Tour de France 2013 *spoilers*

[suzeworld]

Contador can act for the camera bike !

I agree about Froome not needing to be so close, how much time could Bertie have taken out of him in that little stretch? Froome was being too proud to let him get any... And we all know that pride comes before a .........

 

[MisterStan]

I think its a mind games thing - Froomes not wanting to show Bertie an inch of weakness in the hope he will snap and give up eventually?

Posturing? AKA willy waving!

 

[The Couch]

Another interesting fact to liven up this stage...
the sadly uncelebrated Lanterne Rouge at present is
Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 'leading' by over a minute

He wasn't the Lantern Rouge yet/anylonger this morning, but it seems he's giving it a good effort now
Funny note: Bazayev was last in previous TT, this time he is (so far) faster than the TT expert Tuft...
I expect Tuft to have some difficulties in the coming days surviving the mountains

EDIT: and if Veelers continues this pace, he might have difficulties surviving today (3 min behind Hivert after 14Km)

 

[The Couch]

... I would expect Peraud, Kwiatek, Meyer and Costa to do good in this one, but because of yesterday not quite sure if they still have the strength (or interest in Costa's case)

Peraud fell during recon of the stage and is off to the hospital... so not only yesterday's performance might do him in

 

[The Couch]

Maybe Kittel should start riding all mountain stages on his own like they are TT... impressive time for a big sprinter like him

 

[VamP]

Peraud fell during recon of the stage and is off to the hospital... so not only yesterday's performance might do him in

I'm guessing the descents are pretty technical then!

 

[VamP]

Curvers has made up over 2 minutes on Westra on that first descent. I think that's a great indication of how this TT will play out.

Edit: Scratch that, I must have been having a blonde moment.

 

[ColinJ]

BTW, I thought Froome's dig at Contador's risk-taking was a bit rich, considering he was chasing to stay on Contador's wheel. ''He was driving so erratically, officer, I almost hit him as I tried to tailgate him...''

Exactly! It is up to each individual rider to decide how many risks to take. Froome decided to risk staying with Contador who had decided that it was worth risking a crash, so what is there to complain about? If someone cut you up on a bend or crashed into you, that would be a different story.

 

[VamP]

Exactly! It is up to each individual rider to decide how many risks to take. Froome decided to risk staying with Contador who had decided that it was worth risking a crash, so what is there to complain about? If someone cut you up on a bend or crashed into you, that would be a different story.

I suspect it's just banter. Froome did wait for Contador after all.

 

[The Couch]

Peraud fell during recon of the stage and is off to the hospital...

Apparently he has a fracture, but will continue.. can't see him staying in the top 10 with today and next 3 days ahead of him

 

[The Couch]

Counting on bad weather... I'm gonna spread my bet on Hesjedal, Boom or Westra (Chavanel starts too late and I don't wanna go for the obvious Tony Martin choice)

Westra isn't looking too shabby (but I assume won't be good enough), Boom is definitely out of it

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Probably already posted, but this is a great site for following the TT for those that can't stream video at work

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/live/aso/

 

[jifdave]

Just wondering about the thumbs up....

I know unwritten rules say dont attack a mechanical. But conti crashed being a nobber, why should anyone wait for him? Any unwritten rules on that?

 

[VamP]

Just wondering about the thumbs up....

I know unwritten rules say dont attack a mechanical. But conti crashed being a nobber, why should anyone wait for him? Any unwritten rules on that?

How does being aggressive on descent equal being a nobber?

 

[The Couch]

The last part might be a real hurt for Quintana and Rodriguez (and perhaps Mollema), looking at the differences between the 3rd time point and the finish, the "climber"types really loose still quite some time versus the TT specialists

EDIT: so far can't see any bad weather yet