Cycling Betting & Discussion.

[TightEnd]

Thomas: "I hit a lamppost with my head. The doctor asked me a few questions, like what was my name. I said I was Chris Froome."

[JohnCharver]

Looks like its going to be a great stage. Attacks from the off, sky are all over the place.

[TightEnd]

Froome says he felt NIbali didn’t show sportsmanship when attacking. Piece of tar between brakes & back wheel.

does he have a case?

[JohnCharver]

It would have been less sportsman like from anybody but nibali as astana had been pressing before that. It was clear nibali was gonna have a pop anyway, maybe a bit dirty as he prob did see froome dropping but not as dirty as if he totally altered tactics, he was clearly going to attack anyway. Sky on last tour froome won when val verde got a puncture was way dirtier imo, not to mention last time froome climbed the mountain they did today.

Dont really know why froome had anything to say, nibali was an irrelevance to him who actually helped him during the race- astana were running the pressure which stopped after he went clear, helping froome get his bewildered team back together (poels had a great race considering he was gone very early and pulled back to be massive for froome on the descend just after nibalis break), and also other teams had to chase nibali for classification which helped froome as sky folded every climb.

I think its poor form that tinkoff keep changing bikes midrace, for reasons other than mechanic failure.

[cheapwetsuit]

Froome says he felt NIbali didn’t show sportsmanship when attacking. Piece of tar between brakes & back wheel.

does he have a case?

I don't think there is much love lost between Froome and Nibali at the moment, especially after Nibali threw his water bottle at Froomey the other day. If you look at the video, Nibali knew exactly what he was doing. But there are no time penalties for bad sportsmanship (as far as I know), and it would have been a lot more serious if it was someone like Quintana, who is lying 2nd in GC, who went on the attack.

These things happen all the time in professional cycling, and is part of the game. What galls me is the fact that Nibali allegedly flatly denies taking advantage of Froome's mishap in a post-race interview. They might want to change his nickname to the Snake of Messina.

I'd also like to know if Contador, Valverde and Quintana didn't go with Nibali out of goodwill to Froome.

[rinswun]

Really enjoyable tour in my opinion and a deserving winner in Froome after all he's put up with in the past two weeks.

Interesting that the final winning margin was less than that of the time lost by Quintana in the crosswinds in stage two. Quintana therefore proving to be the best climber in the race - no spitting, urine or swearing directed at him despite the fact that is was just a tactical misjudgement which cost him the win. There's definitely a huge anti-sky bias amongst the crowd and media.

I didn't see this story posted up earlier in this thread. Definitely the most comedy thing to happen in this year's edition:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/rider-kicked-off-tour-de-france-for-hitching-a-lift-in-another-teams-car-183239

[JohnCharver]

Really enjoyable tour in my opinion and a deserving winner in Froome after all he's put up with in the past two weeks.

Interesting that the final winning margin was less than that of the time lost by Quintana in the crosswinds in stage two. Quintana therefore proving to be the best climber in the race - no spitting, urine or swearing directed at him despite the fact that is was just a tactical misjudgement which cost him the win. There's definitely a huge anti-sky bias amongst the crowd and media.

I didn't see this story posted up earlier in this thread. Definitely the most comedy thing to happen in this year's edition:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/rider-kicked-off-tour-de-france-for-hitching-a-lift-in-another-teams-car-183239

Its got to be a British thing with the french doesnt it?

They have no reason for all the rage, if froome doesnt win then its not like a frenchman would. Last year nibali from astana, a team most ppl think should be dumped out of the tour, denied a potential french winner, where was their rage then? Added to that quintana is as much if no more stereotypical of someone on EPO, no pain on face, doesnt seem to be breathing hard. The stage froome got stick for wasnt a pure climb the way these alps stages were, it was a lesser gradient part where he took a minute from quintana, on the tougher gradient parts they were pretty much matched.

Quintanas performance in the ITT was way more suspect then anything else.

[bergeroo]

Really enjoyed the stage yesterday. No idea if they are all on drugs, but in terms of sheer spectacle, climbing up a legendary mountain like that surrounded by thousands of fans who have waited there for a week and are watching it for free is perhaps unmatched in modern professional sport. Brilliant and well done to Mr Froome.

[TightEnd]

If the gc was close would they contest the last stage? If  not what is the point of the last stage?

[JohnCharver]

If the gc was close would they contest the last stage? If  not what is the point of the last stage?

Point is largely ceremonial. Like all stages won by non-GC competitors its all about advertising the team and its sponsors. Money concerned must be pretty important as in pantani documentary they made it pretty clear the reason he got outed was because he rode off and won stages he was supposed to let the also rans get a win.

Cant imagine they would race it, and in todays case they ended GC classification way earlier. (finishing only requirement)

You need a sprint at the end, or loads of people would quit in the alps.

[nellberg]

Really enjoyable tour in my opinion and a deserving winner in Froome after all he's put up with in the past two weeks.

Interesting that the final winning margin was less than that of the time lost by Quintana in the crosswinds in stage two. Quintana therefore proving to be the best climber in the race - no spitting, urine or swearing directed at him despite the fact that is was just a tactical misjudgement which cost him the win. There's definitely a huge anti-sky bias amongst the crowd and media.

I didn't see this story posted up earlier in this thread. Definitely the most comedy thing to happen in this year's edition:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/rider-kicked-off-tour-de-france-for-hitching-a-lift-in-another-teams-car-183239

That is the thing that makes so little sense, Froome won by pretty much the amount of time Quintana lost with the split in the win in Zeeland. In the Pyrenees Froome and his team were stronger. Quintana climbed like a mountain goat in the Alps and Froome was just being dragged along. The reaction that Quintana is defo clean and Froome is defo a doper makes no logical sense, but then that's the French for you eh!

[Tal]

As much as I enjoy the brutal climb stages, I did find this year's Tour a bit repetitive. I like the TT stages and the flatter ones, too. There's something other worldly about the TdF; it's a superhuman competition and I want to see the rider who copes best with its wide range of demands winning overall.  The balance of flat, fast and flipping vertical has to be just right.

This time around, we had the KoM getting the Maillot Jaune.

Also not a fan of the best sprinter losing the Maillot Vert to the sprinter who can climb best and thereby claim breakaway and intermediate points.

What do you think they'll do next year?

[nellberg]

As much as I enjoy the brutal climb stages, I did find this year's Tour a bit repetitive. I like the TT stages and the flatter ones, too. There's something other worldly about the TdF; it's a superhuman competition and I want to see the rider who copes best with its wide range of demands winning overall.  The balance of flat, fast and flipping vertical has to be just right.

This time around, we had the KoM getting the Maillot Jaune.

Also not a fan of the best sprinter losing the Maillot Vert to the sprinter who can climb best and thereby claim breakaway and intermediate points.

What do you think they'll do next year?

I like the cobbled stage, that needs to stay, it's such a spectacle and teams are ringing that stage in the book as the most important along with the massive climbs so that variety is required. I like the Giro TT model, when its long enough that it can be a real race-changing day. It adds to the drama that it could again be such a pivotal day. Having a TTT on day 10 just before the 1st rest day was a strange choice, it should either be very early on or not at all. Saving Alpe D'Huez till the penultimate day worked I think, if the time gaps had been smaller it would have been such an epic finish. I don't think too much emphasis was put on just climbing, or Quintana would have ran away with it. There were also days in the Alps where the descending was almost as important as the climbing.

The Maillot Vert is a tricky one, are you crowning the best pure sprinter or the most consistent sprinter? If its the best pure sprinter then it's not fit for purpose. Greipel was clearly the quickest sprinter this tear, and Kittel last year, but Sagan is in the mix for so many stages he just keeps chipping away. I'm not a big fan of intermediate sprints to begin with, but when they are in the middle of a mountain stage they have almost nothing to do with who is the quickest sprinter so I'd do away with those to begin with.

This year the organizers changed the rules specifically to make it more difficult for Sagan to win without winning an individual stage, yet he still won it easy. Options like doing double points for the winner on the Champs Elysees is possible, kind of like what F1 did last year or what golf do with the FED-EX cup, so the end of the season matters more. If they changed the rules I'd imagine Sagan would just get himself far enough ahead that he would still have an unassailable lead coming down the Champs Elysees. He's just a freak and, barring injuries or massive rule changes, I can't see him getting beat in the points comp for a while yet so long as he keeps making it his no.1 priority.

[mulhuzz]

This time around, we had the KoM getting the Maillot Jaune.

Last time le meilleur grimpeur was also the winner was 1970 mind...not sure you can complain too much

[nellberg]

Vuelta kicks in for real today, after yesterday's neutralised TTT. I'm warming to the chances of Aru e/w on the outright. 7/1 for 1/4 odds 1-2-3. Barring accidents he's team leader for Astana, will have a very strong team (of dopers) behind him and is fresh having bypassed the tour. Hopefully get a 3 week sweat for my money.