Tour de France discussion (spoiler alert)

drheaton wrote:

...brown shorts.

Ah, righto, cheers!

chrisdstripes wrote:

Hmm, I tend to agree with Boardman - if they were picking a team for weeks 2 and 3 then Cav and Eisel shouldn't have been in it.

I don't think they could not pick Cav - it would be disrespectful to the rainbow and green jerseys. Besides, Cav would have made sure that was an agreed point before signing for Sky. Eisel a strong guy and an experienced road captain, which gives them options.

I don't see a problem for Sky yet - bit of a close call yesterday being behind the crash, and only avoided losing time because of the 'last 3km' rule.

Come on Wiggo.

notfastenough wrote:

chrisdstripes wrote:

Hmm, I tend to agree with Boardman - if they were picking a team for weeks 2 and 3 then Cav and Eisel shouldn't have been in it.

I don't think they could not pick Cav - it would be disrespectful to the rainbow and green jerseys. Besides, Cav would have made sure that was an agreed point before signing for Sky. Eisel a strong guy and an experienced road captain, which gives them options.

Yeah, don't get me wrong I'm glad Cav's riding, he's great value, I was just saying that if their only priority was Yellow in Paris, then he wouldn't be. Hopefully they can still pull it off, with Overall for Brad and more stage wins for Cav in the rainbow jersey. I still make Brad the favourite, but he'll need big performances from Froome, Porte and Rogers. If he has a bad day in the mountains and they're not there, he's buggered.

chrisdstripes wrote:

Yeah, don't get me wrong I'm glad Cav's riding, he's great value, I was just saying that if their only priority was Yellow in Paris, then he wouldn't be. Hopefully they can still pull it off, with Overall for Brad and more stage wins for Cav in the rainbow jersey. I still make Brad the favourite, but he'll need big performances from Froome, Porte and Rogers. If he has a bad day in the mountains and they're not there, he's buggered.

Oh I know what you're saying, and in some ways I agree, but i suppose what im saying is, that harks back to the bigger question of whether he should have moved to Sky, because this scenario was an obvious one. Had they chosen to omit the reigning world champion and green jersey holder in favour of another domestique, I think the team and brailsford would have been pariahs within the sport.

veseunr wrote:

Sky have picked a team for weeks 2 and 3, not for week 1. I think that is obvious from the names.

They will boss it up the climbs even without Sivtsov.

Lets hope they employ a better stratergy on the hills than the tactics they're employing on the open stages.

Raleigh wrote:

You wait till we get to the mountains and SKY start TTTing straight up them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they got two on the podium, like they did at Vuelta.

And that was before they started these crazy dominating tactics.

Hope So.

I'm looking forward to the mountain stages; and I'm hoping Sky will be in a position to get over them in front; but, it's not looking too promising for them at present. They need to get their act together.

Raleigh wrote:

You wait till we get to the mountains and SKY start TTTing straight up them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they got two on the podium, like they did at Vuelta.

And that was before they started these crazy dominating tactics.

I'm not sure about them even getting two in the top 10. Froome has last 1:40 and Porte over 6:30, Rogers is still in touch with the leaders but I think they'll end up burning through the whole team once we get to the bumpy stuff.

I'm sure that on a few days BMC and Liquigas will just let Sky do all the heavy lifting then try and blow them up on the last climb and isolate Wiggins, it's what I'd do. If they've come into the tour prepared to work every day, make them work every day and save your own legs.

drheaton wrote:

Raleigh wrote:

You wait till we get to the mountains and SKY start TTTing straight up them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they got two on the podium, like they did at Vuelta.

And that was before they started these crazy dominating tactics.

I'm not sure about them even getting two in the top 10. Froome has last 1:40 and Porte over 6:30, Rogers is still in touch with the leaders but I think they'll end up burning through the whole team once we get to the bumpy stuff.

I'm sure that on a few days BMC and Liquigas will just let Sky do all the heavy lifting then try and blow them up on the last climb and isolate Wiggins, it's what I'd do. If they've come into the tour prepared to work every day, make them work every day and save your own legs.

What rubbish (although I did tell you at the time!)

It's like drheaton aiming at a dartboard, on a wall, in his house, and landing in the wrong street.

veseunr wrote:

drheaton wrote:

Raleigh wrote:

You wait till we get to the mountains and SKY start TTTing straight up them.

I wouldn't be surprised if they got two on the podium, like they did at Vuelta.

And that was before they started these crazy dominating tactics.

I'm not sure about them even getting two in the top 10. Froome has last 1:40 and Porte over 6:30, Rogers is still in touch with the leaders but I think they'll end up burning through the whole team once we get to the bumpy stuff.

I'm sure that on a few days BMC and Liquigas will just let Sky do all the heavy lifting then try and blow them up on the last climb and isolate Wiggins, it's what I'd do. If they've come into the tour prepared to work every day, make them work every day and save your own legs.

What rubbish (although I did tell you at the time!)

It's like drheaton aiming at a dartboard, on a wall, in his house, and landing in the wrong street.

Fair enough, I'll admit that I always underestimate Sky but it's early days and to keep that up through the really big mountains will take some doing.

One of the most telling comments in the live commentary on ITV yesterday was on the make-up of the Sky and BMC teams. Evans has a team of strong guys around him capable of keeping him out of trouble on flat stages, Wiggins has a team around him built for the hills.

I was surprised by how isolated Evans was at the end but massively impressed with Wiggins and Froome. One thing I will say though is that Evans may be isolated from team mates but he'll have plenty of help in trying to break Wiggins from Nibali, Van den Broeck, Schleck etc who are all looking to pull back huge chunks of time.