OFFICIAL - Le Tour 2017.

Backwoodsman1 · Post by **Backwoodsman1** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:34 pm

Starting to break up now De Ghent has been caught ! Bling running out of men.

Beaver_Shark · Post by **Beaver_Shark** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:45 pm

Bling gets it. Great ride

Aru has possibly lost yellow!

Beaver_Shark · Post by **Beaver_Shark** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:49 pm

Terrible effort by Astana to not position Aru better in those closing stages.

GDBFC99 · Post by **GDBFC99** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:55 pm

Aru is isolated, no teammates to help, but he should have been in Froome's wheel at the bottom of that last climb. Same for Bardet. Borderline professional foul there.

Jalabert here on TV called it with almost 2km to go, was wondering where the hell the yellow jersey was while you had so many Sky in front. Unbelievable to gift 30 secs like that.

jezzer · Post by **jezzer** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 4:57 pm

Very poor from Aru and the team. Got that wrong. Very comfy for Sky. Chapeau to Dan Martin for taking almost 20 secs out of his deficit over 3 days when his back was locked up.

GDBFC99 · Post by **GDBFC99** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 5:04 pm

Looking at the finish again, Aru actually looks in pain on the line! Not only was he far at the bottom but he might not have the legs to follow, that would explain the 29 secs lost.

Bardet "only" lost 4 secs on Froome, better.

Edit: Quintana lost another 20 secs, Landa 14".

Hawk97 · Post by **Hawk97** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:48 pm

Quintana is cooked. Pull out and compete for La Vuelta

Armchair_Superstar · Post by **Armchair_Superstar** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 6:58 pm

Amateur hour from Aru, what a shambles.

Openside · Post by **Openside** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:08 pm

GDBFC99 wrote:Looking at the finish again, Aru actually looks in pain on the line! Not only was he far at the bottom but he might not have the legs to follow, that would explain the 29 secs lost.

Bardet "only" lost 4 secs on Froome, better.

Edit: Quintana lost another 20 secs, Landa 14".

Astana don't seem to know how to boss the Peleton, Sky have been doing it so long that they were doing it today despite Froome not being in yellow.

blindcider · Post by **blindcider** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:31 pm

Openside wrote:
GDBFC99 wrote:Looking at the finish again, Aru actually looks in pain on the line! Not only was he far at the bottom but he might not have the legs to follow, that would explain the 29 secs lost.

Bardet "only" lost 4 secs on Froome, better.

Edit: Quintana lost another 20 secs, Landa 14".
Astana don't seem to know how to boss the Peleton, Sky have been doing it so long that they were doing it today despite Froome not being in yellow.

Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive

Gospel · Post by **Gospel** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:44 pm

blindcider wrote:Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive

To be fair they've only lost two riders. Aru should have been better protected. Astana absolutely dropped the ball into that finish.

Openside · Post by **Openside** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:48 pm

Gospel wrote:
blindcider wrote:Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive
To be fair they've only lost two riders. Aru should have been better protected. Astana absolutely dropped the ball into that finish.

I just love how tactical it all is.

Gospel · Post by **Gospel** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 10:54 pm

Openside wrote:
Gospel wrote:
blindcider wrote:Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive
To be fair they've only lost two riders. Aru should have been better protected. Astana absolutely dropped the ball into that finish.

I just love how tactical it all is.

Yeah it's great. Make sure you watch La Veulta next month then too because that race is usually much harder to control and leads to all kinds of tactical shenanigans - as Philippa York can testify.

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 11:00 pm

Openside wrote:
Gospel wrote:
blindcider wrote:Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive
To be fair they've only lost two riders. Aru should have been better protected. Astana absolutely dropped the ball into that finish.

I just love how tactical it all is.

I've described it to friends not familiar with it all as high speed, three dimensional chess.

Dumbledore · Post by **Dumbledore** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 11:17 pm

Gospel wrote:
Openside wrote:
Gospel wrote:
blindcider wrote:Astana have already lost too many riders and just don't have the manpower to do that

Aru's only real chance is/was to follow Froome and take any opportunities to put some time in and hope that the TT isn't too decisive
To be fair they've only lost two riders. Aru should have been better protected. Astana absolutely dropped the ball into that finish.

I just love how tactical it all is.
Yeah it's great. Make sure you watch La Veulta next month then too because that race is usually much harder to control and leads to all kinds of tactical shenanigans - as Philippa York can testify.

I just saw they're bringing the Angliru back, for the final stage as well

I love La Vuelta

Alvise Martinengo · Post by **Alvise Martinengo** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:39 am

The only good thing yesterday: I've finished to paint walls and ceiling in my office.

Looking at highlights I've been stopped breathing for 20 seconds, and soon after I've been started laughing.

Unfavorable astral conjunction: or probably Aru has a team filled of kazak unespressed talents (Zeits yesterday was 62nd, Valgren Andersen 91st).

While Landa was 20th,Henao 38th and Nieve 70th.

Probably Vino has still in his pocket the letter he sent to Nibali in 2014 entitled "Insufficient yield", but also changing names I think it won't work.

The jersey has gone back on the shoulders of the owner, nothing new.

Backwoodsman1 · Post by **Backwoodsman1** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:56 pm

Great start to todays stage. Barguil takes points on first Cat 1 climb, still riders trying to get into the breakaway groups. Sky doing a good job controlling though, the nearest rider up the road is 11 minutes down !

Dumbledore · Post by **Dumbledore** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:13 pm

Alvise Martinengo wrote:The only good thing yesterday: I've finished to paint walls and ceiling in my office.

Looking at highlights I've been stopped breathing for 20 seconds, and soon after I've been started laughing.

Unfavorable astral conjunction: or probably Aru has a team filled of kazak unespressed talents (Zeits yesterday was 62nd, Valgren Andersen 91st).

While Landa was 20th,Henao 38th and Nieve 70th.

Probably Vino has still in his pocket the letter he sent to Nibali in 2014 entitled "Insufficient yield", but also changing names I think it won't work.

The jersey has gone back on the shoulders of the owner, nothing new.

Classic Vino

rugbot 2.0 · Post by **rugbot 2.0** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:31 pm

Armstrong has promised to have Vino on his podcast to find out what is going on with Astana. Whether he admits it or not it's pretty clear the team is a mess and they aren't riding for Aru. In case anyone didn't see Michael Valgren's post race interview on NBC: https://youtu.be/QQj-W0nmOus

DOB · Post by **DOB** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:33 pm

Supposedly Valgren gave an interview at the finish where he said he was trying to lead Aru towards the front of the bunch, and Aru wouldn't/couldn't/didn't follow. So Valgren just sat up and cruised up the climb at the finish.

It's a pretty embarrassing day for Astana, their yellow jersey gets isolated in the mountains on Friday, and they're then anonymous letting stage hunters control the race all day Saturday.

Even if they wanted to ditch the jersey to have an easier time of it, they overshot.

Oops, yeah, there it is, cheers rugbot.

rugbot 2.0 · Post by **rugbot 2.0** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:37 pm

It shouldn't have been a tough day - again to reference the highly controversial Armstrong podcast - everyone knew BMC were going to try control it for Van Avermaet, so let them do the work and sit on their wheel. Astana didn't have to do shit and they still f**ked it up.

DOB · Post by **DOB** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:38 pm

Tony Martin's put a minute onto his lead in the past 10km. Unless he blows completely on that cat1 climb, he's going to win the stage and he showered and warmed down before the peloton finishes.

DOB · Post by **DOB** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:41 pm

rugbot 2.0 wrote:It shouldn't have been a tough day - again to reference the highly controversial Armstrong podcast - everyone knew BMC were going to try control it for Van Avermaet, so let them do the work and sit on their wheel. Astana didn't have to do shit and they still f**ked it up.

You'd still expect to see the Yellow jersey sitting in a bubble behind BMC/Sunweb/whoever. Even when they were chasing the break, the pale blues were nowhere to be seen.

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:46 pm

Nasty build up to this climb, once the peloton gets to it they're going to get strung out a long way...

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:47 pm

Bardet and AG2R creating a split, this is interesting.

henry · Post by **henry** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:49 pm

Froome in trouble?

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:50 pm

henry wrote:Froome in trouble?

Certainly under pressure. That hand flick was interesting.

DOB · Post by **DOB** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:50 pm

henry wrote:Froome in trouble?

Took him a minute to close that gap, and Nieve sitting on his wheel at the time. Little bit of excitement.

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:51 pm

guy smiley wrote:
henry wrote:Froome in trouble?
Certainly under pressure. That hand flick was interesting.

Now a mechanical

henry · Post by **henry** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:52 pm

Amazing sport.

Dumbledore · Post by **Dumbledore** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:53 pm

Movistar should just have told Sky they can go and shut it down

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:55 pm

Froome has got onto the back of the dropped group right where the roads got tight...

fascinating stuff

Beaver_Shark · Post by **Beaver_Shark** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:59 pm

Cracking stage yet again.

Dumbledore · Post by **Dumbledore** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:00 pm

Would love to see Bertie and Landa try and turn the screws here. Real shame Landa rides for Sky.

rugbot 2.0 · Post by **rugbot 2.0** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:02 pm

This climb will be carnage now hopefully

guy smiley · Post by **guy smiley** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:03 pm

Blood and guts, pieces of leather, shredded rubber, broken plastic...

lungs left beating faintly on the roadside.

This is grouse.

Margin_Walker · Post by **Margin_Walker** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:06 pm

This is fascinating. Great racing and if Froome does end up winning this year he'll have earned it.

henry · Post by **henry** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:07 pm

'Cuse my ignorance, why are the Frogs booing Froome?

Alvise Martinengo · Post by **Alvise Martinengo** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:07 pm

No, unfair toward Froome. Booed by public, no.

Dumbledore · Post by **Dumbledore** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 4:08 pm

Crowd boos Froome

'Oh dear' says the commentator