05-07-2017, 14:16
Bit harsh on Sagan I thought. Yes he stuck an elbow out but Cav looked like he was gonna crash anyway. Bit of a daft manoeuvre.
![[Image: 2ZJuVRk.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/2ZJuVRk.gif)
Le Tour de France 2017
05-07-2017, 15:10
May admiration went to the guy who did 180 plus kilometres on his own for the simple reason he didn't once stop for a slash
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People got to shout to stay alive
People got to shout to stay alive
06-07-2017, 00:30
A much better day's racing with a strong 8 rider breakaway for most of the stage, which later on went down to 6, then 2 with 14km to go. By the final 4 km both Phillippe Gilbert and Jan Bakelants had been caught and left in the wake of the peleton. Most of the favourites for the Yellow Jersey were now at the front of the race and it came down to Fabian Aru to attack on the final climb and hold his advantage to win by 16 seconds from Dan Martin, with Chris Froome a further 4 seconds behind. Richie Porte was just behind Froome in the same time.
The upshot is that Chris Froome is now the overall leader, taking over from second-placed Geraint Thomas, with Fabian Aru, Dan Martin and Richie Porte close behind. Simon Yates, Romain Bardet, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana are the only other riders within 1 minute. Only Froome and Thomas remain from yesterday's Top Ten.
In the Polka Dot Jersey competition, Fabian Aru leads the rest and the Green Jersey competition, where the points are scattered around like confetti, is led by Arnaud Demare. The leading Youth rider is Simon Yates and the Team rankings are unsurprisingly led by Team Sky.
For tomorrow's stage from Vesoul to Troyes, we're back to the pedestrian style of racing, with the chance of another big stramash at the end to signal the chance of the sprinters to gain another stage win. Heading in the general direction of Paris, the stage features 2 Category 4 climbs and an intermediate sprint. With 2 of the main Green Jersey protagonists out, this has now become a wide open competition, so expect lots of action for sprint points, with Marcel Kittel, who got into a bit of a mess yesterday, and Andre Greipel my picks. We've seen very little of Steve Cummings so far, and I expect a stage win from him. Could tomorrow be the time to shine with a long range attack?
The upshot is that Chris Froome is now the overall leader, taking over from second-placed Geraint Thomas, with Fabian Aru, Dan Martin and Richie Porte close behind. Simon Yates, Romain Bardet, Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana are the only other riders within 1 minute. Only Froome and Thomas remain from yesterday's Top Ten.
In the Polka Dot Jersey competition, Fabian Aru leads the rest and the Green Jersey competition, where the points are scattered around like confetti, is led by Arnaud Demare. The leading Youth rider is Simon Yates and the Team rankings are unsurprisingly led by Team Sky.
For tomorrow's stage from Vesoul to Troyes, we're back to the pedestrian style of racing, with the chance of another big stramash at the end to signal the chance of the sprinters to gain another stage win. Heading in the general direction of Paris, the stage features 2 Category 4 climbs and an intermediate sprint. With 2 of the main Green Jersey protagonists out, this has now become a wide open competition, so expect lots of action for sprint points, with Marcel Kittel, who got into a bit of a mess yesterday, and Andre Greipel my picks. We've seen very little of Steve Cummings so far, and I expect a stage win from him. Could tomorrow be the time to shine with a long range attack?
Cabbage is still good for you
06-07-2017, 19:16
Again there was a fine strong finish for the sprinters, with Marcel Kittel finding a clear run up the centre of the road to win from Arnaud Dumare, who forced his way through a gap that was barely there, and Andre Greipel, with Alexander Kristoff just holding off Nacer Bouhanni. Just my opinion of course, but the commissaire's decision to disqualify Peter Sagan is leading to some riders crying "Foul" to get opponents penalised. Dumare was aggressive when he went for the gap, but that's what sprinters do!
Anyway, Kittel's 50 points cut his deficit in the Green Jersey competition to 27 points, after Dumare scored 13 points in the intermediate sprint and 30 at the finish. Sagan was indeed missed in the intermediate sprint as he would have been in the breakaway to get the 20 points, instead of accepting 4th as Dumare did. None of the leaders' positions in the other classifications really changed, so I'll not waste any time going over them.
On to tomorrow, where the 213.5km stage from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-George will probably turn out exactly the same, with the usual breakaway being caught in the usual manner. The most exciting thing I can say about the stage is that it will move from Champagne country to Burgundy country, with the wine being an ideal accompaniment to the local Charolais beef.
I'm looking from a big move from somebody to liven up the stage long before the finish, but a repeat of today's heat might knock that on the head. (Come on Steve, you know what I'm looking for.) Ben Swift should get himself into the breakaway for intermediate points and both Michael Matthews and Andre Greipel have been knocking at the door in the sprints, so a wee bit extra might bring big rewards in the Green Jersey competition. The stages on Saturday (3 climbs) and Sunday (7 climbs!!!) go up, up and away, where we might see a bit of movement in the Yellow Jersey competition.
Anyway, Kittel's 50 points cut his deficit in the Green Jersey competition to 27 points, after Dumare scored 13 points in the intermediate sprint and 30 at the finish. Sagan was indeed missed in the intermediate sprint as he would have been in the breakaway to get the 20 points, instead of accepting 4th as Dumare did. None of the leaders' positions in the other classifications really changed, so I'll not waste any time going over them.
On to tomorrow, where the 213.5km stage from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-George will probably turn out exactly the same, with the usual breakaway being caught in the usual manner. The most exciting thing I can say about the stage is that it will move from Champagne country to Burgundy country, with the wine being an ideal accompaniment to the local Charolais beef.
I'm looking from a big move from somebody to liven up the stage long before the finish, but a repeat of today's heat might knock that on the head. (Come on Steve, you know what I'm looking for.) Ben Swift should get himself into the breakaway for intermediate points and both Michael Matthews and Andre Greipel have been knocking at the door in the sprints, so a wee bit extra might bring big rewards in the Green Jersey competition. The stages on Saturday (3 climbs) and Sunday (7 climbs!!!) go up, up and away, where we might see a bit of movement in the Yellow Jersey competition.
Cabbage is still good for you
07-07-2017, 20:24
The breakaway didn't let me down and the peloton catch-up didn't let me down, but Michael Matthews could "only" finish 3rd and Andre Greipel 9th. The mad-cap sprint was won by Marcel Kittel by the narrowest of margins - enter your own narrow margin simile here - from Edvald Boasson-Hagen. Alexander Kristoff and John Degenkolb followed them home. That's three out of three for Kittel and there could easily be more to come in the next two weeks. Because of the sprint timing rules the first 124 riders were given the same time as the winner, so don't expect any changes to the overall classification.
What did change was the Green Jersey Points competition. Marcel Kittel took over the lead with another 50 points to reach 197 points. Arnaud Demare is on 184 points with Michael Matthews 3rd on 123 points.
After the tedium of the flatter, benign stages, tomorrow sees the Tour going up into the Jura Mountains from Dole, reaching Station des rousses 187.5km later, almost at the Swiss border. Dole is famous as the birthplace of Louis Pasteur and not much else, while Station des rousses is well known as a ski resort, hopefully snow-free just now. My apologies for banging on about it, but this stage is tailor-made for a Steve Cummings breakaway attack. He fancies winning a stage and tomorrow's is fairly hard with an early sprint, then 3 climbs for Category 3, 2, 1 (remember that?), followed by rolling hills for the last 12km. The Category 1 climb lasts for 11.7km and is steadily uphill with gradients between 3.5% and 8.1%. In the absence of Cummings at the front, I'll fall back to Rolland and Pinot to make a bold move for the stage and they will hopefully be joined by other experienced riders who don't pose a challenge to Chris Froome and the rest of the Yellow Jersey contenders, who will probably too busy watching each other to make a positive move, keeping their powder dry for Sunday.
What did change was the Green Jersey Points competition. Marcel Kittel took over the lead with another 50 points to reach 197 points. Arnaud Demare is on 184 points with Michael Matthews 3rd on 123 points.
After the tedium of the flatter, benign stages, tomorrow sees the Tour going up into the Jura Mountains from Dole, reaching Station des rousses 187.5km later, almost at the Swiss border. Dole is famous as the birthplace of Louis Pasteur and not much else, while Station des rousses is well known as a ski resort, hopefully snow-free just now. My apologies for banging on about it, but this stage is tailor-made for a Steve Cummings breakaway attack. He fancies winning a stage and tomorrow's is fairly hard with an early sprint, then 3 climbs for Category 3, 2, 1 (remember that?), followed by rolling hills for the last 12km. The Category 1 climb lasts for 11.7km and is steadily uphill with gradients between 3.5% and 8.1%. In the absence of Cummings at the front, I'll fall back to Rolland and Pinot to make a bold move for the stage and they will hopefully be joined by other experienced riders who don't pose a challenge to Chris Froome and the rest of the Yellow Jersey contenders, who will probably too busy watching each other to make a positive move, keeping their powder dry for Sunday.
Cabbage is still good for you
08-07-2017, 20:41
Now that was a real day's racing, full of attacks, counter attacks, solo breakaways, breakaway riders dropping back to pace their GC riders, even peloton riders dropping back to keep their top man in the Tour. Exactly the type of day the Tour needed.
What surprised me was that the big performers were relatively unknown. 24 year old Lilian Calmejane went on a long run, suffering from an attack of cramp near the finish, but still won by 37 seconds from Robert Gesink, with Martin Guillaime leading home most of the GC riders a further 13 seconds behind. Steve Cummings showed near the front of the peloton for a few minutes but fell back, seemingly feeling that any effort wasn't worth it - tomorrow, perhaps? Pierre Rolland did finish with the GC contenders 50 seconds behind, but never posed a threat to the lead, and Thibault Pinot finished 15m 14s behind the winner. The sprinters took a real hammering after the early intermediate sprint and Green Jersey wearer on Thursday, Arnaud Demare, needed to be shepherded home by two team-mates to limit the damage to 37m 33s and live to fight another day.
That day won't be tomorrow, where the 181.5km stage from Nantua to Chambery starts off with a Category 2 climb after 3.5km and a Category 3 climb after 11km, just to soften everyone up. Then there's a chance of a rest before another Category 3 climb and two HC climbs before halfway. (HC climbs are the toughest of the tough, just think Hellish Conditions and multiply by 10 and you'll get the idea). The organisers then have the cheek to have a sprint before the Category 4 climb and a final HC climb. The second HC climb (Grand Colombier) is 8.5km long at an average of 9.9% and features a 22% section and the third one is Mont du Chat, 8.7km long at 10.3% with a 15% section in the middle. The close contenders in the GC will surely make some effort to unsettle Team Sky and Froome/Thomas, perhaps not on the climbs but on the hair-raising descents. Unfortunately for them, Chris Froome is a master descender, but he has made mistakes in the past and might do so again. The rewards are there to be taken and we'll find out who really wants to win the Yellow Jersey. For me, the likely lads would be Romain Bardet and Rafel Majka, perhaps Fabio Aru, if not winning the stage, at least gaining King Of The Mountains points. For the rest, it'll be a matter of survival.
Thankfully for all the riders, there is a rest day on Monday, with the Tour getting back to normal on Tuesday with a nice little run from Perigueux to Bergerac.
What surprised me was that the big performers were relatively unknown. 24 year old Lilian Calmejane went on a long run, suffering from an attack of cramp near the finish, but still won by 37 seconds from Robert Gesink, with Martin Guillaime leading home most of the GC riders a further 13 seconds behind. Steve Cummings showed near the front of the peloton for a few minutes but fell back, seemingly feeling that any effort wasn't worth it - tomorrow, perhaps? Pierre Rolland did finish with the GC contenders 50 seconds behind, but never posed a threat to the lead, and Thibault Pinot finished 15m 14s behind the winner. The sprinters took a real hammering after the early intermediate sprint and Green Jersey wearer on Thursday, Arnaud Demare, needed to be shepherded home by two team-mates to limit the damage to 37m 33s and live to fight another day.
That day won't be tomorrow, where the 181.5km stage from Nantua to Chambery starts off with a Category 2 climb after 3.5km and a Category 3 climb after 11km, just to soften everyone up. Then there's a chance of a rest before another Category 3 climb and two HC climbs before halfway. (HC climbs are the toughest of the tough, just think Hellish Conditions and multiply by 10 and you'll get the idea). The organisers then have the cheek to have a sprint before the Category 4 climb and a final HC climb. The second HC climb (Grand Colombier) is 8.5km long at an average of 9.9% and features a 22% section and the third one is Mont du Chat, 8.7km long at 10.3% with a 15% section in the middle. The close contenders in the GC will surely make some effort to unsettle Team Sky and Froome/Thomas, perhaps not on the climbs but on the hair-raising descents. Unfortunately for them, Chris Froome is a master descender, but he has made mistakes in the past and might do so again. The rewards are there to be taken and we'll find out who really wants to win the Yellow Jersey. For me, the likely lads would be Romain Bardet and Rafel Majka, perhaps Fabio Aru, if not winning the stage, at least gaining King Of The Mountains points. For the rest, it'll be a matter of survival.
Thankfully for all the riders, there is a rest day on Monday, with the Tour getting back to normal on Tuesday with a nice little run from Perigueux to Bergerac.
Cabbage is still good for you
09-07-2017, 09:03
Glad he won in the end deserved it especially after the attack of cramp
Have you heard about the news on Mizar 5
People got to shout to stay alive
People got to shout to stay alive
09-07-2017, 18:36
Porte lucky to be alive after that crash, think the race is between Froome and the Italian lad
Have you heard about the news on Mizar 5
People got to shout to stay alive
People got to shout to stay alive
09-07-2017, 22:37
A day of carnage, brilliant attacks and a frenetic final sprint which was won right on the line by Rigoberto Uran - on a 2-geared bike for the last few kms - from Warren Barguil, who had led for long stretches of the race. Chris Froome is always a threat and finished 3rd, beating my favourite and late solo breakaway rider, Romain Bardet, with Fabio Aru and Jakob Fuglsang. The next closest finishers were 1m15s behind and included Dan Martin, who fell after he couldn't avoid Richie Porte when he spectacularly crashed. Rafal Majka also crashed bringing down Geraint Thomas halfway through the stage, but was able to continue, finishing 36m 21s behind the winner.
The withdrawals included Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas and yesterday's second place Robert Gesink after crashes and 7 riders who finished outside the time limit, the most notable being Arnaud Demare. It was indeed a tough day out there.
One thing that intrigued me is whether or not Chris Froome is able to dominate the rest of the riders by reputation only. When the group of 5 riders were chasing down Romain Bardet, they didn't let Froome do all the work and run the risk of tiring himself out. They took turns to help him chase and perhaps didn't want to let him go in front on his own in case he proved too strong for them. If that is the case, they might as well award him the Yellow Jersey now. To me, Chris Froome and Team Sky are so much in control of the race, it will take a considerable change in other Team's attitudes to alter the outcome.
Tomorrow is a rest day in the Dordogne and the Tour continues on Tuesday. As far as the positions are concerned, Chris Froome leads the Yellow Jersey ranking by 18 seconds from Fabian Aru, 51 seconds from Romain Bardet and 55 seconds from Rigoberto Uran. The Green Jersey will be worn by Marcel Kittel (Points), with Warren Barguil in the Polka Dot Jersey (King Of The Mountains)and Simon Yates in the White Jersey (Youth Rider). Team Sky lead the Team Competition.
The withdrawals included Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas and yesterday's second place Robert Gesink after crashes and 7 riders who finished outside the time limit, the most notable being Arnaud Demare. It was indeed a tough day out there.
One thing that intrigued me is whether or not Chris Froome is able to dominate the rest of the riders by reputation only. When the group of 5 riders were chasing down Romain Bardet, they didn't let Froome do all the work and run the risk of tiring himself out. They took turns to help him chase and perhaps didn't want to let him go in front on his own in case he proved too strong for them. If that is the case, they might as well award him the Yellow Jersey now. To me, Chris Froome and Team Sky are so much in control of the race, it will take a considerable change in other Team's attitudes to alter the outcome.
Tomorrow is a rest day in the Dordogne and the Tour continues on Tuesday. As far as the positions are concerned, Chris Froome leads the Yellow Jersey ranking by 18 seconds from Fabian Aru, 51 seconds from Romain Bardet and 55 seconds from Rigoberto Uran. The Green Jersey will be worn by Marcel Kittel (Points), with Warren Barguil in the Polka Dot Jersey (King Of The Mountains)and Simon Yates in the White Jersey (Youth Rider). Team Sky lead the Team Competition.
Cabbage is still good for you
10-07-2017, 22:19
Another benign stage lies ahead tomorrow and is tailor-made for the gaggle of sprinters. The usual suspects of Kittel and Greipel will be to the fore at the finish and we might even see them contest the intermediate sprint after 121km, although that might be left for the lower scorers to fight over. Alexander Kristoff is always a danger and would be my pick for the stage.
There are 2 Category 4 climbs, the last one being 40km from the finish. The descent followed by a fairly flat finish might be the start of a definitive breakaway, but the prospect of any major shock is slight. Dan Martin currently lies 6th overall, 7th in the Points and 4th in the KOTM. He was desperately unlucky yesterday and might improve his standing in all 3 categories tomorrow.
I'll be staying at my daughter's for a few days this week, so I might not be posting every day. As ever, feel free to add whatever input you want.
There are 2 Category 4 climbs, the last one being 40km from the finish. The descent followed by a fairly flat finish might be the start of a definitive breakaway, but the prospect of any major shock is slight. Dan Martin currently lies 6th overall, 7th in the Points and 4th in the KOTM. He was desperately unlucky yesterday and might improve his standing in all 3 categories tomorrow.
I'll be staying at my daughter's for a few days this week, so I might not be posting every day. As ever, feel free to add whatever input you want.
Cabbage is still good for you
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