Well the actual ITT might be a bit of an anti climax, but on ST we should love all the gear right? Or we can pick apart the teams with crap set ups which might be more fun. Between spottings of flapping skinsuits, round water bottles, some team invariably using slow rubber or crap aero wheels and then tiny 5'5" riders on 172.5 cranks we should have the full spectrum of ST non approvals.
Aside from that, who wants to predict what? Based on some of Tony Martin's ITT breakaway forays in the last 7 days I think he is the man to beat on Saturday. He's timed his "training" perfectly hammering in some breakaways and having "recovery days" in the mountains relative to the GC guys. One major problem for Tony is a short and steep 100m vertical climb over ~1K (see profile below).
The stage profile appears to be reasonably "twisty" that some bike handling should come into play:
Here is the profile:
In terms of the GC guys I just expect to see the exact same GC with Uran and Bardet trading spots in the top 4 and things just spread further apart between all of them by the finish line. In the white jersey race, will be interesting to see where Yates and Meintjes end up but the gap is too wide for the South African. Finally I am curious to see what Barguil can pull off. Will be interesting to see how much of a potential GC hope this guy can be in the future or if he lets the bruised, beaten and battered Contador pass him. If Aru is still feeling off, Dan Martin could move into the top 5....let's see.
As things stand, Froome's lead on Bardet and Uran is less than what it was after the 14 km of racing in Dusseldorf....we could have just skipped the 19 days in between and just flown everyone to Marseille for a second TT (if you guys recall, some of us were saying the TdF was over for the Froome chasers after day 1....largely that's the case except we had some really good entertainment along the way....thank you Aru, Uran, Barguil, Contador, Bardet)
1FROOME CHRISTOPHER1TEAM SKY83H 26' 55'' 2BARDET ROMAIN11AG2R LA MONDIALE83H 27' 18''+ 00' 23''3URAN RIGOBERTO188CANNONDALE DRAPAC PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM83H 27' 24''+ 00' 29''4LANDA MIKEL6TEAM SKY83H 28' 31''+ 01' 36''5ARU FABIO51ASTANA PRO TEAM83H 28' 50''+ 01' 55''6MARTIN DANIEL105QUICK - STEP FLOORS83H 29' 51''+ 02' 56''7YATES SIMON89ORICA - SCOTT83H 31' 41''+ 04' 46''8MEINTJES LOUIS61UAE TEAM EMIRATES83H 33' 47''+ 06' 52''9BARGUIL WARREN143TEAM SUNWEB83H 35' 17''+ 08' 22''10CONTADOR ALBERTO31TREK - SEGAFREDO83H 35' 29''+ 08' 34''
Really, my "moment of the TdF" was Uran escaping the Mont du Chat descent, getting his bike banged up by a falling Martin, staying upright and then staying in the chase, having the Mavic dude hanging out of the car on the run in to Chambery, giving Uran a 53x11 and a 39x11 and giving him a push back onto Froome, Fuglsang, Aru and then having these guys pull in both Bardet and Barguil and then Uran taking the sprint with the 53x11. That Mavic guy saved Uran's TdF, and kudos to him grinding it out on effectively a 53x11 single speed.
What was your favourite moment?
Thanks to all of you playing along over these last 3 weeks. Not as good as being in France but with some of you actually in France and sharing your insight, including Marcag from the Astana bus, you can't ask for much more while in the office or home!
Aside from that, who wants to predict what? Based on some of Tony Martin's ITT breakaway forays in the last 7 days I think he is the man to beat on Saturday. He's timed his "training" perfectly hammering in some breakaways and having "recovery days" in the mountains relative to the GC guys. One major problem for Tony is a short and steep 100m vertical climb over ~1K (see profile below).
The stage profile appears to be reasonably "twisty" that some bike handling should come into play:
Here is the profile:
In terms of the GC guys I just expect to see the exact same GC with Uran and Bardet trading spots in the top 4 and things just spread further apart between all of them by the finish line. In the white jersey race, will be interesting to see where Yates and Meintjes end up but the gap is too wide for the South African. Finally I am curious to see what Barguil can pull off. Will be interesting to see how much of a potential GC hope this guy can be in the future or if he lets the bruised, beaten and battered Contador pass him. If Aru is still feeling off, Dan Martin could move into the top 5....let's see.
As things stand, Froome's lead on Bardet and Uran is less than what it was after the 14 km of racing in Dusseldorf....we could have just skipped the 19 days in between and just flown everyone to Marseille for a second TT (if you guys recall, some of us were saying the TdF was over for the Froome chasers after day 1....largely that's the case except we had some really good entertainment along the way....thank you Aru, Uran, Barguil, Contador, Bardet)
1FROOME CHRISTOPHER1TEAM SKY83H 26' 55'' 2BARDET ROMAIN11AG2R LA MONDIALE83H 27' 18''+ 00' 23''3URAN RIGOBERTO188CANNONDALE DRAPAC PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM83H 27' 24''+ 00' 29''4LANDA MIKEL6TEAM SKY83H 28' 31''+ 01' 36''5ARU FABIO51ASTANA PRO TEAM83H 28' 50''+ 01' 55''6MARTIN DANIEL105QUICK - STEP FLOORS83H 29' 51''+ 02' 56''7YATES SIMON89ORICA - SCOTT83H 31' 41''+ 04' 46''8MEINTJES LOUIS61UAE TEAM EMIRATES83H 33' 47''+ 06' 52''9BARGUIL WARREN143TEAM SUNWEB83H 35' 17''+ 08' 22''10CONTADOR ALBERTO31TREK - SEGAFREDO83H 35' 29''+ 08' 34''
Really, my "moment of the TdF" was Uran escaping the Mont du Chat descent, getting his bike banged up by a falling Martin, staying upright and then staying in the chase, having the Mavic dude hanging out of the car on the run in to Chambery, giving Uran a 53x11 and a 39x11 and giving him a push back onto Froome, Fuglsang, Aru and then having these guys pull in both Bardet and Barguil and then Uran taking the sprint with the 53x11. That Mavic guy saved Uran's TdF, and kudos to him grinding it out on effectively a 53x11 single speed.
What was your favourite moment?
Thanks to all of you playing along over these last 3 weeks. Not as good as being in France but with some of you actually in France and sharing your insight, including Marcag from the Astana bus, you can't ask for much more while in the office or home!