[SPOILERS] Critérium du Dauphiné

[Flying_Monkey]

Nice win for Quintana, and Evans made a small personal point, but that was Sky's day. Brilliant team ride.

 

[raindog]

Cracking descent from Cadel.

 

[Crackle]

Yeah, but Wiggins is apparently following a completely different training schedule and philosophy than this. He also says he's only at 90-95% right now.

Thanks, I'd missed that.

 

[PpPete]

They will certainly have their choice of climbing domestiques to take to the Tour
EBH, Porte, Rogers, Froome, all going well today plus Uran, Henao.showing good form in the Giro
strength in depth !

 

[smutchin]

Brutal riding by EBH and Porte to effectively kill the race. Quintana did very well to make the attack stick. Impressive descending too.

I think Evans did enough to demonstrate that he will be a force to reckon with in the Tour. Van Den Broeck also looking strong.

d.

 

[Noodley]

Superb bit of team riding, and Wiggins is looking more and more the all round rider and potential winner of the Tour.

 

[smutchin]

Sky are looking more and more like US Postal...

d.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Yeah, and looking at the overall, I wonder whether Evans wasn't just attacking to make sure of securing his third place from Froome - as well as testing his descending.

 

[raindog]

Sky are looking more and more like US Postal...

d.

Yes. Getting a bit worrying that.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Yes. Getting a bit worrying that.

But luckily there are other squads around who are capable of the same kind of team job in the GTs: Liquigas and OPQS in particular, and Garmin and Katusha on their day. The team competition in the TdF is going to be fascinating this year. Sky do seem to be gelling particularly well right now though, and appear to have the kind of depth in the squad that they lacked last season.

 

[montage]

wouldn't a sky 1-2-3 be nice !

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I've just realised the other reason Evans went off today, apart from trying to get another stage win - to secure a win in the points competition. He took over from Gallopin, and because he was second got more of a cushion from other possible contenders.

 

[smutchin]

But luckily there are other squads around who are capable of the same kind of team job in the GTs: Liquigas and OPQS in particular, and Garmin and Katusha on their day. The team competition in the TdF is going to be fascinating this year.

Yeah, and of course it's going to be an entirely different kettle of fish doing over three weeks what they've done in just a few days at the Dauphiné...

Sky should also take heed of the fact that Liquigas were immensely strong in the Giro but ultimately to no avail, and it was mainly non-Liquigas riders who benefitted from their efforts. Admittedly, Wiggo is looking in much better shape than Basso did in the Giro, but Cadel did a good job of piggybacking on Sky's efforts today. It's only the time trial result that's separating Wiggins and Rogers from Evans.

Still, if Sky can eliminate the rest of the competition through strong team riding and then leave it to Brad to deal with Evans in the time trial, that will be enough to win them the race.

OPQS still look like a bunch of highly talented individuals rather than a structured team to me. It may serve them well in one-day classics but I'm not convinced it'll win them a grand tour.

d.

 

[toby123]

Wiggins is now the Tour favorite. See http://www.oddschecker.com/other-sports/cycling/tour-de-france/winner.

 

[Noodley]

he was 5/2 jt fav with Evans last week. Which I did not think good enough odds to bet on...now that he is almost evens I think I might look at an outsider for the podium.