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Tour de France 2014 |OT| Riding Around 101

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Pacbois

Member
Well here's our first Cocorico ! Well done Blel, amazing victory. And Pinot and Peraud are 5 & 6th !

The Nibali vs. Contador fight was interesting. Nibali was pretty okay alone, Saxo Tinkoff tried maybe too much today. Things are going to be pretty interesting.
 

someday

Banned
He did gain the white jersey now, so still a bit of a positive day for him.

Also, Denis Mensjov might get scratched from the results of the Tour from 2009, 2010 and 2012.

It's official. He only loses the 3 Tour results though, everything else stays which is a bit odd.
 

kottila

Member
It's official. He only loses the 3 Tour results though, everything else stays which is a bit odd.

If they got him for weird blood values, it might be they differed during the tour compared to the rest of the year. They're probably not on EPO the whole year. On the leaked UCI suspicion list from 2010(?) he was a 9 out of 10. Nice to see that the system works, but better if it worked faster
 

Joni

Member
Martin seems to be doing a huge push for a fantastic stage victory, and Nibali will probably lose his yellow jersey.
 

Linkinito

Member
Martin did a fantastic stage.

And Tony Gallopin gets the yellow, just before the National Day. Cocorico!

The stage tomorrow will surely be epic.
 

Joni

Member
Gallopin apparantly had proper motivation to actually achieve something today. The following girl was one of the two podium girls.

Cyclepassion-2012-Marion-Rousse.jpg

She is his 22-year old girlfriend.
 
Definitely one of the better Tour's so far. Even the flat stages have been somewhat interesting and really love the fact that the GC's were at it on both stage 2 and 5. The Contador v Nibali showdown on the last little kicker yesterday was a great taste of things to come, most likely tomorrow. No doubt Astana is glad to have the Yellow of its back so they can hang back a bit. And wtf with the Americans hitting the pavement? Stay on your bike!

And damn did Saxo push it yesterday -- I don't think they're concerned about trying to catch Nibali all at once, they just want to clear the deck of the other GC guys so they don't have to constantly be marking other riders and chasing down attacks. So I suspect tomorrow we'll see them really push it to open up some time gaps.

I don't know if anyone else watched the post-race coverage on NBCSN but Van De Velde remarked that tomorrow is going to brutal not only because of the mountains, but that it's already stage 9 and the day before rest day. The rider from Giant-Shimano was up there and echoed that sentiment, saying many of the guys in the peleton are already basically pedaling squares so tomorrow could be quite dangerous for a lot of guys.

btw, best way to watch? DVR the coverage in the morning so you can fast forward the commercials. Other than that, no complaints with NBCSN's coverage and they've drastically improved since even a few years ago. Rarely does the picture break up, lots of great interviews and insights with multiple riders and team managers, airing 7 of the 9 stages from the depart, and tracking down riders once the stage finishes. Much better than having to stream Eurosport....

this is a really great piece on how the tour is broadcast:
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/07/eyes-in-the-sky-how-the-tour-de-france-is-broadcast-to-the-world/
 

someday

Banned
I agree that NBCSN's coverage has been great this year, especially showing stages from the beginning. I'd be really happy with the channel if they actually showed some of the other tours like the Giro or the Vuelta. I hate missing those, especially the Giro. Their coverage of the classics is pretty awful as well.
 

Linkinito

Member
Tour-de-France-Stage-10-1400751391.png


Time for epicness under the rain.
Like I said, it's the hardest stage ever designed in the Vosges.

Oh, and the name of the girl is Marion Rousse. You're welcome :)
 

Hanmik

Member
and of course Voeckler is in the breakout today... he loves this day.

and It looks like Rodriguez wants that Polka Jersey today.
 
Oh boy, first Froome then Contador. Tough luck for both of them, but it's not Nibali's fault if his opponents can't handle a bike on tricky roads. Hopefully he's fit to ride and can get back into the MJ group. 4 minutes is a lot.

Astana pushing now. Rightfully so of course.
 

Hanmik

Member
he needs some Tinkov riders to help him back... please let him come back.

edit.. and here 3 of them are.. come on.. 3½ ´minutes.. make it back.. I want someone in the Tour that can fight..
 

JPKellams

Member
Wow. Frame failure.

Contador has a personal contract with Specialized. Something tells me that is in jeopardy for next year.
 

Kabouter

Member
Think this is pretty much it for Contador looking at how he's riding. Would be such a shame to lose yet another favourite. It'd basically mean Nibali could cruise to victory, can't see anyone else strong enough to beat him out there. Porte isn't bad, but not good enough to beat Nibali.
 
before the crash or because of the crash?

Going on what Phil & Paul are saying they are not 100% sure. They are saying the accident skidmark is something like 70m long! I thought Contador was going uphill? Might be some confusion with the Machado accident.
 

Hanmik

Member
Think this is pretty much it for Contador looking at how he's riding. Would be such a shame to lose yet another favourite. It'd basically mean Nibali could cruise to victory, can't see anyone else strong enough to beat him out there. Porte isn't bad, but not good enough to beat Nibali.

after his fellow riders came back to him, he looks like he began riding much better.. he might be able to come back to the peleton, even though they are pushing right now..
 

Tugatrix

Member
Think this is pretty much it for Contador looking at how he's riding. Would be such a shame to lose yet another favourite. It'd basically mean Nibali could cruise to victory, can't see anyone else strong enough to beat him out there. Porte isn't bad, but not good enough to beat Nibali.

well Rui Costa is good, but I don't if he's good enough for the top tier
 

LayLa

Member
If he can make it back to the peloton & somehow hang in to the end he has the rest day tomorrow to recover. down to 3 minutes behind already.
 

Kabouter

Member
well Rui Costa is good, but I don't if he's good enough for the top tier

I think Rui Costa is a good rider, but to me he is of the same level as Mollema, Peraud, Bardet, Pinot etc. All good riders that have a great shot at a top 10 GC place, but barring exceptional luck, I can't see them winning a Tour.

Maybe Talansky could mount a challenge if he stopped falling off his bike for a stage or two.
 
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