What an insane ride from Bernal. Dropped yesterday, He's pulled back 3 attacks and shot Quintana out the back like he was a Cat 3.

I hope Kruijswijk pulls it off but what's going on behind him is just ridiculous.

The Alien never even thought about protecting yellow, his teammate. Even when he knew he’d get it in time. Just don’t like how he rides, don’t like the strategy.
On the other hand, love how TD rolls.

Seems like Tommy D is the only guy that has the patience and legs to wait out the Sky Train. Everyone else goes early and they are dusted.

What a ride by Bardet. This tactical surge and go really suits him.

Amazing stage, TD is looking super strong. He's going to kick himself for line on last corner. Nibali, damn, terrible, but great defense.

Sky has an issue on their hands; GT looks every bit as strong or stronger than Froome.

This is a Thomas, Froome, TD tour as demonstrated today. Landa might be dangerous if he has an exceptional day next week. Three mountain days left, Froome is clearly a bit fatigued but not getting dropped. Stage 17 is the X factor, you have no idea how people will respond and i suspect some big time gaps. For Sky you just keep doing what you are doing and allow natural selection to take place. In the end this gives us some extra drama and it will be fun to watch.

What a pull from Bernal, just two years ago he was riding MTB.

Gaviria, Griepel, Groen, Kittel, and Cav gone, wow. Sagan might win in Paris?

Today was a bit weird. I understand setting up Froome for an attack, even with Thomas in yellow. But once Froome was reeled in Thomas should have attacked or at least both riders ride tempo to keep Landa from getting back on. Bardet is a non factor, but Landa/TD need to be distanced.

Fun part is that in reality right now GT will be the biggest benefactor of the Sky train just doing what the Sky train will do. And he has a huge ally right now....TD. The closer TD is to Froome, the more incentive TD has to diesel his way up the mountain when Froome attacks next week.

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

TD is the alien keeping up with the skinny guys on the steeps.

Yep, Thomas ought to send over a bottle of champagne to TD tonight. This is getting very interesting.

I still think TD should have just kept on motoring past Froome when he caught him. Just lay it all out there. Instead they all piddled up to the top together to just sprint for the stage win.

I guess TD could have been thinking a couple of things: he just has to be right next to Froome in the GC, then beat him in the TT. And/or he thinks Thomas is the bigger threat and attacking Froome would have just set up Thomas to solo away putting more time into him.

I’m making a bold prediction...

Thomas will win the TDF
TD will take second
Froome will crack in the Pyrenees

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

TD should just ride Froome's wheel the whole time regardless of what GT does. Force Sky to turn on their leader and then look for opportunities either in the ITT or somewhere else in the later stages.

Think TD realised he wasn't getting any GC gains on Froome and Thomas today, at which point it became all about who could get the stage win. Winning on Alpe d'Huez is pretty iconic. If he'd kept on going he'd have just towed Thomas and probably Froome and Bardet all the way to the line. Have to say though, the last 2 days has changed my opinion of him, great to see him attacking and not just limiting damage.

Question with Froome is whether he was planning to be strong in week 1 and 2 and then hang on, or if he's on a similar plan to the Giro where he rides himself into form for week 3. If it's the former he's in trouble, because G and Dumoulin look stronger and the Pyrenees are going to be tough.

Tactically Froome "attacking" GT is still the right tactic to play because it then A) allows GT to ride TD's or whoever's wheel when they respond to the Froome attack B) if they let Froome go, he wins.


So it's not really a matter of Sky turning against GT as simply they are in the best position to ploy the best tactics still. ETA: I also think GT has the most to lose because he's more than likely bound to have a "bad" day imo much more likely than Froome is.

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

Sky has stated his goal is to peak week three, essentially coming in with extra rest post giro, riding into better form. Time will tell.

Today they also looked pretty gassed after the attacks, not sure anybody really had the legs to do much more.

If this year's Giro taught us anything, it's never write off Froome no matter how bad he looks. I'm glad the excitement isn't all over yet!

has anyone seen video of Nibali's crash?

based on the location, it has to be a fan or a motorcycle.

Pretty sure it was a fan, they were just going through a throng of them and one had set off a red smoke bomb. So they were riding through the fans and smoke.

Agreed, don't really want to see it happen but I think people forget that this is a 3 week race. We could have Thomas as Giro Yates and Froome as Giro Froome.

There were some tweets saying that 2 different fans tried to take a swing at Froome. Not sure if it's true though. Having been on Alpe d'Huez for the 2015 stage it wouldn't be hard to knock one of those riders over if you wanted to......escaping France in one piece after doing that would be a different story.

Some slowtwitchers were declaring the race over after stage 1 this year......couldn't be farther from the truth!

T3_Beer wrote:

There were some tweets saying that 2 different fans tried to take a swing at Froome. Not sure if it's true though. Having been on Alpe d'Huez for the 2015 stage it wouldn't be hard to knock one of those riders over if you wanted to......escaping France in one piece after doing that would be a different story.

https://streamable.com/g639f


Is this a punch at Froome or a push?


Credit to /r/Peloton

Robbie McEwan posted a photo on instagram of a guy in cuffs saying it was one of the fans that punched Froome

What do you know the key to a successful Tour (for fan's entertainment) is to have them all racing each other at all the big Tours...novel, throwback concept!

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

I kinda chuckled when GT, CF, RB and TD were all riding next to one another, on a single line, and were chatting.

Great Stage, Bernal is a future TDF winner. He will take the white jersey, even after being 17 minutes down. Imagine he didn't have that crash.
Looks like Nibali might have a fractured vertebrae.

Anyone see Craddock throw a tantrum on NBCSports during the stage, I wonder what that was about.