Criterium du Dauphiné, 8-15 June 2014 ***spoilers***

[Pedrosanchezo]

Berti does it! Wow.

Froome not himself?

 

[raindog]

Westra!! Cheeky lad

 

[RobNewcastle]

Westra! haha

Wicked stage, bodes well for the tour. Great that Contador looks in good enough shape to really challenge Froome but I also think Froome looked slightly under 100% (he won't say that ofcourse). Porte answered a few questions today too.

Tomorrow could be interesting again but I think Contador will take it.

 

[raindog]

Berto looks as if he might peak perfectly for the Tour

 

[Crackle]

Talansky looked good too. Yates faded today, looks like he's not ready for a gt yet. Looking forward to tomorrow now.

 

[rliu]

Never seen anything like today's stage before with Westra catching and beating 2 Katusha riders working together up the climb. Silin was 16 seconds down on Westra in the end as well so he cracked big-time towards the end.
I get the feeling Froome may have benefited more if he went out on his own earlier, it seems Porte's pace-making actually slowed him down when a quick reaction to a trademark Bertie attack was needed.

 

[RobNewcastle]

Pretty much guess work and I may be wrong but I'd say on another day Froome would probably have been able to respond to that attack quicker with acceleration. Either way the mountains in the tour are going to be an awesome showdown between Froome and Contador.

 

[rich p]

Like him or loathe him, Bertie does ride in a brilliantly aggressive style.

 

[rich p]

My pet subject...
...Lopez did his usual ride of wheelsucking, with the added bonus of 300 metres in front, before GT had to take over again.

 

[robertob]

Bravo Alberto! Great to see Contador attacking - and being successful. Makes tomorrow even more interesting as you can expect Froome to attack and then let's see how has more to offer at this stage of preparation for the tour. I would agree with the suggestion that Froome would have been able to respond to the attack though, if he would have done so, instead of staying on the wheel of Porte. But that's racing. All about the right and wrong decisions which have to be made in a split second sometimes.

 

[thom]

SKY showed how to give a GC rider the perfect leadout there.
The problem was the finisher wasn't on their team.

Likely Froome would have had more in the tank had he not fallen yesterday but what this shows is SKY & Froome may not have the firepower to blow off Contador this year and that Bertie has trained and adapted to counter SKY's strategy.

It makes the TT at the end of the tour mighty important.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

My pet subject...
...Lopez did his usual ride of wheelsucking, with the added bonus of 300 metres in front, before GT had to take over again.

Porte didn't do a very long stint on the front either. I thought he was coming into form and had had an easy ride of it up till the end. So I was a little disappointed.

 

[rich p]

I find it hard to see what difference it makes to Bertie whether it's 4 Sky riders who are pulling him or a Sinkoff Taxo rider.

 

[Crackle]

I find it hard to see what difference it makes to Bertie whether it's 4 Sky riders who are pulling him or a Sinkoff Taxo rider.

Yeah, couldn't help thinking Froome'd been better with no one and sitting back watching others force the pace, because that kind of tempo exposes everyone not feeling good, including him.

 

[mr messy]

Would that not have been Froome's call and pre-planned tactic though?