Yup, I'm still going to watch every stage in full but I can't help but be a little annoyed. A 15k climb right after a rest day? Don't know how this wasn't expected to happen. Le sigh.

  


If I wasn't at work I'd be adding a picture of the Deathstar doing it's business on Alderaan....

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Don't forget to unclip!

The clean guys had very good rides.

eff that. Classico San Sebastian and the best week-long stage race, Eneco are coming up in 2 weeks or so

I have a feeling Porte will blow up later on but I think Froome might win a Tony Award for that performance. His 6k worth of grimacing after it looks like he was already suffering is a nice act.

I don't believe anyone any more. It's sad, really.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

 
Actually I take it all back - an umbrella and a set of rollers #MarginalGains

The reality is that drugs or no drugs, a stage like that has always accentuated the different strengths of riders, somebody has to be strongest, and throughout the history of the Tour there has often been one rider who can crush his rivals on a big mountain.

I don't think it would be possible for a clean rider to ride away from doped riders like that. So I think the possibilities are that they're all clean, they're all doping, or Froome is doping and the rest are clean. I don't know which it is and if it's either of the latter then we may never find out or not know for years, but I don't think that putting time into the peloton on a big mountain is in and of itself sufficient evidence of doping. Well done Froome, have to admire the strength of the guy even if it is going to make for a much duller Tour from now on.

My computer feed went fuzzy. Did Lance win today?

I need to contract bilharzia

Yup, British Postal Service killed it today.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Well I guess we know who the Justin Timberlake of the fab four is.

Don't know how this wasn't expected to happen.

Wow! Tour over so soon?

A Grand Boucle, indeed! :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

This is what annoys me to no end....the key to getting a close race is not to make a hard course, but one where you keep more riders in the mix.

Have the first day after the rest day be a mid-mountain stage w/o a summit finish. Have the first summit finish to be a less challenging summit so the race doesn't blow apart. Work your way up to a MF'er stage.

I'm not advocating this in order to make the race easier, I am saying this to make the race more compelling over the 3 week period. Now we are just looking to see who falters "worse" and drops out of podium contention. No one is gonna attack now and will ride defensively. (OK, maybe AC or Quintana will attack, but AC is more likely to go further back before he can go forward).

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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

It looks like Team Sky's doctors will be wearing the yellow lab coats tonight.

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David Roche
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To watch Team Sky twist the screws...I respect their power. But damn, Tejay is second still but almost 3 minutes down? There's no hope based on what happened today. I don't have any reason to believe people can make up any time on Froome, forget even getting close.

Ha ha.

Lookie here, Tejay in second. Nice, normal great ride.
"Sky put on quite the performance." Indeed.

So why is it suspicious that Sky's top climbing domestiques can finish top 10 but Valverde doing the same doesn't merit a comment? Porte and Thomas would be team leaders themselves if they were at another team, and given that Movistar did so much of the work earlier on the climb, Sky didn't burn out their top guys as early as they might have done if they'd had to do everything themselves. Porte is also looking for a new contract, so probably happy to bury himself to get a podium finish and not care too much about the consequences for tomorrow, whereas the GC contenders were all on damage limitation by then.

I might get in trouble for that one.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

the only one who can stay close is Porte. The Tour is over on the very first climb, and Froome could have put more time. He opened a 1min gap on Quintana in just 3km. It looks as real as some of these powerade commercials.

If TJ can stay in 2nd he has a great shot at winning his 1st Tour, a few years from now after Team Postal Sky are stripped.

....do you look at the elevation chart and say...."Dat ain't no mountain!....I run up sh!t bigger than that?!?!"

the race for the second place is going to be awesome /pink

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

Porte, maybe. You're reaching on Thomas. He might be a leader on a classics race, not on a Grand Tour. As for you comment on Valverde: the winner always gets more scrutiny. Absolutely no one is going to go to the mat defending Valverde as clean.

TJ could have taken second in the Tour, alas, he didn't swim this past winter.