sporting travesty in terms of a proper division of talent.

Burial.

velo.2010 wrote: »

I just hope that wasn't an attempt to make Froome look human and/or to give the jersey away for a few days.

Tbh I fully expect full washing machine mode soon and absolutely destroying the field.

lissard

Anyone out there reckon Uran has a decent podium chance now? A few years back he was an excellent TT guy and he's not getting dropped in the mountains this Tour.

neris

someone should let bardets mother know he,ll be late home tonight. he looks about 12

Eamonnator

The French will love the fact, that there'll be a French guy in Yellow on Bastille Day

Thud

so does Aru in yellow mean they don't have to wait for Froome tomorrow when he has a mechanical or goes through the caravans?

lissard

Eamonnator wrote: »

The French will love the fact, that there'll be a French guy in Yellow on Bastille Day

and they'll really hate that the guy is the Italian champion ;-)

neris

Eamonnator wrote: »

The French will love the fact, that there'll be a French guy in Yellow on Bastille Day

:eek:

neris

Thud wrote: »

so does Aru in yellow mean they don't have to wait for Froome tomorrow when he has a mechanical or goes through the caravans?

yes and even if he does have a mechanical Aru doesnt come across as the kind of guy who,ll wait around for him and will more then likely attack

brianhalpin

ITV brutally biased there towards Brits. Didn't show stage presentation (Interviewed Cummings), and were interviewing Yates when TG4 were interviewing Aru (I only switched because I failed to understand the Irish interpretation from Italian - my own fault for not paying attention in Irish class!).

I know I've backed up other's last week saying you can't complain about a British network talking about Brits, but the above is just desrectful to the Tour and its winners. They barely even mentioned Aru.

MPFGLB

ITV4 are dreadfullly biased

Eamonnator

lissard wrote: »

and they'll really hate that the guy is the Italian champion ;-)

Sorry.
Complete brain fart.

retalivity

Apparently That's the first time froome has dropped the yellow jersey. Every other time hes worn it hes carried it to paris

Somedude9

Shots of Portal having peeved words with Landa . Looked like he was called back at one stage in the run-in.

MPFGLB

I think Uran has a great chance but Cannondale would want to step up.....where are the team ??

Burial.

Uran was very good in a few Giros a few years back. Always looked a little fragile with injuries and colds and stuff. Looks in good form though.

dastardly00

MPFGLB wrote: »

I think Uran has a great chance but Cannondale would want to step up.....where are the team ??

Pierre Rolland and Andrew Talansky are all very good riders, and to a leser extent Nathan Brown.
Rolland definitely isn't going to do any domestique work :rolleyes:
But you'd be hopeful that Talansky would last until the 'final climb of the stage'.

MPFGLB

dastardly00 wrote: »

Pierre Rolland and Andrew Talansky are all very good riders, and to a leser extent Nathan Brown.
Rolland definitely isn't going to do any domestique work :rolleyes:
But you'd be hopeful that Talansky would last until the 'final climb of the stage'.

Talansky has been way down the field for every stage so far even though he came in as co leader...i think he has his eyes on the Vuelta

But Vaughters should make both Talansky & Rolland work for Uran...just go up the road so he can bridge just in case there is an issue.... at least