Tour de France 2018

I’ve only just noticed that the Green Jersey is no longer sponsored by PMU. They’ve had that jersey for as long as I can remember!
 
Good, must be the cobbles stage soon, that will sort out the men from the boys.


The Arras to Roubaix stage is on Sunday, should be fun.

I was pleased to see Dan Martin doing well today and the GC riders having problems with punctures and the like makes some gaps before the mountains. :)
 
The Arras to Roubaix stage is on Sunday, should be fun.

is it wrong that I'm praying for rain the evening before, and intermittent showers on the day... (much the same as I do every time P-R is raced - we're so overdue for a "proper" hell of the north with some real mud and blood)
 
I’ve only just noticed that the Green Jersey is no longer sponsored by PMU. They’ve had that jersey for as long as I can remember!
they have not sponsored it for about 3 years. You will have to pay more attention to the race.
 
The Arras to Roubaix stage is on Sunday, should be fun.

I was pleased to see Dan Martin doing well today and the GC riders having problems with punctures and the like makes some gaps before the mountains. :)

Poor old Dan didn't do as well today, one crash and double your deficit, shows how finely balanced this race is.
Looking forward to tomorrow's stage, could do with some action after a rather slow first week
 
Poor old Dan didn't do as well today, one crash and double your deficit, shows how finely balanced this race is.
Looking forward to tomorrow's stage, could do with some action after a rather slow first week

Bad first week for Quintana too.

Can’t wait to see how the dynamics between Froome and Thomas develop too. I get the feeling that this year, Thomas is thinking he’s a little more than “joint number 1”.
 
Bad first week for Quintana too.

Can’t wait to see how the dynamics between Froome and Thomas develop too. I get the feeling that this year, Thomas is thinking he’s a little more than “joint number 1”.

I think they are trying to keep Thomas up there in case Froome blows out on the cobbles again, need one rider in the top ten.
My take on it is if all goes well tomorrow it's back to the usual pecking order, but who knows and all will be revealed.
 
Bad first week for Quintana too.

Can’t wait to see how the dynamics between Froome and Thomas develop too. I get the feeling that this year, Thomas is thinking he’s a little more than “joint number 1”.


Sadly, I doubt they will let him be No 1, they have no shame.
 
Sadly, I doubt they will let him be No 1, they have no shame.

I don't get all the talk of who is number 1, these cyclists are employed to fulfil a specific role in the team.
If you are a domestique that's it, can't just decide to ride off on a glory run, same goes for Thomas as a support rider.

Froome was in exactly the same situation with Wiggins, just what it is and they know the deal before the race begins.
 
Last edited:
I don't get all the talk of who is number 1, these cyclists are employed to fulfil a specific role in the team.
If you are a domestique that's it, can't just decide to ride off on a glory run, same goes for Thomas as a support rider.

Froome was in exactly the same situation with Wiggins, just what it is and they know the deal before the race begins.

The problem was that until yesterday, Sky said they were both number 1.
 
I don't get all the talk of who is number 1, these cyclists are employed to fulfil a specific role in the team.
If you are a domestique that's it, can't just decide to ride off on a glory run, same goes for Thomas as a support rider.

Froome was in exactly the same situation with Wiggins, just what it is and they know the deal before the race begins.

I suspect Thomas is a insurance policy for Sky in case Froome struggles and also the other teams will have to react if either rider attacks. Of course this may all chance with the cobbled stage today. :cool:
 
I think sky have Thomas and from 1st and 2nd but they are not to fussed which way it swings
 
Finding it a very strange race this year, still haven't seen a strong GC contender emerge, who will it be?
Quite a few hovering in the top twenty, but nobody has as yet staked a real claim, maybe today or for me more likely tomorrow .
 
Sky are waiting for the next two days so they can just forge ahead they have been very restrained so far.
Even the Yello jersy admitted he will probably blow today, still think Froome and G are on for the 1st and 2nd
 
Thomas said today that Froome is number one. Thomas today waited for Froome to bridge the gap to Dumoulin, then attacked taking the stage and more time out of Froome.
Thomas says one thing, but his actions say another.
Great stage. Roll on tomorrow!
 
Does today's stage include a little known hill with 21 hairpins?
It might be worth watching.
 
Looking forward to it, remember a few years back Carlos Sastre made a tour winning break on the Alp
 
Remember Armstrong passing Ulrich like he was going backwards.
don't think Ulrich ever recovered from that
 
Still a long way to Paris but Thomas must be well,pleased with today’s result !
 
Well Alp D'Huez probably the best tour day I have watched on TV and the result was the icing on the cake. B Fantastic, and will forgive Geraint if he does have a bad day, though if he is following and not doing all the work maybe .....
 
What a stage, what a finish - go G - or as they would say "en France" - "Allez, allez, allez!"
 
So with just seven stages to go now, I'd welcome the opinions of people more knowledgeable than me regarding how this might pan out.

Geraint Thomas currently leads Chris Froome by 1m 39s and Tom Dumoulin by 1m 50s. Assuming that the winner is likely to come from these three, how much of a cushion does Thomas need going into the time trial on the penultimate stage? Does he have enough? How far ahead of Froome does he have to be before Team Sky make him their unequivocal number one?
 
I expect Froome and Thomas to work together and try to get a bigger time advantage over Dumoulin the world time trial champion

My own opinion is that Froome will win, this is very similar to the Giro when Froome was behind coming into the latter stages.
Despite all the talk I believe Thomas is still very much the number two and is there more as insurance and pacemaker for the number one
 
Sky will also have in mind losing La Vuelta when Froome had to drop back to help Wiggins, the then team leader.
 
What are the chances that we'll see a "Fernando is faster than you" moment (assuming that Froome's position is safe)?
 
So with just seven stages to go now, I'd welcome the opinions of people more knowledgeable than me regarding how this might pan out.

Geraint Thomas currently leads Chris Froome by 1m 39s and Tom Dumoulin by 1m 50s. Assuming that the winner is likely to come from these three, how much of a cushion does Thomas need going into the time trial on the penultimate stage? Does he have enough? How far ahead of Froome does he have to be before Team Sky make him their unequivocal number one?

I think that sky will pretty much know how much time Froome can take out of G on the remaning ITT, and at the current time-gap they're prepared to play the "let the road decide the result" (i.e. they think froome can take it, just about, but if either of them have a mechanical...) - but I'd definitely say that the pair of them would like another minute to 1:30 or so over Dumoulin, and would prefer another 30 seconds or so over Roglic for that matter...

I must say though, I've an awful feeling at the back of my mind that the result's going to be decided more by bad luck than any outstanding feats by any of the riders - sadly G's got "form" for having something happen to him :(
 
Last edited:
I think that sky will pretty much know how much time Froome can take out of G on the remaning ITT, and at the current time-gap they're prepared to play the "let the road decide the result" (i.e. they think froome can take it, just about, but if either of them have a mechanical...) - but I'd definitely say that the pair of them would like another minute to 1:30 or so over Dumoulin, and would prefer another 30 seconds or so over Roglic for that matter...

I must say though, I've an awful feeling at the back of my mind that the result's going to be decided more by bad luck than any outstanding feats by any of the riders - sadly G's got "form" for having something happen to him :(


The ITT this year is around 31K, but contains an evil little climb with gradients around 20% to 25%. There is an interesting short mountain stage of around 65K as well, where the organisers are trying a new format, and I reckon there could be some big time gaps on that stage.
 
Last edited:
Team Sky’s Gianni Moscon has been expelled from Le Tour for hitting another rider.


This makes for some interesting reading. He’d already been disciplined by Sky for racism. The fact that they didn’t sack him for that demonstrates their dubious moral standards.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gianni-moscon-disqualified-from-tour-de-france/

OK, so which other teams do you think are the standard bearers for morality?

Just gets a bit boring when you so obviously dislike Sky and Froome
 
OK, so which other teams do you think are the standard bearers for morality?

Just gets a bit boring when you so obviously dislike Sky and Froome

I'm not saying that any of them are "standard bearers for morality"; what I am saying is that wilfully employing a proven racist is wrong.
 
I'm not saying that any of them are "standard bearers for morality"; what I am saying is that wilfully employing a proven racist is wrong.

He was disciplined and the UCI took no action, most companies would probably do something along the same lines as Sky

The story here is him thumping another rider for which he has rightly been disqualified.
Not sure why you had to introduce his other misdeeds, what has that got to do with this incident other than your obvious dislike of Sky and Froome?
 
He was disciplined and the UCI took no action, most companies would probably do something along the same lines as Sky

The story here is him thumping another rider for which he has rightly been disqualified.
Not sure why you had to introduce his other misdeeds, what has that got to do with this incident other than your obvious dislike of Sky and Froome?

Not sure why you’re spoiling for a fight just because you don’t like my views. You won’t get one though.
Have an awesome day.
 
Not sure why you’re spoiling for a fight just because you don’t like my views. You won’t get one though.
Have an awesome day.

Thank you, sun is shining, firmament is Blue and its already 23c so reckon you got that last bit right
 
Back
Top