Am I the only one that's starting to feel "sick" and might need to "work from home" tomorrow?

I have recovered from my morning of not feeling well and in the office. Tomorrow, I will feel well enough to come in all day. I hope I miss some major fireworks, but I honestly don't expect to miss anything.

while I like the French Foreign Legion aspect; Bardet fixing his bayonet and charging, there is more hope than that. '


Bardet has to go on the Col de Vars, and when he goes, he has to stay 100% even if Froome chases. the key will then be the wild card Uran. if Uran has the guts to sit on Froome's wheel, not helping at all, then Bardet can expose Froome to an possible blow up on the Iz. and then its a Bardet / Uran free for all. it will take some guts on Uran's part to gamble that third is as good as second, but it would be both's best shot at a win.




or Froome is a friggin robot and this is all a pipe dream.

I think what we saw today was that Froome is comparatively fresh compared to the rest of the field (whereas his teammates are pretty spent at this point). That's the advantage of having such a strong team to tow you along.

I'd love to see an upset tomorrow but I wouldn't bet on it. That said I've been thoroughly entertained by the tour this year.

Interesting perspective. To me the risk / reward proposition is worth it. I would like to see attacks early and often but I have the feeling that Uran will try to protect second and Bardet will be the only one who pulls, gets a few seconds but not yellow or the shot at yellow on Sat.

"it will take some guts on Uran's part to gamble that third is as good as second, but it would be both's best shot at a win. "

Yep...he needs to stick to tranquilo....and he can take back a podium spot in the TT from Bardet....the French are going to charge tomorrow

I think it's possible for Bardet to go on the Col if his team is strong enough to dispatch all of Sky except for Landa and Froome. I just don't see that happening. If Froome still has 3 teammates and Bardet goes on the Col...that's just suicide.

I actually prefer to be at work to watch the TIZ Cycling Eurosport feed. I have 2 monitors, on is devoted to work and the other is strictly cycling!

At home there are too many distractions and NBC Sports.

Here is what I hope happens tomorrow- Bardet & Uran risk their podium to win and gain 2-3 minutes on Froome, and then Uran seals the win with the TT on Saturday.

Here is what most likely will happen, Froome gets his first win of the season and gains about 2-3 minutes on everyone. Even without the current scenario, since stage 1 tomorrows stage has Froome's name all over it. I always felt this is the stage where Froome ends the tour!

Aru remains defiant. Says it's not over for him. Well, if that kid shows up fresh as a daisy and sprints up the hill away from the field like he did in week one, I'm calling bullshit.

Tomorrow could set up like some kind of modern Battle of Trafalgar. Keep in mind that Bardet has a decently strong team with AG2R....but we have the following French riders who can ride mountains hard if they are on.

• Gallopin
• Brice Feillu
• Veuillermoz (teammate)
• Guillaume Martin
• Pierre Latour
• Calmejane
• Chavanel

You can bet all these guys will do all kinds of things to help a Frenchman win it away from a Brit (albeit a white Kenyan via South Africa, but still). There is also Pierre Rolland who will join in to help Uran. So basically you have all the French riders in the peloton who to varying degrees will do some stuff to help their countryman. Add to the above Barguil, who will be happy to help to move up in the top 10 and seal the polka dot. So it might be Sky against all of France, but Sky would be stronger than a team with all these French riders, but this all star French virtual team could be helpful to Bardet, beyond his own teammates. But they have to vault Bardet to a 2 min win. Not sure how you do that against Sky+Froome. Barguil will need to go on the early attack over Vars and then actually be willing to help Bardet if he can gap Froome going over Vars and then catch up to Barguil on Izoard. if I was Bardet, I'd be on the phone with Barguil to figure out a mutually winning strategy.

its a shame kittel is out, otherwise we would have had a battle for the intermediate sprint with sunweb pacing it up the first cat 3, laying down the foundation for a more selective gc battle later on. now sky will have most of the team still there halfway up the col de vars so the scope for anyone to get away is greatly reduced. i fear it will only really blow apart on the izoard which isn't enough to give anyone the lead over froome they will need with the TT to come.

i expect to see bardet, quintana, contador and aru all make an attempt on the vars... if a few of them (plus maybe some stage hunters) have the legs and cooperate it could come to something but they need to be collectively stronger and more committed than sky which is doubtful

if i was uran i'd be thinking 2nd vs 3rd is still a podium, its worth risking losing 2nd by letting bardet go early as chances are he'll blow or not get enough time to hold on in the tt. play the numbers (ie mark froome) until the izoard and give it everything and see how it shakes out

landa is a potential wildcard if he chooses to play it that way... i can just see froome sitting happy thinking he has landa to close the gap when suddenly landa attacks his leader and leaves froome alone to chase his own glory!

See the two sentences in bold. Now there is a missing piece to this. This is the part where Contador speed dialed Landa's iPhone this evening. Landa is at the Sky Team dinner where they are discussing strategy, and he looks at his iPhone and there is this image on his iPhone of El Pistolero with a yellow jersey on:



Landa realizes this is Contador Yellow Jersey bait and can't help but take the call, excuses himself saying he has to go to the washroom. Well you can figure out how the other part of this battle of Trafalgar plotting is shaking out. Bardet is calling all the French riders and Contador is calling all the Spanish riders so they can coordinate an anti British ambush. Contador brainwashes Landa that this IS HIS CHANCE TO WIN THE TOUR. Look what happened to Beloki. You need to take the opportunity when it knocks. Contador tells him when the game is on, you attack your own teammate. He learned from the best (Lance) on how it is done when wearing his Astana clad yellow. Time to attack Froome" he tells Landa...."make it happen". Landa goes back to desert and nods his head about how he will ride the BS Sky "tempo train". But really he is going to join Contador on the attack!

That might be a good analogy.

But I hope not!

Even though the English fleet (Froome) was outnumbered by the combined French (Bardet) and Spanish (substitute Colombian/Uran or stretch and go with Contador) fleet by 27 to 33 (18 French and 15 Spainish) ships of the line, by the end of the day, the French/Spainish fleet had lost 22 ships. The English fleet lost none.

This could be bad

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

now that would be beautiful