He also put in a decent effort in the Spanish TT.. losing only 2 minutes on Catroviejo in a TT that lasted almost an hour
Tour de France 2013 *spoilers*
- Thread starter Noodley
- Start date
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smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
On the other hand, he had an absolute stinker at the Dauphine last month, as did Contador...
Also, the Vuelta TT had a Cat 3 climb slap bang in the middle of it, with a tricky technical descent, while today's route is mostly pretty flat. My guess is Valverde will lose at least two minutes to Froome.
But nor would I be at all surprised if I was completely wrong on that and he puts in a blinder.
True dat.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Only two minutes? He can't afford to lose that to Froome.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Laurens Ten Dam is doing rather well at the Strava Take on the Tour challenge.
He's lower on the leaderboard for that than he is on the real Tour's GC!
Wasn't just about everyone already written off on Saturday?
Yeah, but even before the Tour everybody knew that most of the top (Spanish) contenders would be facing a small set-back/blow today. I believe most would be "happy" (content) with loosing only about 1m30 (except Evans) vs. Froome, which - looking at the Spanish TT - might even be manageable for Valverde.
That is a good time from Tuft! OGE are hoping he'll podium today, so he should be a good reference point. A minute faster than Westra, 2 minutes faster than Stannard.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Not sure about Ten Dam. He's not a great time triallist, is he? I hope you're right though - I'd love to see him do well.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
38 minutes is about what they were predicting for the stage winner, isn't it?
It looks like a good effort for sure. Bauer has reported that the last 15 km is into a fairly strong headwind, so that could mess with a) people's pacing and b) the overall result if that headwind changes over the course of the race.
oldroadman
Veteran
- Location
- Ubique
If it happens it will be good news for cav, then he can use Steegmans as a workhorse a bit earlier to shove all the other trains about a bit, before releasing Renshaw to find gaps that should not exist. I think his chances of a Champs Elysee win are not looking great unless OPQS suddenly sort themselves out, or he can manage to feed off Lotto and Argos trains successfully.
As for the comment about being small, yes that's true, but it helps you get under people and makes them easier to shift!
