Critérium du Dauphiné 2015, June 7-14 2015 **** Spoilers ****

[Bobby Mhor]

Yes, it looked like there was a full set of interviews this time.

Ah, but what about the purple mountains rising majestically on the horizon? There's nothing to block your view.</corner-gas>

Don't think I'll get to see them, I prefer looking at hills, hiking yes, cycling up? not really

 

[mjr]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscQgBbubQA

 

[RobNewcastle]

A great race and a great result. Brailsford might have a selection dilemma on his hands for the TdF. Boswell (who famously found out he was riding the Dauphiné when Sky announced it on Twitter) had a great week and Roche, Deignan and Poels showed what good wingmen they are. Kennaugh and Stannard were their usual reliable selves. When you consider the other talent at the Tour de Suisse (Thomas, Henao) and those who have rested since the Giro (Porte, Kiryienka, Nieve, König), Sir Dave's cup runneth over.

Yeah it'll be interesting to see the final selection as there's a few who've done their chances no harm. Assuming he's over his knocks I think Porte will go, Poels looks super strong, Roche provides GT experience even if he's not in top shape yet so will probably be selected. Thomas is a dead cert, Stannard provides the power for the flat and will Eisel go as road captain? Assuming he does, with the others and Froome that's 7 with a final 2 to be selected. So my completely unsubstantiated guess work, ha:

Froome
Porte
Poels
Roche
Thomas
Stannard
Eisel

Final 2
Kennaugh
Kyrienka

But I might be and probably am talking utter b*%llocks!

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Indeed. It's almost worth putting up with British adverts for them. But why are they broadcasting with the sound 30% lower than other shows, or more than the ads?

I noticed the commentary was low in the mix at times and was competing with the sound from on the road.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Yeah it'll be interesting to see the final selection as there's a few who've done their chances no harm. Assuming he's over his knocks I think Porte will go, Poels looks super strong, Roche provides GT experience even if he's not in top shape yet so will probably be selected. Thomas is a dead cert, Stannard provides the power for the flat and will Eisel go as road captain? Assuming he does, with the others and Froome that's 7 with a final 2 to be selected. So my completely unsubstantiated guess work, ha:

Froome
Porte
Poels
Roche
Thomas
Stannard
Eisel

Final 2
Kennaugh
Kyrienka

But I might be and probably am talking utter b*%llocks!

That's entirely plausible. There's not much opportunity for the speed demons on this year's parcours so leave out a sprinter. There is however a hard team TT and Sky will want to improve on their Dauphiné showing. That comes down not necessarily to the best testers but the best unit. Pete Kennaugh struggled last week. Tough choices.

 

[GilesM]

Yeah it'll be interesting to see the final selection as there's a few who've done their chances no harm. Assuming he's over his knocks I think Porte will go, Poels looks super strong, Roche provides GT experience even if he's not in top shape yet so will probably be selected. Thomas is a dead cert, Stannard provides the power for the flat and will Eisel go as road captain? Assuming he does, with the others and Froome that's 7 with a final 2 to be selected. So my completely unsubstantiated guess work, ha:

Froome
Porte
Poels
Roche
Thomas
Stannard
Eisel

Final 2
Kennaugh
Kyrienka

But I might be and probably am talking utter b*%llocks!

I think I'd go along with most of that, apart from Roche, he really hasn't had the fitness to do his job properly in the last few days, and if Porte is good to go, he will be the last man on the climbs for Froome to launch himself off, I would say Boswell and Deignan are very serious possibilities

 

[mjr]

I think I'd go along with most of that, apart from Roche, he really hasn't had the fitness to do his job properly in the last few days, and if Porte is good to go, he will be the last man on the climbs for Froome to launch himself off, I would say Boswell and Deignan are very serious possibilities

“At the beginning of the year, one of my targets was the Vuelta a España. I’ll take a break after this and focus on the Vuelta.” -- Boswell in http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/06/news/boswell-blossoms-with-sky_373695 - although it wouldn't be the first time Sky picked him for a race he wasn't expecting to ride...

 

[Crackle]

By the way, what were Nibali and Scarponi doing on the last stage when they came through and reeled in Valverde who comically shook his head in puzzlement at their effort. I couldn't decide if he was making a point to Froome or if he'd decided to help him out as Sky faded, which also made a point. He had a good look across at him when he pulled over and it was at a decisive point in the race when Sky were swamped and would have had to put Poels and Roche on the front early.

 

[jarlrmai]

The quality of the broadcast on ITV4 was awful, so pixelated and grainy you could barely make out the text, they must give almost no bandwidth to that channel, I hope the Tour is better. When the grande departe was in the UK the stages were on ITV HD and it was so good, then the rest of the Tour was grainy as hell, you might as well be watching a dodgy stream.

 

[smutchin]

By the way, what were Nibali and Scarponi doing on the last stage when they came through and reeled in Valverde who comically shook his head in puzzlement at their effort.

Dunno but it was hilarious. The look on Valverde's face...

My guess is Nibali was just testing his legs and maybe seeing if he could set Scarponi up for the stage win while Sky were looking vulnerable. It was a bit kamikaze though, wasn't it?

 

[Crackle]

It was a bit kamikaze though, wasn't it?

It potentially gave the race to Froome by playing into his hands, although if Nibali hadn't done it it looked like a few teams were lining up but if you suppose for a moment no one came through, then Froome would have had to use his last two team mates, who then might have dropped off earlier or rode a lower tempo, giving Teejay a better chance: Potentially anyhow. It may have worked quite differently. Although it was optimistic surely to expect Scarponi to win from it.

 

[mjr]

The quality of the broadcast on ITV4 was awful, so pixelated and grainy you could barely make out the text, they must give almost no bandwidth to that channel, I hope the Tour is better. When the grande departe was in the UK the stages were on ITV HD and it was so good, then the rest of the Tour was grainy as hell, you might as well be watching a dodgy stream.

It varied day to day (the weekend live broadcasts were worse, even ignoring the transmission faults on Sunday), with Freesat usually better.

itv4 shares 10758 V on Freesat with 7 others: itv2, citv (closes at 7pm which is partly why highlights were sharper), itvBe and 4 copies of itv1 (all the time, thanks to the unique way in which most Sky receivers suck) in 18.3Mb/s - http://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E.html

On Freeview, it shares COM6 with 12 TV channels and 18 others in 27.1Mb/s - http://www.ukfree.tv/article/1107051058/Freeview_modes

So there's roughly 2.2875Mb/s average on Freesat for live and probably more in the evenings, while Freeview might be 2.085Mb/s less whatever the radio/data channels use... but I suspect they're all using statistical multiplexing so this will vary depending on who pays what and how data-intensive the sharing channels are being at the same time. They've refused to say for sure before. For example, on Freeview it looks like BT Sport were showing live swimming from the European Games on Saturday, which I think takes quite a high bitrate to do well, whereas earlier in the week they were showing less intensive things, like biographies of football managers.

I've also seen comments claiming that Freeview resolution is higher, which I think would mean more artefacts if the bitrate isn't correspondingly higher too... which it isn't.

http://www.ukfree.tv/article/1107051651/ITV4_bitrates_an_answer from 2010 makes me think this isn't a new problem.

(Edited to fix a maths error and tidy up some explanations.)

 

[400bhp]

Dunno but it was hilarious. The look on Valverde's face...

My guess is Nibali was just testing his legs and maybe seeing if he could set Scarponi up for the stage win while Sky were looking vulnerable. It was a bit kamikaze though, wasn't it?

Or, could be that Nibbles was after a top 10 place and WT points?

Or, my preferred reason, Nibali just despises Valpiti and will do his upmost to spoil Valpiti's dastardly plans.

 

[Strathlubnaig]

TBH pretty busy with stuff at home so as soon as the race finished, I had to go.
I'm assuming he did as nothing on thread about it...
Millar, aye.
Grumpy wee git but hero still the same.

I hope you are in a bumpy, winding bit of Canada(if cycling), my wife has relations in Sask and the road home from the airport has one bend in it...after about 70 miles driving.

I am in Fort Mac, not very bumpy and no bike, just work.

 

[Strathlubnaig]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscQgBbubQA

you can watch your dog run away for three days