Tour de France 2017 Stage 18: Briançon - Izoard, 179.5kms

Zzippy

Lands attacking Froome?

neris

Race over

Doc07

Zzippy wrote: »

Lands attacking Froome?

No id say it was a foil for Froome

Bugsy2000

Got odds of 150/1 onLanda. Fifth of the odds to finish in Top 4, looking ok at this stage. Was conflicted with Dan being pushed out by him but feck it.

irishrover99

Izoard is looking very sparse of fans for the last mountain stage of the tour compared to other years

neris

Good finishh from dan

Inquitus

Dan might hop up above Aru, no, not quite enough.

Now lets see how much time Dan took from Aru

Doc07

Chapeau Dan Martin, what a brave, tough athlete. I'm so proud to be cheering him on today.
Could get top 5 in Tour with no team.
Also massive kudos to Uran who also never had any teammates left at the business end of stages.

donfers

Doc07 wrote: »

Chapeau Dan Martin, what a brave, tough athlete. I'm so proud to be cheering him on today.
Could get top 5 in Tour with no team.
Also massive kudos to Uran who also never had any teammates left at the business end of stages.

Zero chapeau to Uran, the guy is a leech and would struggle to attack a snackbox meal

MPFGLB

You wonder if Barguil was riding for GC he'd probably be further down on GC

SKY team is too strong....not Frome ...the team imo
Stops the others from attacking as Landa, Nieve, Kwait can bring anything back

It is by far the deciding factor.....not the superiority of Froome ...becasue man o man he isnt really that much above the others

Bardet has tried and so has Dan but to no avail

Heisenberg.

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MPFGLB

In fairness to Uran ...he is riding to his strengths ... just as team SKY does

MPFGLB

Heisenberg. wrote: »

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Noel Gallagher has let himself go :eek:

Burial.

Similar to Contador in 2014, Porte will have nightmares over this Tour. Jesus even Valverde will probably be thinking if only I didn't crash.

Wishbone Ash

Heisenberg. wrote: »

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See post 54.

Daroxtar

Burial. wrote: »

Similar to Contador in 2014, Porte will have nightmares over this Tour. Jesus even Valverde will probably be thinking if only I didn't crash.

If Thomas hadn't crashed then Froome would probably be further ahead.
It hasn't been a bad Tour but for me it remains a distant third after the Giro and Vuelta. Roll on August 19th

highbury1913

Burial. wrote: »

Similar to Contador in 2014, Porte will have nightmares over this Tour. Jesus even Valverde will probably be thinking if only I didn't crash.

The good news is that Froome does seem well off his AX3 Domaines, Ventoux, Pierre St Martin days. That being said, with the exception of the Peyragudes, Froome didn't look too much in trouble. It's all ifs and buts, yet I'm not so sure of it. He would have just marked Valverde and then have enough in the final TT as he will do on Saturday.

In the Contador case who was riding well that year and his best since his post ban days, he likely wouldn't have taken back the time against Nibali who was in great form outside of the cobbles stage(4th in the 54km TT). Nibali had too much of an advantage after that stage.

I would have been more interested in what Dumoulin may have done in this.

Very disappointing with Uran's negative riding. It was like Julich '98 all over again.

It was a poor route this year.

velo.2010

It was a route designed to artificially keep things close with so many downhill finishes and a relative lack of 1st and Hors category climbs. Regardless of the GC closeness, if you pinned Froome to a wall he would tell you that this has been the least punishing Tour in terms of physical effort. Apparently, he could afford to be a couple of kilo's heavier than usual this year.

Assuming he'll arrive fresher than last year, Froome has very good chance of doubling up at the Vuelta.

Arrow in the Knee

Is Dan Martin going to the Vuelta this year?

Inquitus

velo.2010 wrote: »

Assuming he'll arrive fresher than last year, Froome has very good chance of doubling up at the Vuelta.

I believe that has been the game all along, he wants to create his own bit of modern cycling history for his legacy by doing the Tour / Vuelta double, and as such came into the Tour undercooked compared to previous editions with many less race days. Noone has done a GT double since Contador in 2008, and the Tour Vuelta double seems even rarer, although obviously the Giro and the Vuelta have swapped dates somewhere along the way.

Djoucer

velo.2010 wrote: »

It was a route designed to artificially keep things close with so many downhill finishes and a relative lack of 1st and Hors category climbs. Regardless of the GC closeness, if you pinned Froome to a wall he would tell you that this has been the least punishing Tour in terms of physical effort. Apparently, he could afford to be a couple of kilo's heavier than usual this year.

Assuming he'll arrive fresher than last year, Froome has very good chance of doubling up at the Vuelta.

Spot on. The close margins really hide at how easy it has been for Froome.

ThisRegard

irishrover99 wrote: »

Izoard is looking very sparse of fans for the last mountain stage of the tour compared to other years

I was only thinking that myself, crowds generally seem to be down this year.

highbury1913

ThisRegard wrote: »

I was only thinking that myself, crowds generally seem to be down this year.

irishrover99 wrote: »

Izoard is looking very sparse of fans for the last mountain stage of the tour compared to other years

True. That was of the first things I noticed early today watching the women's race.

BowSideChamp

highbury1913 wrote: »

True. That was of the first things I noticed early today watching the women's race.

Was the women's race any good??

highbury1913

BowSideChamp wrote: »

Was the women's race any good??

Very enjoyable.

Lots of gaps between individual riders. Deignan was on the front for most of the climb, she came 2nd in the end. Vos was dropped on the early slopes.

The second stage on Saturday with a time trial.

There have been complaints about the shortness of the Izoard stage and that they should have kept the Champs Elysees stage.

Nevertheless it's coverage and hopefully the start of some more.

Inquitus

BowSideChamp wrote: »

Was the women's race any good??

Yes it was, it has a 2nd stage on Sat where they go off in a TT with the time gaps from today, but the people behind are allowed to work together if they make the junction with the lady in front, so it could get interesting, 22.5km TT, different course to the men though, mainly flat.

neris

New thing in A4 soon

https://twitter.com/michalkwiatek/status/888102708321845249

20 minutes after the race be load of out of breath aul lads looking for their 200 quid go faster oakleys in the ditches

BowSideChamp

highbury1913 wrote: »

Very enjoyable.

Lots of gaps between individual riders. Deignan was on the front for most of the climb, she came 2nd in the end. Vos was dropped on the early slopes.

The second stage on Saturday with a time trial.

There have been complaints about the shortness of the Izoard stage and that they should have kept the Champs Elysees stage.

Nevertheless it's coverage and hopefully the start of some more.

A bit odd they cut the Champs Elysees stage. Mountain, tt & crit stage would rounded things off nicely.

Heisenberg.

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