"To be very honest, in the finals this year, there is no tactic. It's impossible to ride with a team here. I don't know why the organisers do it like this with downhills in the city, we have all those small roads and corners. It goes wide, narrow, wide again and every team is struggling at this stage to be at the front," Kittel said. "The GC teams are also holding their wheels until the finish line. It's pure chaos and that's why you can win here with really smart positioning. The team only has to bring you forward at a certain moment and that's it and then you have to go out of the wheel of someone at a certain point."

Well i guess , you have smart positioning or you don't , although not doing my fantasy team any favors ,fair play to cavendish , i was convinced he was done

I guess that's bike racing.

bike racing is finding Contador that bike with the motor in it....damn he's harpooning my fantasy team....whatever bike they gave him before his phantom mechanical on the Mortirolo last year should get the job done...oh and he also got a wheel from Basso...Basso took Contador's wheel and kept riding = seems legit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs7wf4QhYDY

you know, category 4 races...

Sagan who??? Froome Dog is now my favorite!!! Punches a spectator in the face...feins KOM points and attacks Quantana who is reaching for a bottle, pedals Superman style for 10 k...takes the Yellow jersey!!!  Chapeau skinny man Chapeau !!!

twoyacks said:

Sagan who??? Froome Dog is now my favorite!!! Punches a spectator in the face...feins KOM points and attacks Quantana who is reaching for a bottle, pedals Superman style for 10 k...takes the Yellow jersey!!!  Chapeau skinny man Chapeau !!!

It was an awesome move. 

But what happened to the chase?  The entire group relied on Valverde to chase down the mountain and onto the flats.  Didn't look like Quintana helped at all.  Nor did Yates, who could have taken yellow if they had brought Froome back.  And BMC sat back all the way down the mountain, when Porte, already 1:40 behind, could have helped.  

Considering earpieces and such, I'm thinking that the squads that were not movistar wanted a free ride and possibly Sky to defend the jersey tomorrow.  Don't know why they would, but it seems like the only explanation.

Yates was hanging in the back for last two climbs and probably couldn't help
BMC really should of helped out , but they always seem to fuck everything up 
Dan Martin is quietly impressing me 

Watching Froome pedal atop his stem/top-tube is something I hope never to see again. From behind it looked like he was carrying two baguettes under his arms.



And from the side it looked like something straight out of the ministry of silly walks.

Adios, Alberto

Shit...there goes my GC points

Kiwi George Bennett goes one better than Froome. 

Sky tactics make me yawn. Porte pacing Froome is admitting defeat. 

This probably should be cross-posted in 'watts in the bank' and a few other places.  

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/tour-de-france/slowest-man-won-thursdays-sprint_413832

"It’s easy to assume that sprints are decided in the final 200 meters. But the data suggest otherwise. Cavendish’s sprint was all about timing and momentum." 

@JohnMalcolmson - a bit unfair there on Team Sky, no?  IMO it is Movistar and BMC who totally and utterly lack any sort of personality or finesse.  You seriously telling me that in the past 9 days there is not a single place where Quintana, Valverde or TVG could have at least tried to attack??  They are totally boring and make no effort at all to do anything.  Basically they are hoping that Froome catches a cold or gets attacked by a spectator so that Nairo "I attack on the descent when the whole race is neutralised to win a grand Tour" Quinatana can assume the lead.  Sky showed some imagination yesterday.  Astana, for example, showed imagination in the Giro this year to win in a pretty unusual way.  Today for example Valverde should have stayed in the break, but they fucked it up.  If he was in the break Sky couldn't have leaked all that time to the break that they did and would have been forced to chase.  If the rest of the break didn't like it, screw them- at that point there were 3 Movistar up front and they should have done the work themselves.  Put it this way, if Froome was a few seconds/minutes back, he would try something, so would Contador, so would Nibbles.  On an aside, Nibbles must have LOVED pacing Aru up the hill today as he shipped time.  I can only imagine that he was thinking this at every pedal stroke:


Regarding Porte, I think that it is realistic for him to hope for podium at at this stage and not much more.  With that in mind, attacking Froome, who is probably the strongest in the race doesn't achieve much.  First, he needs to embarrass TVG (did that today- job done), then he needs more to try and un-pick Yates, Martin and Quintana.  In a perfect world, if he could hop onto one of Froome's attacks and hold the wheel to the line, helping get a gap (as per this year's Dauphiné) then I think that's the most mileage.  IMO.

@Adam,
Good points all.

The Arcalis climb is long, but it's relatively shallow.  That's why Dumoulin got dropped on the steeper earlier climbs, but was able to find his TT rhythm and  crush the competition at the end.  And it wasn't a surprise to anyone--that's why he went early.  

Movistar could have easily told their guys to sit up from the break and have Valverde attack early to force Sky to burn their domestiques early and then Quintana attacks up to his waiting helpers.

Better yet, Movistar should have done it on the penultimate climb, which was much steeper--better suited to Quintana's w/kg.  

Several teams could have done the same.  Considering they chose to let Froome ride into Yellow on Saturday, they should have taken better advantage of the Sky train at the front.  And they didn't.

@Adam — Not a fan of Sky, their race controlling tactics have a learned helplessness effect on the peloton. No one is going to attack them when Sergio Henao's on the front banging out 20@ 390 (or whatev). Their resources are deep, and that makes for boring races. Froome's attack was just a fun/awkward looking diversion.

I still don't get Porte's strategy. Yes he wanted to get back GC time, but if ooh-it's-too-cold-Tejay is OTB why are you on the front helping Froome distance him instead of jumping away? Gives Froome a free lunch and then gets promptly dropped no less. 

Separate from all this though, I wonder if the reason it hasn't been attack-city is riders worrying about how they're going to "manage" their hematocrit in week 3.  

BMC are idiots , two leaders don't work ,especially two leaders that were never going to win the tour, Thank god Tejay is  there ,because otherwise NBC would have nobody to talk about ,

Regarding Froome's "odd" new pose on the bike; I think "like a frog on a skateboard" best captures it.

The Ventoux is Thursday...me's thinks Movie Star is going to finally attack then...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stages/

On Ventoux, it's going to be 1-2 Froome with Quintana just behind his wheel in the same way 3 years ago. Yawn.

How I want to see Ventoux stage to play out:

BMC and Movistar sends riders up the road early in the stage, forcing Sky to chase all day because they don't want those teams to have riders up the road. Early on Ventoux Froome gets isolated because his imperial guard of riders is burned from the chase. Valverde attacks several times and Froome has to counter each one, towing Quintana with him, and finally in the last 5km, Quintana attacks, Froome cracks and loses 5 minutes. 

I'm thinking the teams going for GC can't let Sky control the race before the climb....They have to send guys within striking distance of Froome up the road.  This is easier for Moviestar than BMC as Valverde should be helping Quintana.....Porte & Vangarderen are riding for themselves till one of them blows and loses big time.  This is too bad as they will likely both just sit in Froome's slipstream till they get blown out the back...instead one of those cheeseballs should try and get up the road early to spark a SKY chase & flame out

Au contraire mon yacks. Porte is working for Froome, didn't you see him so comfortably slot in front of Froome and chase down Dan Martin that Phil called the combo "Richie Froome." I believe it was also to put some time on his "co-leader" since TJVG was hanging off the back as Richie Froome was motoring up that last climb.

Contador signed with Trek yesterday (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-signs-with-trek-segafredo-on-tour-de-france-rest-day/).

Any hot takes?

Trek has a Cancellera sized salary just burning a hole in their pocket and they decided they'll never get a GT out of Mollima so why not hire a proven GT winner.

Oi Oi Oi, 

Dan Reiners said:

How I want to see Ventoux stage to play out:

i want a day-long break in it with Pinot and a handful of FdJ's, Majka and Sagan and at least one other Tinkoff, two or three Movistar riders along with a BMC.  Maybe a few Dimension Data riders including Cav'.  With this kind of makeup, they're drilling it to the intermediate sprint and through it.

On the Cat 4, Cat 3 lead up to Ventoux, the Movistar riders drop back, and then Quintana goes to the fore, burning off the Sky helpers.

Because of the fight behind, most of the leaders are without teammates going into Ventoux.  There, on the lower slopes, everyone takes their shot at Froome, with the other guys realizing that they need to let Froome make all the efforts to close gaps.  Eventually, Froome blows, losing 3-5 minutes.  

Up front, Pinot rides to not only to stage victory, and a bigger lead in the KoM, but a day in yellow. He'll lose it on the next day's TT, but I think French cycling deserves at least one day of glory.  

That would be an interesting Bastille day. I don't see Pinot getting enough rope by either Movistar or Sky to ever get in yellow, but I like the way you're thinking. Knowing how Bastille day normally goes FdJ, AG2R, and Cofidis all fight to have the most disappointing Bastille day performance and usually all get steamrolled by stronger players.

Guys have to fight Froome rather than all waiting for him to crack from looking at his stem for 5 hours. I feel like without Contador there isn't anybody willing to put the serious hurt on Froome, because Quintana can't do it alone, especially if Porte continues to work for Froome.

Guys, its obvs, Jarlinson Pantano solo victory !!