Tour de France 2013 *spoilers*
- Thread starter Noodley
- Start date
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oldroadman
Veteran
- Location
- Ubique
Spot on. The rule concerns the taking of bottles and food/gels from cars. Whatever is in your pockets is fine. In a lot of cases, the radio tour speaker will broadcast to all team cars when it's about 30km to go, just so they have a chance to get their feeds and bottles in before the 20km point. In the case of mountain top finishes, the commissaires can reduce the distance so that the time without team car support is about the same, so it all works out and is safer - plus it stops any silly things happening with cars. They can still come up to talk if the commissaires let them, but nothing has to pass from car to rider.
But think, a domestique plugging along with 15km to go, running out of gas, the second car gives him a bottle and gel to get to the finish 15 minutes down. No effect on the race. Is that a problem? Not if a commissaire does not see it! I think even if they do there is a fair bit of "so what" covering of eyes, and a lot of common sense applied. Which may surprise some posters, who think they are a heartless load of "blazers" (I never saw a commissaire wearing one).
Spinney
Bimbleur extraordinaire
- Location
- Back up north
Did I hear the ITV commentary correctly - after going over a big climb, Cav is in a group ahead of the main peloton?
Yep, he is Kwiatek's Porte for the day
EDIT: but not quite sure what Kwiatek has in mind though, he's a bit late with his action
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
He got 12pts off the first climb and looks a good bet to get the 25pts for the second climb...
Surely he's too far behind in the points table now though? Must be going for the stage win.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Wooow, just realized I had a typo there I meant Rolland instead of Fedrigo... yeah, those letters are so close together on my keyboard
(Still got a chance with De Clercq though)
Navarro's in the escape too. Though if the gap gets much bigger, the peloton might start worrying about him and Nieve being a threat on GC...
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Lovely moment between Ryder and Pierre just then. BFFs - for the duration of the descent, at least. 
Anyway, if I would be Katusha and looking to get Rodriguez on the podium, I would start making a hell of a tempo on the 3rd last climb and have Rodriguez start the attacks on that steep 2nd last climb (so that Contador and/or Quintana could get isolated and dropped on the last climb)
... so the minutes should be getting down rather quickly then
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Agreed - Rodriguez is the one GC boy I can see trying something on today.
Contador might if he has the legs, but I don't think he has.
Fair point (which I nearly made myself!) but even assuming Porte hadn't lost that time in previous stages and was in a similar position to Froome vs Wiggins last year would that make Froome any less grateful/reliant on the help Porte gave him yesterday? I think not. In fact I think he'd have been (rightfully) rather p****d off if that was the scenario and Porte did to him what he did to Wiggins when he's the stated leader of the team (as Wiggins was last year).
Yep, he put two minutes into Contador yesterday and is only 47 secs away from a podium. I can't see Quintana cracking but Contador and Kreuziger could.
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
"The Madeleine won't be a piece of cake today though..."
theloafer
Legendary Member
- Location
- newton aycliffe
it sure wont .. think they are going down the way I went over in 2009
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
what is the CC concensus on Ryder Hesjedal's sun glasses?
I'm not sure I like them.
I'm not sure I like them.
