Dumoulin is a better time trialer than Froome and Thomas, so there is still a small hope he can win the race. Roglic maybe in it with a chance as well, but that's a huge longshot.

Other than that, it is game over. Quintana and Bardet need to gain 3 minutes on Froome and 4 minutes on Thomas between now and the time trial if they want to win the Tour. That's never going to happen.

it's "funny" how less than 2 month after the giro everyone already forgot again that a GT takes over 3 weeks and a lot can happen in the 2nd half... and that the form on the first real mountain day is not the same as the form on the last mountain days.

of course sky is the favourite to win (either froome or thomas), but that was already the case before the tour start (especially if you discount porte).

but it really wouldn't surprise me if froome completely collapses in the third week (there's a reason why no one ever did the giro tour double since pantani) and it's completely unclear if thomas can keep his form up for 3 weeks.

simon yates also looked completely invincible up to stage 17 in this year's giro and 3 days later he's 45minutes back...

Simon Yates is unexperienced and rode above his limits which caused him to crack completely. The exact thing Froome tries to prevent by looking at his power meter every 2 seconds.

Froome hasn't been threatened at all in the 3rd week of the last 3 Tours. And he already showed in last years Vuelta that he can ride 2 grand tours with a month in between and not crack.

bet on it?

definitely the darkest timeline

Sky proving that asthma sufferers everywhere can aspire to great things in endurance sports. Just got to take a few more puffs on their inhalers

They may have looked vulnerable, and hindsight is 20/20, of course. But considering this hindsight, they were like a mother****ing clockwork today, and never even close to vulnerable at all.

Why Nibali started riding in the wind for Sky during Valverde's attempt is anybody's guess, of course.

Racing for 3rd place in Paris and getting upgraded to 1st in a year or 2 seems like Nibai's best shot imo

Landa looked straight up better than froome in the mountains last year btw then he quit sky and now he can't even hang at all

Maybe he had asthma as well, and it got cured in the meantime.

A cheater gonna win this.

He has a history of doing this - maybe to get to the intermediate sprint points if there were still some coming up.

The only sprint was at 29km. That's why I said his race should have been over at that mark.

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Seems at least Movistar are making Sky work from early on today. Of course, it'll be just a controlled Sky train until the beginning of the Plateau, and then Froome - despite being struck by violent asthma attacks - just leaving everybody a minute and a half behind.

* The beginning of L'Alpe d'Huez, of course. Not Plateau de Beille. Mixing up my famous Tour climbs a bit here.

Stages like this always make me question how in the world anyone gets the idea of becoming a professional cyclist. They've been climbing like mad for an hour and are only a third of the way through.

It's a mix of a few things. Most notably among them, an affinity for drugs and a certain criminal energy. Severe respiratory illnesses like asthma can help, as well.

Sugar Nut, why are you so rustled? This is a calm thread, no need to go HAM on people’s crippling illnesses.

Groenewegen quit.

I love this from Kruijswijk, no matter if this attack ends up succesful or not. No guts no glory.

Agreed. Just resign and let Sky do their thing is not only boring for everyone watching, it's also stupid. At least try, you ****s.

Just caught up, is this the croix de fer already?

Yeah, they're climbing it up right now.

Greipel also quit.

This mountain looks big enough

lol basically just HU between sagan and gaviria on any flattish stage now