Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne)

Jul 11, 18 19:21

Post #1 of 48 Views: 4148

Tomorrow's stage ends with a bit of a "wall" as the name suggests, or at least as big as a wall as you may find in Brittany, as this is not the Alps, nor Pyrenees, nor Vosges, nor Jura nor Massif Central.

There are a few 2K climbs at almost 7% including the last 2km, so I would imagine we will have some GC gaps. But this still looks like a Sagan or Alaphilippe stage!, but let's see. There is certain to be a breakaway, but BMC and Quickstep will both be motivated to keep or get yellow

GC after Stage 5

General classification after stage 5#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult1Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team18:22:00 2Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team0:00:02 3Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors0:00:03 4Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky0:00:05 5Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors0:00:06 6Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors0:00:09 7Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb0:00:13 8Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb 9Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale0:00:37 10Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe0:00:52 11Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team0:00:53 12Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 13Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team0:00:55 14Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 15Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky0:00:57 16Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott0:01:02 17Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida0:01:08 18Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale0:01:17 19Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 20Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo

Last edited by: devashish_paul: Jul 12, 18 4:39

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 19:24

Post #2 of 48 Views: 4133

Yep, this has Alaphillipe's name all over it, unless Valverda and Nibali decide to do something. If they do, the GC will neutralize and an attack by a good powerful climber will sneak away with the win.

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 19:39

Post #3 of 48 Views: 4117

Another rest day for Cav (and the other sprinters).

Lots of possible stage winners tomorrow. Alaphillippe is a safe bet. But Froome is going to surprise everyone (including me) by taking the stage. He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with, and he will give the fans a chance to vent some of their unhappiness with him/Sky before the race heats up later in weeks 2 and 3.

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

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 19:50

Post #4 of 48 Views: 4104

Alvin Tostig wrote:

He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with

You're referring to the person who's won the last 3 Grand Tours consecutively as if he's some kind of underdog?

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 19:57

Post #5 of 48 Views: 4086

trail wrote:

Alvin Tostig wrote:

He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with

You're referring to the person who's won the last 3 Grand Tours consecutively as if he's some kind of underdog?

"I may be 57 seconds down on GC right now, but I'm still the big dog in this race!"

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

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 19:58

Post #6 of 48 Views: 4085

trail wrote:

Alvin Tostig wrote:

He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with

You're referring to the person who's won the last 3 Grand Tours consecutively as if he's some kind of underdog?

Well, he is supposed to be fried from the Giro, beat up from his stage 1 crash, psychologically traumatized by the WADA and old and over the hill....so all that to say, that's pretty well the perfect scenario where he takes 10 second more out of Quintana and others with the stage winner bonus times! Maybe like 2016 when he took off on the outrageos attack with Sagan, Bodnar and Thomas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29mc-Jt_jxI

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 20:00

Post #7 of 48 Views: 4081

devashish_paul wrote:

trail wrote:

Alvin Tostig wrote:

He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with

You're referring to the person who's won the last 3 Grand Tours consecutively as if he's some kind of underdog?

Well, he is supposed to be fried from the Giro, beat up from his stage 1 crash, psychologically traumatized by the WADA and old and over the hill....so all that to say, that's pretty well the perfect scenario where he takes 10 second more out of Quintana and others with the stage winner bonus times! Maybe like 2016 when he took off on the outrageos attack with Sagan, Bodnar and Thomas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29mc-Jt_jxI

I think he'll try to cobble a few more mediocre days with minor time losses before he decides to make his big move.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

fredericknorton

Jul 11, 18 20:03

Post #8 of 48 Views: 4078

i think breakaway. bmc found out how hard it is to ride an ardennes like stage all day trying to control it. my guess is they'll bluff someone else into helping or else the break gets the yellow (if anyone in break is close enough). even better is break doesnt have anyone close to yellow but takes bonus seconds so GVA follows alaphillipe and phil gil. i'm going thomas de gendt.
i'm also betting the battle for this break is pretty intense.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 20:22

Post #9 of 48 Views: 4050

I don't think it is long enough or steep enough for Froome. And that'd be alot of energy spent to beat alot of non-GC contenders, who will care alot more about the stage win, time bonus and potential yellow jersey.

Alaphillippe showed today, by going after time bonus, that he's keen on getting yellow jersey, and Quickstep will have Gilbert card to play as well as the team to keep things together to the end. I think I might be a little long for Sagan, particularly after how cooked he looked after todays stage. Valverde has been keeping low profile and should be in the mix. Would be interested to see if Sky lets Bernal go for it, although I'm not sure it suits his skill set.

No matter what, I think it's going to be great.

John Hartpence, Athlete & Coach
tripence@gmail.com, @coachpence

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 22:17

Post #10 of 48 Views: 3982

Alvin Tostig wrote:

trail wrote:

Alvin Tostig wrote:

He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with

You're referring to the person who's won the last 3 Grand Tours consecutively as if he's some kind of underdog?

"I may be 57 seconds down on GC right now, but I'm still the big dog in this race!"

I think Froome will make his statement, but not yet. I think he's going to stay sleepy until around stage 13-16ish and then as durianrider would say, "he's going to deliver a watt sandwich and say how do all you motherfuckers like that?"

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [tripence] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 23:03

Post #11 of 48 Views: 3958

I think either alaphillippe or Thomas de Gent will take the stage.
I was thinking this is perfect for Aru but he isn’t there.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [KingMidas] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 23:06

Post #12 of 48 Views: 3954

KingMidas wrote:

I think either alaphillippe or Thomas de Gent will take the stage.
I was thinking this is perfect for Aru but he isn’t there.

I'm guessing this is too much for sagan. But what about valverde, is this not right in his territory?

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [lassekk] [ In reply to ]

Jul 11, 18 23:21

Post #13 of 48 Views: 3942

lassekk wrote:

KingMidas wrote:

I think either alaphillippe or Thomas de Gent will take the stage.
I was thinking this is perfect for Aru but he isn’t there.

I'm guessing this is too much for sagan. But what about valverde, is this not right in his territory?

I don’t think anyone who is a threat for the GC will be allowed by the other contenders. I think until a clear rider emerges from Movistar, Valverde NQ and Porte will all be treated as threats.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 1:01

Post #14 of 48 Views: 3886

Final 1.5km will be a fight between:

Alaphilippe
Gilbert
Valverde
Martin

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 1:20

Post #15 of 48 Views: 3866

devashish_paul wrote:

Tomorrow's stage ends with a bit of a "wall" as the name suggests, or at least as big as a wall as you may find in Brittany, as this is not the Alps, nor Pyranees, nor Voges, nor Jura nor Massif Centrale.

It's Pyrenees, Vosges and Massif central.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 4:38

Post #16 of 48 Views: 3752

Ai_1 wrote:

Final 1.5km will be a fight between:

Alaphilippe
Gilbert
Valverde
Martin

General consensus on the thread seems to be around Alaphilippe. If GVA launches Teejay, the latter can go into yellow if they think he has a better shot on the climb

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 4:42

Post #17 of 48 Views: 3743

Sorry, fixed...I should no better...was posting at 11 pm around getting some work done after watching yesterday's stage replay and England vs Croatia replay so slightly distracted.....now can you add some useful input to the thread about the actual racing rather than focusing on spelling one upmanship (I'm not French, so I will liberally butcher any French spellings as my free pass for putting up the thread in the first place).....on the other hand, I'm going for France on Sunday at 5 pm European time (and that's not about Cobbles in Roubaix).

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 5:15

Post #18 of 48 Views: 3717

Today's break with riders from non contending wild card teams gets 4 min up the road before the first climb 40K in. I assume BMC will want to let these guys stay away and take all the bonus time at the intermediate climb and also at the final to give GVA the best chance to stay in yellow. Quickstep, will want to reign them in to give Alaphillippe and Gilbert a shot.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 5:29

Post #19 of 48 Views: 3701

Alvin Tostig wrote:

Another rest day for Cav (and the other sprinters).

Lots of possible stage winners tomorrow. Alaphillippe is a safe bet. But Froome is going to surprise everyone (including me) by taking the stage. He'll serve notice that he's still someone to be reckoned with, and he will give the fans a chance to vent some of their unhappiness with him/Sky before the race heats up later in weeks 2 and 3.

I'll admit I don't watch as much as I use to but isn't Froome pretty much always second best on these sorts of sharp, short climbs to the finish. Seems like he even gets gapped and loses time often.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [lassekk] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 5:36

Post #20 of 48 Views: 3684

lassekk wrote:

KingMidas wrote:

I think either alaphillippe or Thomas de Gent will take the stage.
I was thinking this is perfect for Aru but he isn’t there.

I'm guessing this is too much for sagan. But what about valverde, is this not right in his territory?

This is why I think Sagan will take it :) but it does scream Valverde, I agree

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 5:37

Post #21 of 48 Views: 3679

I want to see Dan Martin go all out today. I love that guys all or nothing attacks.

What i'd really like to see is Geraint Thomas go on the attack and get the yellow, I think he is much more suited to this kind of racing then the long climbs, plus who wouldn't love seeing that drama in SKY. But that's never going to happen now that Porte is signing with Trek and G needs a SKY contract.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [bujayman] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 5:49

Post #22 of 48 Views: 3652

bujayman wrote:

I want to see Dan Martin go all out today. I love that guys all or nothing attacks....

Likewise I enjoy his aggression, but it's regularly at the expense of his overall ambitions. He's not the most tactically aware of riders!
I'd love to see him challenging at the top of the GC in the tour, but even when he doesn't make a tactical error, he always seems to have some major misfortune before or during the tour that takes him out of the running in one fell swoop. Last year it was Porte crashing into him on the Stage 9 Mont Chat descent.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 6:22

Post #23 of 48 Views: 3614

Whoa, there we go. Quick step is going for it already

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [hadukla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 6:44

Post #24 of 48 Views: 3572

I got this from the cyclingnew text feed at the halfway point

The bunch is now 3:25 down on the escapees. The sizeable Roglic group, meanwhile, is still more than a minute down on the rest of the peloton, and they will struggle to claw back that ground given Quick-Step's current rate of knots.

It seems like Quickstep are committed to the stage win attempt and trying to get yellow. I assume the sprinters are off the back minus Sagan who is hovering around?

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 7:14

Post #25 of 48 Views: 3532

now to <2 miunutes, quick step is keeping it brisk but I think Roglic got back on then something happened as I was folding my clothes. He was the only contender caught in the back group so I think they stopped pursuing seriously. I think if 2 or 3 others were stuck in the back, Sky would have helped out and stretched it out more.

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [hadukla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 8:16

Post #26 of 48 Views: 1410

It may not be Froome to win today. But it is certainly an opportunity for some GC guys to loose one or another second. Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [bujayman] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 8:43

Post #27 of 48 Views: 1367

bujayman wrote:

I want to see Dan Martin go all out today. I love that guys all or nothing attacks.

What i'd really like to see is Geraint Thomas go on the attack and get the yellow, I think he is much more suited to this kind of racing then the long climbs, plus who wouldn't love seeing that drama in SKY. But that's never going to happen now that Porte is signing with Trek and G needs a SKY contract.

And he did. And he won.

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [ToBeasy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 8:47

Post #28 of 48 Views: 1360

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 8:49

Post #29 of 48 Views: 1357

trail wrote:

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

No that was sunweb, young riders jersey

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [hadukla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 8:50

Post #30 of 48 Views: 1350

hadukla wrote:

No that was sunweb, young riders jersey

Ah, Sky and their stupid white jerseys.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 9:18

Post #31 of 48 Views: 1312

trail wrote:

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

Bardets tour is over, Zakarins tour is over, Quintanas tour is on life support, TD is now even with Froome, and Valverde/Porte/Landa/Martin/Roglic all look good. Also Sagan out climbed Froome today, haha. Bora did a great job at controlling the pace to prevent attacks, it almost worked, Martin just had the last percent extra to get away.

On a side note Thomas looks good but how will he fare on the final week?

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ron_Burgundy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 9:25

Post #32 of 48 Views: 1303

Ron_Burgundy wrote:

trail wrote:

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

Bardets tour is over, Zakarins tour is over, Quintanas tour is on life support, TD is now even with Froome, and Valverde/Porte/Landa/Martin/Roglic all look good. Also Sagan out climbed Froome today, haha. Bora did a great job at controlling the pace to prevent attacks, it almost worked, Martin just had the last percent extra to get away.

On a side note Thomas looks good but how will he fare on the final week?

Doesn't matter, Froome will blow this thing up at some point.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [T3_Beer] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 9:46

Post #33 of 48 Views: 1271

T3_Beer wrote:

Ron_Burgundy wrote:

trail wrote:

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

Bardets tour is over, Zakarins tour is over, Quintanas tour is on life support, TD is now even with Froome, and Valverde/Porte/Landa/Martin/Roglic all look good. Also Sagan out climbed Froome today, haha. Bora did a great job at controlling the pace to prevent attacks, it almost worked, Martin just had the last percent extra to get away.

On a side note Thomas looks good but how will he fare on the final week?

Doesn't matter, Froome will blow this thing up at some point.

I would suggest it does and does not matter. Froome has shown this is the one type of finish he struggles with. But, at the same time if you are fresh, sitting on the wheels should be fairly easy. my concern is his overall fatigue post Giro.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ron_Burgundy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 10:43

Post #34 of 48 Views: 1205

ha i say this as a huge cycling fan.....but to me this rings true every year for me.

The most overhyped thing in sports these days- TdF "contenders"......every damn year we hear of 6-8 "contenders" who are going to take the Tour by storm, or this is "their" year, and every single year they blow it, and make the GC really a thing of more in fighting for 3-7th than the top step.

Now of course it's damn freaking hard to win a Tour....I just laugh every year that X Y Z person is talked up and then by stage 8 or 13, they are already out of it, left only to in fight for a top 5 spot.

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [B_Doughtie] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 10:48

Post #35 of 48 Views: 1198

B_Doughtie wrote:

ha i say this as a huge cycling fan.....but to me this rings true every year for me.

The most overhyped thing in sports these days- TdF "contenders"......every damn year we hear of 6-8 "contenders" who are going to take the Tour by storm, or this is "their" year, and every single year they blow it, and make the GC really a thing of more in fighting for 3-7th than the top step.

Now of course it's damn freaking hard to win a Tour....I just laugh every year that X Y Z person is talked up and then by stage 8 or 13, they are already out of it, left only to in fight for a top 5 spot.

You're mean.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ron_Burgundy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 10:53

Post #36 of 48 Views: 1187

Dan is such a beast. I love how he rides and hope he mixes up some more stages.

It would have been a shame had he joined Sky with his riding style.

10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [trail] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 11:00

Post #37 of 48 Views: 1171

Ha, I think just the reality of what you have to do to win a race riding around one big ass country pretty much means it's really a 1-2 horse race no matter what. I got the biggest laugh a few days ago when someone posted that our American boy TJ, that this is going to be the year for him.....I give that guy credit, sticking to fan boying hardcore with that prediction.

Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ron_Burgundy] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 11:54

Post #38 of 48 Views: 1101

Ron_Burgundy wrote:

trail wrote:

ToBeasy wrote:

Sky is usually very apprehensive and pushes the pace and trys to exploit and weakness.

Not today. They were just reacting. Looks like Froome list 2-3 seconds on Geraint Thomas :). It looked like a Sky (not sure which) rider was pacing Tom Dumoulin through the last few hundred meters, which was kinda of odd. (Tom lost about 55 seconds from a mechanical ~4K out).

Bardets tour is over, Zakarins tour is over, Quintanas tour is on life support, TD is now even with Froome, and Valverde/Porte/Landa/Martin/Roglic all look good. Also Sagan out climbed Froome today, haha. Bora did a great job at controlling the pace to prevent attacks, it almost worked, Martin just had the last percent extra to get away.

On a side note Thomas looks good but how will he fare on the final week?

While Quintana's is on life support and Froome can blow it apart, what I am HOPING for, knowing neither man falls apart in week 3, is that after the attrition is over and when largely Froome and Quintana are left standing is that Froome is fried enough from the Giro and Quintana is fresh enough, that its a bit of a battle....but I would not say Tom Dumoulin is out as he has the same GC time as Froome, may do better at the cobbles, and should do better in the ITT....Richie port is in striking distance. Rigo Uran is well placed. We have an intreresting GC battle ahead!

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 12:14

Post #39 of 48 Views: 1069

With all of the top GC guys within a minute, save Quintana, of each other, this race is just starting. If Froome is a good as other years (thank god for WADA's incompetence), then he will quickly put everyone on their backs. Let's hope he is not that guy, and we have a good tour. Nibs is looking good, just keeping himself out of trouble and taking it quietly so far (bodes well) and the others have not had anything to test them and most have just seen bad luck create time differences. Take away the TTT and the crash on stage 1, and Quintana's double flat, Bardet and Dimoulin's flats/mechanical today, and there is little in it.

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 12:38

Post #40 of 48 Views: 1049

Ai_1 wrote:

Final 1.5km will be a fight between:

Alaphilippe
Gilbert
Valverde
Martin

Well, I named 3 of the top 4. And delighted Dan got the win.

I left out Latour

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 12:44

Post #41 of 48 Views: 1046

Ai_1 wrote:

Ai_1 wrote:

Final 1.5km will be a fight between:

Alaphilippe
Gilbert
Valverde
Martin

Well, I named 3 of the top 4. And delighted Dan got the win.

I left out Latour

Can you predict France vs Croatia and Belgium vs England? This should be way easier than picking 4 riders out of 176!!!

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [CPT Chaos] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 15:05

Post #42 of 48 Views: 963

I am looking forward to Tom D's form in the mountains post Giro. If he can hang in, on all mountain stages he can beat Froome in the ITT.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 15:43

Post #43 of 48 Views: 937

devashish_paul wrote:

While Quintana's is on life support and Froome can blow it apart, what I am HOPING for, knowing neither man falls apart in week 3, is that after the attrition is over and when largely Froome and Quintana are left standing is that Froome is fried enough from the Giro and Quintana is fresh enough, that its a bit of a battle....but I would not say Tom Dumoulin is out as he has the same GC time as Froome, may do better at the cobbles, and should do better in the ITT....Richie port is in striking distance. Rigo Uran is well placed. We have an intreresting GC battle ahead!

My money is on Uran. Last time he raced the Mur de Bretagne stage in 2011 he was third behind some heavy hitters.
Today, IMO, he sandbagged it, to save his legs and not show his cards.
I think he messed up a bit to lose the few seconds he did though.
He's slowly climbing the GC which still has a lot of non-GC contenders in the top 20.
EF has good team car placement coming into stage 9 and Rigo has Sep to keep him out of trouble.

Will be interesting to see how Nibali goes on stage 9... he was an absolute boss the last time the tour hit the cobbles.
Froome on the other hand is a horrible cobbles rider (or at least he was)... so it should be interesting.

Tomorrow should see Gaviria win again.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [NordicSkier] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 16:32

Post #44 of 48 Views: 914

I'm thinking Nibali has kept his cards close to his chest so far in races this year (aside of course from Milan San Remo), and he is my pick if Froome's fatigue is too much.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [fulla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 18:02

Post #45 of 48 Views: 880

fulla wrote:

I'm thinking Nibali has kept his cards close to his chest so far in races this year (aside of course from Milan San Remo), and he is my pick if Froome's fatigue is too much.

Or if Nibali out cobbles the rest of the GC...let's see after Sunday!

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [fulla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 18:18

Post #46 of 48 Views: 872

Just watching the replay of Tom D ITTing to catch up after his mechanical....does not seem like the team was very well coordinated initially.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [CPT Chaos] [ In reply to ]

Jul 12, 18 18:42

Post #47 of 48 Views: 856

CPT Chaos wrote:

With all of the top GC guys within a minute, save Quintana, of each other, this race is just starting. If Froome is a good as other years (thank god for WADA's incompetence), then he will quickly put everyone on their backs. Let's hope he is not that guy, and we have a good tour. Nibs is looking good, just keeping himself out of trouble and taking it quietly so far (bodes well) and the others have not had anything to test them and most have just seen bad luck create time differences. Take away the TTT and the crash on stage 1, and Quintana's double flat, Bardet and Dimoulin's flats/mechanical today, and there is little in it.

I just did some simple math of a GC relative to Froome....this is how it looks:

Thomas -59
Van Garderen -57
Uran -17
Porte -9
Fuglsang -9
Landa -7

Froome @ 0 seconds :-)

Adam Yates @ 0

Nibali +6
Roglic +15
Dumoulin +21
Dan Martin +25
Bardet +43
Quintana +68

I think the big padding that Thomas and Teejay have will be non factors, so really we're working from Uran at Froome minus 17. If you look at it that way, everyone from Uran to Quintana are in an 85 second band.

Re: Tour De France Stage 6: Brest to "the wall of Brittany" (Mur de Bretagne) [hadukla] [ In reply to ]

Jul 13, 18 7:30

Post #48 of 48 Views: 747

He sure did, I was happy to see it.

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