Tour de France *Spoilers*

[HF2300]

Bardet was awarded most aggressive rider, which surprised me slightly, despite his attack on the last climb.

 

[HF2300]

Now, will Majka get time penalties for his motorbike slingshot?

Docked 10 seconds plus a small fine.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Oh, and Majda got docked 10 seconds, I just heard them say on ITV4

 

[HF2300]

Tourmalet and Hautacam tomorrow. Should be interesting.

 

[thom]

Liggett: "This peleton has integrated all over the mountain"

What? They can climb that hill and do higher mathematics?

He wanted to differentiate himself from the commentator's normal line of people peddling squares

 

[laurence]

Obviously still young and learning but he seems content enough being one of the best one day racers around. It'd be good to see what he's capable of as a GC guy but he'd probably need to start training at altitude for that (and race less of course). Here's hoping, he's an exciting rider.

his early season was great too - he needs to get his form to come in for le Tour

 

[Scoosh]

Good ride from Frank Schleck too ...

 

[SWSteve]

Valverde being on the podium is annoying, I would much rather the two French lads being there as opposed to some doping ****.

Then again, if they were both guaranteed podiums it might not be as exiting to follow

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

These video clips from FDJ are quite a good view, the stagiaire Alexandre Porcheron seems to be loving every minute of it and seems a bit of a "character":

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAOLzwrKRyM

 

[ColinJ]

This may be a dim question, but why don't people like Valverde ?

Because he is a doper who got caught but carried on denying it! He made excuses, vague statements, lots of shoulder shrugging ... Now, he just says that cycling should be talking about 'the future', not 'the past'!

There wasn't any doubt at all that he was up to no good. The Spanish police raided a dodgy doctor's clinic and found fridges full of blood bags with coded names on. They worked out that Valverde's bag was labelled VALV (Piti) which is why you seem him referred to sometimes as that - Valv for Valverde, Piti, the name of his dog. He even denied owning a dog of that name despite witnesses testifying that he did!

The obvious way to prove the matter was to do a DNA test on the blood but he fought a legal battle to stop the test being done, claiming that it would infringe his 'human rights', while still saying that the blood in the fridge wasn't his. Strangely enough, when the test was eventually done, the blood WAS his!

He got his team to attack in one race when the peloton were on a pee break or there had been a bad pile-up (can't remember which).

And he is a wheelsucker.




Apart from that, he is ok!

 

[beastie]

Spell check........
It's peloton.

Sorry.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

It's peloton.

Akshully, it's peltalong

 

[smutchin]

And he is a wheelsucker.

I could almost forgive all the other stuff but...

Shame, cos he is a good rider to watch, despite everything.

I still hope Pinot and/or Bardet do him tomorrow but it's looking unlikely. And he'll probably do better than them in the TT.

 

[Stonechat]

Somehow regardless of his past I can't take to him anyway

 

[RobNewcastle]

Aside from all the stuff in the past, that carry on the other day in the Alps from Valverde was abhorrent. Sitting behind Pinot on the climb up to Chamrousse, indicating he couldn't put in a shift on the front then attacking him ffs.

The worst type of riding. Apparently he's not liked in Spain generally either whereas Rodriguez is highly thought of.