Ok guys, sorry about that. I didn't intend ridiculous as offense. Especially french and italians, we are like this all the time to each other...

Did anybody see the video of Quintana getting a tow from the neutral service moto on Ventoux? Check this out. From what it looks like, he's not simply staying upright. This is getting a free ride, even if it's for a short period of time. And trust me, that's a tough mountain to climb. Relentlessly difficult. A tow for even a short breather is an unfair advantage over others. Here's a link (because I don't know how to insert videos). https://twitter.com/assekevin/status/753720450551836673/video/1

at that moment all hell had broken loose, he is definitely holding on, but it could have been to simply avoid hitting the moto -- specially if he could see or hear about what happened to froome and porte right in front of him

this photo kinda shows the scene, this is about two seconds before or after quintana held on to the wheel on the moto bike



http://cyclingtips.com/2016/07/maddeningly-hypnotic-the-tour-de-france-is-an-absurd-beautiful-circus/

also in the photo, the actual riders are occupying by far the smallest portion of the road. absurdity defined.

Absolutely no way of knowing for how long ,

eloy said:

this photo kinda shows the scene, this is about two seconds before or after quintana held on to the wheel on the moto bike


http://cyclingtips.com/2016/07/maddeningly-hypnotic-the-tour-de-france-is-an-absurd-beautiful-circus/

You can see Quintana just behind the Mavic Moto with his left arm clearly off the handlebars.  

Cav can be such a douche. New exactly what he was doing, should have been relegated. 

Cavs would never deviate from his line and cut someones who might beat him the sprint...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNAYR3KPIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H81QHVKKZj4

This one is just plain nasty...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjLFNfIrti8

Yeah...nobody ever said he was cuddly...

Did anyone else watch Tony Martin ride his own sprinter off the wheel?.. of the peloton!

I love LeMond....really I do

LeMond doubts Sky
In an interview in L’Equipe, three-time winner Greg LeMond said there is “nothing worse than doubt.” After raising doubts about motors in the peloton, he also had a go at Sky, saying this: “Froome turns the legs so fast that it’s contrary to the laws of physiology. What annoys me is to hear certain trainers say it’s all science fiction, which is disinformation. Others make us believe that they are ahead in science. These famous marginal gains of Team Sky? What a load of bollocks. There are no new training methods; it’s false. In this area, miracles don’t exist.”

The high cadence attacks of Froome don't seem super suspect to me, you could train to do that. It's the TUE for the corticoids that transform him into the alien from Close Encounters that bugs me.

That guy looks like he has an "out of this world" power-to-weight ratio 

Right, so what about Contador's cadence?.. or is that unimportant becuase he's already been popped?

Cadence, really?

Lance is on the juice = Check
There are motors in the bikes = Check
Froome is up to no good = (You wanna challenge this?)
Team Sky's "Marginal gains" = who-ha (You wanna challenge this?)

Contador is squarely ensconced in the motor doping category...those suspicious bike and wheel swaps last year caught LeMond's eye

What ever Froome is on, Wout Poels took double

LoL

I read Froome's book - "The Climb" [FYI- pretty boring read, nothing particularly insightful in there].

One thing blew my mind though.  When he prepped for the 2013 Tour (his first win) he did a power test the week before- he averaged 459 w for 30 minutes up Madone.  459 watts!!!!!!  LeMond is such a tool.  Fuck his cadence.  The guy pushed pedals at 459 w for 30 minutes!

The conversation is just stupid- they are ALL doping.  No idea why Sky get all the heat: Quintana, Nibbles, Sagan, Contadoper...all cheating.  Out of all the things that make Froome unbelievable, pedalling fast is not one of them!

Related to LeMonde's comment, in his day fuckers used to ride up mountains with a 53/44 and a 21-13 cassette.  Now they do it with a 52/36 or sometimes even 52/34, with either 28-11 or even 29-11 if you ride Campag.  Much easier to get to 120 RPM when riding a 34/28 ratio than it ever was when he did it.

@Adam

Don't make fun of the old guys who rode up mountains with 52/42 with a straight block 7 speed 12-18, and a single bottle cage. They could do it because they didn't have to carry those funny foam hats the whole way up the mountain. Who cares if their kneecaps popped off halfway up the Hautacam. 

LeMond.....in all his curmudgeon glory
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/greg-lemond-miracles-in-cycling-still-dont-exist/

Cue the motor conspiracies for Dumoulin. I've not seen a bike get away from a rider quite like that. 

Excitement! Tune in.

Time to celebrate Froomey, job well done. 

Greipel changes bike twice " no , not that one , the one with the motor"

I mean it was a pretty wild tour but why do I feel so...empty...about the outcome? 

David Yang said:

I mean it was a pretty wild tour but why do I feel so...empty...about the outcome? 

Despite the efforts of ASO to create a route that could have left the victory undecided until the penultimate stage, nobody really challenged.  Kudos to Bardet and Astana for trying, but they weren't ever a threat to Froome, and the rest of them were just waiting for Froome to crack. 

My hope was Bardet and AG2R would go at it again on the Joux Plane, but Sky had four helpers with Froome.  Nobody even tried to soften them up.  Maybe it was the rain, because in the dry Bardet has shown he's not afraid of attacking descents.  And him getting a gap over the summit and then racing the descent would have made up for the yawn of a gc race.