Well gg. Tour over barring a crash now.

As a neutral fan this was about the worst thing that could have happened.

Hopefully Landis can pass some of his special stuff to Contador

Porte catching Quintana was a total outrage.

Oh well, same thing happens almost every year and still always disappointed. Tinkoff might be the main reason for the double attempt. He didn't look happy last year after the crash so playing it safe and winning something major early season was probably important to him. Not really a surprise what happened today. They have Sagan going for the green as a backup anyway so likely to get something at least.

Hoping a rerun of 2013 tomorrow. After Ax3 the next stage was completely nuts and Froome got isolated. The upside of this stage is that now the other former favorites have no reason not to go for some long range attacks and try to blow up the race early. At least Contador has always done dumb thing once he is out of the race.

Also interesting how good Porte is. Almost get the feeling the Giro was of little interest and all the hype is just Sky playing their part to pretend that they care about other races than the Tour. Good promotion.

Sky reminds me of US Postal. You can read into that whatever you want.

I can only remember US Postal doing a 1-2 on a mountaintop finish once in all their years of dominating the Tour. And other than that, can only remember Saunier Duval doing it and with more style but they were quite different otherwise. Second time for Sky in three years. And who knows how many times they've done it in the smaller races.

Thomas might be the most interesting guy to follow though, he's climbing with the other captains and still high in GC.

Thomas was told over the radio to stay behind TJVG and not drop him.

By no means am I a cycling expert but I look forward to the Tour De France year-round. I love putting in two semi-big bets in the beginning and cheering my riders on. I applaud Froome for beasting today but as someone who loves the suspense and tactical side of the sport... I'm not happy. The race is over with 10 meaningful stages left plus the Sevres to Paris.

Funny, guess the new guy needs to be instructed how it usually goes. Amazing stuff to have Thomas casually following Valverde and be 'held back' by TJVG.

I heard someone point out that in 2013, Froome and Porte finished 1-2 in one mountain stage. The next one, Porte finished 17 minutes back.

Either someone hacked into Sky or Sky leaked it. But Froome's power data is now public and has been synced to one of his climbs from the 2013 TdF in video form.

as i recall, a popular rumor was that porte intentionally took a dive during that next stage to try and dispel rumors.

Froomstrong simply unbelievable!

Now he can take it easy for a week or two before putting the hammer down again.

yeaaaaaa, no.

they aren't racing for first, they are just trying to defend their place now. They won't risk attacking when a failed attack would drop them off the podium or from 7th to 11th or whatever.

Looks like Sky bought it all up preemptively.

Maybe Froome's chain will break on one of these stages and someone will take a page out of Contador's 2010 tactic book and attack.

Astana did that to Contador at the Giro this year, attacking when he either had bike problems or was caught behind a crash or something. Contador proceeded catch them and pass them on the mountain.

Then, to rub salt in the wounds, the next stage, Astana was caught behind and Contador choose right then to attack. It was epic, if you're a Contador fan.

LOL That's awesome... I really don't have a rider/team that I pull for. Every year I watch every stage of the Tour and pull for the two guys that I bet (So my loyalty changes yearly). I'll be a loser this year unless I can pay the car driver from the 2011 tour to run over Froome.

I tuned into the rerun with about 3 km. to go at my buddy's bike shop. Totally deflated my enthusiasm. The race for yellow is over, and I really hate Sky. Not even gonna watch any more mountain stages now.

Such an Armstrongian stamp of dominance...

Not only is the race for Yellow over but the race for 2nd also seems over. 2 more weeks of watching to know who finishes 3rd and who wins the green jersey. Awesome. Wimbledon nearly finished before the tour this year

Also wtf at Geraint Thomas? Dude is 29 and has never been a good climber in tours then he joins Sky and now he's just chilling ahead of Nibali & Contador ? Guy must have had some serious hidden potential all those years

^he joined sky in 2010. hardly like joining sky is the major difference.

- won junior paris-roubaix
- 2 olympic golds
- 1 world champs

not particularly hidden imo.

not denying they could've got him on some good stuff the last couple of years, but he's always had 'potential' (and injuries have def held him back).

And you can't even look at a rider's GC results unless they are a team leader. He could have done better than 140th in 2013, but he was riding for Froome. His job was to burn himself out so Froome doesn't, meaning his GC result is artificially lower than his actual capabilities.