Tour de France - week 3 discussion
So the Alps are behind us, and barring a miracle the maillot jaune is safely in Nibali's possession - but the race for the other two podium spots (and the white jersey) is just heating up. Who will take second and third out of Valverde/Bardet/Pinot/Van Garderen/Peraud? Meanwhile, can Sagan ever grab a stage win again?
I don't think he's cheating just saying
Agreed that it'd take a major disaster for Nibali to lose at this point. I'm already thinking about next year: if Nibali, Froome, and Contador are all healthy, Tejay, Talansky, Bardet, and Pinot really starting to hit their primes, and Quintana there - that could be epic.
Contador may be past his prime, but he's still the most exciting rider out there, and probably one of the most electric athletes in the world. I was looking forward to his attacks on every mountain stage this year, so his abandon took something out of the Tour this year for me. He was in top form this year and I think he can still pull a Tour win over the next few years.
But with the majors out (Froome, Contador, Cavendish) and Nibali seemingly have locked this, it's still fun to watch since the domestiques are now free to do stage hunt.
The battle for 2nd and 3rd is still out there as well. I'm curious to see what happens in the Pyrenees. TJVG is probably the best time-trialer of the group there (other than perhaps Peraud, who has more ground to catch up), so the others are probably going to need to put time into him beforehand. Should be fun to watch.
He beat contador, Nibali, and Froome in the Dauphine and was primed to to do very well in this years tour before hiis crashes. Head to head he can beat Nibali. Crashes happen but as far as American cycling goes we've got two guy s (Van Garderen, Talansky) who are potential tour winners and especially Talansky because he has the right attitude. 3 years ago he was in the US with no sponsorship driving himself to races with no support. Frome to me is not on the level of the level of the super elite tour winners. After watching following cycling for the last 30 years he seems more like a annual number 2 or 3 finisher who made a lucky breakthrough.
I'm still curious if another young American Phinney can climb or if he's just a super domestique type guy. He was supposed to rid his first tour this year before crashing. He's an amazing time trialist so he'll at least be winning time trial stages in future tours.
the reasons you like Talansky to win only more so.... I'd like to see Talansky win the tour, but to me he seems on a plane with Pinot, Tejay, and Bardet... We'll see.
Unbelievable heartbreak at the end of today's stage!
Yeah, I was gutted for Bauer. He deserved the stage win. Not sure why he didn't win the Combativity Award.
Van Garderen, meh..not so much. Talansky has that nasty attitude and the attacking Contador on the last day of the Dauphnine really showed me something, he's got the lungs to climb so we will see. The schleck brothers,reminded me of Tyler Hamilton, they were supermen during the doping era, after not so much.
By the way, does anyone else but me marvel at the thought that Greg Lemond STILL has the fastest TdF time trial from 1989? And that was a dope free guy, amazing pure athletic ability. if in his prime today he could win 7 tours.
That win by Evans was a great tour win, very similar to Stephen Roche in 87. A very talented all around rider, not a climber, not a pure time trialer and not the strongest team but a rider just tough enough to win. By the way Roche has come out and said he believes Lance Armstrongs tour victories should stand and I agree 100%. As he says the sport has had doping for decades.
Quintana I'm looking frorward to seeing next year. The tour organizers will certainly adjust for him (It's the French, go figure) and they'll put in long flat time trials and downhill finishes on mountain stages to go against his domiant ability. The tour is looking and due for a dominant multi year winners. We've done the cycle of Froome and Evans which always happen for a few years between the dominant multi year winners. Who will be the next multi year winner that's what I'm looking for.
If you want to get doping out of the sport (or at least make it less prevalent) you can't rehabilitate Armstrong. The fact that riders now can't match Armstrong's wattage output suggests that cycling is, in fact, getting cleaner.
The Tour got it right by awarding those titles to no one. It didn't pass the buck and give it to the runners-up. It acknowledged that the whole era was tainted. No reason to revist that decision.
Now, I'd love to see Major League Baseball do the same for the steroid era.
The tour organizers will certainly adjust for him (It's the French, go figure) and they'll put in long flat time trials and downhill finishes on mountain stages to go against his domiant ability.
That would be going against Pinot and Bardet's strengths as well. The Tour changes things up a bit every year, but that doesn't mean it's due to some anti-(name of rider) conspiracy.
Quite a stage today - I'm surprised at how much the "easiest" day of Pyrenean climbing shook up the field. I had thought Van Garderen was the most likely of the non-Nibali group to make the podium but that's looking remote now. OTOH, someone else could well crack the next two days. Tomorrow's stage looks brutal.
On another note, I always love the camerawork in the Tour. I've never been to the Pyrenees but they look gorgeous.
Fun stage to watch today. Always awesome to see a breakaway succeed.
A reminder - there is a new 30 for 30, "Slaying the Badger," tonight at 8:00 EDT on the rivalry between LeMond and Hinault in the '80s.