Tour de France discussion (spoiler alert)

Is it true what Magnus B says? Will Sagan become a GC rider?

Ryder's going well as well.

sagan is probably sending massive panic through the other big teams. hes a strong rider. well impressed, clearly though its all about the bike... oh look i have a cannondale as well, i must be as fast

1) Chapeau to Argos-Shimano and Tom Veelers today - to still get 4th after realising Kittel wasn't going to make it was great to see.
2) Glad they've stuck with just the one intermediate sprint, for me one of the best improvements to the Tour in recent years.
3) I have absolutely NO IDEA what to expect tomorrow! These Classics-style stages are difficult to predict, and we don't really know who is on form (although Gilbert and Sagan will presumably be up there). Iglinsky? Albasini? Mollema?

@marcelkittel's twitter feed gives some indication of why he was off the pace today... one comment "if you were on AG2R you wouldn't have to worry so much.”

Chavanel to make a bid for yellow on stage 3 maybe?? - in my fantasy team just in case.

I'm rooting for Gilbet, though - I'd love him to win stage 3.

Outside bets - Iglinsky or Nuyens??

Probably be a repeat of stage 1 though!

Pretty much what SD said.

Lol at Marcel Kittel's twitter feed, he's even posted a pic of a suppository prescribed by the doc!

@Dave - sorry, don't get "if you were on AG2R you wouldn't have to worry so much" - am I being thick?

...brown shorts.

Sagan the man again!

I first saw him and took notice last season, iirc tour if California. He has had a bigger and certainly quicker impact than I expected though.

Feature on the Tourminator bike please guys?

His bike has WEIRD geometry, look it up.

Have Sky chosen the right men for the tour team? they seem to be outclassed by many of the other teams in the TOUR.

Cavendish has not lost the power to go for it; and he's doing it all alone; well, Bernie is doing his best to help.

Sagan, is a possible GC contender. Although, he says he want's the Green Jersey; I can see a Yellow for him, in the not to distant future.

Hesjedal is very quiet in the peleton?????

I predict a sprinters day for the 4th stage? Maybe Greipel? or Cav?

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.

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.

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.

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. Hopefully they can still pull it off - Porte, Froome and Rogers is still possibly the best support trio that any of the GC guys will have in the mountains.

Can't wait for the mountains - hoping to see some big attacks from the climbers after they lose time in the TT. Should be awesome racing.

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

Ah, righto, cheers!

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.

I've said it before (many times) and I'll say it again. US Postal/Discovery had one leader and 8 riders to support that leader all of the time. There was never a plan B (other than maybe if LA had crashed out then whoever to take his chance). They won 7 times. This has nowt to do with doping whether it existed or not. There was one plan. One leader, 8 injuns. Wiggo IMHO was already 1 to 2 support riders down before a wheel was turned in anger. He has now lost another. I am concerned. That is why you have 8 support riders so you can "afford" to lose one to unforeseen circumstances.

I don't doubt Brad's ability, I am just very concerned about the teams.

I wonder if Cav was included as a contractual obligation to get him on to Sky. If so that was a mistake.

I like Brailsford but do wonder if he suffers from hubris?

Sky have THE BEST mountain men of any team this year.

Don't doubt them, its not like they're going to surprise, they have a very definite plan

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.

'Wiggo IMHO was already 1 to 2 support riders down before a wheel was turned in anger.'
Crikey. I counted 7, now 6.

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.

Yep - totally agree. I'm sure Cav will do his fair share of the donkey work later in the tour, and Wiggins will repay him on Box Hill. So hopefully all will be good...

Well, Sky have won a stage in the tour; and Cav has already earned his place in the team!! Leadership of the team is questionable though.

Fingers tightly crossed - Yeah.

I am aware of Lance's winning tactics. I don't remember 8 guys sticking with Contador though?

Nibali getting back into the peloton after the crash today. Scary stuff!

I hear the TDF riders will be out on their day off; practising their falling off procedure.

Crash bang wollap.

Heard from a lad at work that Cav was going for Lance's stage win record in the first week then 'fading' in weeks 2/3 to save on fitness for the olympics
He was using the tour's first week as part of his prep for the olympics (could explain why he's had no leadout train and the team are there for Brad for the overall victory)
Im not too sure but what he was explaining SEEMED feasable
and since then he's crashed so Lance's record for now is intact
Anyone else see this??

Brailsford, about turn in stratergy for stage 5. Shame it didn't work out for Cav. Good to see that Sky are at least trying to support Cav, with a sort of? lead out.

Bit of a hil in the stage 5, finish; and Cav was caught out by going too early for the final sprint, he was also probably suffering from some aches pains and bruising from the previous day's crash.

I think he'll get stage 6, today? Although, Greipel seems very strong.

Stage 6, was a disaster for so many riders.

STAGE 7, and I'm eating humble pie; and so pleased to have to scoff lots of it! Seems my criticism of how Sky was performing throughout the first week, was unfounded; and if todays wonderful performance by the sky team was anything to go by, we are in for a really exciting remainder of the tour. The Sky Team were in total command throughout the final steep climb on stage 7, no other team could match them on the climb. So good to see Froome Win the Stage and Bradly take the yellow jersey.

The excitment lives on; and the Sky's the limit.

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.

Stage 8, and we had another exciting finish. A win for France. Then all the GC contenders arriving in second place. Brilliant

Going back to Sagan - massive improvement in his sprinting to beat Griepel - BUT - he cant climb for toffee so unless they run a grand tour in Holland then i cant see him anywhere near a yellow jersey.

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.

The BMC manager was on Eurosport tonight and he was asked if there was going to be any alliances between teams to beat Sky - his reply was an emphatic YES.

Shows how much they all fear the Sky team !

Mind you I dont think Yates will have made many friends at BMC after stating that Evans was on his way out

More awesome stuff from Brad and Chris Froome!

Another point though, how on Earth did HTC fall apart as a team. Look at some of the team they had who have been doing top jobs in the TDF. Cav, renshaw, goss of course. Then the Velits boys. In the TT today tj and tony martin. What happened there. Surely another sponsor could have been found if HTC were crazy enough to pull the plug!

I suspect HTC had thrown quite a lot of money at the team and no other sponsor was willing to match that so they couldn't keep everyone on salary.

I know this may be unpopular to say BUT do you think that Froome and Wiggins might be on more than just Weetabix?

Interesting how they can take so much time out of Fabian's time. A few seconds - perhaps. But minutes?

I think brad might have something to answer that one...$#%& +%$#: **&$###***

I think brad might have something to answer that one...$#%& +%$#: **&$###***

cancellara is no longer at his absolute peak, plus he's had a tough first week, not just defending yellow but showing the leader's jersey great respect by powering up that final climb (even past his own GC man, Schleck) on the day he was always going to lose it. Wiggins seems to have been riding within himself in week 1, so to me no great surprise that he smashed this TT. Froome was more of a surprise, but then he'll have been doing very similar traning and preparation to Wiggins. One thing that I have noticed is a slight difference in the Sky TT bike compared to others - they have their aero extension bars raised up quite high, creating a gap for the air to flow under the fore-arms but above the head-tube. Perhaps Sky have spent more hours refining their TT bike design in the air tunnel.

I think it's more that the emphasis has been different. Sky more or less just 'survived' the first week (notwithstanding Cav's stage win) where Spartacus gave it some real beans to stay in yellow so long, and Cadel's babysitting group always looked strong. Now that's out of the way, Sky are coming into their own. The gaps wouldn't be so big if another team had the riders and and a similar strategy to put in a strong showing on the climbs. Dave B is sometimes criticised on a tactical level, but strategically he's the master, and that's what we're seeing here.

Froome has been good at TTs for a while - h'e been picked for the Olympic TT ahead of Dave M remember.

I guess so but you could have kept some of, what was a most successful, team together surely.

Had the best kit in peloton last yr too imo.

Agreed, I suspect there was a choice to be made at some point, either scrap the team entirely or carry on as a much smaller, less well funded and less successful team. I can't blame them for pulling the plug rather than wanting to dwindle into mediocrity, it was a brave choice and one that many people would not have taken prefering to linger on as something average.

Richie Porte been excellent.

Tacks on the road. Really? Whoever did that is a muppet.

Another random observation, the saxo bank kit is really growing on me. (no, not literally )

Tommy Voeckler should be fined for bearing his torso. Doesn't the #tdf have a dress code?

Allow him that, he is such a great character.

He and sorenson in gurning contest lol.

Oh dear Frank - guilty or innocent?

I was on my hols last week and was able to check in with Le Tour now and again on Eurosport - allbeit in Spanish and German and I have forgot to ask what happened to the yellow lids Sky had to wear and then no doubt passed onto RNT?

Did everyone start objecting to wearing them?

I believe they are not compulsory. Team in top spot has the choice. RNT have yellow flashes on the side of theirs which might be for that reason but I can't recall if that is always there or not atm.