Better question is....if not tomorrow, when? How many GC changing stages are left? Thur? The short 65km stage?

So if they sit on Sky's hard tempo tomorrow, is it then down to 2 stages? Beyond the iTT.....



And my question then becomes....if GT takes yellow for Sky and yes I know Froome is the "leader", but will we then see Froome actually attack.....although I guess w/ GT in yellow it sets up classic Froome attack on Thur and GT sits on wheels.....so in the end GT ends up still being the domestique while in yellow in the high mountains....fun.

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

Barguil doesn't seem to have it this year. I think he will keep going for it though and keep failing. I hope we get some fireworks on this stage, but think the 100k Sky TT is what we are going to see. Wonder if anyone will contest the sprint points other than Sagan. Don't think Gavaria is still in it for green, but at just 11K in, he might as well try to grab some points just in case.

I feel like a Sky surprise is brewing, I just don't know when they will play the cards. Conventional wisdom says Alpe d'Huez, but Sky may not do that just to mess with everyone else's heads. Maybe they send both Froome and Thomas in a 2 man all out breakaway and pound the rest of the field into submission. If they have those guys sitting 1-2 then they can dominate the rest of the tour, making everyone chase both guys and pick their winner one everyone else is toast. The next few days will be interesting for sure!

Another snoozer.

Barguil has said he's still just stage hunting, doubtful he has the form for that even.

green is sagan's as long as he doesn't have any major issues but the other sprinters might as well have a go today just for fun, otherwise there's nothing in this block for them but slogging through the mountains.

i hope we see attacks as if this stage doesn't support them then what will? it might depend on the wind though - stages 9 and 10 were both somewhat neutralised by headwinds. plenty of guys have to attack somewhere to put time into froome, thomas and dumoulin ahead of the TT - can't rely on all 3 of them having a bad day somewhere and with porte gone nobody else in the GC battle will get close to them in the TT (except maybe roglic and jungels but i'm not really considering either of them genuine gc contenders).
with alpe d'huez the next day there might be some hesitation to go too deep and lose any gains made but stage 12 has enough flat between the climbs to make it likely just a show down on the alpe so unlikely to be big time gaps on anyone not cracked and some guys need big time.

stage 17 looks to be the only other real opportunity for climbers to put in real time gaps so its time to try something

I have to think the Movistar 3-pronged attack is going to require some softening of the Sky train. They need to put Sky under pressure rather than letting their classics guy ride tempo on the front all day long. I hope to see a brutal pace from the gun and a Valverde/ NIbbles attack from long range. Probably isn't going to happen, but we can dream.

Sky are just softening up everyone and going for a long drawn out killing approach.

They don't want the yellow jersey and all the attention it brings until later in the race given the heightened attention they're under this year.

Look at the last couple of tough stages, they've had practically the whole team on the front and are deliberately giving Poels an easy ride to save him for later domestique duties with Froome.

Sky could have attacked the last two stages but chose not to: just set a high tempo which over time fatigues the other contenders. Quite happy for GVA to destroy himself, keep yellow for a few more days, and the spotlight off Froome and SKY until they go for the kill.

In previous years Sky have gone into yellow and defended: this year's different but the outcome will be the same.

If this stage can't break the Sky train, then not sure which one can. How technical are these descents today. I did not watch the Dauphine stage on the same roads. Nibali should ally with Landa and give it a go.

I really hope this is not the case!

One thought is that Sky riding a steady high tempo and neutralizing any ballistic attacks favours Tom Doumoulin. The longer they do that, they keep Tom D as their biggest threat in the final TT. Tom D can just tuck in behind this (thanks Cyclingnew.com....this looks exactly like the US Postal train):

Yeah, after an historically exciting World Cup, I am finding myself falling asleep or not even watching the TdF this year. I still tape the morning coverage, but blew through yesterday's stage in about 20 mins.

You could be right.

Wouldn't surprise me if G goes into yellow today or tomorrow when GVA inevitably blows up: this would be good for Froome too as someone else is in the spotlight.

Froome is still the man and may pick a last week uphill finish to gain enough time on Diesel Dumoulin ahead of the final TT.

I like Dumoulin but he's in the same mold as Wiggins, a steady plodder but no ability to attack off the front.

Where were they going to attack at over the last 2 days? Are you saying they could have done a meaningless attack, cus that’s all it would have done. There was no real ability for them to attack the last 2 stages and it mean anything.

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

I am hoping that Dumoulin Out Sky's Sky by using Sky's tempo train to his advantage and out Frooming Froome by sealing up the Yellow in the final TT. That would be nice payback for Finistre :-)

G could easily have attacked, when the final 3 broke free riding to Roubaix , to join them: he's a very good classics/ cobbles rider.

Similarly yesterday up the final ascent with the downhill finish, both G and Froome in perfect position to do so.

However in the context of the race they probably would have gained minimal time, if any: but they could have attacked and took a chance.

Stage 9 was the most obvious for G to gain time, especially on Froome.

In stage 9, they let the 3 get away. None of the GC riders cared about those 3. The only person to give chase to them was Sagan because he wanted to win the stage, but the lead 3 had a pretty good moto pace for their initial attack. If GT had been in that attack, no way they let them get away.

Oh snap - Valverde is trying to get away from Sky! Not a snoozer at all.

BTW - why does slowtwitch love Dumolin so much? He's the Lionel Sanders of pro cycling!

The simplest answer is often the one that is most likely to be correct: because he's not Froome/Sky.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

OK with Valverde and Soler ahead does that give Movistar the option to launch Landa + Quintana and have these guys drop back to pick them up and run a 4 man TTT to the end? If so they would have to do it on the 9% grades on the way to Rosiere

Because his aero position is soooo awesome. This is the only thing that matters on ST...not sure why Lionel gets all the love given that criteria, but I think on Lionel it's cause he does every age group stupidity that we have all done and yet has the second fastest time EVER in Kona.

Dumoulin gets love for attacking Sky on the descent!!!!

Why the heck did Nibali any work on the last climb? He should let the Sky train burn matches and not help them.

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10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

I thought he would be attacking on the descent.... but TD was the one to pull it off... weird they set that up for nothing though.

Not sure what you were hoping for but I think there's been plenty of entertainment. There's been chaos even on some of the sprint stages with GC riders crashing or puncturing and having to solo back on, great attack by Dan Martin, stage 9 was gripping from start to finish, and while the GC race yesterday was pretty dull there were amazing and unpredicted rides from GVA and Alaphilippe. Plenty going on today as well with breakaways and attacks.