Guess so. Have to say Froome rode like a champ today. Not a fan of the guy but nobody can touch him in the high mountains.

In hindsight today's one long climb was a good one for Sky and their style. Hopefully some of the later stages will be more difficult for them to control. Hopefully.

Yeah, 'cuz capitalizing on another's misfortunes is always the sweetest victory. Of course a crash can happen at any time, but does anyone wanna really wanna race thinking "Man, if only Froome misses a switchback, I could grab the yellow."

From a "sporting perspective", the race for the yellow is over. Froome is the strongest guy in the race. AC (or anyone else) is not suddenly gonna develop the legs to challenge him man-to-man at this point.

---

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

Unless somebody puts a pump in Froome's wheel at high speed and takes him out of the race ... it's over. Everybody else is fighting for a podium spot, but the GC competition for the #1 spot is over and has been for a week (everybody knew it, they just didn't want to admit it at the time).

To this point Froome and Sky's performance is "VERY" reminiscent of the days of US Postal and Armstrong. This is a good indicator that Froome won't crack during the final week.

This forum may not like speculation ... but there there is no denying the similarities between Sky and Postal ... and the knowledge that many riders are still using and Froome is not just walking away from them, but sprinting away from them half way up an HC climb like they are CAT 2/3 racers.

Just from memory, here are some guys that have been dominant and then cracked one day during the tour and lost big chunks of time:

Indurain
Landis
Armstrong

---

---

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

100% agreed (obviously).

As for the rest, I don't like to speculate n such things based on performance alone. Until some actual evidence arises, I prefer to give them a presumption of playing by the rules. Not saying I didn't raise my eyebrows a couple of times in the last 2 weeks, but I'm not ready to condemn anyone yet.

---

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

That was a pure TT stage and without knowing exactly where the start and finish is taken doesn't help much

Edit The TT up Ventoux was 21.6 KM when Mayo set the record..

---

Styrrell

I do like the way that Sky kind of clowned all the conspiracy theorists that thought Sky wouldn't let Porte and Froome go hard again, lest they be seen as suspicious.

heh

---

---

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

Indurain never cracked while winning the Tour. He cracked in '96, but was not "dominant" that year (hell, he was never in contention). The two times Armstrong "cracked", he never lost more than 2 minutes (90" in the 2003 TT and I think about the same in the Alps in 2000). And I would argue that Flandis was never "dominant" in 2006.

I can think of one major collapse by a dominant yellow in the last 20 years, and that was Ullrich in '98. That's about it.

---

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

So then, it isn't over =)

---

---

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

It always amazes me what skinny legs can do on a bike. Wiggins has skinny legs and is a beast in the TT. Froome seems even more frail, and his TT was second to Martin. It astounds me that so little muscle can deliver such phenomenal power. I would love to cycle like these guys but I do have to say the upper bodies look weaker than the weakest of women - not to appealing for a male physique.

---

________________
Adrian in Vancouver

That stage was from Bedouin on 3 month old pristine pavement on a TT stage. You need to ride slightly out of Bedouin to get to the start of the climb (around 2K....it is clearly marked). I would imagine they started the TT in the town center as they do for almost all major stage races, when the stage starts in a minor town, but hard to know for sure. At the surface, it sounds like the Dauphine ITT times include 2+ km to get to the start of the actual 19 km climb. I did the climb July 14th 2004, so I remember all the details like it was yesterday. I don't think Froome's numbers today are unbelieveable. He's just under 60 minutes from what I understand for the actual climbing. Seems like that would be well off the doped range of mid 6W per kilo range (seems like is it down closer to 6 even).

Also Ventoux is not a great mountain to make comparisons. There is a reason why it is called Ventoux....vente is the French word for wind. Depending on the wind after the Chalet Raynard, the times can be dramatically different for the same power. Alpe d'Huez on the other hand is almost entirely sheltered making comparison data bit easier.

Dev

LOL


From Oleg Tinkov's (Team Saxo-Tinkoff owner) very funny Twitter Feed @olegtinkov:


Armstrong have had same dominance as Froome.And later i seen him crying to Oprah.I am too adult to believe in fairytales.#Tdf #SaxoTinkoff№1

I am going to start watching professional wrestling instead of the Tour - the outcomes there are more believable.

Tinkov's twitter has been pure comedy gold. We need more Russian oligarchs in the twitter game.

Whether or not you believe Froome is legit that tweet is hilarious.

he'd already held it early on.

---

http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

I know. I just had never heard of him before the Tour. And I just looked at his resume and if I had been following the smaller Spanish and French stage races I would have. That's what I'm saying.

---

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

anytime someone from columbia is in the tour you can count on some climbing =)

---

---

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

Ah, sorry. I thought you hadn't followed the early stages.

---

http://harvestmoon6.blogspot.com
https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/katasmit

Well, but over the last 30 years or so there's been a lot of crazy escape attempts early on the mountain (any mountain really) followed by massive cratering by mid-climb. Except for Herrera I can't remember many Colombians with impact, except as kindling for the fireworks higher up on the mountain. Entertaining, yes. Successful, not so much.

---

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

I think Fabio Parra also won a few stages for Columbia around 3-5 years after Herrera. Maybe it was easier for lithe Columbian climbers to win stages in the pre EPO era before sprinters like Jaja could transform from Green Jersey guys to Polka dot guys! There was a time when low kilo guys with lower watts could compete....then bigger kilo guys like Indurain got bigger watts and the game was over. Just inside Banesto, the team lead went from Delgado (probably sub 60 kilos) to Big Mig. That transormation in the peleton pretty well crushed the 52 kilo Columbian climbers dreams.

Sorry, but what a dope show! Porte - Bullshit, Froome- Bullshit.

Why are you replying to my post ?....I was talking to Jan about the Columbian climbers in the day of Miguel Indurain!

As for Froome, today's VAM data does not suggest performance in the historical doping range (or at least what I read today so far), but the data from the first stage in the Pyranees put him in that range. That's not to say that riders over time cannot converge upon "doped range" while riding clean. The assumption of a doped "range" is that all limits of human perfomance are known....at the same time, as I said inthe other stage, when Froome beat the guys by 1:40 seconds on a 21 minute climb, that would be like lapping the top runners in the world TWICE in the Olympic 10,000m finals. That does not smell right.

I just replied to the last post, sorry if it offended you. I wonder what Porte's and Froome's w/kgs were during their attacks.

Don't neglect the ride before the Ventoux today. I'm not sure that comparisons with past Ventoux ascents will be equivalent due to the length from the gun to the foot of the climb today. Granted, the stars are protected - but the pace during the first couple of hours was pretty high today. That should have taken some additional strength from the legs before the climb in a way that may not have been the same in the past.

For me, here's the thing...Quintana looked gassed as the crossed the line. He put it out there today. Pretty much everyone did, among the top finishers, except one. Ventoux is hard (or so I'm told). But, at the finish, Froome looked pretty energetic. He looked like he could be helicoptered to the foot of the Ventoux and climb it again, no problem.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice - nope, ain't gonna happen.