Tour de France

Interest has perhaps gone out of it for me now. Were Froome's and Porte's rides "too good" if you know what I mean? Never thought Valverde would be as close, though. Maybe Bertie and Cadel just had shockers.

In no particular order....

Why does Froome keep looking down? What is up with those stupid white glasses that make him look even more like an insect than he already does. How is it that his power/kg on the climbs is higher than a blood-bagged/EPO'ed Pharmstrong?

Loved Cannondale's ride the other day. 100km+ leadout for Sagan.

Corsica was unbelieveably lovely. I'd love to ride there.

Tomorrow's stage will be a hard one. I've ridden all the climbs they do tomorrow. None of them that hard in isolation, but relentless when lined up like that. Someone could crack. Oh wait, everyone not riding for Sky already has.

Tejay (dumbest name in cycling) predictably failed. He has had zero form this year.

High-def coverage is visually stunning, but we have to put up with Paul "when I was a pro-cylist" Sherwen and Phil, who thinks Cyril Guimard is still riding (called him in lieu of Gautier a few days back). Too many ads and "special" promo segments. We PVR it and fast forward through the padding. Bobke is an idiot but strangely entertaining.

yes, ...bring back David Duffield i say  

Jesus, I'd hate to be your dog and look at you the wrong way. Why the hell do you watch? Maybe you should try NASCAR.

I am watching. But I am since the recent history very often asking myself, real or doped....

Looked real to me. Three riders, Valverde, Mollema and Ten Dam finished where you'd expect them too on a stage like yesterday, a minute or so behind the winner. Or put another way Froome finished a minute or so ahead of Valverde, Mollema and Ten Dam, as you'd expect.

Do you have any figures to back up your power/kg claim.

Interesting of you to mention Drugs. Guy i play tennis with works as a tester and has traveled all over the world with his job. Over the years he has tested all the BIG names in sport...footballers/rowers/tennis/cyclists etc etc,even done players from my team Fulham. In his job he can turn up without warning at their house between the hours of 7am and 11pm to test them for drugs. More than once he has turned up at ungodly hour and been told to F   off,but if they do that they are in trouble.

Mista h

I think they are clean now in the main, especially the top guys. Witness the drop off in performance.

Sky ran a perfect race yesterday but Froome's dominance was fairly shocking. He just blew them away on the first proper test. Never seen Contador look so flat. Genuinely have to wonder if the race is all but over now, which is crazy I know but honestly who is going to take it from Froome's if he stays fit and healthy?

Quintana climbed beautifully to the first col but seemed to have forgotten their was one more to go....

Bruce

Sorry to disagree but I think the  Ligget/Sherwin commentary team, are excellent and the one hour  ITV4 highlights package we get in the UK is just about perfect - including the Imlach/Boardman/Boulting features.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/s...t=17756&page=349

There's a lot of discussion on CN. Hard to sort the quality analysis and the "insider" views from the rest, but his ride was perhaps remarkable in comparison to some historic (doped) performances. What perhaps makes it unremarkable was that with all that, he only took a minute or so on Laurens Ten Dam and a possibly clean Valverde. As with these things it is complex. I want to believe, but I've seen it all before.

Adding fuel to the fire is that Sky's appalling judgement in employing Geert Leindeers has really gone unexplained.

Froome seems a genuinely nice bloke, but I have cast him as my villain, mainly (and of course trivially) based on his ugly style and air-head girlfriend who can't keep her mouth shut on twitter. But no less logical than supporting someone because they were born in the same country as you.

Except that the time on the last climb to AX3 was the third fastest ever. But I desperately hope you're right.

Just watched the stage today. Annoyingly, they only showed the last little bit on our cable as F1 and Wimbledon took precedence.

True enough.

Out of interest Winks how many TV channels do you have over in Canada you appear to be able to get everything.  Here in London we have about 60 of which about 55 are rubbish.

Mista H                                   

Depends on what you pay for, but something like that. 95% rubbish. They slowly migrate the stuff you want to watch onto "new" channels that cost extra, leaving the overpriced package you paid for in the first place basically worthless. We're cancelling the lot after the tour.

Yesterdays stage was unusual.

Usually when a GC contender tries to make a break up a mountain, other GC contenders get on his wheel and he desists. Nobody got on Froome's wheel so he carried on, at a fast pace. Also, when he realised other GC contenders where struggling, he pushed home his advantage, thinking if he opened up a substantial lead nobody would challenge him for overall victory, but fight for second place.

If that stage had happened in the third week, when Froome had established a good overall lead, he probably wouldn't have attacked as hard as he did yesterday. Probably just marked GC contenders.

Are you able to subscribe to Eurosport or Eurosport International. Apparently in the UK you can watch Eurosport and Eurosport 2 on a PC for £5 a month. The cycling coverage is excellent, all the grand tours, classics, semi classics and more.

I don't think it is an option. I will look into it, though. Maybe as an internet feed.

Yes. It does come thought the internet. I don't use it myself, but I believe it can be viewed on a PC and a smart phone.

No one can ever accuse Froome of being defensive. Again showed everyone a clean pair of heels on Mt Ventoux-even that splendidly silky looking Columbian. Contador gasping.

Shame Froome is such a spidery and rather clumsy looking rider really-I swear his saddle is too low judging from his lack of leg extension. Seems to work though!

Bruce

I think yesterday(sunday) Froome timed his race to absolute perfection.

Winks

looking at your picture you are without doubt the best looking chap on this M/B.

Mista h

Yes, a well timed attack. Full commtiment and no looking back. Much better than all that rubbish a few years back with the Schlecks where Andy would sort-of attack, look around, stop, sort-of attack, look around, stop ad. infintum.

Did Contador go to ground on purpose, hoping Froome would have to take evasive action and go off road. (further than he did).

Rode Annecy-Semnoz a week ago. Its the penultimate stage before Paris and whilst short at 125km I personally found it much, much harder than it looks on paper. 3500m climbing in there so we could definitely see major time shifts right up to the last. For the pros this will be on the back of two back-to-back ascents of the Alpe on Thurs (what human being would devise such a stage?) and then Glandon and Madeleine on the Friday. In other words there is a lot of racing left. Imagine the Froome machine may temporarily crack at one point but its just so hard to see any other contenders overall. Shame the Schlecks, Evans and Contador could not offer more competition.

Would like to see Cav equal Hinault too. Much prefer him to Froome as a personality.