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Nice win for Barguil. Well deserved. So what's the gap?
why was froome (& kwiatkowski) riding on the front?
#youknowwhoyourmatesare
? Wtf was that all about?
[quote=scaredypants ]why was froome (& kwiatkowski) riding on the front?
Presumably because they wanted to bring Yates and Martin back - I think that was a mistake and they should have just let them go.
So no change to the top 4 on GC, but 5-8 have all moved up a bit, Landa now a significant factor at just over a minute - is Quintana back in it at just over 2?
New GC...
1 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 55:30:06
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:06
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:25
4 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:35
5 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:09
6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:32
7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:02:04
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:07
9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:04:51
10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:22
Froome turning into Wiggo...
Bit harsh Chunky, Froome seems quite a likeable chap.
Fair point...
Watched most of rhis one, fairly interesting. Froome semed happy enough
Froome semed happy enough
Landa up the road and get everyone else to work on the climbs was the obvious plan for Sky. And now he's even better placed to apply pressure. And another day ticked off with the gap from Froome to Aru still at 6s. I can't see why they wouldn't be pleased enough with that.
[I] Froome seems quite a likeable chap [/i]
Operative word being "seems".
Looked to me as though he attacked Landa.
Not a fan of how Froome races.
is Quintana back in it at just over 2?
he looked better today though could be that it was the shortness of the stage, 2min + tt losses back butFroome looks a bit leggy/under cooked (think the sky/froome plan was for froome not to lose as much time to Landa as the others but yet again didn't have the legs for it)
I don't think Froomy is "cooked", not by a long shot. I think he's riding into race fitness. He's only done 36 days racing this year and to be out of a peloton for any length of time is clearly going to need a time of assimilation and transition. Riding behind a moped or training on your own in solitude whilst effective, once you get back in a bunch there are breaks and attacks, pace slowdowns and huge bunch meandering to get use to again. He's a seasoned professional lets not forget that. Partially thats why I think Sky control things early on, to bring him back up to race pace.
Froomy by numbers is fine, but Quinty, Are, Bardet are explosive "ride by feeling" rather than more clinical "numbers" game. Burning off your Team Mates wears thin, but thats the game they play and play it very well too. Once the novelty has worn off though and they start to crack, Landa for instance.. plenty of fight in him.
Watch tomorrow, the day after that.. Think you'll find he's back up there again.
Even that highlights show was great entertainment. Millar, Boulting, Boardman and Imlach are a great team. Not so sure about Sky - seemed like Froome was doing a fair amount of work to reduce Landa's lead. Why not let Aru just take the lead? Anyway, am looking forward to the next mountain stages, it's an intriguing contest.
Some great racing today.
What bikebouy said.
Talk of Froome attacking Landa is ridiculous. Landa today was just a Sky pawn in the big GC game. If it did look like he was going to get a big GC leading gap then they might have played it differently (he never had that sort of lead.) His job was just to get out there and make the other GC guys work. Froome's efforts on the descent, I'd assume he just wanted to test Aru and the others and see if he could force some gaps and break up the bunch.
Why not let Aru just take the lead?
I reckon the plan was for Froome to attack over the top of the final climb (which he did but it failed) gap Aru by a minute regaining yellow and losing only a minute to Landa. He then got nervous that if no one worked Landa in yellow might be worse for him than Aru in yellow.
Klunk, as much fun as the media might have in trying to pitch team mates against each other, I very much doubt that's the situation in the Sky bus.
Makes me now consider the length of time Aru will be in Yellow, sadly his team are straggling way behind him offering no support. I don't think thats a bad reflection on them, Fuglsang pulled out, Valgren is suffering after an off, Grivko seems lacking bite, Zeitts I haven't actually seen yet.
It's a long old day without support. I give him maybe one more day, max.
I'm not convinced. Surely he could've sat in, let Aru et al chase and then gone for a 1-2 km blast right at the end. As it was Aru got pretty much a free ride down.Talk of Froome attacking Landa is ridiculous. Landa today was just a Sky pawn in the big GC game. If it did look like he was going to get a big GC leading gap then they might have played it differently (he never had that sort of lead.) His job was just to get out there and make the other GC guys work. Froome's efforts on the descent, I'd assume he just wanted to test Aru and the others
Sat on Aru's wheel most of the stage letting him chase Landa. Last bit of the climb and applying pressure down the hill was the right time to try and pinch back 6 seconds. Didn't work this time but a few more days of that and with no support from Astana I can see Aru cracking.
Didn't work this time but a few more days of that and with no support from Astana I can see Aru cracking.
2 more days of that would give Landa a 3 min lead over Froome. 😉
Sat on Aru's wheel most of the stage letting him chase Landa
He didn't really chase anyone the only time he felt the wind was on the final descent, then for only a bit.
Re. The commentary, feel Millar has really got into the groove this year, great to listen to, informative and shows obvious excitement with what's going on. Great stuff.
Re. The race, I don't quite get why Bardet slowed right up after attacking on the start of the last descent, while aru had followed the others hadn't quite as fast. Can't help thinking he could have made time there.
Klunk, true. It was a bit of a shame for Sky that Contador was up front as UAE did a lot of the work. Would have been very interesting had Landa got into virtual yellow as Aru, Uran and Bardet would have had to work, which would have been even better for Froome.
If Landa goes up the road on sunday it could be fun. Astana lack the team to chase.
I didn't see a concerted effort to chase the front group - a few times Froome chanced his arm to see if he could get a gap, at which point he might have then sustained the effort but every time Aru came back to him he then eased off. It's not massively different to repeated attacks by others on Froome on the steeps, just that flat or DH is where Froome as a more powerful / TT rider is more likely to get an advantage; taking the battle to Aru on Froome's terms. And if it didn't succeed, every time made Aru work that bit harder and take a bit more out of him in the long game.
All the talk of tactics is funny...legs decide tactics. Kelly likened today's stage to a junior race with riders attacking willy nilly..
Legs do decide tactics and Sky have a lot more legs at the front of the race than anyone else at the moment. The rest can only really mark each other.
Interesting to read Millar's pre race article on stage 13 tactics and compare to how it played out...
https://chpt3.com/blogs/journal/tour-de-france-2017-stage-13
It's a bit reminiscent of the Giro where Movistar could pretty much impose their plan on every stage and all Dumoulin could do was mark Quintana and try and hold on. Which incredibly he did, more successfully than when he was put to the sword against Aru and Astana at the Vuelta.
Just finished catching up on the recording. Tactics from Sky seemed very odd. If Froome wasn't attacking, Kwiatko was pulling on the front and giving Aru a rest. Bizarre.
Ultimately they are 6 seconds off the lead still, but Landa could've been much closer than 1:09.
From other reports online, Kwiatkowski was keeping the pace up to avoid any attacks going and potentially causing issues for Froome if there was a split. For all of ITV's talk about Dan Martin not being a risk, for example, but with him only 1m41s down, it might not have been a hugely unlikely scenario that if left to Aru, he could open a gap that moved him closer to Bardet and Uran and create later problems for Sky.
Seems odd that Uran supposedly has support from Rolland and Talansky but they're pretty absent on the stages.