Tour de France 2014

Tony Martin has none of the pure talent Jan Ullrich had.

Is "pure talent" a euphemism for EPO?

I very much doubt that.

well, 30 seconds or so, probably. he would have been closer to Martin than to the rest of the peleton.

don't forget he beat Martin in the Olympic TT.

If these TDF guys are so tough then surely they should have a few pints in Paris and ride back? Pussies.

well, 30 seconds or so, probably. he would have been closer to Martin than to the rest of the peleton.
don't forget he beat Martin in the Olympic TT.

He crashed a bunch in 2012 and was recovering from a broken wrist.

He won the Worlds later that year after he'd stopped falling off.

If these TDF guys are so tough then surely they should have a few pints in Paris and ride back? Pussies.

I would.

HTFU Pro Tour!

I don't know what you can take from Sky's Tour. Not a lot really.

Porte just doesn't look like a GT rider to me, he always seems to have at least one bad day. Thomas did okay, but I'd be surprised if he ever made the top ten of a GT as both his climbing and his TT'ing aren't quite up to it. He does okay in one week races so maybe it's a recovery issue? **I hope he doesn't focus on stage races next year and continues to aim for the cobbled classics, as he's got a better chance of glory there. **

Nieve did okay, but never looked like he'd win a stage. Kiryenka punched above his weight, the rest were anonymous.

Interviewed on ITV4, it sounds as though he's focusing on stage races first, classics second next year.

I don't think he can win either to be honest. Years spent Team Pursuiting and then doing roughly the same thing in the Sky train have left him without a kick/change of pace and a lack of racing tactics.

I hope Kennaugh get's out of Sky pronto, and the Yates' don't go anywhere near Brailsford before they get cloned into bunch engines.

A few real "oof"s in there.

Millar is a very angry man isn't he!?

le tour de france rider Kevin Reza picks up my helmet cam - YouTube

Kevin Reza - Like A Boss!!!

http://road.cc/content/news/125231-video-europcars-k%C3%A9vin-r%C3%A9za-picks-fans-helmet-cam

Millar is a very angry man isn't he!?

In what way? There's a difference between anger and criticism. I didn't sense any anger anyway.

As he says, teams like Lampre and Trek had a shite tour-it's just a fact, no?

So many crotch shots! ^^

I enjoyed the fuck you elbow the most.

I struggled working out the tone of the Millar piece, to be honest. It didn't seem entirely jovial. The OGE comment at the end in particular. It reads tongue-in-cheek, but everything else was pretty brutal before it, so I just couldn't work it out.

On the other hand: Reza = legend. That is pretty super awesome.

Missing my daily tour hit.

Great skillz by reza to pick the helmet up mid flow. Really nice of team to post helmet back to owner.

As usual, Robert Millar is typically blunt in his assessment of many team's Tour;

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/robert-millar/robert-millar-coming-up-short-at-the-tour-de-france

Lulz at his assessment of OGE, especially the part about 'wiping out Mark Cavendish'. Quality trolling.

Interviewed on ITV4, it sounds as though he's focusing on stage races first, classics second next year.

I don't think he can win either to be honest. Years spent Team Pursuiting and then doing roughly the same thing in the Sky train have left him without a kick/change of pace and a lack of racing tactics.

I hope Kennaugh get's out of Sky pronto, and the Yates' don't go anywhere near Brailsford before they get cloned into bunch engines.

Once they lost Froome and then Porte went backwards they were utterly clueless on what to do. They just had no-one capable of winning a stage in the hills or on the flats. Too much tiding to tempo and their power meters methinks.

As an aside, anyone see Eisel's little come-get-me to Cav on the Lemond show? He said he felt like he should be involved in the sprint, and that he was thinking of Cav and leading him out in the past, and how much he wished he had being doing that today.

A Cav eisel renshaw train down the champs vs kittel would be awesome in 2015

Wasn't Cavendish very disappointed when Eisel didn't follow him away from Sky?

Great skillz by reza to pick the helmet up mid flow. Really nice of team to post helmet back to owner.
When I used to coach kids at a velodrome I used to put a pound coin on the track, anyone who could pick it up while riding past in a pace line could have it. After a while a few of them managed it easily enough.
But one kid could pick up two or three spaced over a few feet. He then used to write his name on the track with a piece of chalk while riding round. He gave up cycling and took up drumming. Such a waste!

I take it he wasn't called Bartholomew-Laurence?

Eisel probably won't be at OPQS (or whatever they are set to be called) next year. Leferve is set to reduce the team by 3 riders, in preparation for the new UCI limit of 22 riders per team by the start of the 2017 season, and he's looking to bring in some young riders who can climb, and is under pressure from Bakala to bring in more Czech riders. Eisel doesn't fit that brief. So unless they are set to dismantle some of the existing sprint train (and Petacchi and Steegmans would be prime candidates to leave) I doubt they'll have room.

And, as Oliver said, Cavendish was disappointed when Eisel chose to stay at Sky in 2013.

Is boonen realistically still able to challenge for day race wins?

He was in good shape this spring, but then obviously his partner's miscarriage meant he missed some races at the wrong time of the year and affected his focus, understandably.

OPQS' aim is always to have numbers present in the closing stages of Flanders and Roubaix, and Boonen is always going to be there and able to win should the opportunity arise. Age will catch up with him soon, but I'd still expect him to win one or two more major spring classics.

Eisel probably won't be at OPQS (or whatever they are set to be called) next year. Leferve is set to reduce the team by 3 riders, in preparation for the new UCI limit of 22 riders per team by the start of the 2017 season, and he's looking to bring in some young riders who can climb, and is under pressure from Bakala to bring in more Czech riders. Eisel doesn't fit that brief. So unless they are set to dismantle some of the existing sprint train (and Petacchi and Steegmans would be prime candidates to leave) I doubt they'll have room.

And, as Oliver said, Cavendish was disappointed when Eisel chose to stay at Sky in 2013.

Did Eisel have a choice? Cav broke his contract under special dispensation from the team to join OPQS, would Eisel have had the same option? I seem to remember Quickstep would have had to have paid something like £1million to break Cav's contract, but Sky waved it. Since they signed Eisel with Cav did he get the same length, 3 year contract?

I believe Cavendish expected Eisel to go with him, and Sky would've allowed that to happen, but he decided to stay as he thought he'd get more chances for himself in the classics at Sky.