Paris-Nice 2015 *spoilers"

[Louch]

I have nothing against Wiggins, its just Louch has crazy man love for him and he thinks Foome is the devil

You believe this, doesn't make it true. I'm just not a fan of dishonesty of Froome. You are pretty obsessed about anyone who doesn't like him as much as you though. I can happily ignore him.

 

[rich p]

Perhaps you two could start a Froome v Wiggins thread. I don't think it's been done before IIRC

 

[The Couch]

A bit surprised to see that Dennis didn't try to stay with the peloton as long as possible.
I would have thought him to be able to perform at least at a Tom Dumoulin kind of level, but instead he only arrived 17 min later (in a group with Degenkolb)

Majka is apparently also saving his gunpowder for the Giro (12 min back yesterday)

Fernandez was looking pretty good until he clipped Tejay and fell.
Sepulveda was pretty invisble (although he didn't end too bad though)

 

[Monsieur Remings]

That was tactically very impressive. A bit more subtle than simply the old Sky train technique, although that was part of it. To be honest, I think Thomas is looking like a stronger rider than Porte and could have ridden away to the stage and to yellow, but he's disciplined and he stuck to his job.

Yep, although the first thing I thought was that Porte was going to drag the rest of the chasing pack onto the two front men and hence Geraint Thomas. For Porte to attack like he did is one thing but Thomas managed the effort twice and fantastic discipline like you say. I personally hope that Team Sky start investing a bit more in his potential. Very entertaining stuff.

 

[tug benson]

A bit surprised to see that Dennis didn't try to stay with the peloton as long as possible.
I would have thought him to be able to perform at least at a Tom Dumoulin kind of level, but instead he only arrived 17 min later (in a group with Degenkolb)

Majka is apparently also saving his gunpowder for the Giro (12 min back yesterday)

Fernandez was looking pretty good until he clipped Tejay and fell.
Sepulveda was pretty invisble (although he didn't end too bad though)

I read on inner ring that Majka had a puncture pushed hard to get back on the got dropped very quickly

 

[Hont]

Fernandez was looking pretty good until he clipped Tejay and fell.

Whereupon he looked ridiculous for not being able to steer straight when glancing over his shoulder.

 

[The Couch]

Whereupon he looked ridiculous for not being able to steer straight when glancing over his shoulder.

To be fair, he was in the midst of the final climb of a stage (probably on a 7-8% gradient)... I wouldn't have been able to steer straight looking in front of me

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Ooh, that's as unfortunate as it gets for De Gendt...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Cocquard was absolutely burying himself and Cimolai ghosted around him without even seeming to break a sweat too.

 

[raindog]

Shame for Coquard though. That was a massive effort from him.

 

[smutchin]

I was really willing De Gendt on towards the end there. Brave effort. Probably never really stood a chance but it was particularly cruel of the peloton to leave the catch so late.

Good effort by Coquard too. Looked to me like his little legs just weren't capable of spinning any faster, allowing Cimolai to power past him. Unlucky.

 

[rich p]

Dan Mclay in 8th which is pretty respectable.
Bouhanni is off the pace this year so far.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Dan Mclay in 8th which is pretty respectable.
Bouhanni is off the pace this year so far.

+1 to both observations. If Cofidis can't get their sh[]it together as a sprint train, Bouhanni's move will look more and more desperate in retrospect.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

+1 to both observations. If Cofidis can't get their sh[]it together as a sprint train, Bouhanni's move will look more and more desperate in retrospect.

It would appear that Bouhanni is the only person in the world who did not see it as a bad decision; his ego seems to have overlooked the fact that his train at FDJ delivered him some good wins. Anyway, time will tell if he or everyone else in the world was right.

In today's stage de Gendt looks as if he wants that spotty jersey as he and 13 others have a 25 second gap over 6 others who have decided to give chase and 45 seconds over the peloton - 15.5km gone.

Breakaway group is Davide Cimolai (Lampre), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Lars Boom (Astana), Rohan Dennis (BMC), Warrren Barguil (Giant), Simon Clarke (Orica), Heinrich Haussler (IAM), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) Matti Breschel, Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff), Sergey Chernetski (Katusha), Bob Jungels, Gert Steegmans (Trek) and Van Baarle (Cannondale).

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Group of six giving chase are Jan Bakelants (AG2R), Jon Izaguirre (Movistar), Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-Jumbo), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) Floriant Seneschal (Cofidis) and Jack Bauer (Cannondale)

And it's all kicking off behind as well with 9 others deciding to join in.