Cav...

I thought his time had passed.

Boy... was I wrong.

It's a pity Cav was not around for the Champs today.

You pretty much covered it. Quintana was pretty much non existent, sort of an odd thing to say about a guy that finished so high but I kept waiting for the attack that never happened.

Sagan. It's pretty cool that the guy who gets the green jersey by a mile, wins stages out of breaks and sprints, and works for teammates also gets the most aggressive/combative rider award. As Cav said, we are not talking about any old rider. Without him, this is a complete snooze fest.

Alaphillipe is on his way and fun to watch.

LOL...Quitana, the tortoise that snuck onto the podium by never blowing up, never attacking and just following the wheels of the front group for 21 stages! It goes to show you how talented that guy is, when he can do that well literally doing nothing all TdF and basically going on a Sky lead 3 week motor pace workout schedule while getting ready for the Vuelta.

Winners:


Romain Bardet, for getting on the podium without the assistance of Team Sky. There were about 6 riders who could have won the Tour, but only one team. Chapeau to this incredibly talented young rider..

Sagan, for making it look effortless and winning five green jerseys without the assistance of drugs*.

Froome, for punching a dickhead in the face, and then being proven right on Mt Ventoux.


Losers:


Cavendish, for giving up and going home. Nobody cares about Rio.

BMC, for having no idea who they were actually riding for and leaving their ostensible co-leader on the side of the road.

ASO, for having less crowd control than the average sprint triathlon. (Maybe that's a way to reduce race costs and save promoters - do away with barriers).

Disc brakes, for being abandoned by the sport, and bicycle manufacturers for having product that isn't advertised by pros.


*well, let's assume, but the chances are considerably lower in the post-L**** era.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

In my books, I'd say "Men of the Tour" would be Sagan & Froome; they both were dominant in their category.
Cav would be the "Sprinter of the Tour", Alaphillipe "Young Man of the Tour"

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res, non verba

Cavendish pulling the plug took some of the luster from his Tour results. I know, he "needed to rest and train for the Olympics", but three days of cycling through the Alps in the autobus along with the short TT shouldn't have ruined his Olympic prep. The sprint on the Champs might have been some excellent training!

Sagan was the most entertaining.

But I'll pick Froome. Partly for how dominating he was on the road, and partly for how well he comported himself with the media and in his post race comments. Classy guy.

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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.

Power13 for the new posts and prompting additional comments from others!

Cav dragging his arse over the Alps in week 3 would have seriously damaged his chances at full recovery for the Omnium at Rio.
He needs to put back on the weight he lost burning 6,000kCal/day and recover those legs.


Man of the Tour - Sagan. He does it all with panache.

Honourable mention - Sam Bennett for crashing horribly on Stage 1 (needing minor surgery to fix the bones in his finger), soldering on as Lanterne Rouge and managed a 9th in the final sprint on les Champs Elysées.

Dishonour:
Race motos and the unruly fans for the Ventoux Duathlon on Bastille Day.
Team Sky's tactics
Movistar / BMC's lack of attacking to try and shake things up (except for Greg Van Avermaet's escape in Yellow)
The French climbs - steady and predictable. Still the W/Kg up your chamois.

What do you have against team sky's tactics? They seemed ok to me...

Eloquently summarized here

Steady and predictable? That's funny...how many of these have you done personally?

Tony Martin should get a special mention for his little time trial efforts with Alaphilippe, with the latter stuck in the wheels, pulling his tongue and probably thinking 'oh putain je vais exploser' ;-)
Bummer he had to bail with less than 40mi to go.

None. How about you?

Tell me, how is it that Sky has 5/15 riders in the last legs of a 6W/kg climb?
Sky setting pace so no one can attack without going too deep into the red.

Steady climb, predictable result.

I've done a lot of this year's climbs actually. And for once, the Tour actually has changed with many of the less known climbs.
They're far from steady climbs like the Alpe d'Huez.
You said the climbs were steady ... not the pace up the climb was. As for sky, well, I'm pretty cynical when I see an entire team that is so dominant. But without proof, and without seeing the actual data, it's hard to say. The gap between 1st and the next 4-5 is just 4min-ish now. And we saw Froome suffering here and there. I'm still cynical, but it doesn't look at extraterrestrial as it did 10 years ago.

With that said, this comment "I think our best bet is an alcoholic Wiggins." in the link your posted is hilarious.

Hah....probably as close as I will ever get to being the "Man of the Tour"....but the thought is appreciated!

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

I'll throw Yates into the mix: 21 seconds off the podium and constantly mixing it up with the big boys. I'd pick him over Allaphillippe (who's good, but not as good as people want him to be).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I'll second that. You might need to start a daily Olympics spoiler thread too with your daily predictions...but then you have to also make predictions for synchro swimming, archery and other sports!!! But maybe you can start the daily thread for the S-B-R related events!

Yeah, that made me laugh too.

First week - great racing for a change.

Cav - I too thought he was past his prime: couple of kids, ex-topless model wife, prob more money that he can hope to spend and with the Olympics coming up to 'round out his career. And he pops up with a vintage performance to bag some more stages. Jees...

Sagan - best all rounder we have at the moment. A joy to watch off and on the bike. I thought he was a complete tw-t a few years ago, but he's grown on me.

Froome - a bit like Hodor. One job: did it. Yes, he's awkward; yes, he seems socially inept; yes, he rides like a frog on a skateboard; but he can put away a GT.

Yates & Bardet - different races, got results. Chapeau!

Orica Bike Exchange - no, no, no, no we're not going for GC. Just like we weren't in the Giro. Only kidding! Great result.

The Cycling Podcast - kept me entertained whilst on the turbo

Could do better:

Astana - WTF was going on with them? They out Sky Sky to get Aru away, then he fails to launch, multiple times; Nibali goes off the front looking to win a stage, then splutters (and in one case was out descended). They didn't seem to have a clue

Movistar - why is Quintana not sunburnt? As he was always in Froome's shadow. Disappointing. The only saving grace for them was the eternally youthful Valverde.

ASO - if an inflatable banner collapsing on the riders wasn't bad enough, how about not putting crowd control on the ks leading to the finish on one of the most popular stages? Urgh.

Some fans - looked to be more interested in being on TV than watching the cycle race

Sky haters - if it wasn't Sky driving the pace, it would have been another team (like Astana, Movistar or BMC).

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

Easy really.

Froome - took everyone by surprise not once, but twice. Then did the job in the TTs.

Team Sky - what more can you say other than dominant. Some may say it was boring but by doing what they did they achieved their objective - winning.

Cav - how good was he? I'm a big fan and in all honestly was convinced he was past it. Boy did he prove us all wrong.

Yates - brilliant performance from a young rider in only his second tour. Not sure how anyone else could be the 'young man of the tour' when he only just missed the podium.

Losers

Quintana - he was a complete snooze fest. He did absolutely nothing for 3 weeks. Sure he came third, but jeez man you were here for the win and no one will talk about third place in 10 years time.

BMC - as noted above. Pick a man, support him and everyone would be less confused, your team included.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

Really easy. They have enough money to pay 5 of the 15 best climbers in the world to ride for their team leader.



Interesting how people have an issue with a tactic that has proven itself 4 tours out of the last 5 to be a totally winning formula. If you prefer entertainment over competition then maybe you'd prefer Wrestling.

Would you expect the Broncos to occasionally just lob the ball back to the other team to keep things more open?

Don't get it.

It is hard to say BMC were losers in this tour. They won a stage, spent a few days with the yellow jersey, and were always a threat for the podium. Sure they should have had someone finish on the podium, but really a few days with the yellow jersey makes up for a lot.