He certainly has lost his edge in the mountains and TTs now that he's likely more clean than before, but after the Vuelta last year and now this, there's no question that the guy is fantastic tactically.

it's not just Contador (though his racing sense is very good). It's also Bjarnes. As i said earlier, the man knows how to plan a race, whether or not you agree with his checkered past.

Recall Nick Nuyens with 2 wins in the classics in 2011 and Kreuziger with Amstel in 2013, all of them very tactical victories

Tactics for sure. Looked like they let Porte drop off the main pack to rest up for the mountains when he should have been staying with his leader. And very careless letting Saxo get away like that. That said, I don't think they're going to lose too much time today (1 min max?), and you could argue that having Porte fresh for the mountains rather than time-trialling at the front of the peloton is the right call.

Team strength they've been a bit unlucky - having both Thomas and EBH injured is unfortunate, I didn't see enough of Kiryienka missing the cut-off to know whether that was down to bad luck or bad tactics. Anyone know?

Oh man, Chavanel and Cav just took Sagan to school.

Spot on. This has Riis fingerprints all over it, not AC. Dude is a brilliant tactician.

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Sagan just looked like he gave it to Cav. No way he expected to come off Cav's wheel & outsprint him.

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Sagan isn't going to hand over a stage to anyone, but had no chance being on Chavanel's wheel with Cav behind him. Not much of a choice though. If he doesn't stay on Chavanel then Cav sits up, lets a gap opens and Sagan still loses.

Brilliant riding by the guys up front

well, that is to be expected from the best classics team of the last decade plus

Oh yeah my bad for forgetting the people behind the riders. Good win for Cav, Sagan didn't seem to have it in him to fight for 1st but then again maybe he's happy to have his green jersey anyways.

I think Contador has to be my favorite unapologetic ex doper...haha

well, hopefully ex doper

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Here's a quick breakdown of what happened. Note the wind direction indicator on the bottom left



and i'm sure that belkin rider just decided to sit up at the right time

No doubt. You could see Froome pull the pin and look around in the replay. Not much he could do at that point.

Interesting how this changes the dynamic. With Valverde out it's only Saxo and Belkin for Sky to worry about. But, that also means the potential for more collaboration between Contador and Movistar. Going to be an awesome weekend of racing

Yeah, it looked to me, once Saxo hit the gas, it was a Saxo rider that sat up to create the gap and snap the elastic. Hard to see for sure, but someone had to sit up because that gap just showed up in a heartbeat. From then on, it was a mad scramble!!

Great stage. All that said, Saxo burned a lot of energy today and *only* picked up a minute. Heartening, no doubt, but AC still has to take Froome on mano a mano at some point.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

there are a few others. I like Sean Kelly, for example

He's lucky he didn't lose 18 minutes today

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Yeah, but all of Sky cracked too other than maybe Porte.


I think it hurts them more than the minute of time. They've gotten schooled not once but twice, and I bet all the other teams will be more bold. It's not like they can let some joker 5 minutes down just ride away so they'll be under a lot of pressure. If you get a repeat where Froome is isolated, climbers take off and Contador or Mollema tag on then it will get pretty interesting and mano-a-mano as you mentioned.


Not to mention that Saxo today showed that they don't need a mountain stage to put one over.

And Nico Verhoeven and Frans Maassen (the DSs of Belkin) are veterans of that style of racing. Maassen did traditionally very well in the Three days of De Panne, which is three days of early season battling the Flemish winds.

And cue the whining of the Valverde apologists that Belkin shouldn't have hammered after he flatted. Cry me a river. They were hammering before he flatted as well.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

Shades of the stage a few years ago where the field split in cross winds and some of the lead riders got caught out. Think it was in '10 if I remember right???

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Rick, "Retired" hobbyist athlete
Trying to come back slowly from acute A-Fib

If I remember right, AC mentioned in an interview back that he's riding into shape to be in peak form in the last week. And he also did mention that he thinks Froome will wane in the final week similar to the Vuelta. If this rings true, we'll have a very exciting last week battle for the jersey. Things are going well this year unlike last, where it was a procession to Paris by Wiggins and team Sky.

Sky's loss of Edvald yesterday made today even harder for the Froome. Edval is made for days like this, even when he is not at his best shape. But what a stage, and it is fun to see teams attacking and really trying to make something happen.
Less doping makes more fun bike races.

Unfortunately I couldn't watch and the recaps I have found haven't been satisfactory. Can somebody explain how the split happenned and where Froome was (asleep at the wheel)? Based on the form Froome has shown thus far and his lack of teammates to chase, I can't imagine how he could let a break of that composition go without being in it. Looking at the break (most sprinters and GC represented, with the exception of Lotto and Argos) and the timing it seems like that finish could have been predicted to some extent.

Pissed I missed this!

Yeah, he's said that a few times, and that the Tour would be decided in the last week. From the beginning I thought Saxo was the strongest overall team and they were pretty solid today. Froome still looks to be the strongest rider but his team has already fallen apart.

I didn't watch and just read through the live feed that velonews was running "http://live.velonews.com/...2013_Stage_13?Page=0". Basically it seems that omega started hitting it hard to break kittel and griepel off the lead chase group. Saxo and Belkin smelled and opportunity and started pushing the pace as well. Valverde had a mechanical and dropped off, and then belkin stepped it up with saxo contributing. Froome was isolated and when a saxo or belkin rider timed sitting up just right a break was formed and then driven wider by the gc teams + omega who wanted more time on griepel and kittel.

No idea if legit, but the account does have 12,000 followers:

Oleg Tinkov ‏@olegtinkov 29m
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@albertocontador stay cool. the team is much stronger than Sky we will fuck them BIG time! Applauds to Bjarne. #TdF13 will be OURS.#tdf

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

You do remember right. And AC got caught out by that break and you know who made it and almost grabbed the yellow jersey. Missed it by just a few seconds. Lesson learned apparently.

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