Can I aak what song? Huge Bowie fan and no idea what it could be. Would have been much more straightforward if you'd said Kraftwerk.

I'm thinking "We could be heroes, just for one day".

Ahh ya that must be it. Thank you.

Yep. Too bad it's probably cost-prohibitive for NBC to get the rights to 'Heroes' because the chorus seems to fit so well with the big stage races.

Talansky goes down again. Going to lose big time.

>Talansky goes down again. Going to lose big time.

Yeah, ~2:20 to Contador and Nibbles, and nearly as much to the other GC guys. That might bump him off the podium. Although there's probably still plenty of crashing and bonking to come.....

Does anyone have any ideas why Contador is pushing such a big gear up these climbs? His cadence looks notably slower than it has in prior years.

Cyclingnews said Talansky and Gerrans crashed together on the descent. First thing I thought was Talansky tried to take him out because he was still pissed about yesterday. I hope that isn't the case, but hard to believe this could be a coincidence.

Didn't make out Gerrans. There were 4 riders involved I believed. I didn't see the actual crash as the tv cameras only got there as they were picking themselves up.

Think it was Geraint Thomas, not Gerrans

You are correct... brain fart on my part.

Before the race Talansky said he went to Gerrans to say there was no hard feelings and that he thought the crash was just racing....a no faulter

Konig says some idiot caused the crash. http://sport.idnes.cz/...84220_cyklistika_fil

Can be a myriad of reasons, not just wanting to win the stage. If there are multple climbs for instance, a team might send someone "up the road" so that when the climbers & GC guys are getting serious later in the day, their GC guy will have some help at hand. It often seems a strange thing but the break is a key part of road racing.

Yes he basically says that Talansky made him crash and that he isn't that motivated to fight for 15th place as he wanted to be in the top 10. Then he also says he might lose 30 minutes so that he could go for a stage win.

So, Talansky crash apart, a pretty interesting day. Contador showed, as expected, that he will take any opportunity to put Nibali under pressure and try to claw a few seconds back. Makes for some potentially gripping racing in the mountains later this week. Nibali looked pretty comfortable on Contador's wheel for most of the climb, though to my eyes he definitely cracked right at the end, I don't think he had much choice about losing those couple of seconds. How that plays out over the longer climbs will be interesting. He'll also be worried by the strength of Saxo-Tinkoff and particularly Michael Rogers - I'm not sure Nibali had any team support at all for much of the latter parts of the stage.

I was fairly impressed by Porte being able to stick so close to those 2 when everybody else was being dropped, and also with his attitude afterwards - he seemed pretty disappointed with himself rather than in any way pleased to have ridden into a podium position. He's definitely looking like a podium contender now, which would go some way to rebutting those who felt Sky should have taken Wiggins along as a back-up to Froome. He'll get some decent support from Sky as well - Thomas recovered well from being involved in the Talansky crash to finish 22nd, and Nieve was up there at the end as well.

Talansky has a bit to prove after crashing twice in 2 days, especially as he seems to be at least partially at fault on both occasions. Sounds like he's managed to come out of the crashes relatively unscathed, so am sure he'll be looking to make amends in the longer climbs which suit him (assuming he can stay upright on the descents...). Van Garderen looked in decent nick considering he'd had a tumble the day before as well. Valverde looks like he might have it in him to challenge for a podium spot as well. Bad day for Rui Costa, he won't be happy with that.

Perhaps Porte should be the default rider for ST to support, given his triathlon background? I don't know any details about it but it always gets mentioned in Australian cycling coverage and is on his bio too.

I'd like to see Tony Martin stick this break. If anyone can do it, he can.

Porte looked very happy to be racing for himself. He looks like Liepheimer while climbing. (Not suggesting anything, just body type, climbing style.)

AC can ride all the terrain equally as well as Nibali and Porte but also has another card to play on the steep sections. But are there enough steep sections to really shed the others? To me Nibali looked more comfortable seated yesterday than AC did standing up.
The Pyranees get steep, but Nibali can stay pretty close almost all the time. Going to be interesting.

Tejay is riding a very good tour. Talansky still needs to learn to zip it.

McNulty,
Go mow the lawn. Martin won't stay away.
Problem in that Gallopin and Rolland are also away and the peloton can't let those guys get too much time.
Best,
McNulty

I think you're right. Plus, Phil and Paul just took over the commentary. Lawn won't mow itself.....

Martin is going to drop his break mate soon.

Stop hogging the thread. You should be tweeting this crap.

Ok, but even if Gallopin gets yellow he won't keep it.

cancellara anywhere?

Rolland is nowhere near the top of the GC and is probably tired from the Giro. Stage hunter at best at this point. If Martin can get 1-1.5 minutes at the top of the last cat-3 climb, he could do something with this. I think DeMarchi may also have come close to a grand tour stage (stage 14 or 15 in the 2012 Giro), so he should have the legs