Dumoulin may not smoke Froome by that much, he only put 13 seconds into him at the Giro TT which was similar distance and also in week 3. Agree he looked very strong on Rosiere and Alpe d'Huez. They need to take advantage of the fact that he's practically riding solo in the mountains and make him work. Be interesting to see whether he'd try to close down Thomas if he went on the attack, or just mark Froome.

Just watched the stage.
Jasper- badass. No give up whatsoever.
Omar- good on him. Love seeing these guys get stages.
Sagan- just a head shaker. Fourth? Wow.
Roglic looks like he can roll in the Pyrenees.

I thought TD was very close to cracking today. I feel like the Froome hammer will drop soon. I think it will be Stage 16 and if it’s not successful there, Stage 19. I really think he will use a late kick up the mountain and use the late descends to finish to put time on TD. The uphill finishes aren’t working against TD.

Sagan obviously came to the tour this year to make a statement for last year.

I'm intrigued to see how Stage 17 will play out. Very short, all mountains, and with an F1 style starting grid. Don't think there's ever been anything quite like it, so the teams are all going to be gaming different scenarios. Imagine it's going to be pretty much full blast from the gun, any key domestiques who are too far back in the standings might not be able to even get into the lead group from the start. Dumoulin is likely to be isolated pretty early, could be a good day to put time into him.

I didn't watch the GC riders finish today, had to go out after the breakaway finished, had assumed they would all just roll in together. Was Dumoulin gapped on the hill at all, or just looked tired?

I thought he looked very solid, after getting gapped initially.

I think everyone expects 17 to be the stage so Sky will use somewhere else. But I agree, 17 will be a lot of fun regardless.

And then attacking, and then patiently riding back to cover a counter. They all looked at their limit but TD didn’t show much weakness on what’s is a bad finish for him, IMO.

Yeah, TD looked OK, considering all 3 (Dumoulin, Thomas, and Froome) were gassed.

The one I'm worried about is Bardet. Although he only lost 14 seconds, he was really struggling on the bike and looked like hell.

3 Movistar riders in break today? Hmmm

The run in big Magnus is the man. But I’d like to see mollema win. Or skijens.

cross wind time in the run in. this could get fun

also, Skuijns looks good

Moscon out of the Tour - https://www.lequipe.fr/...ant-la-course/924939

Moscon caught being combative? Surely you jest :p. Dude needs anger management classes. I will, however, admit that his on-bike balance is superb. Smacking an aftward rider while riding out of the saddle takes great agility and core strength ;).

jest aside, i'm surprised i can actually trip my way through that first paragraph. Last took French some 15 years ago...

here's the English article http://www.cyclingnews.com/...from-tour-de-france/

And here is a video - https://twitter.com/.../1021097869292470272

Maybe they planned it, in order to avoid only getting asked about Thomas vs Froomey during rest day press conferences.

Q- What will his discipline be since you said it'll be addressed after Tour?

Sky- Depends.....We really need him in our bid to launch Froome into yellow this final week, so now that we are down a man we are sacrificing GT to go "all in" on Froome's attempt to win this race.



Sky wins even win they lose.

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

And now Sir Dave yaps his big mouth. What's up with the incredibly low EQ of this team?

Ha I'm laughing at Froome and GT's comments now....it's almost a race to be the kindest "non" leader.

Froome- "I'll race for GT"

GT- "Froome has always been the leader"

It's as if they are having a contest on who is going to stab the other the least in the back when everything goes down this upcoming week.

---

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

I'm sure they'll hug it out in Paris when one's in yellow.

Interesting stage tomorrow. Not a summit finish, but certainly opportunity to attack and hold it off on the descent. I expect the break to get a long leash and there be a battle for polka dot jersey points ahead of the GC group.

With stage 17 looming, I don't think we see anything super crazy out of the GC group. Maybe Froome goes super hard the last 1 km of the last climb and goes bat shit crazy on the descent, but the last climb itself isn't long or steep enough to really force big splits. It is a fairly long stage though...and coming off the rest day...you never know.

Nothing against Thomas, but I for entertainment purposes...if he were to ship 2 minutes tomorrow on a bad day, the GC race gets really tight. You could have 7 guys within 2:20 of the overall lead heading into tomorrow's stage.

I’m having withdrawals today. What is this rest day crap?

I’m expecting a big attack from Froome tomorrow.
Everyone expects 17 to be a massacre and it may be. But Froome is a champion. He won’t go down easily and he won’t leave it for 19 if he can’t separate himself 1 more minute from TD.

I’m expecting a high tempo from the start by Sky. Froome will attack on one of the mountains and GT will sit on TD for insurance. If no separation can be made, they will at least get everyone tired for 17.

follow up from this morning:



dang, I was holding on

Do you need a TUE for tear gas?

I can't believe Gilbert is back on his bike after that

was a great stack!