First pic is pretty weird - Froome's bodyguard looks to be more worried about his bike than about the guy he's supposed to be protecting who is being manhandled by a cop!

Is it just me or is this years tour boring as f? Froome is cooked and isn't doing any usual alien-attacks, TD is one of the worlds most boring cyclists when he's not on a tt bike and GT is also boring. Alaphilippe and Bernal are prob my only positives from this tour, plus watching Demare cheat his way through the stages...
Also how mad do you think Sky are now that they realize that if they had kept Bernal out of the Tour they could have won all 3 grand tours?

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Well, the days that you knew exactly beforehand who was going to win were boring: the days of Merckx, Hinault, Indurain and Armstrong. At the moment it looks quite interesting: the certainty that multiple winner Froome is going to win fails.
There are a lot of potential winners, and if I do not make a mistake: the differences between the top ten was never so small. And we could saturday get a tight ITT as between Fignon and Lemond "a lépoque".

Of course I'm a bit biased being Dutch: lately the Dutch are doing great again after nearly thirty crappy years.

Bernal has looked good, but there's a very big difference between being a super-domestique who rides tempo, and a team leader with all the pressure that brings, riders attacking you, etc. Especially as a 21 year old riding his first GT. Not sure when the last 21 year old GT winner was, I think you've got to go back to 1983 when Fignon won as a 22 (nearly 23) year old. If he were to win a GT next year it would be a phenomenal achievement, I think 2020 is more likely. Also notable that quite a few recent young winners like Aru and Quintana (who I think were both 24 when they first won) have dipped for a few years following early success, so may be wise not to rush him too much.

Do you think this TDF race would have panned out thie same way without the job Bernal has done for them?

Yeah that's true, but will any top guys be at the Vuelta? Seems most of the top guys are fried from Giro/Tour, but def his chances are better in a few years. I would think a lot of his future will be decided depending on what G does after his first win and how Froome looks for next year.
Will add though that on yesterdays stage he looked like he could have gapped everyone and maybe even closed Quintana before sitting up to help Froome.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

I guess Aru, maybe Simon Yates, Nibali if he's recovered. Landa and Quintana could double up, latter certainly looks to be riding into good form.

I don't think there'll be an issue with Thomas or Froome blocking Bernal. They're 32 and 33 respectively so one or both are likely to start fading in the next year or 2. My guess is that if the team let him then Froome will focus everything on getting that 5th Tour win next year, which leaves Giro and Vuelta free. And Bernal probably shouldn't be racing more than one GT per year for the next couple of years while he develops.

Perhaps your right. Would at least be fun if they sent him and let him do his best. Guessing tomorrows stage will be a snooze unfortunately, the TT at least will be exciting as it will decide the rest of the podium. Wonder if Froome will try to hold 2/3 or just work for G, I'm leaning towards the former.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

I'm guessing Froome tries to do both, rides as last man for Thomas but may not be needed if Poels and Bernal do a good job. Yesterday Sky had something like 4 of the last 9 riders on the climb, repeat performance and they'll hang onto yellow, white and 3rd place going into the TT.

I think Roglic and Kruiskwijk will try to light it up. Bardet also has nothing to lose now, and would fancy the stage win on that descent if he can get over that last climb with even a small gap.

All of this Bernal hype sounds just like what everyone was saying about Landa last year. Maybe he will pan out, but it's not a given by any means.

Contador was 24 when he won his first TDF, so it's doable.

Froome will work for G by closing down attacks and also covering any attacks from Roglic. If Roglic attacks and Froome follows, TD has to close the gap, Thomas then covers TD. I suspect Sky will smoke the tourmalet, that is a brutal climb. I don't expect any attacks from Sky unless TD or Roglic is clearly in trouble, then an attack would make sense. I think tomorrow is so long and hard it will be fairly boring unless somebody has a really bad day.

If I'm Sky I would almost rather force TD to pull back Roglic attacks. Now that means Froome's 3rd goes out the window in protection for the yellow, but it would mean that Sky could ride a steady/hard tempo and not expose themselves really at all. It would also allow GT to have Froome as his last Lt. the entire way up the mountain and it cuts out as many "accelerations" as possible that could harm GT. Roglic is a good TT'er yes, but still he's 2:47 down, he'd have to win by what 2:15 to be realistic shot of beating GT in TT? To win by 2:15 within this group of GC riders is an enternity, and the race doesnt even have a mt top finish. If I'm Sky, I'm just pulling attacks by through force in numbers not Froome jumping on wheels. Until the very end because this Tour it seems like no one can sustain an attack anymore, it's the 3rd or 4th acceleration that finally gets you free.

In essence use TD as your ally against Roglic and his riding style to your advantage. Force Roglic to do a suicide attack to win the Tour. Then simply keep the gap manageable.

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

< Cross-post, sorry >

You know you're in WAY too deep when you're following the team assistants on IG

https://www.instagram.com/stephanieclerckx/

Stephanie Clerckx - Quick-Step [AKA "The Wolfpack"]
PR & Communication Assistant





Carry on

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Team Sky have won the Vuelta, The Giro and now, probably the tour in a row. I think they'll be pretty happy.

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I don't think he sandbagged, but I do think he will go after Domoulin if the stars align, without derailing Thomas in yellow.
Tomorrow's stage is really friggin' hard and Froome gives not 1 eff about 3rd but might like a 1-2 for Sky. If any of the top guys cracks tomorrow I'd say it will be TD. He almost fell off his bike at the finish yesterday. Who recovers one more time, enough to race the high Pyrenees?

Do not apologize. Good sidebar.

That was a messy sprint, EF screwed up the Bora leadout for absolutely no reason but Bora also went too slow into the final corners. Demare should have been removed yesterday so i am not recognizing his win today.

Honest question, how do you not potentially derail GT by having Froome attack. Are you not simply then forcing 2nd/4th to respond and then forcing GT to follow their wheels. So essentially your forcing moves that otherwise may or may not happen? IE you are having your own guy attack + absolutely putting pressure on GT to making sure he responds to other GC guys.

That just seems way unnecessary if your goal truly is to win the damn bike race. Sky has zero incentive to make GT ride any harder than he has to on Friday. Froome "attacking" only forces more moves that GT most certainly must cover than anything.

Whereas if you ride it smart and give up 3rd to protect yellow, you then can have Froome pulling back attacks with GT sitting in on his own wheel, thus if the pace gets hot, GT can tell Froome to cool it and keep it manageable.

Whereas if Sky attacks, it's then putting all the pressure on GT to cover the GC guys. Just seems completely unnecesssary when your this close to winning it.

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

If Sagan couldn't get it (think the injury affected him) I was pulling for anyone but Demare. Let's just hope he doesn't win in Paris.

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

Very true. Riding for GC is entirely different, having to be upfront every stage. But again, this kid rode with moxie and of the developing GT riders, he's my pick. He doesn't look like anyone else out there. And if uninjured, and on the right team (a bigger if) in 2-3 years.

If your talking about the Greipel tweet, just know that he was using the wrong info to call out Demare. Whether or not he cheated or not is still a bit unclear, but the info used to call him out was in fact incorrect, and yes Greipel apololized and did the social media standard moved- deleted the tweet.

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

Beyond that tweet, Demare has a bad reputation and was arguably implicated by both Cav and Greipel previously in the Alps when they both passive aggressively noted that if they made it, it was going to be under their own power. Then of course there is the 2016 MSR issue along with the numerous erratic sprints he did last year without penalty despite others being relegated/kicked out for much less offensive maneuvers. Just a hard guy to root for.

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

I still think he should have been removed from his MSR win a few years ago, i am still amazed people actually believe he soloed the cipressa faster than the lead group, rode through 50+ riders, then won the sprint. Demare has some questionable times on several climbs this year, on multiple stages he made up too much time towards the end. Just does not add up.

No I get that, I was simply meaning if you were using the info that Greipel used to prove he was "cheating" that info was wrong. I was more along the lines saying, there's no evidence *yet* to show he cheated yet to get up the hill...even though yes his past leads to credibility issues.

ETA: I was more along the lines saying, it's going to take video evidence to prove to the race organizers he cheated, suspect times are for fan fodder, not likely enough for the Tour to kick someone out. You'll need 4 riders all saying he was towed along + evidence of it, not just some suspect time splits that turns out weren't even accurate.

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

I was drunk.

Not really, but you're right. There's no real way to take 2nd unless TD just cracks anyway and gives it up and that seems unlikely but tomorrow is very hard pre Tourmalet so who knows.