Eh. Between Contador's attack on Schleck, Astana attacking Contador in the valley to the Mortirolo in 2015, and Nibali attacking Froome on Croix-Fer 2 years ago its pretty clear that stopping for mechanicals is optional.

Also Froome was livid in 2015 about Nibali attacking him from 8 minutes back on GC near the top of an HC climb with 60km to go. If Froome's going to be mad about attacks like that (which Froome would never mark even if he was in the group) then he should be waiting for Martin on that descent today.

Personally I think they should just keep riding their own races on mountain stages. Crashes and mechanicals are part of the race. These so called "unwritten rules" would be like F1 drivers voluntarily slowing down when Lewis Hamilton punctures and needs to pit.

ya I blame armstrong

If everyone just agreed that it's no longer a thing then I agree entirely. UCI should make a statement or something. Same thing happened in football with playing the ball out for injuries. Now they don't unless it's a head injury.

Thought they should have waited for the guy that got wiped out, wasn't his fault.

Commentators talking about the riders ahead not knowing but I thought they had radios?

Silly customs imo, should be broken bike - tough **** cya.

Whole thing a bit silly for someone that isn't a huge fan. 4 or 5 different leaders (jerseys) then the judges dq a guy for racing, same judges ignore Froome barging into another rider. And they all have to be doped out of their ****ing minds just to even think of sitting a bike for 3 weeks solid, riding 200km a day, nevermind what they are taking to get them around the course.

Still watch when I can to see them crash lol.

€1500 prize money for getting to some village first and it has to be shared with the team. ÷9 or something stupid. Lol **** that nonsense.

Yeah I agree with most of you guys wrt attacking on crashes/mechanicals. I particularly hate that someone like froome in that spot the other day have little incentive to even hurry. You can game the system pretty hard if you want to.

When Quintana stole the Giro from Uran it was way worse than Contador vs Schleck.

He attacked in a neutralized downhill

Guys I think Kittel may be the fastest

It's come to a point where the other sprinter teams might want to consider putting someone in the breakaway instead of chasing it back and gifting Kittel a win.

I might have to rethink my prediction of less than 25 stage wins for Kittel. He's so much faster than everyone else, it's insane. Although I guess he won't have the luxury of a single incident taking out two top competitors every single year.

I think this is his peak year but who knows. He can probably get more than peak Cav here and that was when there was only one legitimately good sprint team.

Cav's wins by age vs Kittel:



It feels like Kittel is much younger. But he's only 3 years younger. It feels longer because Cav started winning at Le Tour at age 23.

Cav won at least 5 stages three separate times, something Kittel will probably do this year.

Overhead of the sprint finish

https://streamable.com/n98mj

Well I just happen to not agree with most of you re the mechanicals. Maybe it's just because I personally would get no joy out of winning a grand tour if the only reason was because my competitor's chain came off. I'd want to be the best cyclist (which btw Aru will never be in a tough line-up). To each their own.

No ****! Wow.

Btw, Schleck is a great name.

Did bouhanni try to slap one of the QS guys? And just got one minute time penalty for the GC??

Part of being the best is consistency and reliability of equipment. It's not consistently applied and it doesn't feel like competitive sport when people aren't racing against you.

Yes: https://streamable.com/wn2vd

Froome, Quintana, Valverde, Dumoulin, J-Rod, Majka, Chaves, and Pozzovivo in 2015 isn't a tough line-up?

If Bauer falls over does Bouhanni get removed from the tour?

There were two incidents, "The slap", and with 500 left Bouhanni cut Bauer off and forced him to leave his line/train.

Not sure it ever was a thing except among US and UK commentators. It really doesn't make sense. The bike is part of the competition, part of the sport. If it breaks it's not really any different than the rider having to take a piss.

Would you get joy from winning if you had the best equipment, best bikes, best aerodynamic suits? Or if you had the best team driving a train in front of you?

Not sure the difference is so clear.

Yes and yes. Ask Froome.

I bet you played 5 color magic the gathering decks.

With his 5th stage win, Kittel is becoming a threat to tie or beat Cav's 6 wins in 2009. Three stages are left that are classified as "flat". 21 is the Paris stage, so that will be Kittel's best chance to win.

The other "flat" stages are stage 16



And stage 19



Neither are ideal for a bunch sprint, but I guess we'll see.

Doubt he can win either of those. I reckon he will match the 6. Can't remember less competitive sprint stages since Cav and the HTC highroad. This time it's because there are just no other sprinters around individually. Greipel is nowhere.