2012 Tour de France
- Thread starter steve
- Start date
I have to agree with jhuskey. The Tour for so long was an event that marked the high point of my summer TV viewing. This year it's been about as interesting as watching paint dry.
I dunno...I haven't seen Tommy make so many faces since Lance blew by him and stole his yellow jersey. And the split of sprint wins among Cav, Greipel and Sagan have kept even the flat stages interesting. Tommy's breaks, Rolland's win, Valverde and his dog, Piti, hanging on to win, Fedrigo coming past Vande Velde...the tons of high-speed stackups...Cadel getting gapped...Sanchez driving for the line...Nibali at least putting in a few decent digs and attacking, if only to be forced back into the bunch by whining break companions...Vino STILL trying to attack!...Morkov jumping onto any move that was going forward...Sagan's antics on the line...Farrar finding ever more painful ways to fall to planet earth...the record abandons and hammer damage.
I've enjoyed it all, so far.
Yeah, it ain't the Lance & Jan show anymore and Floyd and his new hip are more accustomed to the witness stand than a saddle, but I'm still laughing at Sean making the calculation and Carlton Kirby and Harmon's whacko sense of humor.
I've enjoyed it all, so far.
Yeah, it ain't the Lance & Jan show anymore and Floyd and his new hip are more accustomed to the witness stand than a saddle, but I'm still laughing at Sean making the calculation and Carlton Kirby and Harmon's whacko sense of humor.
Hi i've followed the Tour for over 30 years and to be honest Froome has been robbed of all the glory of winning this years tour and all the frame and forture that would come his way of becoming the first British winner.It happen the same way in the tour of spain last year when he had to hold Wiggins hand and its repeating it self again.Luckly for Sky Froome had the puncture and lost over a minute,otherwise what would the orders would be.Its clear Froome has been the best rider this year and would clearly have would the last stage in the mountains but had to stay with Wiggins.Why because it would embrassing to Wiggins and show him up as being second best.And next year can you really see Wiggins not wanting to retain his title so where does it leave Froome.So for me i won't be cheering Wiggins on Sunday but Froome .
They're not UK Postal, they are Clockwork Lemon.
Would be nice to see them in coke hats tomorrow.
In 2010, Wiggins and Millar wore skin suits on the way to Champs Elysees.
Edit:
Wonder what are Evans' plans for the second part of the season.
After the Worlds he could head to Orica-GreenEDGE.
Would be nice to see them in coke hats tomorrow.
In 2010, Wiggins and Millar wore skin suits on the way to Champs Elysees.
Edit:
Wonder what are Evans' plans for the second part of the season.
After the Worlds he could head to Orica-GreenEDGE.
i get the feeling that there will be a number of surprising transfers when the window opens. astana seems to be the team whose name is associated with too many a list riders coming aboard. personally wondering where roche will end up. another year of solid riding for g c for a team built to contend for nothing in particular.
Forgot to mention...how good was TJ? 5th place overall after a 7th place ITT! And Gretsch actually finished in 6th after an outstanding effort.
Sagan lost 5-1/2 minutes saving himself for tomorrow and Cadel lost nearly 6 minutes today to fall to almost 16 minutes down.
Haimar's 6th place is the high point of RS-Nissan's tour?
Sagan lost 5-1/2 minutes saving himself for tomorrow and Cadel lost nearly 6 minutes today to fall to almost 16 minutes down.
Haimar's 6th place is the high point of RS-Nissan's tour?
.. and Hushvod failed so bad he's done nothing all year and didnt even make the team. Ain't gonna make the Olympics and probably not even start the Worlds...
To be fair to Cummings, there were ~50 punctures on the top of the hill, he rode up there and handed over a wheel that was still ridable when he stopped. That team cars weren't allowed in the final 3km of that climb and some c^^t threw down some tacks wasn't any fault of his. Maybe he should have mystically magiced up a team car and handed over a fully inflated with helium Lightweight Wheel with an uber sticky Continental Podium TT tub attached with a 11-21 block just suited for that downhill suicide run required. Cummings did a sterling ride that day when others better suited should have been up there with Cadel. That Cadel looked at TJ and shouted at him, TJ looked at Cadel and rode away... Well.. read into that what you will.
People have been jumping on the Froome train this week. The lad is ace and if his performance in the Vuelta showed that this Tour confirmed it but, and this is a huge but, there was no 'on form' Contador here. Alberto can TT well, maybe as well as Froome, maybe better and we all know the lad can climb. I don't see that Wiggo will have an issue riding for him should the Tour lend itself to a climber rather than a TT guy. It'd be ace to see Froome given a go in the hills.
But... will Cav get a good lead out in Paris. His sprint the other day was unreal, probably the best sprint I've ever seen whilst watching the Tour since 1984. The last time I shouted at the TV like that was when United won the Champions League in 1999.
- to win the Tour, I think a rider may not necessarily need a run of good luck, they just need to have no BAD luck. Evans has always had the talent, but something always seems to go wrong for him - whether that's just bad luck or an inferior team, I can't say. Suffice it to say Evans didn't have the best luck, but battled pretty hard vs a team that was just a machine - complaints about this tour being boring (which I more or less agree with, at least as far as GC was concerned) tend to gloss over that Nibali/Liquigas and Evans/BMC-not-so-much DID attack, it was just that Sky was strong enough to quash anything they didn't like.
- Peloton wrote a good article that one may or may not agree with as to why Wiggo is a deserving champion, in that Froome ALSO benefited greatly from the strong Sky squad, and Wiggo has dealt well with the added pressure of being "The Man", which a young rider such as Froome may or may not do - for example, while Froome is back at the hotel, showered, massaged, and watching hotel **** on tv, Wiggins is probably still out there dealing with the press; a big distraction like that could easily throw a younger, less mature rider off his game. Along with the fact that there were 2 clear instances where Froome looked like he could have taken some time out of Wiggo, but there were also two TTs in Wiggins DID take some time out of Froome. Actually an ideal situation for Sky, in that if one or the other faltered, they still had the strongest squad with the strongest rider; less ideal for Froome, as he was #2 with virtually no chance to become #1, and while it's easy to look and go "oh man Froome will contend for years!" predicting the future is a shaky business
- I think with the top 2 podium spots secure, Sky is going to go balls-out to deliver Cav to a win on the Champs-Elyssee. Cav, for all his mouth, has been a good soldier and uncomplaining about being relegated way down on the to-do list, I think he gets rewarded for that.
Cav really is in the class of his own.
Looking good for London, even with just four helpers.
Last two sprints were works of art in terms of judgement of effort. Adding that both sprints were after the Alps and Pyrenees, we can say he's unbeatable long distance finisher.
We've already knew he masters short distance sprints, and thought he's beatable in longer runs.
After the Olympics we could call them the Sweepers.
Looking good for London, even with just four helpers.
Last two sprints were works of art in terms of judgement of effort. Adding that both sprints were after the Alps and Pyrenees, we can say he's unbeatable long distance finisher.
We've already knew he masters short distance sprints, and thought he's beatable in longer runs.
After the Olympics we could call them the Sweepers.
Just finished watching Paris. I've gotta say, Sky seems like a team that just manages to do it right - letting Hincapie lead the peloton onto the Champs Elyssees was great, and Wiggo digging deep to lead out Cav on 2 of the last 3 stages....just a team that gets it, I guess.
Was anyone NOT rooting for Jens in the breakaway?
And kinda curious if Horner got a "hey, go up there Old Man!" too, or if he just saw Hincapie taking off and glommed onto his wheel.
Was anyone NOT rooting for Jens in the breakaway?
And kinda curious if Horner got a "hey, go up there Old Man!" too, or if he just saw Hincapie taking off and glommed onto his wheel.
i did like that hincapie lead the peloton out for their first trip up the boulevard. nice send off for someone who has done something very remarkable. to have completed that many tours is above admirable.
i have to give sky marks for the way they laid back and let liqui and lotto pull the break back. and even with their allowing those teams to sap already leaden legs, i still thought cav went too early. well mark me down as surprised. i don't think sagan drew any closer to cav's rear wheel when he broke than when sagan followed cav's break. phenomenal talent.
bit surprised to hear the talk started that cav may depart sky for his own squad. that certainly didn't take long.
i have to give sky marks for the way they laid back and let liqui and lotto pull the break back. and even with their allowing those teams to sap already leaden legs, i still thought cav went too early. well mark me down as surprised. i don't think sagan drew any closer to cav's rear wheel when he broke than when sagan followed cav's break. phenomenal talent.
bit surprised to hear the talk started that cav may depart sky for his own squad. that certainly didn't take long.
I'm not surprised, either, but it doesn't sound very smart. Really, what can Cav do as team leader? Can't climb, can't time trial, hasn't won a cobbled classic, hasn't won a hilly classic. His only trick is to hang onto the peloton in good position, have a team that reels in breakaways and moves him to the front, and then sprint faster than anybody else. That leaves points jerseys in grand tours and the occasional world road championship and Olympic road race if the course is sufficiently flat.
He should be looking for a highly bankrolled team that will be satisfied to win green jerseys until it can recruit a GC contender.
That was exactly where he was at until this year - Team Highroad aka HTC...
But as the lad said, being a Brit and part of a British team that had a British rider become the first Brit to win the Tour was an experience he'll never forget. Sure, he only won 3 stages - something that only Cav in the modern peloton can look down upon but it still aint too darned shabby.
Will Saturday be payback time - the Olympic Road Race? From reading Cav's book he seems to have a good grasp on what salary he can earn and what support is required to get the results that'll keep that salary coming. He might be a few Tour stages down on previous years but chances are there's compensation via other means
Cher-Ching.
