Tour de France 2016 **SPOILERS**
- Thread starter rich p
- Start date
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SWSteve
Guru
- Location
- Bristol...ish
COME ON CUMMO
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
If ever there was a case of "I've had worse injuries fae shaving..."
Talk about taking it on the chin! Cleaned up and stitches in place.
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
It'll look worse in the morning, once the bruising starts to show. So, anyway, those experimental airbags for cyclists just don't work!
brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
Yates is now second overall and will wear the white jersey.
brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
What's the odds on Stevo going in a breakaway again tomorrow and go for the polka dots.
Yeah, Cummings is probs doped up to the eyeballs!
Flying_Monkey
Recyclist
- Location
- Odawa
I'm sorry but that's a little bit ridiculous.
1. It's one thing to question a result like Horner's a couple of years back (there are very few cyclists in their 40s realistically likely to achieve what he did in winning the entire Vuelta). But a rider in his mid-30s? Do you question Greipel every time he wins a sprint? He's 34. Purito Rodriguez is 37 and while he's not what he was, he still wins races and gets on podiums... there are many others.
2. This was a relatively short stage with just one 5-6% average slope for 10km which followed by a descent and a draggy finish which, if you know Cummings' characteristics, is pretty much ideal for a determined and powerful pursuiter like him. It wasn't a series of really steep HC Pyrrenean climbs (as we'll get tomorrow) or a 25km Alpine monster, you would not have seen him even trying this.
3. He's a well-known tough breakaway rider with a consistent record of winning stages like this, who has conserved his energy to win his single targeted stage That's hardly suspicious. And he has been able to make more of them of late, because he's essentially been released from domestique duties in order to go for stages, as Dimension Data has confirmed in interviews.
4. The chase by Nibali and co. never really got very organised and none of the three chasers really put in a consistent effort to catch Cummings.
5. Oh yeah, and of course he wants to stick it to British Cycling, but who doesn't right now? That's just a bonus.
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
Totally agree. What's more, all his big wins have been in stage races where he isn't a threat to the overall standings. He's never won any big one-day races and I can't see him being allowed to.
Still, another fantastic achievement and it's brilliant the way he seems to be able to pick his stage and just win it.
400bhp
Guru
Perhaps the one thing he could do is the TT. What's the Rio TT course like? I'm struggling to see who they are going to pick to do the TT and just assume they will use Froome. I'm right in thinking it has to be a rider from the road squad?
Louch
105% knowledge on 105
- Location
- Kingdom of Kinnard
Yeah has to be one of your road team. Re the course, I think Sagan isn't doing it as he says it's too hilly , so Froome is probably the best bet to get behind. Cummings is a good breakaway racer, but see the logic in taking better domestiques to purely support Froome
400bhp
Guru
6. The tour has been easy up to now and, as far as I could see, Cummings just hid away & therefore had plenty of energy (he is still over 40 minutes down on the GC). Compare that to, say Nibali, who is clearly fatigued, not just from the Giro, but also on his dismal effort in the mid mountain stage earlier in the week.
coffeejo
Ælfrēd
- Location
- West Somerset
As per the above videos, I've read on several sites this morning that a spectator accidentally brought it down. The finishing times took a while to calculate as the riders aren't tracked second by second.
