yeah this was prolly the tour with the least amount of TT km's for the next 100 years

no

All in all a great tour for the spectator. It's a good format but, to be fair to a range of contenders, it should cycle every few years that are weighted differently to TTs, killer mountains, long technical stages, etc.

Thoughts on Contador? Where does he go from here?

Contador will probably skip the Giro next year to make one last attempt at winning the Tour.

By the way forgot to mention but I loved the design of this tour, there used to be a lot of leaks. I'd suggest adding an individual TT near the end not too long that involves both flat roads and a climb (maybe like a 30km with 20km flat, a 2nd category col of 5km and its descent)

More big climbs to begin a stage so it might encourage a really early attack from a genuine GC contender.

Thoughts?

Dislike. GC are usually really cautious i think they're really risk averse sometimes for good reasons. It's really hard to attack on your own have a lead on others and then keep up your lead in descent/flat parts when you have organized teams riding to catch you unless you're Landis ofc. If the attempt fails then you'll find yourself caught by the other favorites with all your energy gone an could cost you a lot more.

Frankly dont think it'd favorize big attacks from contenders more. There have been mountain stages with big cols at the beginning/middle of the stage followed by the descent and not much else and people were complaining about how useless putting those cols in the middle were because it wasnt creating any action from contenders

I like early big climbs, because it sends some teammates in the gruppetto, the less teammates available, the more interesting is the race

Yeah stages that start off with a hard climb are good, unless you are a sprinter of course. Opens up the race to different tactical situations. Harder to control is good, even if it sometimes ends up dull. Giro stages often end up much more as a battle between the favorites rather than the teams. Partly because most teams save the climbers for Tour but I think a part of it is also because they go a bit nuts with the climbs and usually have the really steep long climbs before the final climb. Tour needs some steeper stuff I think. They should visit Italy/Spain for some added fun.

"Contador confirms goals for next season: "We will concentrate completely on the Tour, target early season races, and then the Olympics" from https://twitter.com/EuroHoody/status/624990713240027136

Saw three guys spitting on Froome, according to Team Sky there were more (French) spectators who spit on their cars etc.

Even if you believe he dopes, and even if he does, that's just ****ing horrible. Pretty sad.

awesome stage.

before yesterday quintana said he needed to be within 90 seconds of froome going into this stage to have a chance to catch up, and that's about what he got back. too bad he wasn't able to get enough time back yesterday to really bring this down to the wire.

i also thought time bonuses ended a week ago but whatevs.

At the Dutch corner I think they reported that they stopped the Team Sky car and started rocking it from side to side.

That's pretty bad if true.

Here's one of the spitters.

http://gfycat.com/WelldocumentedAccomplishedKissingbug

Karma's a thing.

Dutch corner looks so ****ing awesome.


In all, I think Sky played it perfectly yesterday. Where had they been hiding Poels? Don't think I heard his name all tour. Just saving him for this stage I guess.

Rain today. Cant remember if I have ever seen rain on the last day of the Tour. Maybe someone will try what alexander winokurow did in 2005. otherwise my tipp greipel cav degenkolb sagan. That order.

Btw some nasty crashes in the ladys race this morning

Could've been a day for Cancellara.

"If we go around here like maniacs our party'll be in the hospital tonight"

Worst camera work ever on the final sprint. Have no clue what happened.

Yeah they should just show overhead from helicopter.

What was the time froome crossed the line behind greipel?? 1:10-1:15?? Obv same time

not really necessary to show the sprint. Everyone knew who was gonna win.

Karma. Again

No reason to watch the TV then.

Valverde rode well tactically. He rode for Quintana and gave his team options. If what you say is not in jest why did he not take him out? And get one of his team mates to take Froome out?

Or are you talking a lot of tosh and missing the fact that while Valverde is very much his own man he can also ride for others?

I'm with you on this one and in general a fan of Valverde but he doesn't have the best history of playing the team role (although in fairness not many guys who have been clear team leaders in the past have been put in these spots). I just can't think of a time in this race though where he was put in a tactically difficult spot where he had to make a decision between himself and Quintana's GC chances and if he had have been I'm not sure he would have sacrificed himself.

Edit - apologies for the multiple posts, I just figured out how to multi quote on my phone.