You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Dan Martin!!!!!!!!! Go go go!!!!!!
FFS how good are Sky, closing it down and neutralising it again.
Brilliant day to have off work
Quintana moving up too, if you're going to attack yellow the day he crashes and is riding the wrong bike is the day to do it. 3km to go.
Brilliant day to have off work
I can assure you I'm very much enjoying this at work with my iPad in front of me!
How steep is that - to see their legs struggling so hard, except Martin!!
Yates struggling now though 🙁
EDIT: #OGERocks
Poels and Henao are killing it! Brutal.
First stage I have been able to watch a lot of
That's very careless
[quote=lunge ]Froome on a team mates bike apparently.
Really - strange the commentators haven't mentioned that
Froome moving up, he's got some pain to hand out still.
[edit] or not.
do the face Fabio!
Aru has attacked, Porte up top, Froome and Nairo follow.
Aru has such a horrible pedalling style.
[s]Stephen Mangan[/s] Aru giving it a go now
Just can't believe the other teams let Froome get back on, crazy.Suppose they're fighting for the minor places but jeebus show some minerals
Bit of a split here and Froome isn't the right side of it, he could lose a few seconds here.
Great ride from Froome - big congrats from him to his team mate. Nice.
good stage that shook up the GC and the first signs of weakness from froome all be it on the wrong bike after a crash
How the hell did he manage that?! Froome is a machine!
Froome loses about 12secs to Quintana, Yates has probably held on to third overall with Romain Bardet in second but depends on the gap between Quintana and Yates - 30 seconds according to TdF site.
Adam Yates is one tough bastard!
Not sure it is weakness if he only looses a few seconds on the wrong bike after a crash - pretty epic display i reckon
There's less than 10 (cough, edit) seconds between Quintana and Yates now. I fear that Quintana is 3rd in the gc
Not sure it is weakness if he only looses a few seconds on the wrong bike after a crash - pretty epic display i reckon
Agree totally.
FYI there was a good little feature on Bardet last night on Fr 2 (will see if its on yoitube), bit of mtb in the winter to keep training interesting and some work with a Montpellier rugby fitness coach too. I imagine they showed it then as he had a chance today
Lucky they got that motor into G's bike, could have been disasterous 😛
Just proves that oval rings are snake oil 😉
No weakness from Froome IMO, he lost 15 seconds on the wrong bike after a crash. That's not weakness, that's awesome.
GC showing as:
Froome
Bardet @ 4,11
Quintana @ 4,27
Yates @ 4,36
http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2016/us/classifications.html
Blimey, just catching up. So Bardet up to second and Quintana 3rd now?
Dan Martin looking after the sponsors there!
That was an awesome and involving final 25k or so.
I really like Bardet, glad to see him get a big win there.
If he hasnt totally bollocked himself he should be good tomorrow as well
New top 10, Yates fourth, still tight though.
[img] 
:large[/img]
Feel a bit sorry for Mollema, not really put a foot wrong till today. Was that because of the crash or was he already off the back?
No weakness from Froome IMO, he lost 15 seconds on the wrong bike after a crash. That's not weakness, that's awesome.
Awesome indeed ! Aside from the impact its a decent pull to get back to the group and that must take your "finish" away
Dan Martin looking after the sponsors there
Even more so in his interview
Just caught a glance of tomorrow's stage profile, looks bloody horrible, if it rains it will be a brutal stage. I'd not want to be defends the yellow jersey, lots of big, dirty downhills.
Well Froome's actually extended his lead today! Might be a bit sore tomorrow though.
Well Froome's actually extended his lead today! Might be a bit sore tomorrow though.
Only two more days and he can have a proper sit-down!
Been a fan of Bardet since his epic descent in the Dauphine last year (d'Allos?).
Yates in the top three would be perfect now...
Romain Bardet - feature on his prep inc a little footage of him mountain biking. In French but a good watch anyway ... from 25:30 once ads are done, hopefully this works in UK (if so there is a huge amount on the site) - let me know if it does
[url= http://www.francetvsport.fr/tour-de-france/videos/velo-club-du-20072016-346575 ]linky[/url]
Shows not available at my location...UK
Apparently Yates got a 10 second penalty and a fine for a handsling. He should have held on to the neutral motorbike and would have got away without penalty. 🙄
I was staying at a campsite in Talloires/lake Annecy last night. Totally forgot the tdf was coming through the next day. Had to rush and get up quick smart so as not to get stuck there(had to take the GF to Lyon airport)
Saw a lot of the pre-race mentalness.
What happened?
🙂
Best stage for excitement this year for sure. Am worried for Adam Yates now, sounds like thunder storms tomorrow so might be another chaotic day and I just have this nagging feeling that not only is it going to be difficult to get back to a podium place but that it wouldn't take much to loose the white jersey.
This could turn out to be Froome's greatest achievement, if he does end in yellow: He's showed real skill, guts and determination; moreso than any other year, I think.
Fantastic stage. Very pleased for Bardet. Fun also to see Jensy as expert reviewer on the ITV highlights.
He's showed real skill, guts and determination; moreso than any other year, I think.
I dunno, he had to dig real deep on the alp last year, he did look like he was going to crack at one stage as Quintana piled on the pressure.
Froome: downhill win, dominant TT, faceplant broken bike and running up Ventoux, down backslide swaps bikes. Still one more Alp stage to go, more drama tomorrow ? First win is always special but this could go down as his best and most courageous ?
Fun also to see Jensy as expert reviewer on the ITV highlights.
He's hilarious. They should have him on the programme full time.
He was right though, it was an amateur error to try and straight-line that corner in those conditions.
Hope Yates can get back onto the podium.
He was right though, it was an amateur error to try and straight-line that corner in those conditions.
When you see the footage from above its pretty obvious 😐
Froome: downhill win, dominant TT, faceplant broken bike and running up Ventoux, down backslide swaps bikes. Still one more Alp stage to go, more drama tomorrow ? First win is always special but this could go down as his best and most courageous ?
I duunno, he's hardly been under pressure, none of the favourites have spent any time up the road really, more a case of each of the other favourites has taken it in turn to have a bad day.
Not saying he's not earnt it, or he's had it easy, just that there's never been the pressure for him to show if he does have the fitness to defend it.
Like others, starting to warm to Froome a bit more this year as a rider if not a 'personality'. Skin missing, wrong bike, chasing back on. Tough as nails.
Head says he sits back and defends tomorrow, but I've a sneaky suspicion (depending on how sore he is and the weather conditions) he might attack on the last climb and show us another mental descent to take the stage. He seems to have developed (or is at least finally letting us see) a real racer's mentality.
^^ I'm hoping for this too. I imagine there'll be another fairly decent sized break as its the last chance for a stage win for the climbers, Saturday TV so maybe its beyond Froome and Sky
Its going to be another great stage
I get the feeling the other GC riders haven't'gone up the road' as they know it would be waste of time.
He would hunt them down
Well too much to take in overnight on that one and a rewatch of the highlights as it snows outside...
What a stage, such a shame the weather got in the way for the end. Good to see people actually attacking up there at the end even if it did come to not much. Great effort by Adam Yates to hang on in there, just off the podium at the moment and a lot to play for tomorrow. Hopefully 2-5 can have a decent go at each other with 66s the difference. It will be interesting to see what it's taken out of Bardet, Quintana has played the longest waiting game going and might need to defend hard tomorrow. Froome just needs to keep out of trouble with more rain forecast.
Great effort by Adam Yates to hang on in there, just off the podium at the moment and a lot to play for tomorrow.
That was bloody agonising at the end, he was off, he clawed back on, off, clawed back on... As he said himself it was the effort of the bike change that cost him in the last two km.
Kind of looked like one of the sky riders was dropping of the back to help him in thAt last little bit, though could just as well have been struggling themselves
Saw him get get a helping push off a Sky rider at one one point. Interesting that they are happy to help him when he at the time was still 2nd in GC.
I guess it will have been one of the other Brits, and I suppose they know he's got enough on his plate trying to get on the podium let alone making up the four minutes or whatever it is to Froome. Also, I imagine, the closer 2 to 6/7 are together timewise, the better for Froome as they be to busy attacking/defending each other to make severe inroads into Froomes time. Going to be an exciting stage - just got to do my chores and go out on the bike before a lazy afternoon watching it all unfold 🙂
I hope it is another great stage but I suspect that it'll be Sky keeping a watch on things until the finale and then if others want to attack then they can. Unless there's a crash or major mechanical the only way they'll make 4 minutes on Froome is for him to crack badly, and he doesn't need to risk cracking by following attacks any more, he can set the TT head on and let them take a minute or two if they can.
Of course, if he's badly knocked by the crash that might change things, but I'd suspect Nurofen, adrenaline and MTFU will all be available by the bucketload.
And I'd love for him to feel good, gap them all in the finale and then swap to a ladies shopper which he rides to a no handed stoppie over the line. Maybe while wearing a Peter Sagan wig.
He was right though, it was an amateur error to try and straight-line that corner in those conditions.
Nibali behind him took exactly the same line though with the same result. Could argue he was just following the wheel but similar error all the same. And you didn't get to see the line of the rider in front of Froome either.
Froome hit the white line, which was what took him down. It could have happened to anyone.
I'm just watching the highlights again on Eurosport: THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Tour de France is the greatest sporting event in the World.
What a stage, such a shame the weather got in the way for the end.
I think the weather is all part of the racing and is part of what made it such an exciting stage: it's not just about the legs, it's also a question of whether the riders can adapt to the changing road conditions.
it's not just about the legs, it's also a question of whether the riders can adapt to the changing road conditions.
True but crashes that were happening at random meant that the attacks were getting spent on the final climb, Porte was interviewed saying they were losing traction up the hill too. They are already pushing to limits and to see guys not finish and or miss the Olympics trying to nail a dangerous descent isn't slwhat it's about for me.
highlights as it snows outside
😯
Agreed, you'd hate to see someone miss Rio due to a crash on a greasy road here.