2013 Tour debrief

[MisterStan]

I still don't know who Ritchie Froome is.

Chris Froome's twin brother. They took turns in racing each day - that was the secret - no doping needed - just have a spare body....

 

[Beeankey]

Things we have learned from this year's tour.

Froome won fair and square although I think he was on the limit in the last few days but the others were either too tired to take advantage or missed the opportunity

Quintana was the sensation in the GC battle and will improve his decision making

Kittel is Cav's real opposition - MC has been gracious but will need to adjust his train, his training or his goals

French riders are one-trick ponies with no GC contenders in the near future

Cadel Evans was either shot physically post-Giro or mentally

Double Alpe d'Huez was bling but neutralized the following day

Bertie got his bobbing arse kicked

Lampre is a waste of a team and BMC had a horror show

Peraud going down on that shoulder was the ouchiest moment of the tour.

There was hardly a day without a drama

What an inane thread!:-)

 

[ayceejay]

Teams should have more 7 year old friendly names than ' 'orrible green head'

 

[Dave Davenport]

then next year, he'd be unstoppable.

Depending on how many flat'ish TT miles there are, seeing as he lost well over three minutes in 33km to Froome.

 

[Rob3rt]

What an inane thread!:-)

The time it took you to make this inane post is time you could have put toward creating another inane thread to advance your ever increasing tally of inane threads.

 

[Hont]

- Jean Gadret is still a cock.
- Froome's press conferences are nothing like as interesting as Wiggins'
- Podium girls are invisible when Sagan isn't harassing them
- Eurosport need to beg Harmon to come back next year.

 

[BarryBonkers]

"Things we have learned from this year's tour."

Cav had a sh*t tour

You can ride on a cracked pelvis

Aero bikes are worth the effort, esp. for a few kilometres downhill

You don't need to love your team mates to do win (thanks, Sir B.)

A top pro, riding to win Le Tour, can get the bonk just like you or me cycling home after the Sunday club run.

 

[Crackle]

"Things we have learned from this year's tour."

Cav had a sh*t tour

You can ride on a cracked pelvis

Aero bikes are worth the effort, esp. for a few kilometres downhill

You don't need to love your team mates to do win (thanks, Sir B.)

A top pro, riding to win Le Tour, can get the bonk just like you or me cycling home after the Sunday club run.

People keep saying Cav had a shoot tour and I suppose in the context of 2 wins instead of four, you could say it wasn't his normal standard but coming off the back of an illness, with a team still misfiring in the leadout (they got it right once and he won) and the move he made to make it on to the back of the Saxo break in the wind, which no other sprinter did, I'd say it was pretty good.

 

[Hont]

A top pro, riding to win Le Tour, can get the bonk just like you or me cycling home after the Sunday club run.

They're massively more likely to given how many more calories they expend, and that they don't make a coffee stop

And Cav definitely did not have a shoot tour. He had a comparatively lean tour but he still got more wins than Greipel with an inferior leadout train.

 

[BarryBonkers]

"Things we have learned from this year's tour."

Cav had a sh*t tour

Chaps, you're taking this a bit more seriously than I meant. The reference is to Cav's, er, emergency stop in a field, not his wins.

 

[Crackle]

Chaps, you're taking this a bit more seriously than I meant. The reference is to Cav's, er, emergency stop in a field, not his wins.

Thankfully I missed that and therefore your reference to it

 

[Hont]

Too subtle for me.

 

[thom]

There was a debrief earlier, on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez :

 

[dellzeqq]

Movistar and Saxo made some big tactical errors, making the wrong decisions at crucial points, like distancing Porte when they had Froome isolated, calling back Rui Costa when Valverde broke a wheel. With the right decisions, Froome may have been put under a lot more pressure.

I think that was the number one story. Sky were nowhere near as strong as Movistar, but they did the best they could with what they had while Movistar comprehensively blew it.

 

[arghill]

"Things we have learned from this year's tour."

You can ride on a cracked pelvis

Indeed you can and hats off to him for following rule 5 however I will add...

You should not ride with a broken collar bone. (It was painful enough to watch, can't imagine what that felt like!)