[Closed] Le Tour (may contain spoilers)

Froome in yellow means that Sky's car will be first in line tomorrow - could be vital for the cobbles.

They can always let a break go later in the week so they don't have to keep defending.

[i]there were less riders on the deck in the DH at the weekend[/i]

to be fair, if they all set off at the same time there might be more 🙂

Froome in yellow means that Sky's car will be first in line tomorrow - could be vital for the cobbles.

Oooh a very good point indeed there which may well explain Froome's big push.

well as my local tv lot are doing the should they have stopped thing I expect about 30 different opinions by the morning.

No great shakes, he can easily give it up for a week or so if it suits.

Just watching the highlights now on EuroSport, missed all the live coverage. That said, I saw "the incident" on Facebook and the stage result.

Cancellara took one hell of a flyer. 🙁

Edit - I feel sick watching that, it's horrific. 🙁

Well there's gonna be some sore bodies tomorrow with plenty of road rash going on.

I've lost Gerrans from my team, and I'll be surprised if Fabs toes the line, so that'll be a lot of teams one rider down.

A slight re-arrangement in the STW overall top three:

1: Team Michael Flatley Quick Step, DS Scandal42, on 1133 points
2: Team Raleigh banana, DS Chris chaddock, on 954 points
3: Team daves dynamos, DS, kaney99, on 946 points

Roll on the pavë for more destruction.

There will be a few dns'ing in the morning.Beat up and sore and a day on cobbles is a different prospect than 40k once the adrenalin and pain killers wear off. Can't see Fab or Michael Matthews starting tbh along with a few others.

Oooh a very good point indeed there which may well explain Froome's big push.

Can someone explain the significance of the car starting position please?

The closer to the front the team car is, the quicker a new bike/wheel/food/bidon can be got

First in line equals quickest to get a rider if/when they need help. Being 10 plus cars back on single farm tracks means potentially losing a shed load of time just waiting around.

Not so vital when on major French roads, but tomorrow it could mean a lot

Neutralising the race was probably the right thing to do but there must be a lot of times in the past in all manner of races when there are 2 or more crashes which presumably take the medical team out of action and everything continues. Sensible to stop but it sets a precedent

Andy Schleck must be ruing the opportunity to race a Grand Tour where the race stops every time you crash. All those with Farrar in your fantasy teams can also hope for their fortunes to change 😆

Cancellara: [i]Just left the hospital with a huge disappointment #TDF2015 is over broke some bones on my back again as in spring. #L3/L4right side[/i]

Thanks re car position

rode with broken back. like you do.

he must be gutted, i'm gutted, I'm sure he was going all in for tomorrows stage and well never get to see it.

[url= http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=preview_message&fn=Link&id=8ff3321bhwdboyjb54ilipjs5lwqc&ssid=31334&t=3 ]Same injury, *fortunately* different locations to the one earlier in the year[/url]

Footage of the aftermath from the POV of the OGE mechanic - interesting and not crash porn...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=7raIxrzodt4

On an not entirely unrelated note - anyone know how to embed videos?

he must be gutted, i'm gutted, I'm sure he was going all in for tomorrows stage and well never get to see it.

+1, really disappointing 🙁 I hope he recovers well.

That OGE video is unbelievable. Has a Saving Private Ryan feel to it despite obvious differences.

Brave riders and totally dedicated support staff. Amazing footage. Wishing them all a good recovery

Very helpful video and it completely shows why you want your car at spot 1

Crazy stage,

Ill take the yellow jersey in the fantasy league though.

Fabs oooot 😐

Is disappoint.

I was second on the stage 🙂
This may be my greatest moment.

my punt on OGE for big points in the 1st week is looking a bit questionable 🙁

Love the mechanic-cam, great angle of the whole aftermath

I can't imagine cycling to the finish with fractured vertebrae. He's a tough bloke.

Lotto Jumbo's mechanic's footage as well:

http://www.gijsbregt.nl/news/gopro-footage-of-the-lotto-jumbo-mechanic-after-the-crash-6925

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was forced to watch on itv player just now.

It's still a bit buggy especially around the commercial breaks but I do believe that was an HD stream! What a refreshing find. ITV4 on freeview is still SD and looks pretty poor. Wasn't expecting that.

Fark, that crash was brutal, bloody gutted Cancellara is out.

Go Froome and those elbows, I knew there must be a marginal gain somewhere for that ugly ugly riding style!! Almost thought he was going to take the win too.

Surprised @ Contador, he'll lose more time tomorrow against Nibali (Who's going to smash it tomorrow and take yellow...) but we don't know how Froome will go yet, Geraint Thomas looks strong but not so sure about Stannard!

Pinot?? 🙁 what happened, was he involved in the crash? Disappointed to see him off the back.

"Shocked" Dan Martin did **** all, terminal also ran, 1 second again for his surname bruv, EtixxFailStep can't catch a break!

Massive thanks to the Sky box for not bothering to record the highlights tonight and making me stay up 'till now to see it. ****waffle!

Every vid link above appears to revolve around the first crash, but there was talk of a second major crash which affected race decisions there after, but no video of it?. Did the second big crash happen?, or was it all about the first/only crash. The commentators were talking about the race being stopped because A&E not being able to get thru to the second big crash, is that correct?

there was another crash further up the road apparently, saw a couple down after that. The info coming out was that the medics were all tied up at the back and couldn't have got through to any further incidents.
Not sure if you can view this one but a good interview with Brailsford
http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/video/478112323765/Post-Stage-3-Sir-Dave-Brailsford
Mostly agreeing that this was serious enough to do something and they had to make a call very quick. Includes a dig about the Giro and applying laws to the letter where in this case common sense said hold until they knew what was going on.

Apologies if this has been posted before, or if I've missed any particular relevant news, but where is Realman posting his daily updates please?

Thanks.

He's not. He's away and busy, and without a reliable connection.

Awwwww... I'd been wondering the same. I liked his posts last year...

The bad news: 3 weeks on crutches and no work for me after Sunday mornings ride.

The good news: I'm going to have to watch all the live coverage.

Is that compass sticking his hand up for some daily posts 😉

Obviously been done to death but
http://sportteller.sbs.com.au/pain_of_the_peloton.html#Overview
The photographers in the middle of it all reminded me of a film
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Not sure I'm going to have time for a daily post. What with approximately 4 hrs of tour watching, 12 hours of sleep, 4hrs of eating cake and 4hrs of browsing for N+1 my days are going to be pretty full.

A lot of talk online that Debenkolb caused the crash by veering in front of the FDJ rider and taking out his front wheel!

Stage 4 preview-

http://inrng.com/2015/07/tour-de-france-stage-4-preview-cambrai/

"Shocked" Dan Martin did **** all

not sure that's fair. he was fourth on the stage.

Go Froome and those elbows, I knew there must be a marginal gain somewhere for that ugly ugly riding style!! Almost thought he was going to take the win too.

Of course if his elbows didn't stick out so far he wouldn't have needed to elbow the rider out of his way... 😀

Ok … so I’m defo no Realman… but here you go ….

Stage 4.... Cobblers 😀

“If the crosswinds of stage two, and the steep finishing climb of stage three haven’t created havoc in the GC, this stage will.”

More of the same then…. Can Nibali get some time back and who will be today BIG losers… ?

The Great French Hope… Pinot … has all but written off his chances even before today

“I didn’t have any strength, I had nothing. It was very difficult. I’ve put in a lot of preparation for this Tour so to be three minutes down on GC after three days is disappointing. But that’s sport.” … “I’m pessimistic for tomorrow, at least if my legs are like this, because on the pavé it’s decided by your strength,” Pinot said just before boarding the bus. “I won’t make a plan for tomorrow. I’m going to see how I recover, how I sleep but if I feel like I did today, then it’s going to be hard.

While Wolfman Ten Dam soldiers (or shoulders) on … “I said that they had to pop my shoulder back in. I have trained very hard, so I don’t want to abandon the race even before we enter France. As long as I’m in the race, it’s possible that I can recover. Tomorrow, I’m going to try it on the cobblestones. It will be painful, but afterwards, I have four days to recover. The Alps are just in two weeks and maybe everything is different at that moment.”……. Nails !!

Weather today in Brussels (not too far away from the route) … more of the same … sunshine and showers ... although Pave is reported to be a dust fest... with a fairly stiff head wind mostly today …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2800866

So which classics rider will get the win today? Boom, Vanmarke, Kristoff, GVA, Degenkolb

Seems as if using them to protect your GC has been thrown into the road side ditch…

“Last year there were many classics specialists who stayed with their team leader. For example, all Garmin-riders were supposed to stay with Talansky. Two days later he crashed so that tactic turned out to be a missed opportunity, especially if you have two specialists. You don’t need to ride with seven guys around two team leaders but that’s what they did. I expect a bigger battle.”… said LottoNL-Jumbo DS

Although doubt Sky will let Thomas off the leash… and to be fair, he seems a real team player.

For me … Sagan has looked, as ever, super strong…. Just 40sec down on Rodriguez yday.

As for yellow … we all want to see der Panzerwagen in gelb …. Nein ??

I’m not, you’ll be glad to hear 😀 , going to be doing this everyday.

But why don’t we take turns ?

Maybe someone can put their hand up this afternoon to do it tomorrow (so as not to get a doubling up and a wasted effort)

Nice work there Ro5ey. Not much in the way of pave today so I'd expect a reduced bunch sprint. Thankfully we get some nice weather so less of a lottery.

Disappointed for all those out yesterday. Can't imagine the work that just goes into getting to the start line of the Tour, so for it to all be over this early must be gutting 🙁

Boom, Vanmarke, GVA, Degenkolb, Thomas

FIFY, I'd place Stannard up there too if he can get a ride in first, but heart goes for Boom. After his Cortisol readings, the Astana rebuttle, Nibb's not so good couple of stages so far and I think an angry Vino'.. all make me think Boom will have a lot to say about today. Plus he's a hard man, I like him and he's a pretty good CX rider 😉

Harsh poin made about Dan Martin, he did really well. 4th! C'mon ok it took him a little while to ride through the other riders up the hill but he did it. He even matched Purito for a little while.

Outstanding ride by Froome'idge.. flapping his wings to gain axtra momentum might just be taken up by a few more riders 😆 If you watch the last 50mtrs he actually rides harder knowing the extra seconds here makes a huge difference to today. If he can stay upright and in the pack it wouldn't be a bad stage to loose the jersey...

Roll on, cap on, clip in.

Dan Martin

It was harsh but fair 😛 No prizes for fourth, especially when you've kicked the arse out of the climb. Garmin could maybe watch a few GCN videos on positioning 😉

Watch out for Simon Yates now. Orica-GreenEDGE were severely affected with five involved in the crashes yesterday with Daryl Impey and Simon Gerrans the team leader now out.

Yates was also involved in a crash but got up and still managed to finish 8th alonside Nibali and Quintana, only 11 seconds back from Froome. With Gerrans out Yates might be given a free rein to go for it on the mountain stages and he climbed really well in the Dauphine a few weeks back as well.

He's just over 5 minutes back from Froome on GC so I don't seriously think he will challenge, especially with the TTT coming up but he might well embarrass the likes of Contador, Nibali, Quintana etc.

Today will be a fascinating stage as, since a lot of teams lots people yesterday, there will be less people to be protect and so more people after the win. I'd say you can remove Sky, Saxo, Astana and Moviestar people from the mix which sadly mean Thomas (my rider of the day yesterday), Sagan and Stannard won't be in the mix.

I had a feeling that an angry and frustrated Etixx-Quick Step would fancy it today, Stybar maybe but I guess they may still fancy Uran to be up there in GC so maybe not. Sep Vanmarke it is then.

Boom, Vanmarke, GVA, Degenkolb, Thomas

Boom, Thomas and GVA will be on shepherding duties I suspect. Degenklob a good bet. I'd expect to see Cav contesting the finish too. Won't be a repeat of last year's stage.

Also to put it in perspective, 223k stage with 13k of cobbles on a dry day. I suspect it won't greatly impact the outcome on the day. I'd still be expecting a reasonable bunch at the finish.

Having said that... all the pave is towards the end of the stage, and the two longest bits are saved for last.

No prizes for fourth, especially when you've kicked the arse out of the climb.

He's in with a shout of the Strava KOM, surely some consolation 😉

I'm going to stick my neck out and say Sagan for the stage win today.

Stybar !

Good call Sir. Forgot about him 🙄
Anther great CX'er, hard man in the Heartlands too.. Should go well if EQS let him ride on and you know what, after Marks angry state t'other day and yesterday I think he'll but his support behind him FTW. Marks a good hacker on the cobbles when he puts his mind to it. Add Tony to the mix and you have a bow wave coming through..

I predict GC changing crashes today. I reckon it's going to be super fast with teams trying to capitalise on yesterday's gains or trying to get some time back. Crashes might not happen on the cobbles but on the run in to the pave.

The fear of the cobbles will do more damage to the race than the actual cobbles. I'm rooting for the big Germans today, I want to see Martin in yellow and Gripel with another win!

*rubs crystal ball*

Sagan in the yellow jumper later but not win the stage, Contador crash, Quintana to lose time, Nibbles and Froome to be more or less level tonight.

Sky are in an interesting point here - Geraint is very close to froome in the GC so they may need to think carefully about who supports who, maybe let Yogi and Rowe look after froome

Contador is the one to watch though, if he's going to do anything for the rest of the race he has to start chipping away at the deficit but cannot afford to lose anything

nibali will be ok, Nairo will have to charge as well

GT will just be supporting CF. His current position will be of no relevance unless it somehow affects Sky's likely plan to let someone else take the jersey for a bit.

AC could well improve at the tour goes on given his Giro antics. Or hopefully he'll be being tested to destruction so he can't do a rest-day special beef BBQ.

Quintana looks the most threatening I reckon. In his position, he's got the potential to blow things apart when the mountains start and that could affect any of the fab four (well, three others) indirectly by changing the shape of the stages.

edhornby, there is never a "plan B" for Sky, they'll put all their resources into helping Froome and if that means Thomas is sacrificed then so be it. Stannard and Rowe may well do the majority of the work, perhaps along with Kennaugh but there sole focus will be to get Froome through unscathed with a minimum of time dropped.

Re the Sky thing. I've wondered right from the start if in fact they do have a plan B this time, not Porte who does seem to be struggling a bit for form, but Thomas. This objective being kept under wraps. Think it could become clearer after this afternoon, if Thomas does feature in the finale, or not.

Porte was the emergency plan b last year and the pneumonia kind of got in the way, his form up to the Giro was enough to put him up there as a contender. Not sure how he's doing post Giro crash though. Looks like he's being used more strategically this time round (like punching through a chunk of the climb after the restart) GT looks to have the last man standing role of being the final support though could imagine it changing once they hit the mountains.

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he's never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.

nemesis - Member

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he's never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.

I've always rated him as one of the most complete riders. Really looking forward to seeing how he does in this tour.

I think he's fantastic but I still hold to my point.

Podium on the right year, with the right course? Maybe

Win it? I just can't see it

I'd love to be proven wrong though.

Check out Geraint Thomas' cobble-friendly bike.

[url= http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-bike-videos/geraint-thomas-paris-roubaix-pinarello-dogma-k8-s-video-166152 ]Hardtail [/url]

Tony Martin will do well and will wear the yellow jersey at the end of the day, he has got the right characteristics for cobbles and rode well last year, although he has always avoided the cobbled classics - however that lack of experience is mitigated by: far fewer cobbles and the experience within his team (Lefevre knows the cobbles better than anyone). Also an ideal person to carry the jersey for the overall contenders as he has a strong team to carry the burden.

[img] [/img]

That photo makes it look like a fork- can you imagine the ugliness?

[img] [/img]

Retro man

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]
Looks interesting, wonder if it locks for the road, given how they are generally below the weight limit and bulking them up it's could be very good.

Sorry. Not a hard tail. It's a full sus.

Bin dun. Noobs.

Today’s stage is all about Risk. The risk you crash out v’s the risk you slip down the field.
Avoiding crashing out by careful protection of team riders and sensible speeds on the cobbles can help but at the same time the further forward you are in the long stretched out peloton the less risk you get caught behind an incident or fall to far behind the head of the race. Any breaks that form will be difficult to catch because of the nature of the terrain and differing approaches to it. Too fast and you crash / break something / puncture, too slow and you get lost in the pack where things slip from your control.

I expect the lead teams to fight for position going into the high risk sections but then try and control the race through them. I’d imagine team Sky will just be looking to get everyone home safe but with that in mind some ambition from a small number of teams or group to really hammer into and through the pave and down the narrow roads could see a significant break form and chaos in the chase.

Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he's never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.

Sorry but I'm with AlexSimon, I think he's one of the best and most capable all-rounders in the peloton.
He's been cursed with a lot of bad luck and occasionally can have real problems keeping it rubber side down but the main reason he's always pretty low key is that he's such a brilliant domestique.

That year that Brad crashed out - G was in the white jersey which he then lost because the whole team got brought back to support Brad.

I'd love to see G just let loose with Ian Stannard, blow the field to smithereens. Sadly that won't happen today - maybe Sagan or Stybar for the win I reckon.

Lemond just been spouting about full sus being the right choice for today... hmmmm.

Have just also seen a horrible shampoo advert starring Kittel. Good god man, No!

I love Eurosport for the live feed before ITV4 starts the day, but sheesh it has to be muted

Whereas in Oz we just had an interview with Eddie Merckx, they asked if he was 2mins down on Froome today would he attack? Glint in eye and YES!

Then the strange caffeine shampoo ad and the cooking slot on mint creme brule

crazy-legs - Member
Nah, Thomas is a great rider but he's never shown any sustained form to suggest he could win a grand tour, much less THE grand tour.
Sorry but I'm with AlexSimon, I think he's one of the best and most capable all-rounders in the peloton.

I'd love G to win the TdF but can't see him staying with the big climbers. And this year is a big climbing tour. (Please let me be proved wrong!)

Have just also seen a horrible shampoo advert starring Kittel. Good god man, No

cooking slot on mint creme brule

One of my climbing partners ordered a mint creme brulee in an auberge outside Montargis once. I can say with absolutely no hesitation that it's the worst pudding I've ever tasted. Toothpaste with a sweet crunchy topping.

Gone live here, Sky and Astana up front ready for the first batch 🙂

Eurosport just said that Bonnet broke his neck in two places yesterday. 😯

He's undergone surgery to prevent 'anything worse'.

Is it just me who finds the Lotto Jumbo jerseys very confusing?

yep, ready for the first bit of cobbles...

and I had promised myself an early night this evening

Hill climb sprints for me tonight then catching the 9pm slot on Eurosport.

Spoilers/updates/tickertape reporting please lads..

Please, no really....

😀

Eurosport repeating Flecha's 2 tech reports twice now. Means I have to put Ligett on, jeez he's boring.