devashish_paul wrote:
I was going to take a "rest day" from the daily TdF thread, but I think there are enough interesting topics for us to banter about: - How the heck is Landa on the world's most awesome form after doing the Giro, while Quintana-Pinot-Mollema are toast. Is it just this latter group of three went full throttle every day of the Giro while Landa was stage hunting/climber jersey hunting and had a few more days of easy riding. The last person who was near the TdF podium after a full (but not so sharp Giro) was Lance in 2009....debate away
- What's your take on Landa coming back to help Froome today?
- It seems like the general consensus is that Bardet+Aru need 90 second on Froome by the Marseilles ITT to win the yellow in Paris. Uran probably needs 20-30s?
- What tactics does Contador need to apply to take the Serre Chevalier or the Izoard stage? Perhaps Quintana can turn into a stage hunting ally now. Does Sky send Landa up the road for a full on Spanish Armada style Contador attack.
- Matthews is 79 points out of the green. There are daily intermediate sprints preceded by at least one cat 2 or cat 3 climb and a sprinter stage into Salon and the Paris finish. That is 7 locations if I count correctly to get Green Jersey points with 2 sprinter finishes. All of these other than Paris are not tailor made for Kittell. There may still be a race for the Green in Paris.
- Can Tony Martin win the final ITT?
OK here is the GC:
1FROOME CHRISTOPHER1TEAM SKY64H 40' 21''
2ARU FABIO51ASTANA PRO TEAM64H 40' 39''+ 00' 18''
3BARDET ROMAIN11AG2R LA MONDIALE64H 40' 44''+ 00' 23''
4URAN RIGOBERTO188CANNONDALE DRAPAC PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM64H 40' 50''+ 00' 29''
5MARTIN DANIEL105QUICK - STEP FLOORS64H 41' 33''+ 01' 12'
6LANDA MIKEL6TEAM SKY64H 41' 38''+ 01' 17''
7YATES SIMON89ORICA - SCOTT64H 42' 23''+ 02' 02''
8MEINTJES LOUIS61UAE TEAM EMIRATES64H 45' 30''+ 05' 09'
'9CONTADOR ALBERTO31TREK - SEGAFREDO64H 45' 58''+ 05' 37''
10CARUSO DAMIANO42BMC RACING TEAM64H 46' 26''+ 06' 05''
1. res ipsa loquitur.
2. what he was supposed to do, but neveetheless seemed to hesitate before doing so. don't expect the same in the mountains next week. - would not be shocked to see him refuse to go back in the 3d week if he still has good legs. he is clearly stronger than Froome. And after this week, can probably put up with a few uncomfortable dinners knowing he is gone one week later, after the tour.
3. aru is done. would not be surprised if he lands up 5th or 6th in paris. just doesn't look strong anymore. and also has shown that he doesn't have a killer instinct, doesn't really have the desire or willingness to win. has had multiple opportunities to attack froome when froome was down and has failed to do so showing how tired he is. what a disgrace not to attack when froome had a flat at the best possible moment. and on stage 14, yes, he was out of position and thus lost lots of time, but he was out of position because he didn't have the legs to stay in position. looked completely out of it coming into the finish of what should've been an easy day. i can't think of a single tour winner making so many errors, showing such lack of courage, and missing out on so many giveme opportunities (quite frankly, bardet and uran have also missed out on the same opportunities). he is not a winner.
4. I don't think the peloton cares about contador any more. nor quintana. as long as they are not going with a contender, my guess is that they will be free to go, like we saw the other day with contador
5. Matthews best hope is in the mountains: his best strategy is for his team to turn the jets on in the mountains and there would be a really good chance that Kittell doesn't make the time cut, all but guaranteeing Matthews the green
6. absolutely. my guess however, based on tdf history, is that froome does.