lol Liggett has no ****ing clue what's going on

I love how NQ has the gas to stay on Froome every time, but doesn't even consider making a move to pass him ever.

After watching the Dauphiné and the start of this tour, I am convinced Richie Porte doesn't have a clue

zzzzz

I mean, I'm generally in agreement with the Quintana thing - last year was pretty beta - but there's still 2 weeks to go and not even into the Alps yet, not making a move today is hardly a big deal.

This was the opposite of yesterday's surprise excitement. The only interesting aspect was the rainstorm.

I think he and Froome are sleeping together.

He was probably thinking the same thing last year "there is time, there is time" problem is he started taking time from Froome in the last 2 days of the race only and that was alredy way too late to close the gap.

By riding like this you also don't tire Froome as much as he could which is going to make it even more difficult to take time from him when he really tries on the last day.

Also there are stage wins to fight for like yesterday, it's not like he's got tons of stage wins on his resume already, he's got ONE only

+1
if you compare it with dan martin, who made like 12 attacks on the final climb and didn't get any reward for all those efforts, it's a lot smarter. if he doesn't think that he can distance froome, there's no reason to spend any more power than absolutely necessary. 3 weeks are a long time and all those small wasted efforts accumulate... the final 5km were between 5% and 7% gradient and very consistent with no real steep sections. that makes it nearly impossible to get a real gap unless you're a LOT stronger.
NQ will definitely show some real attacks in the 2nd/3rd week. i am not sure if that's enough to distance froome, but he will definitely try. but today he rode absolutely perfectly imho. (only saw the final climb, no idea what happened before)

nq seems resigned to fate

The other thing I think is, Froome is happier for those sages where he eeks out 10-15 seconds at a time, because he has the team to defend those small margins. Quintana really wants a stage or two where he can break Froome for a lot more than that.

I think it's all moot anyway, Froome/Sky look in top form, and I don't really see anything but a procession to Paris. Hope I'm wrong.

Stage was pretty interesting until Valverde dropped out of the front group.

Guess Quintana figures being guaranteed second prize money is > a.1% chance of first and then a pretty significant chance of way worse if he tries suicide attacks? No reason to attack then

grumpy 90s cycling fan post:

ban radio
ban mandatory helmets
free doping especially epo

ok so maybe only 2/3 are serious

Quintana didn't even attack once to see what condition the rest are in. That's the annoying part. He doesn't have to go full Dan Martin but at least show a bit of balls.

Btw that's basically Dan Martins home mountain hence the flurry of attacks.

6 of the 20 best climbers in the tour are in the Sky team and Sky strategy is good, while movistar are always ******ed

That's the only reason the tour is boring

So is Adam Yates the next in line replacement for Sky when Froome finally goes away? He's been amazing so far, will be interesting to see how he goes in the Alps.

I know Sky's initial objective was to have a briton win the TdF for the first time - I have no idea if it is their policy to always have a british team leader going forward (probably is tho).

Also, as big as Team Sky are right now, cycling sponsorships are historically a pretty fickle business, so who knows how things will look in the future.

As long as Brailsford is part of the setup then Sky will stick around.

so all of you want to give me odds that NQ will win tdf16?

He's 5/4 to win it

Was looking at that and surprised to see Froome is 5/6 kinda want to jump on that, there are still 2 ITT to come

Quintana won a TT for the first time in his career during his prep for the TdF.

i know he is, but you are all acting like he's having a ****ty race so far. when in reality, he's having a flawless race so far (obv besides ***** up the downhill chase yesterday).

Eh? We are just annoyed he hasn't attacked yet. Yano purely from a spectator/fans POV?