The stage and the yellow jersey for Tony Martin. Since Stage 1 he’s been second on GC and it was becoming a comedy skit where he stands in line in the queue for the yellow jersey and only for someone to jump in front each time its his turn. On the Mur de Huy Chris Froome was timed as 0.94 seconds behind Joaquim Rodriguez and since it wasn’t a clear full second it left Martin was second on GC and out of yellow for just 0.06 seconds. This time even a puncture and riding on a team mates bike didn’t stop him.
The longest stage of the Tour meant a long wait for the action but the tension was building as reports of rain came in. The were a Belgian section of cobbles to cross but it was all about the late sectors after the race had crossed into France. The approach to the cobbled sectors looked the Ben Hur chariot scene, each team leader riding a chariot towed by their workhorses.
et oui froome pic.twitter.com/jmzC2RwYpU
— philippe (@philousports) July 7, 2015
At one point Chris Froome was put in the gutter by Katusha’s Jacopo Guarnieri and he just managed to save it; maybe a year ago he would have wiped out such is luck.
Vincenzo Nibali was very aggressive on the cobbles but couldn’t transform it into an advantage. As hard as he thrashed over the cobbles it was the ordinary road sections that were his undoing. There was a headwind and BMC and Sky were ready to chase. For all the talk of him storming the first week he’s 13th overall. But he provides action and knowing he’ll fight promises plenty.
As the group came into town here were several sprinters lurking in the large group but few had much support. You could sense someone was going to attack. When Tony Martin jumped he was always going to be hard to bring back but no teams could collaborate as they didn’t have the numbers to take him on Giant-Alpecin tried but they were racing for second place.
Can Nibali or Froome win Paris-Roubaix? Of course not. Seeing some of the little climbers and overall contenders in action can pose the question, especially when Nibali and Froome are trading attacks while the likes of André Greipel are being dropped out the back. But let’s not compare 13km of cobbles with the relentless spring classic. Also several of today’s sections were uphill. Not that the gradient helped the climbers, it’s more that pulling uphill at 30-40km/h is safer. In Paris-Roubaix these sections are taking in the other direction and riding down at 50km-60km/h demands precision handling and an extra 10 kilos help.
Tejay van Garderen sits third at 25 seconds. He hasn’t put a foot wrong and his BMC Racing team are proving excellent support. It’s only Wednesday but then again look at all the others who have fallen by the wayside.
53×11: Thibaut Pinot’s gears gave up leaving him in top gear. But his biggest problem was riding alone, he is the team’s climber but he was alone in the front group over the cobbles so when problems struck there was nobody to help. FDJ are big on the cobbled classics, in part because Marc Madiot won Paris-Roubaix twice but when Pinot’s problems struck all the team’s classic specialists had been dropped. Still the pressure drops now and the French media will start pestering Warren Barguil.
Martin set for Yellow: it’s a big win for the Etixx-Quickstep team and helps forget Sunday’s Zealand humiliation. They’ll defend the jersey in the coming days and Tony Gallopin nor Peter Sagan at 39 and 40 seconds respectively are too far back.
Gelbes Trikot: sounds less poetic than maillot jaune but wearing it means a lot for Tony Martin and German cycling. This big country and large market where the television broadcasts are just coming back. It’s been nice to see Germans on rival teams tweeting congratulations to Martin.
Großer Anfang: the mayor of Düsseldorf was at the race today. Why? Why not the grand départ in Germany for 2017?
Panzerwagen: The last time a Panzerwagen rolled across the Franco-belgian border, no actually let’s not go there… but Martin’s nickname can have its awkward sides too.
Said similar things on the preview, but:
Pinot’s problems seem largely psychological: he said yesterday that he had no energy after seeing the crash. Today’s histrionics showed a man looking for excuses – he knows the camera is on him. And there was a team mate next to him at his second stop, so he could have taken his bike.
Hugely deserved by Tony Martin, although Giant did show that EQS aren’t the only ones who can throw away a victory.
How are Movistar so hopeless in the support of Quintana? Surely, riders like Malori and Castroviejo can keep up with him. Valverde did, but offered no support, tellingly. I’ll be surprised if Quintana ever wins a Tour de France, unless he vastly improves on the flat: very few out-and-out climbers have won.
Pinot has made a fool of all the bloggers and “pundits” saying he will podium already. Not bad going but it was always nonsense.
Not nonsense when the guys got s tour podium and two other top tens in gts by the time hes 25. Let’s wait and see what the final gc is before we cast judgements. Others may yet have derailleur battery failures.
I expect the value of his Tour podium to be much better contextualised by this year’s much better field. Pinot on the podium was a freak occurrence not an indicator of his true position.
Pinot and his team mate seemed to be of a size. Tony Martin must be 7 or 8 cm taller than Matteo Trentin.
Taking a bike that is too small is one thing – get out of the saddle and the difference is lessened. Taking a bike that is 10cm too big (as has been quoted for Pinot’s predicament) is another. If anyone know’s the name of Pinot’s team mate, it’s a quick google to complete this comparison:
Tony MARTIN 1.86m -v- Matteo TRENTIN 1.79m (-7cm)
Thibaut PINOT 1.80m -v-
There is at least one instance from some years back of a domestique having a QR seat post to allow rapid adjustment of saddle height in the event of a bike swap. Italian rider I think, late 80s…
It’s Matthieu Ladagnous and he is almost the same height as Pinot… but his saddle height is 6cm higher according to L’Equipe today. Besides it was all to late, Pinot was dropped out of the lead group and “Lada” as they call him had popped earlier and was back in the second group. So Pinot wanted a new bike that fitted and Lada to pace him back to the second group.
So he’s 1.81, but he must have very long legs! In that situation you would want two guys to get back. Martin switched bikes, but had at least one team mate available to pace him back on.
I knew you’d know. I was hoping you’d remember the Italian though 😉
It wasn’t just the size of the bike — Martin said in an interview that Trentin’s brake setup is the opposite of his.
It didn’t look to me like there was a lot of braking required for Tony Martin in the final few km!
The irony is that had Etixx not messed up the sprint on day two and denied Cancellara the time bonuses and putting Martin into yellow that day, he likely wouldn’t have ridden the way he did today. Longer in yellow, but without winning a great stage.
Adam, good point!
shows the class of martin. beforhand you would have guessed he wins it on stage 1. must have been a huge disappointment for him that he didnt. but then he kept trying and finally succeded in the most impressive way.
That’s quick. It is a fantastic stage & thanks for the great review.
A few typos: “a the headwind” in the paragraph about Nibali. The “the” should be taken away; “pulling uphill at 30/40 km/h is more there thing”, should be their instead.
Really…..what is with some of these commenters?
Thanks for the pedantry. I am confident we can dispense with the grammatical corrections.
Doubter– ironically, it’s your comment that is pedantic. Hoh has kindly complimented INRNG and provided a few helpful edits (in a non-pedantic style), which in the past have generally been welcomed by the author. Crowdsourcing a copy editor! If you don’t like typo corrections in the comments, please just skip over them, dispense with the negative swipes at the person trying to be helpful, and enjoy the great blog and the informed, funny, respectful comments that prevail!
Please keep the comments coming.. and try to stop sounding like you’re angry with fellow readers 😉
All corrections are most welcome. There’s no editor here and everything has to be done in as short a time as possible to allow time for everything else. Think of a correction as a courtesy to the next reader.
Just an amateur fan but it seems 4 sprinters finished with the first group – does that suggest they are on great form? or far away from their sprinting best?
Not sure what to make of it
Cav Bouhanni Coquard and Degenkolb are the names that caught my eye
Gallopin might be a quickie too, or maybe that’s just a homophone.
We’re all amateur fans.
Degenkolb won Paris-Roubaix this year. As for the others, those are three of the harder sprinters, I’d say – Kittel, for instance, wouldn’t have been anywhere near had he been racing.
The main reason, though is that P-R usually features ~55km of pave, whereas today was around 13. Hence, even committed climbers could finish in the front group.
Beware the professional fan!
Cav – one of the harder sprinters?!
He is.
And he’s shown that time and time again.
Chris Froome continues to impress with his will to fight for road position. Whatever else happens no one will be able to say that he hasn’t been aggressive in his racing. More of the same please Chris!
Some great great racing today, not a Froome fan but give him his dues he has so far reversed last years debacle. So many talking points but wasn’t it great to see the support that Valverde was giving Nairo, real team work!!!
Seemed to me that Thomas and Froome already knew exactly what they were going to do about Tony Martin going away before he went – absolutely nothing. They didn’t drop their pace, but it seemed clear that they didn’t respond either, and I suspect the small amount of time that it gained Martin before veryone else swarmed around them was the final breathing space that he needed.
Yup, perfect scenario for Sky, after another great day for Froome – those elbows are shock absorbers: soon everyone will ride Paris-Roubaix with the style of a gibbon.
Poor Nairo Quintana’s 51kg frame must be still vibrating up and down as we write !
Do you judge all people this harshly or just a Froome hater?
G looked over as Tony went and almost radiated contentment. Not sure he had the beans to jump at that point to be fair, but surely only Nibali/Alberto/TJVG would have forced him to try. He’d have let Valverde go too, or eg Vanmarke had they been there and tried it.
Sky’s impressive start continues and Thomas looks incredible. Plenty of swings and roundabouts to come of course.
All the GC boys did extremely well today, and were relatively lucky I suppose. Respect to BMC who cossetted TJVG.
All those that demonised Mark Cavendish the other day should hang their heads in shame.
He put it all in for Tony Martin today.
There was no disguising Cav’s, and his team mates, joy at the end as they congratulated TM.
Absolutely fantastic.
Big hand to all the GC’ers for getting through that.
Has the Big Four become the Big Five now ?
TVG almost slipping under the radar…
Absolutely. Winds me up when people try and criticise Cavendish for not being a team player.
Both sides have some merit. When Cavendish doesn’t get his way on a sprint stage, he is prone to a bit of a whinge. However, despite being a one trick pony on the bike, he is not a one dimensional person. When his head cooled a bit, he probably felt a bit of regret. Nice to see him try to make up for it.
Not a bad one trick though!
Some might say that considering the other day it was the least he could do.
Or perhaps they have a sense of perspective.
Or can see that Cav working hard today doesn’t change the fact that he could have continued sprinting to the line and lunged for it the other day.
You’re making the assumption that Cav somehow knew that Cancellera was looming in the sprint, and thus that he needed to sprint through the line (even though he clearly lost) to get Martin the jersey. I find it hard to believe in the chaos of the sprint that Cav knew Cancellera was so close.
Of course he knew.
Have you not read the articles over the years fawning over Cav’s hyperawareness, “mystical” ability to see the sprint in slo-mo and to recall exact details of it years later? Nearly every profile of him mentioned that back when he was winning everything in sight.
But TVG cannot hope to keep up in the mountains over three weeks.
He impressed me in the Dauphine. Not the winner but third on the podium should be his target.
Loved every stage this year.
Froome has been aggressive and involved in all the action. I wonder if folk will stop criticising his bike handling skills after today. It must be brilliant to have someone like “G” in the team, so much enthusiasm and energy. Little disappointed in the rest of the sky team, haven’t really seen Porte much so far. I wonder if he’s still fatigued after the giro. Was good to see Roche with G and froome up front, wasn’t expecting to see much of him until the later stages.
Great to see TM power off away from the group at the end. He’s got some serious power.
Porte did a spell on the front mid-way in the race, as Froome acknowledged in his post-race interview.
It isn’t his type of country yet, but no doubt he will come into his own in the second week.
Nico is doing a big turn early on. Hopefully he will get his wish and hit the front on the climb too Plateau des Beilles, if its hot it’ll be carnage. But obviously theres a lot of racing to do b4 then
Still not convinced on Froomes bike handling skills. It appeared many times that he was using shoulders on other riders to maintain a vertical position. Then again maybe it was just peloton jostling – he was making every effort to stay at the front.
Autocorrect agrees and tried to put crooked for Froome!
I’m far from convinced. More than one life used up yday.
However he came through it very well. And in the great scheme that really is all that matters.
Cav’s problem is the balance between fast and slow twitch has gone slightly in the wrong direction in the last few years. So in the British RR he could drop Stannard on the flat and wasn’t massively behind Kennaugh on the climb but the fibres that enable you to do that and stay up there today don’t enable you to drop Greipel in a flat-out sprint to the line.
Good point Alan T, exactly what I was thinking about him not winning stage2. Bearing in mind his fantastic efforts in Lincoln I expect he has not yet found his full sprinting legs. I have no doubt he will do as the 3 weeks progress.
The sprint on stage 2 was into a headwind and Cav went into that headwind way too soon, so nothing proven.
Exactly. Greipel simply came around his well placed lead out man, Cav on the day. Nothing to do with fast twitch fibres, they were done after 300m.
I’m alittle surprised there wasn’t an opportunist there to stalk Martin’s wheel closer to the finish, would have been an obvious move (with hindsight) of course. Martin would gladly have towed someone to the finish in a trade for yellow. I wonder what the makeup of the final group was exactly, to be able to spot likely opportunists, aren’t those GPS attachment rear fender lookalikes meant to give us all the info…? There may be been a graphic listing the final group coming off the last cobbled sector, that would be super handy in this case.
I suppose they thought ‘If I chase on to Martin’s wheel, others will follow me and use my slipstream: I will use all my energy and will tow them to Martin’.
But it might have worked.
The final group was GC-dominated, with (as noted above) Geraint Thomas leading at that point.
TM attacked and Thomas and Froome did not respond.
The rest of the GC boys were looking at each other – including Sagan and Van Avermaet who had their leader duties still to consider.
It was a perfect attack and the 15-20 x seconds that it took to organise the group’s response was all that TM needed.
But if Degenkolb (for instance) had been smart – and let’s face it Martin’s attack was not a surprise – he could have been waiting for it and hitched a ride and worked with Martin. Might have worked out for him; might not.
Instead, he was chatting to Nibali just as it happened.
You’re right JE, an attack from Martin was on the cards.
But perhaps not at over 3km to go.
He caught everyone on the hop there, including the cameraman !
The GPS attachments are still being tested, I think. Presumably they’re not sufficiently confident in the data to broadcast on screen. (Today it may have shown Trentin making the final break as Martin was on his bike, for instance.)
Ha yes, a good point. “Gees Trentin must have good legs today!” Much hilarity would have ensued. I still think a switched on DS would have been in his riders ear to be stalking TM, granted it was a GC dominated group. Always some opportunists though.
And what about today. I think my theory, highly simplified as it is, is holding up. Pity really as I used to love seeing Cav flying along. Maybe the others have also caught up with his highly aero position and that’s not such an advantage any more. He always knew he wasn’t the most powerful.
Entertaining stage, but it wasn’t by far as technical as last year’s. Maybe it was just because of the (lack of) rain and this year’s headwind – it wasn’t just Nibali that tried to rip things apart and didn’t succeed. I’m still unconvinced by Astana’s cohesion. They didn’t seem to coordinate very well from a tactical point of view, even if I couldn’t point out any glaring episode, just a sensation.
The pavé definitely isn’t Froome’s thing, but he threw in a gutsy and powerful ride that deserves even more respect because of the premise. Great work by Sky till now, sparing enough energies, working about the right needed amount, taking top advantage of every situation.
Quintana and Purito hung in, and that was just ok. Curious what Steppings says above about Valverde: I had got the impression of a good ride from Valverde, but not very supportive of Quintana, who was however helped now and then by other teammates. Yet, I must say I wasn’t by far in the best possible conditions to follow the race, hence I could be dead wrong. Other opinions?
gabriele, me being sarcastic about Valverde.
Also worth mentioning Dowsetts crash, didn’t look good. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. No doubt Q and V would have liked his help today.
Looks like he came in absolute last poor guy…..
Haters gonna hate?
Does that make Steppings a ‘hater’?
Or was Steppings making a fair point?
Seem to remember quite a few ‘haters’ accusations being thrown about concerning Armstrong a few years back. Tiresome expression.
No polemics intended. As I said, I couldn’t follow the race as thoroughly as I wished, hence different interpretations were indeed possible. I share the impression of Valverde making his own race, perhaps giving a look around to see if Quintana was ok frome time to time more than *taking care* of him… but we don’t have any proof of the contrary, either.
A very ‘neat’ finish to a wild stage. Thomas took Froome to the 3km mark and Martin set off (maybe at 3.4k to go).
After last year, the control that sky are showing is to be commended. And they have clearly divided their team between the week 1 squad and the climbing squad. unlike astana in the giro who put EVERYONE on the front for EVERY STAGE.
As Inrng said in the previous blog – this week has been made for the spectators (viewing figures) and I’m not complaining, but you can see the stress in the riders.
Suspect week 2 squad would include everyone. Stannard & Rowe will be invaluable as they get onto a climb.
That was me.
“unlike astana in the giro who put EVERYONE on the front for EVERY STAGE”… not this year’s Giro, we must suppose, since it’s just what *wasn’t* happening.
Yes, Astana were very good on the climbs in a hilly first week of the Giro but not everywhere all the time. They’ve made less of an impression in the Tour in part because they’re not on their terrain but also Westra and Boom don’t look so commanding.
Chris Froome’s determination and Sky’s planning have been impressive. On Sunday not only splitting the peloton but gaining a few seconds on Contador on the line. There was a clear plan on day 3 with Porte & Koenig leading over the penultimate climb and G dropping Froome off in just the right place. However what was really eye opening was the display of strength, elbows and will power Chris showed in almost getting a stage win, which he didnt need, a safe 5th or 6th would have been fine but there were more seconds to gain and markers to put down. Today you could again see the sheer determination and will to win from the whole Sky team. Richie Porte happy to work as a “diesel” on the flat part, fighting to get as near to the front as possible on the pave and the willingness to try to create a split towards the end even if that meant Chris Froome doing it on his own. There is a long way to go but barring the usual accidents and misfortune it is difficult to see any of Contador, Nibali or Quintana being able to overtake Froome, he has the look of a winner. Van Garderen might well be his biggest rival.
It was clear from the emotions afterwards how much the win meant not just to Tony Martin but to all the Etixx team. It is nonsense to suggest Cav could have done more on Stage 2, Mark Renshaw & Cav simply mistimed their sprint (Mark R suggested in an interview that the lack of a “Flam Rouge”, presumably because of the wind, meant he got disorientated and misjudged the distance) but he was clearly hurt by it all and he did all he could today to make up for it. I suspect we will see a very motivated Etixx team over the next few days trying to deliver Cav in the perfect position for a stage win.
Well, it wasn’t as much Team Sky splitting the peloton, but they could defend themselves very well, unlike others.
You must have been watching a different race. In an actual one-day classic, Froomes move would have been the winning group. Just today wasn’t an actual one-day classic so too many people on dom duties.
You must have been reading different comments. We were quite clearly speaking of “On Sunday” (that’s what JC says in the sentence I literally quoted), so it’s not about today. And, by the way, the rest you say is equally questionable, but I won’t enter into details.
+1 Well said (also taking Gabriel’s comment on board).
I’m getting a little concerned with seeing, every day, blatant cases of drafting behind race cars. Riders don’t even try to hide it… Isn’t there anything we can do to prevent it?
No.
You’re not convinced that the 50 Swiss Franc fines are making a difference are you?
haha!!!
Ask yourself…what would i do…of course you would intentionally…(instinctively?)
pick up a little draft from a motor vehicle here and there, especially in a 3 week grand tour
I don’t blame them, because a cyclist will do everything he can get away with, and that’s that. But I frankly don’t understand the commissaires’ leniency. Preventing riders from taking advantage of cars to close gaps is very good for the race, very good for the show. And it’s in the frigging rule.
Yeah. Someone explain why it is okay to get a draft from another team car but not take a wheel from another team…
The wheel change allows for greater collusion. Imagine a breakaway with, say, Froome, Valverde, Quintana and some random other rider. Quintana punctures and instead of Valverde helping out, the random rider does a deal to supply a spare wheel. This leaves Valverde marking Froome and Quintana rides back leaving Mr Random waiting by the road for a spare. Clearly this has contaminated the competition and the outcome.
By contrast being able to use the team cars to get back is tolerated as it’s mitigating the misfortune and it’s never free, the energy used to get back is considerable even in the cars. What’s not allowed is blatant tows, especially to a dropped rider who has lost contact over a climb and uses the cars to get back. But policing all this is hard, the rule may exist but the commissaires can’t be everywhere; so a rider may switch a wheel out of sight of the commissaires or draft a car or even hang on to it, when nobody is looking.
Nope, it happens.
In most cases, riders are taken care of while the convoy is passing and the slip in between the cars when the get back from a defect. They make their way back jumping from car to car. This is fulyl accepted and – as the convoy is part of the race – cannot be prevented. You will see the cars “stretching” the convoy some times – teams helping other teams – all the while radiotour calling for the convoy to close up and riders do the riding.
In most races, it is decided during the pre-race DS-reunion if riders can be followed (not paced!) to the back of the bunch or if the car has to return when reaching its location in the convoy.
In some cases we are aware that pacing is taking place but chose to turn a blind eye. This could be in the event of a crash ripping up the race. In these situations it is “unwritten” that the rider can be paced to the first larger group but no further.
Finally; we don’t sanction what we don’t see but rest assured that TV-transmitted pacing will be sanctioned; presumably with increasingly larger fines if it happens to be the same car/rider.
Very well said. We should understand that there’s a difference between towing behind your team car for kms and, for example, jumping from car to car when you’re on the back of the peloton. It makes things way easier when compared with an imaginary “no car convoy exists back there”, but it’s far from being *free*, as inrng points out above.
It’s simply a normal part of cycling road racing, which is a sport where complex interactions with the environment (natural or artificial, static or dynamic) lie within the equation… it’s a different concept from athletics and so, where the component of “controlling the setting” tends to be stronger. You don’t want to find out “who is the stronger” in a given variable or specialty, trying to exclude all the rest, it’s more about “who is the stronger” like coping with and balancing a big number of factors. This is a huge simplification, obviously enough, just trying to someway explain something I feel is part of cycling’s DNA (the old anecdotes about having to repair your bike on your own and so on).
it seems to be an accepted practice within the peloton… if the participants are ok with it, then i’m ok with it, as long as they are not glued to the back of their team car….
actually, it seems to be an encouraged practice, and one that the teams go out of their way to help out with, by intentionally leaving gaps in the cars for riders from other teams to draft…
as a fan of many other sports, the thought of “helping someone from the other team” was a bit foreign to me when i first started following cycling, but after several years of watching the sport and learning the “unwritten rules and strategies” of the peloton, i’ve come to accept it…
Thanks all above for considered and thoughtful replies.
Great stage. Good dig by TM at the end, I guess most of the peleton were OK with him winning. Quite surprised to see some of the climbers keeping up so well with the cobble specialists. Especially Froome was impressive, Stybar and GVA couldn’t shake him off while going full gas on that last sector. Him and Quintana, Contador, Bardet all finishing at the same time as Degenkolb is not what I would have expected.
Kudos to the injured like Matthews and Van Dam for riding this out.
No “hate” going on here, that nonsense is not my thing and I don’t much like being labelled as such, thank you. Having just re-watched the last 25km with an eye on V and N, it seemed that Nairo kept slipping to the back of the bunch, so being fair, V can’t make N ride on his wheel. It was pretty hectic lets be said.
And as an unabashed AV meh type of guy, to be fair, you could often spot him looking around to see where Q was.
And…. he even took a pull at one stage!!
Great stage again, however looking forward to a calm sprinter stage tomorrow so that we can all breathe a little.
Plenty said about Cav again, but from an ettix point of view, did having Cav in that main bunch help martin? Presumably the GC contenders were ok with Martin going away, but the sprinter teams remaining would’ve surely taken a look at Cav and not fancied pulling to bring it back together just for him to jump and win? Maybe caused enough of a delay, before they clearly were frantically trying to bring it all back in the last km or two.
I must admit that I wondered at the time how Cavendish would play a sprint if there was a risk of catching Martin in doing so. Not sure anyone other than Degenkolb had anyone to really work though to force a sprint (and as ITV pointed out on the podcast, even he essentially got one teammate to do the whole chase, and there are very few people who can catch Tony Martin in a one on one chase).
Re. The Panzerwagen musings… Cambrai was, interestingly, the location of the eponymous battle in 1917 that demonstrated the first effective use of the tank. Albeit British rather than German on that occasion.
Full circle, and a pretty effective display by the big German tank today!
Chapeau to TM. A great ride and a well deserved yellow. Here’s hoping EQ can hold it for a few days.
Pedantic intermission: Panzerwagen actually means armoured car, as I am sure has been pointed out in this blog before. Tank would be Kampfpanzer. Don’t mention it, you’re welcome.
nothing wrong with a bit of polite self-aware pedantry…all adds to the general knowledge and enjoyment.
Panzerkampfwagen then.
Another one slipping under the radar next to Tejay is Cannondale-Garmin’s Andrew Talansky. He road a smart race today and, with help of his team, stayed in the right place to finish solid. He’s creeping up the rankings on GC.
“Slipping under the radar” is what they call being +2:39 on Chris Froome now is it? Well stone me.
Martin got a present from the group. Geraint Thomas hinted at it.
Had Cancellara been there in yellow, no way Martin wins.
Agreed. I like Tony Martin, but Spartacus does not. We will miss thee; All Hail Spartacus!
Maybe – but he wasn’t there. Woulda-coulda-shoulda doesn’t beat did.
Sparty got his last yellow jersey and a nice swan-song and now TM got his first. Thats not a bad outcome.
the only person happier about TMs win than me was Tony Martin. Superb ride. Cav is pig headed and if he rode to the finish line TM would get yellow on stage 2. But I’m not saying Cav is a bad guy or deliberately “lost” the yellow – quite opposite he is a f…. character but his joy seemed genuine. ? Are there limited routes a bike race can take that Tour de France has to duplicate the classics or replicate certain climbs over and over? Probably got to do with the ease of accommodating such a big mass and organization (established on prior routes). Freshen it up!!!
Can anyone tell me what happened to Vanmarcke? I didn’t see or hear his name mentioned on the ITV4 highlights
He punctured twice, the story of his season.
Any more info on the Tour start in Dusseldorf please?
Just the unlikely coincidence of the Düsseldorf mayor showing up at the race for kicks; the town has been in the bidding for the start before, eg 2010, but lost out. We’ll see, a start in Germany in 2017 or 2018 is most likely, it just seems a question of where/when.
Düsseldorf & mayor rings a bell, isnt the mayor of duesseldorf the mother of a certain Mr. Zepunkte, german neopro
Yes although she is a mayor of part of the city, the one in Roubaix yesterday was the Oberbürgermeister.
It’s “Gelbes Trikot”, because “Trikot” is of the 3rd (neuter) gender. “Gelbe” would be correct for a “female” noun, “Gelber” for a male one.
Thanks. For German readers/speakers, is there a German cycling podcast on the Tour or more in general?
Looking at how Froome was being bounced out of his saddle over the cobbles shows why he would struggle to win a cobbled classic.
Over the last few years the TdF has put a big mountian on the route for the final Saturday, having watched yesterday, I wonder if it would be intresting to but a big mountain in on the last Friday then transfer to the north for the last Saturday over the cobbles, or would that just be too cruel?
that would be too cruel…
an “early” and “relatively easy” cobble stage is ok, although to be completely honest, i’m not really sure they belong in a gt… they got “lucky” with the weather yesterday, and it kept the crapshoot nature of the cobbles relatively at bay…
but a cobble stage after 19 other stages over 21 days would be “spectacle for the sake of spectacle”, and imo, woud be detremental to the race…
It seems to be that in the end, apart from the unlucky, almost everybody who wanted to be there whether GC or sprinter was present at the finish and that the makeweights were missing. There was some spectacle bur mechanicals deciding it for one or two much more so than normal is a high sporting price to pay. I am left thinking not cobbles every year please.
True, but I’m not so sure that Pinot’s fate was fully determined by mechanicals. Besides, it wasn’t the kind of trouble you can blame on pavé without any doubt (electronical shifting failure… wasn’t it?). It could happen anywhere.
Others were left behind out of sporting reasons, and in that case it was well deserved, since, as you note, it was far from impossible to make the first group.
In more general terms, I think that an “easier” cobbled stage (like this year’s ended up being) can be a good thing: maybe everyone will lose some fear of the pavé and it will be easier to understand, even for GC men and teams, that this kind of courses can legitimately be part of the race, fostering attention to all-around abilities and maybe (*very maybe*), in the long term it could help to partly break the specialization spell cycling has been involved in. As someone commented here, who knows if sweet memories will maybe convince Tony Martin to give the classics a try, even if he’s not (if you listen to him himself) the most suited rider for those races. Later in his career, say Nibali – who probably wouldn’t have *discovered* his skills otherwise – may decide to go and try some cobbled classic, and even a top-ten, Wiggins style, would be really fine.
What is more, the fact that teams are forced to include riders who are good on this terrain is interesting, too. Which could mean that on the mountain there will be less climbing gregari to keep things shut… maybe (another *big maybe*, since we’ve seen in the past riders like Knees pacing the peloton through hard stages).
All that said, I agree completely on the “not every year please” sensation. It would spoil the novelty and the excitement. I think that one out of three or four years could be a good average – and, as inrng observes elsewhere, it would be important to explore other variants of the concept (and other concepts), not just copypasting bits of ASO races.
What chance an Edinburgh grand depart, a hilly stage across the Pennines from Manchester, and a London ITT in 2017?
Tbh Scotland would want a bit more than just the Grand Depart for their money. Look at Utrecht – all of the Sat, and the Sun start – thats what they got for their Euros.
Indeed.
The Scottish Tourist Board would want Edinburgh Castle, Loch Ness, Ben Nevis, tartan, shortbread tin boxes, pipers, hopefully not the midges…!
Not to mention the official food products: IrnBru, Turnocks Caramel wafers and deep fried mars bars…
Personally, I look forward to the giant dancing Tunnocks teacakes making a return appearance…
IrnBru in the bidons! Deep fried mars bars in the musettes! They’ll never bonk with those!
It would genuinely interest me to know what actually happened to Dan Martin yesterday. Taking into account his tumble and mechanical which cost him maybe a min., he lost roughly 4 and a half minutes in the last five sections. Haas, Langeveld and Jack Bauer finished with him, so I can only assume he had further problems with his bike.. or the dust didnt taste too good.
He is going nowhere at garmindale, the sooner he is out the better.
I can tell the Brits really do like their Scottish cousins!
Almost as much as they love the Aussies?
Thanks Inrng for your seemingly tireless work.