yep I'd turn for that man. I wish he was still able to crush TT's like in days gone by. I dont think he or anyone else can get near Martin anymore. Having said that, atleast FC does well in bike races. Champ in spring classics. I dont hear a lot from Martin unless its a TT.

Loved today's sprint. Had a cat 3/4 feel to it.

FC is such a badass, his comments simply can't be construed as whiney. He could complain about his chamois feeling yucky and no one would say shit.

I dont hear a lot from Martin unless its a TT.

True - Although yesterday he potentially was playing a big role by being in an early break, for OPQS.

Not sure who the key guy was for the team - I would assume it was Terpstra. In a race like that it's always important to have someone up the road in a break, if for no other reason than you have equipment up the road - on those narrow cobbled sectors the team cars are not allowed. A puncture, along the pave sectors, can really set you back - but if you have a team-mate alongside with a spare wheel or bike, then the team favourite can be on his way quickly.

Never worked out for OPQS but, Astana played that game perfectly yesterday. If Nibali had had a puncture or mechanical late in the game, Westra or Fusgalng would have been right there for him! The latter two played a huge strategic role no matter - and their equipment help was not needed in the end - but this is bike racing and anything can happen.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Guess it's a matter of how closely you follow cycling. He led TdS until final stage this year, has won Tour of Belgium the past two years, Algarve last year, etc. Aside from that, he's usually working for others.

So...how bad do you think Froome's injuries are? Enough to keep him out of the Vuelta. Wouldn't it be an awesome shit show to see Froome wanting to race the Vuelta but Wiggins says he doesn't want him there...or that Brailsford insists Froome is there and Froome kicks Wiggo out? HAH!

After the stage today, Jens said that he is "going to suffer like a pig" in the mountains. How the heck is he still riding at age 42? He is amazing.

Martin doesn't have the same explosive accelerations that make Cancellara such a brutal classics racer, but Martin has won a number of mid-length stage races (Paris-Nice, Tour of Beijing x2, Eneco Tour, Tour of Belgium x3), and not all of them on the back of ITTs. He won a stage in a breakaway at Pais Vasco this year where he expanded his lead over a legitimately chasing peleton over the last 20km, and almost won a stage in the Vuelta last year where he went on a solo breakaway for the entire stage (peleton got within 7 seconds about 8km from finish, and he held them off until 50m from the line). Dude is absolutely accomplished on the road.

No idea about his injuries, but you brought up a really interesting question. The Sky drama shall continue into late summer...

> The Sky drama shall continue into late summer...

from Horner:
"I was right there when Froome went down. He slid about 50 yards. I'm not surprise he climbed off. He caught a little crack in the road. There was road furniture on the left and he got caught in the crack and it took his front wheel. It was nothing he could do about it. It wasn't about experience or lack of bike handling skills. It was just very slippery and he got caught in the gap and went down. It could have happened to any rider."

Oh, this will be good....

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

He's even won Paris-Nice which I think is pretty cool. He's also won the tour of Beijing a few times now which has a relatively high level being a world tour race.

Also just as a general PSA.. it's peloton not peleton. Thank you.

Seems I stand corrected! I guess as someone who is relatively new to cycling and still learning the game, fc gets much more attention

That's right, forgot about P-N. And then there was that agonizing day-long Vuelta breakaway last year...

One absolutely amazing ride.

completely off topic, but do you happen to watch The Wire?

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rooting for GvA again. Rui Costa could do well. Kwiatkowski may do well, maybe that kilo effort yesterday was an opener for him?

Has there been a much larger number of crashes this year compared to normal? And not just on stage five.

well, Tejay shows that he's perhaps not as adept a bike handler as he should be. Touched wheels and brought down not only himself but also Atapuma, who apparently has abandoned

As for Talansky, while i like him and applaud his fighting spirit, he's there getting mixed up with the more experienced classics specialists. That last 2 km was hard to watch due to all the crashes

Did you see TJ TT during the ToC in 13? Because the way that he descended on that TT bike was pretty impressive and I think faster than anyone else in that section.

It looked like the guy behind him overlapped wheels. Not sure there was much he could have done.

Sagan's tactical decisions this year in the Tour have left me very frustrated. Stage 1, 3, 4, and 6 were always going to be bunch sprint and there's not much he can do there besides leave it to a sprint. Stage 2 it didn't pan out for him but you have to give him the benefit of the doubt because he was more concerned with green jersey points than the stage win at that point. But Stage 5, it did not seem like Cancellara and himself even gave it a go to reel in Boom, Fulgsang, and Nibali. You could chalk that up to wet roads, but still. And again, today, we saw more indecisiveness. I'm not sure if he was just being an opportunist with when GvA went and he was planning on just waiting for a bunch sprint, but again, we saw Sagan kind of go for it but not commit 100% to the move.

I'm sure we could make rationalization for why Sagan hasn't won a stage, but I can't help thinking that Sagan could have done something more/different. Is Sagan's lack of a win a result of poor tactics or has he given 100% and he wasn't won because of things out of his control?

I'm pretty sure that I read an interview with FC after the stage that said that they were caught in a bad position when the Astana riders and Boom went. They couldn't pass on the cobble section where they were. By the time they got to a point where they could FC said that he wasn't going to pull Sagan up to the group only to be out sprinted at the finish. I think that at this point in his career and based on his history with Sagan, FC is perfectly content with what went down vs helping Sagan get a stage win. Sagan clearly would have just sucked FC wheel and sprinted around and done a silly little dance. Aside from a few stage wins where Sagan has gone clear (Gent - Wevelgem 2013), Sagan has used the wheel sucking + sprinting around at the line to win most stages. It looked like he was really unhappy when GvA was trying the same tactic when they got the break.

Yeah they know Sagan's game already so he won't be getting any free pass. I wonder if he can save at least one teammate to lead him out or guide him though? They seem to all burn out before the finish since they do set the pace early on but maybe one or two saved for the end would be beneficial for him? Good on Trentin-OPQS to get the win after losing Cav.