[Closed] TdF Stage 11 - ITT - A Balancing Act [Spoilers]

well, after yesterdays outside the box prediction, I'm going for Froome today.

Pro tip: if you've never raced, don't get involved

sorry, but you can have an opinion no matter what your background or experience is 😀

[i]Pro tip: if you've never raced, don't get involved[/i]
sorry, but you can have an opinion no matter what your background or experience is

Never quite understood this attitude either - there are all sorts of things I have an opinion on which I've never personally experienced: violent crime, for example, or the merits of eating dog poo. So I, too, will continue to opine.

Back to the topic... not sure who'll win, although the likely candidates are pretty obvious: Froome, Contador, Evans... Stunning place to end the stage, too!

Stunning place to end the stage, too!

Hope they checked the tide tables properly! 🙂

martin ftw injury or not

Only one winner today...

BIG Tony Martin

And takling of TTing... on euro sport last night there was a nice little film on the UK TTing scene. It follow a young lady from the London area, a gent from Cornwall and fast becoming everyone favourite Essex boy (well my fav, anyway) Alex Dowsett.... Sorry don't know what the program was called but it's well worth searching out... It knocked ITV4's Bike Show into a cocked hat... (not hard I guess)

I kind of want Tony Martin to win this. The guy has had nothing but bad luck over the past couple of seasons and soldiering on after his bad crash in Stage 1 is pretty heroic. To be fair to him, he's been hitting the front of the OPQS leadout.

Cav must have royally thrown his toys out of the pram yesterday and demanded that they buy Renshaw! Lets hope it pays off.

The guy has had nothing but bad luck

ok 🙂 well the Tours de France then.

what happens if the tide comes in and covers the causeway?

Pro tip: if you've never raced, don't get involved.

I like your posts better when they aren't ranting about people enthusiastic enough to comment on a public thread. This isn't a sacred space, you know.

They could add colour by a final km transition to fat bikes and a last leg over the sands to the island.

when they aren't ranting about people enthusiastic enough to comment on a public thread

I think he was probably referring to the press and other forums rather than STW.

EDIT: Doesn't matter

sorry, but you can have an opinion no matter what your background or experience is

TTs are boring to watch tho, it's just sitting around chatting while waiting for the numbers to flash up on screen. Tried to get interested during the team TT but couldn't, might even skip the highlights today.

Martin is on good form this season and must be favourite if his injury doesn't hold him back. Surely Froome can't beat Martin on a flat TT.

Edit: TT's boring to watch? Fignion v LeMonde on the champs?!

Pro tip: if you've never raced, don't get involved.

One feature of this ITT is the ongoing uncertainty in Sky. The pressure is on Froome to take more time because he is possibly going to be very exposed in a few days time. The psychological pressure must be immense - he still has a lot of rivals to watch and that's not easy, especially if he has an off-day.

Edit: In other words, Sky have very much [u]not[/u] got this and still have one hell of a job to do.

Pro tip: if you've never raced, don't get involved
sorry, but you can have an opinion no matter what your background or experience is

Course you can but dont expect anyone to listen 😉

if i want an impartial view on cycling from an ex pro only one man springs to mind Lance [ you can trust me" Armstrong

As DONK notes you can have a view but , for those of us in the know it is like listening to our children explain things 😉

Lets stay on topic these tend to be a good laugh with folk explaining things to the noobs

Yes the TT is pretty dull - many stages are to be fair but when they are exciting boy are they exciting

wow! that Tuft time looks impressive - who is he? that's going to be one to beat.

Tuft 8)

Some good results in TTs ealier in the year, which is how he found his way into my Road.cc team.

Grrr

Tuft was almost in my road.cc team last night ... went for Castroviejo of Movistar instead... only to find out this morn he's riding with a broken rib

Froome isn't an amazing timetrialler. He can put in a decent time but he is not a specialist so I don't see him winning. He will however put some time into his rivals as most of them are more climbing specialists. I think Contador is out of the running unless this is a tactical master class and he is holding his nerve to take the yellow on one of the later stages so he does not have to defend it. His bluff so far looks good as he gives me the impression of a man suffering.

Tony FTW.

depends what you mean by amazing. third in the Olympics is pretty amazing, podiums in ITTs in grand tours is pretty amazing.

Martin looking to be c.90 seconds up on tuft.

Martin's first split pretty impressive. A minute faster than Tuft.

[b]ex-Road racer, qualified to post, my views are important[/b] 🙂

Anyone seen the pics of Tony Martin from behind after his crash? I'm not so sure he'll be on the form necessary to win though I'd like to see him do so if he has managed to recover.

As for Cav, I reckon he intended to give Veelers a little scare for deliberately getting in his way once he'd finished his lead out but that combined with the turn and him not expecting it resulted in a big crash... 50/50 for me - they were both at fault.

Come on Millar!!

[b]Matt Slater, BBC sports news reporter at Mont Saint Michel[/b]

"I've just had it confirmed that somebody threw urine at Mark Cavendish during today's stage."

Oh dear...

that's just taking the piss!

Thats story has been confirmed by the OPSQ team boss.

Cav is keeping quite at the moment.

Watch out any lead-out men who stray off line tomorrow 😆

Shocking "fan" behaviour there. Disgraceful behaviour whatever you think of the performance.

Chavanel going well, first one to get anywhere near Martin's time on the first split.

Has Eurosport player broken today? Or has my subscription ran out or something?

why has Porte gone so hard today? Currently in third place, surely he could have eased off quite a bit, to give him fresher legs for the weekend, given what happened this weekend?

why has Porte gone so hard today?

To provide technical info and benchmark times to Froome. Things like "is this hill doable in 53 x 16?"
If Porte dies half way up it, Froome will know that the answer is no. 🙂

aah, nice answer crazy legs!

Has Eurosport player broken today? Or has my subscription ran out or something?

Mine died. Switched to ITV4 stream

Has Eurosport player broken today?

poor from Evans, I expected better from him today.

Generally I'd rather not listen to Phil Liggett after his amazing revisionist support-defence-dropping of Lance Armstrong. The bloke is a solid gold ****.

Needs must though

Eurosport is back...

I cant get anything alse as go through a german server, so was in a pannick.

*Pokes head out of tea-pot*

What is a

revisionist support-defence-dropping of lance armstrong

Because I can't understand that sentence - what did the Ligno-got with the painfully striated voice* actually do?

(*to me, his voice actually sounds like a personification of Lactic Acid, which is quite an achievement really. He has managed this to my brain with his voice ever since I was a child)

Odds on stage win:

Martin: 1/8
Froome: 9/2

Doesn't look like the bookies are expecting Froome to topple Martin...

How nasty is that for Cav, that sort of behaviour is not on. They are not commenting on exactly what it was but its sounding like the "wee" leak could be true... (did you see what I did there?)

quintana looks about 15 years old in that close up

I've used cyclingfans to get a Eurosport stream, so it's just the official player that's broken.

There's a new computer game being developed, Mark Cavendish's Sprint Cycling. Exclusive to Nintendo Wee.

He has picked up sponsorship for childs bike seat, WeeRide.

I think froome will catch Valverde here

After a close up of the strings of snot and phlegm hanging off Ten Dams facial hair, they seem to have settled on rear shots...

Froome!

froome goes quickest at split 1 by 1s

I think froome will catch Valverde here

valverde is going to need to go pop for that to happen

but it would be good

Froome's flying.

Valverde only 24 down on the first split, Froome won't make up 3 mins.

Edit: blimey that is quick! What was Martin's first split?

Froome is on fire, fastest at Checkpoint 1

Valverde only 24 down on the first split, Froome won't make up 3 mins.

2 mins is the time gap at the start according to the tour website

surely Froome will have calculated what speed he would need to do to catch Martin? so first split would always be achievable. will he fade?

Froome is flying, absolutely ****ting it. incredible to watch (on an S3 at work)

surely Froome will have calculated what speed he would need to do to catch Martin?

I expect he knows exactly his sustainable power for that distance, and is sitting on it via a power meter.

ah, but might he try and push it further than what he thinks is sustainable to beat Martin? presuming Martin's is higher.

Hmm thought the top few riders went at 3 min splits.

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

from cyclingnews.com

Froome has a powerful pedal action but moves his ankles very little

TTs are really devoid of interesting things to comment on aren't they?

2.5 seconds up, 1.27 up on Valverde....

Because I can't understand that sentence - what did the Ligno-got with the painfully striated voice* actually do?

In some sort of vague chronological order:

Lance didn't dope
USADA are a "nefarious agency" and bribed witnesses
Other riders who confessed and implicated Lance are liars
USADA have no proof Lance doped and said "I’ve no reason not to support Armstrong."
Said he'd retire if Lance had actually doped
Eventually accepted Lance was a doper, didn't retire, didn't apologise

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

A skinny climber who came in 20s behind Martin in the Olympics though. He's hardly a shock as a solid TT rider

very solid from Froome, now, have his team got what it takes in the mountains?

To destroy the field and win a mountain top finish, then beat the TT world champ on a flat course. Just saying it will raise eyebrows.

ah, but might he try and push it further than what he thinks is sustainable to beat Martin? presuming Martin's is higher.

It wouldn't be wise. As the commentators are saying, he doesn't need to beat Martin, what he needs to do is put time into Valverde and Quintana. Any time spent over your threshold has a big effect on your fatigue, so he's better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks. Especially as he's going to need all he's got in the Alps.

(NB I am not a pro racer, a coach or a team manager 🙂 )

To destroy the field and win a mountain top finish, then beat the TT world champ on a flat course. Just saying it will raise eyebrows.

Aye, it will. Any strong performance will. However, any evidence of doping is more likely to reveal itself in the pattern of performance rather than the performance itself.

Will be fuel for the doubters if a skinny climber beats the TT world champ on a flat course.

I think the shocks the other way round, tall people generaly don't make the best climbers.

It wouldn't be wise. As the commentators are saying, he doesn't need to beat Martin, what he needs to do is put time into Valverde and Quintana. Any time spent over your threshold has a big effect on your fatigue, so he's better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks. Especially as he's going to need all he's got in the Alps.

+1

He doesn't need to beat everyone every day, just the other GC contenders. He's 1:25 up, and they're not even properly in the moutains yet!

looked like he was pushing it to me

he's better of doing what he can achieve without causing extra fatigue for the next two weeks

true, it looks like that's what he's done. faded at the end. well done Tony Martin!

What have whats left of his team got for the mountains 😉

atlaz - Member

At least one of those statements is true.

Solid result for Thomas De Gendt. There's a GC condender of the future in there somewhere!

My three transfers IN for Road.cc... Martin, Kwiatkowski and Castoveijo.... all scored points (and K'ski got more for taking the white jersey) so together with Froome that should be a soild day

How d'you get on Lifer ?

There's a GC condender of the future in there somewhere

Yep K'ski

Going to have to be some full on attacking next week on thurs/fri/sat

1st and 2nd for my virtual team 🙂

[un-educated input alert]

I agree with what trail_rat is saying, however great a 3.25 minute lead is surely this just means that the Sky team are going to get battered by everyone else over the remaining mountain stages. It doesn't seem like they have any other option but to go on relentles attack after atack to try and bring down such a massive lead.

with depleted numbers and injuries can Sky defend that lead to Paris?
Is there something else i am missing, if so please fill me in (not literally)

[/un-educated input alert]

Wondering when was the last time genuine GC contender led the tour by over three minutes this early on? Got use to there only being seconds between GC contenders.

You lot shouldn't take me too seriously, I thought Froome was going to win, and Evans was going to do a decent time. And I knew Andy was gonna suck, but not that much... This next week should be good.

It doesn't seem like they have any other option but to go on relentles attack after atack to try and bring down such a massive lead.

with depleted numbers and injuries can Sky defend that lead to Paris?

Without a crash no one will ever get that much time on him IMHO but there will be some interesting attempts

We might end up in an interesting situation where the other GC guys aren't paying Froome much attention, and just attacking Valverde, racing for 2nd..

I think they will likely try to attack him for one or two days but they must realise he has the legs of them by now and nothing is more demoralising than that.
Will they just race for second? MM good point actually. Ceetainly they all have to mark each other so perhaps not just one team doing tempo to get them back if a GC contender attacks.