I agree. Especially now with only 8 man teams instead of 9. Last year Thomas crashed out and effectively made them an 8 man team, but there is no Mikel Landa on their team this year. The longer Thomas is allowed to race for himself, the more pressure there is on the other 6 guys on Sky to lead an effective train. I really like Poels as a guy who can step up, but he also did a shit ton of work as Froome's lieutenant at the Giro. Maybe Bernal? But he seems more of a punchy climber rather than a hard tempo guy...and he's unproven in a GT.

If the Sky train weakens without Thomas working as the lieutenant, then that opens up far more opportunity for the rest of the GC guys to attack. And that doesn't favor Froome or Thomas who rather ride a consistent hard tempo rather than constant attacks, slowing, etc.

so we apparently had a Evil Knivel clearing over the race today. dude actually went no handed while in mid air; pretty bad ass

http://www.stickybottle.com/...ps-over-tour-france/

This came out yesterday.

https://www.sbs.com.au/...tinue-2019-ccc-steps

That was sick! Wonder if the riders agree.

Interesting stage tomorrow,, have a feeling it’s gonna go down.

Nice seeing Tejay in the break.
I keep hearing about how all of these other guys are done when there are 15 within striking distance of The Alien and his flying monkeys.
Sky will in all likelihood grind everyone down but I think we'll still have a GC race at the Tourmelet. I can dream, anyway.
Jungle Bob for the stage win.

And of course Sagan is in the initial break and easily gets the sprint points. This is too easy for him.

No one can do what he can do. When he retires, he'll probably fly over the peloton on a mountain bike.

When he retires? He might do it one of these days after securing the intermediate sprint points - go hide in the trees and fly over the contenders as they come through!

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

maybe without a bike........

I know STs feeling on Valverde but I still hope he makes some noise here. if he could nail this descent, and he could, the final climb is a place he could cause trouble.
ANYTHING to make Sky work would be appreciated.

He is making some noise - virtual yellow at the moment!

Movistar is trying, at least making it interesting as opposed to the suffocating Sky parade to Paris.

But why Bahrain was riding on penultimate climb is a head-scratcher.

cats amongst the pigeons...

Sky were taking it pretty easy, trying to get as much as they could out of Moscon, which is why Valverde was pulling away so quickly. I guess Nibali wasn't happy letting Valverde go so hit the front. Looks like Nibali is putting the pressure on on the descent as well.

yikes, I'm afraid Tejay struck out early again... Just like that 2x Alpe d'Huez stage in 2013

edit: that was nonsense above. It's Caruso in the leading four

Dumoulin bridging up to Valverde could be an interesting move, but my money is on Sky - who look to still have 6 riders in the train! - catching them both. In which case has Valverde spent all that energy for nothing or will it stretch Sky enough to give Quintana or Landa a chance to do something?

Sky looks completely in control. Yawn.

Honest question here. Why do other teams let Sky control everything? Is it because they aren't as well organized, or they just don't have the riders to do it?

don't have the riders; Sky has a large budget. The support riders can be leaders in their own right on other teams.

Tommy D looks good here

Also Sky is a grand tour specialist team, they have no interest in having sprinters or supporting a sprinter. Furthermore, they generally do not focus on the classics either. Therefore, their entire team is full of riders specifically pciked for one job, what you are watching right now. Other teams could do the same but they often split interests between sprinters/classics/grand tours.

This ought to get interesting when Kwiato drops off.

Certainly did! Can't believe how quickly Thomas bridged to Dumoulin

This is amazing tactics from Sky!

TD and Martin are doing nice work for Sky.

...

ugh...

at least Dumoulin seems to be on par with Froome