devashish_paul wrote:
BayDad wrote:
devashish_paul wrote:
cartsman wrote:
Froome will be glad of the rest day tomorrow! Looks like he is back on ominously good form again, closing down that gap was impressive. Guess last week was either a bonk, a cold, or maybe just one of those inexplicable days when you don't have it.
Seems like it was just a big bonk. It was impressive how he closed the gap today after the flat and then later lead the chase to Martin. You gotta hand it to Froome. The guy is a true racer, does not panic, is always in great position and when bad things happens, he pulls himself together and makes it happen. And kudos to Landa today dropping back to pick up Froome for the final close. Also on Martin, without that crash, he would be sitting in yellow now, but he might have also had less latitude from the peers if he was not as far behind. He should benefit from a few nights of recovery given the rest day tomorrow. Will be interesting to see who betwen Bardet, Aru and Martin do best in the final ITT. In the first one, they were all 3 seconds between each other and almost 40 seconds down on Froome. That day 1 ITT is really helping Froome's margin today.
To be fair, if Martin hadn't had that crash there's no way they'd have let him escape today.
I am not sure about that. If Martin was in Yellow right now and did that attack would the others have been able to close the gap. Why would everyone but Froome not instantly chase him down if they had the legs...and if Bardet-Aru-Uran had legs today, why did they not attack Froome when he was trying to TT back on. It seems the two strongest guys on the road today were Froome and Martin among the GC guys. Let's look at it another way. They pace today on the 14% grade was not even hot enough to drop Contador. Maybe Contador's form is better now, but I am not sure. Auru-Bardet-Uran should have been able to shed Bennet-Contador-Yates-Meintjes, but they could not. Seems like they were out of gas.
Agreed. Martin has clawed back several seconds on a few stages now. I expect he might have gotten less had he been in the top 3 but the others didn't really look able to control things so I still think he would have managed to get some time and would be well up there if Porte hadn't taken him down.
Dan's looking good so far and sounded pretty confident yesterday. But realistically, at this stage, to be in with a chance he needs to drop all the other GC contenders and get a decent gap on Stage 17 or 18 and I'm don't think he'll be able to do that. If he can stay with them on the big climbs he may or may not make small gains and/or time bonuses with late attacks but I don't see him getting big gaps. Of course it's also possible he'll get gapped on the big climbs!
Bardet and Froome are both looking good and Aru is still there. As it stands they have to be the favourites for the podium.