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Tour de France 2013 |OT| Celebrating 100 Years

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K

kottila

Member
Kabouter said:
Belkin riding fast after Valverde punctured is such a dick move :/. Not the way you should win places guys, no class. I guess the cycling of the past is truly gone.
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I might agree if the two groups hadn't been established, but waiting for valverde would mean inviting kittel et al. back into the race. Movistar did something similiar to Leipheimer in Paris-Nice last year, so maybe it's just karma. froome should thank his lucky stars he didn't puncture, his team is in shambles and he could've lost the tour on this stage. http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Wilcockson/content/21/1345/Wilcockson@peloton-Its-a-War-Out-There

Shitty sprint by sagan, why go behind cavs leadout man and be the first take to wind. He might haveachance if he placed himself behind cav instead
 
H

Hrothgar

Member
Joni said:
And honestly, it is becoming quite clear that Froome was so good last year because Wiggins was there to guide him. He blew his load on Saturday without keeping himself in check. Wiggins was a lot more calculated.
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Froome's weakness is the total absence of his team.
 
K

Kabouter

Member
Hrothgar said:
Froome's weakness is the total absence of his team.
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Yup, none of his team is there tbh. Hagen was riding more or less okay, but crashed obviously. The rest just isn't good enough. I don't get how a team with a budget that high isn't far stronger in terms of domestiques. Compare it to a team like Saxo, goddamn.

kottila said:
I might agree if the two groups hadn't been established, but waiting for valverde would mean inviting kittel et al. back into the race. Movistar did something similiar to Leipheimer in Paris-Nice last year, so maybe it's just karma. froome should thank his lucky stars he didn't puncture, his team is in shambles and he could've lost the tour on this stage. http://www.pelotonmagazine.com/Wilcockson/content/21/1345/Wilcockson@peloton-Its-a-War-Out-There

Shitty sprint by sagan, why go behind cavs leadout man and be the first take to wind. He might haveachance if he placed himself behind cav instead
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Well Belkin had no interest in the sprint, so that's not really relevant imo. Their interest in this began when Valverde punctured.
 
J

Joni

Member
Hrothgar said:
Froome's weakness is the total absence of his team.
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True. But why couldn't Froome jump behind Saxo Bank? Cavendish was fast enough to follow, a no-name teammate of Sagan wasn't surprised by Contador. A good Froome would have been able to follow there. We also saw it in the time trial. He really fell back at the end.

kottila said:
Shitty sprint by sagan, why go behind cavs leadout man and be the first take to wind. He might haveachance if he placed himself behind cav instead
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Cavendish is not a good sprinter to follow though. The guy is tiny. Sagan is 10 centimeters bigger. I don't think Sagan is that good either this year. He hasn't won a 'full' sprint in this tour, has he?

Kabouter said:
Well Belkin had no interest in the sprint, so that's not really relevant imo. Their interest in this began when Valverde punctured.
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Like they should. It is not like he fell, that would be different.
 
R

RamzaIsCool

The Amiga Brotherhood
Kabouter said:
Yup, none of his team is there tbh. Hagen was riding more or less okay, but crashed obviously. The rest just isn't good enough. I don't get how a team with a budget that high isn't far stronger in terms of domestiques. Compare it to a team like Saxo, goddamn.



Well Belkin had no interest in the sprint, so that's not really relevant imo. Their interest in this began when Valverde punctured.
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The Sky team looked really strong in that first mountain stage, not so much after that. It's going to be intresting on the mont ventoux, I really see Mollema trying to do something there. Dude seems to get stronger the farther we progress.
 
B

bjaelke

Member
I feel quite silly for skipping today's stage. Will probably have to watch the final part before we hit the mountains tomorrow.
RamzaIsCool said:
The Sky team looked really strong in that first mountain stage, not so much after that. It's going to be intresting on the mont ventoux, I really see Mollema trying to do something there. Dude seems to get stronger the farther we progress.
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They overdid it on the first stage and have been paying the price ever since. It's literally Froome vs the world. Porte showed up at the tt only to crawl 'down under' again.
 
J

Joni

Member
Some interesting facts about yesterday
- Belkin and Quick Step were in the same hotel the day before. They formed the plan in advance.
- Europcar only started riding when Valverde got left behind, they got karmic retribution.
- Froome said he wasn't good enough to follow Cavendish, who was the last to jump to the winning group.
- The people from the Tour were very impressed by the work done by the three teams.
 
K

Kabouter

Member
Joni said:
Some interesting facts about yesterday
- Belkin and Quick Step were in the same hotel the day before. They formed the plan in advance.
- Europcar only started riding when Valverde got left behind, they got karmic retribution.
- Froome said he wasn't good enough to follow Cavendish, who was the last to jump to the winning group.
- The people from the Tour were very impressed by the work done by the three teams.
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Also this:
“With roughly 30 kilometres to go the break looked it was about to sit up and it was just one of those moments when the wind was just the perfect direction and speed," said Mick Rogers (TST) about the attack by him and five other team-mates in stage 13. "I looked at Bennati and he looked back at me and we just both nodded – not a word was exchanged – and I quickly turned around and made sure Alberto was behind me and we just buried it, we didn't even ask if he wanted to go with it, we just went.

“We just got everyone on the right moment but it was quite amazing. It was just The Moment. In a four hour stage, or whatever it was, there was just one split second that slapped us in the face and said, ‘This is the time!'”
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B

bobnowhere

Member
So close to another Orica win! Trentin had amazing speed at the end. I suspect both Garmin and BMC will be very disappointed, both had 2 very strong riders in the group and both came away with nothing.
 
K

Kabouter

Member
Ventoux today, fuck yes :D.
Mollema has never ridden up there before, I can't help but feel he is going to lose some serious time.
 
K

kottila

Member
Kabouter said:
Ventoux today, fuck yes :D.
Mollema has never ridden up there before, I can't help but feel he is going to lose some serious time.
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Shame the stage is so long and probably eventless before ventoux (or luckily since I'm in a car most of the day)
 
B

bjaelke

Member
I'm hoping Movistar will do something spectacular today. They sorta lost their gc hopes unless quintana can pull off the impossible on the mtt. Maybe they'll try and keep the breakaway within a few minutes and then catch them on the climb. A few attacks from quintana followed by a counter from Valverde could be sufficient.
 
J

JPKellams

Member
bjaelke said:
I'm hoping Movistar will do something spectacular today. They sorta lost their gc hopes unless quintana can pull off the impossible on the mtt. Maybe they'll try and keep the breakaway within a few minutes and then catch them on the climb. A few attacks from quintana followed by a counter from Valverde could be sufficient.
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They are riding for Quintana, so they probably only care about attacking Kwiatkowski. I do see them trying to go for the stage win today with either Quintana or Valverde. Makes the most sense considering their position, but if Quintana is in any sort of difficulty, they won't launch Valverde if it means losing a chance to take back white.
 
K

kmag

Member
Sappy113 said:
Hard to believe any one, ANY One, can ride up a mountain like that without being doped to hell and back.
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I've done it, ok a lot shorter total course than these guys do, and did it very slowly compared to these guys, and it nearly killed me, but certainly doable.
 
S

Sappy113

Member
kmag said:
I've done it, ok a lot shorter total course than these guys do, and did it very slowly compared to these guys, and it nearly killed me, but certainly doable.
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Oh, I don't doubt that it's doable. I just think it's really suspicious when someone does it like this, THAT much more effortless than other riders. And after already having ridden for 200 kms. In that sense, it doesn't matter who it is, but it looks all the more weird when it's a previously fairly anonymous rider being fired out a rocket like that.
 
H

Hawkie

Member
Sappy113 said:
Oh, I don't doubt that it's doable. I just think it's really suspicious when someone does it like this, THAT much more effortless than other riders. And after already having ridden for 200 kms. In that sense, it doesn't matter who it is, but it looks all the more weird when it's a previously fairly anonymous rider being fired out a rocket like that.
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Yeah I agree there's definitely something dodgy about Quintana.
 
S

Sappy113

Member
Hawkie said:
Yeah I agree there's definitely something dodgy about Quintana.
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Oh, don't take my scepticism as a specific dig at Froome. There's something dodgy about the whole lot of them. Which is a damn shame, because it makes all this so hard to take seriously from an athletic point of view.

If what i_am_ben just posted is correct - that Froome just set a record for the last 15 kms of the stage, how on earth does that happen if he's riding clean? How is is possible, as a clean rider, to smash the times set by previous years stage winners, who, undoubtedly to the last man, have been systemically using doping?
 
J

JPKellams

Member
Hawkie said:
Yeah I agree there's definitely something dodgy about Quintana.
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LOL. Columbia's government finally discovered they had mountains, and started putting money into youth cycling. Boom - Uran, Henao, Betancur, and Quintana.

Venezuela is doing the same thing now. In five years, there are going to be some crazy strong Venezuelans in the peloton.


Also, no idea if Froome is clean or not, but he has the combination of the perfect body type, and the Sky/GB training program is probably the most robust, data-based system in the world. They know exactly how hard and how long they can ride and do it to perfection. A shame that only works in stage races and not in the classics, where Sky are horrid.
 
J

JPKellams

Member
Zakath said:
But how can he perform so well in ITT with this body type ?
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Long legs. Also, he isn't heavy for his height, but heavy enough that his power output over a climb is similar to the total power output he would need in an ITT. Quintana is fast climbing because he is so light... He doesn't need to generate as much power to go up, but he can't crank out max watts in a flat TT.

i_am_ben said:
Somehow I don't think we're going to see Quintana on the runways of Paris anytime soon.
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LOL. Come on! Dude is 23, in his first tour... I'd be bashful, too. Betancur was kinda the same way in the Giro.
 
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