Tour de France 2016 **SPOILERS**

[perplexed]

As is Valverde.... eek!

 

[smutchin]

48 secs down on GC might not be thought too bad, can change in a flash in the mountains, and he's potentially got a few stages to recover

If we were talking about the Contador of a few years ago, maybe, but his performances so far this year suggest he hasn't got that killer blow in his arsenal any more - maybe against lesser opposition, perhaps, but not Froome and Quintana. Today and tomorrow should be OK for him, but the last 50km of stage five are seriously tough and he won't have fully recovered by then, so I can see him losing more time there.

 

[smutchin]

im going to take this moment to highlight that Vichot is currently on the same time as Froome. 19 more stages for him to stay like this

It won't be long before he has a strop, tells his mum she's ruining his life and goes up to his room to play his guitar, read Camus and write crap poetry.

 

[smutchin]

They seem quite good buddies

Although Greg is conspicuously keeping his fingers out of biting range.

 

[suzeworld]

When are people going to stop using barriers with legs that stick into the road? A lot have been mentioned this year about the risks of motos but surely someone somewhere needs to sort out the barriers. The ones very near the end were non-sticky-outy, but anyone with any knowledge would surely have known there would be a wide-spread peloton travelling at speed jostling for position a lot further out. The non-sticky-out ones also seem to be at an angle which reduces the chances of fans leaning over and causing a crash due to trying to take pics.

I see The ITV 4 team are following your comments and using them to write their own material!

 

[HF2300]

If we were talking about the Contador of a few years ago, maybe, but his performances so far this year suggest he hasn't got that killer blow in his arsenal any more - maybe against lesser opposition, perhaps, but not Froome and Quintana. Today and tomorrow should be OK for him, but the last 50km of stage five are seriously tough and he won't have fully recovered by then, so I can see him losing more time there.

Yep, true enough. I suppose I'm more thinking accidents / anything can happen, rather than an out of steak Contador can wipe the floor with an in-form Froome and Quintana.

 

[smutchin]

Yep, true enough. I suppose I'm more thinking accidents / anything can happen, rather than an out of steak Contador can wipe the floor with an in-form Froome and Quintana.

Indeed - long way to go yet, plenty of time for Froome and Quintana to crash out themselves!

Will be interesting to see what happens to Contador. We know he's not a quitter, so if he can keep going through the pain, stay out of further trouble and recover by week three, maybe he'll recalibrate his aims to picking up a stage win or two in the Alps?

 

[mjr]

Will be interesting to see what happens to Contador. We know he's not a quitter, so if he can keep going through the pain, stay out of further trouble and recover by week three, maybe he'll recalibrate his aims to picking up a stage win or two in the Alps?

Rather interesting comment from someone yesterday (sorry, I was channel-hopping between ITV4, France 2 - HD, fewer adverts, more interviews with people in team cars and so on, but dopier presenters - Eurosport 1 and RAI Sport 1...) about Tinkoff riding on the front for their team leader Peter Sagan. Slip of the tongue or is Oleg bored with beefy Bertie?

 

[mjr]

tho Ned proved he needs to get more experience in commenting on bunch sprints!

I particularly liked the commentary on the breakaway intermediate non-sprint where he failed to realise they were rolling through the line until they did... oops!

 

[mjr]

ITV as rubbish as ever. Trying to watch online and it crashes after every ad break.

The year where I watched online (flat with shared aerial and ITV4's mux filtered out...), they were incomprehensibly broadcasting the ads at a higher bitrate than the show: my mobile broadband was good enough for the show but the ads killed it every time.

Daniel Friebe also on board for this year, Matt Rendell's back too. Nice to have people who don't think clipless pedals and integrated shifters are newfangled.....

No, just wrong

Hadn't Matt Rendell gone to Movistar as press officer? Ah yes, he left on 5 April and calls it "brief and often frustrating" in https://mobile.twitter.com/mrendell/status/748270793033920514

Is it just me who's getting the new Orica kit mixed up with Movistar?

And is the new name "Orica Bike Exchange" a dig at Richie Porte or a public offer?

Right, I've caught up now, so as you were!

 

[Bollo]

Back from that there France now. I won't stink up the place with lots of jabber, but here are a few pictures from Stage 1


Tour Sculpture


Norman Hipsters


Oleg Tinkoff does not want his photo taken.


Retro shirts


Delaplace and Howes about to be caught.


Delaplace grits his teeth.


The peloton arrives.


And leaves.


Calling for backup.


Backup arrives.

 

[brommers]

Great pictures

 

[Hont]

GMC not having someone with Porte......A b, a b, my keyboard for a b.

If it had been GMC, I think he would have limited his losses...

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

Why do they let Teams wear yellow for the TDF?

It makes it very difficult to see where the race leader is in the Peloton.

Graham

 

[smutchin]

Why do they let Teams wear yellow for the TDF?
It makes it very difficult to see where the race leader is in the Peloton.

The ONCE team used to swap their yellow kit for a pink version for the Tour. Mind you, in those days, they were swapping their blood every day as well, so swapping their kit was no big deal by comparison. #epicbantz