Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/16/2015 09:36 AM |
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| Majka lights the fuse....game on. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/16/2015 09:39 AM |
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| or not....that was short-lived!! |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/16/2015 10:10 AM |
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Pffffffttt.....
I'm kinda disgusted now. Was trying to remain positive, but really? Gerraint Thomas, a classics guy, resisting the best climbers in the world?
Where Keith when you need him.....
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/16/2015 11:00 AM |
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| Disappointing stage...way too much flat between the penultimate and final climbs for an adventurous yellow jersey attack. I am liking how Gesink is riding after family health and personal physical problems last years. Dumb bad luck today, flat at foot of final climb cost a minute. |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2881
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| 07/16/2015 12:00 PM |
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Well it rained, and Froome did lose time :-;
Weird how the break was rained on for what seem like hours but when the bunch got to same spot 10 minutes later no rain, until the final kms. |
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zootracer
Posts:833
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| 07/16/2015 04:15 PM |
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| I'm thinking the rain was a blessing during that last climb.... |
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79pmooney
Posts:3180
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| 07/16/2015 06:36 PM |
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Ride On, the race needs snow to slow the Sky train down. (UCI should be infornmed snow might well INCREASE viewership!)
Il neige, si vou plait!
Ben |
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79pmooney
Posts:3180
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| 07/16/2015 06:55 PM |
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My thinking on today's stage is that the GC contenders needed to ride the next to last mountain as a finish, then go like h*** on the decent, form up and TTT to the base of the final climb. In other words, descend in small groups or solo far faster than Froome should or would, gain minutes then work together closely. And since all the teams knew months ago when they looked at the race profile that if Froome had minutes this is what they needed to do, no collaboration outside the rules would be needed.
I cannot claim I had this idea months ago, But I sure knew it when I went to be last night and watched this morning primarily to see if Contador, Quintana, Valverde and Nibali would. Instead they followed like sheep and made a few moves in the final kilometers where one of them could have made what, 90 seconds? Maybe get a step higher on the podium.
It is racing like this that makes it tougher for me if the winner did indeed dope. Do the other riders deserve a step up the podium when they rode like sheep? (Like when FL won by minutes. Yes he doped and could not have won without. But he gambled the peloton would fight over scraps like hungry dogs instead of teaming up as a big TTT to take 5 minutes out of his lead on the 20 miles of flat they had before the final stage. I watched that at the French bakery where I watched today's fiasco, telling my table mate they had to TTT if they wanted to hang on to their podium spots. They didn't and got their podium spots instead completely unearned.)
Ben |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2881
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| 07/16/2015 07:07 PM |
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| Ben, the sky train would have gobbled them back up in the valley. That might have set up a showdown of the contenders with Froome exposed, I don't know. |
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79pmooney
Posts:3180
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| 07/16/2015 07:23 PM |
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| For that to work, they would have to ride the valley as a TTT. Astana could have dropped Fugslang back. This is tossing all ones eggs on one basket, but letting Froome crack them one stage at a time isn't working at all. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 07/16/2015 08:13 PM |
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| What LSD said. Wouldn't work with this stage profile and the headwind. They will at some point need to go crazy like Ben said but this stage wasn't the one. |
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Nick A
Posts:625
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| 07/17/2015 09:08 AM |
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| I noticed a Ridley in the break today. I was thinking how there's three American and zero Japanese riders, but between the frames and the components, at least the branding of the majority of equipment on the road reflects a tiny fraction of the riders. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 07/17/2015 09:12 AM |
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???? Ridley is a Belgian brand.
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Nick A
Posts:625
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| 07/17/2015 09:22 AM |
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| Peraud, that looks like some brutal road rash, and back on the bike. Damn. |
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Nick A
Posts:625
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| 07/17/2015 09:23 AM |
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| Oh, my bad. Embarrassed face. |
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