Tour de France 2015

Or a sign of him being 5th strongest. So far.

[The Science in Sport podcast has some comment on Froome's performance.](http://sportsscientists.com/2015/07/close-your-eyes-really-tightly/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20blogspot%2FcJKs%20(The%20Science%20of%20Sport)

But his isn't science. It's journalism, and there is no fucking story.

Sooner or later clean riders are going to get close to EPO fueled climbers. Does this support the notion that riders are doping? Not on it's own. That's not to say some marginal gains don't bend the rules/TUEs.

First things first, I don't think GT is doping ... but ...

The line of argument that he is a big classics rider who is remarkably also able to climb with the likes of Quintana - seems on the surface quite a plausible reason to raise eyebrows.

Are there many others who've been able to turn their hands to such different styles?

Merckx?

Greg LeMond

Wiggins

Nibali, on a good day.

Hinault, Fignon.

Sean Kelly is probably a closer match, but he'd got more classics victories under his belt by the time he was 29. And higher Grand Tour placings.

I think it's just kind of unusual for it to happen these days. Hinault was the last of the true all-rounders - yes, LeMond and Fignon did win classics, but Hinault was expected to win those and the grand tours. Riders are so much more specialised these days, because the stakes are higher than ever.

100km/ph! Crazy. On plastic bikes too! I mean, I know that's @hippy normal cummute speed, but still...

At some point soon Thomas is going to be looking for a team leader role in a grand tour. He might get a shot at the Giro next year, but that's always going to be a secondary target for Sky, so he won't get the support that Froome enjoys at the TdF.

I presume that's why Porte wants out.

Geraint is the new Froome who was the new Wiggins.

I find G's performance a lot better than I was expecting, go thought he'd boss the first week and then Porte and the other climbing doms to take over once it got lumpy. I said earlier in this thread Geraint has been world class at everything he has done, from an early age. There have been plenty of riders who were able to succeed at both classics and GTs in the past, which disappeared in the Armstrong/EPO era, perhaps I'm being optimistic but the fact he's doing that means the peloton isn't that juiced anymore.

Plus there's no rule that riders can't be good multiple facets of cycling, it's so Luddite. It's seems now people are just setting anecdotal limits on what riders should be, in their opinion, capable of, that they should only be good at one thing, and that one thing cannot change throughout their career.

Thomas is riding reserve to Froome. If Froome gets injured, Thomas steps up. He is only 1'11" off second place.

There's a GT winner, who has also won monuments, including one this season, who is doing very well overall in this race.

But he seems to get a free pass from the twitterati despite being a convicted doper.

It's always have a pop at valverde with you isn't it?

Anyway in German summary for today sounds better:

Attacken ins Leere auf Froome.

Valverde in case nobody mentioned him because he's evil

I actually quite like him in this tour

I expect I am now dead to Andyp

Well said Will.

And anyway it's not like Froome is running away with it every day in the mountains. He looks comfortable in the GC but can't dominute every stage. Majka, Purrito, Dan Martin, Adam Yates, Kwiatowski, Thomas, Quintana, Fulgsang, Valverde all lighting up the action at different times

Every race needs a pantomime villain.

Valverde plays the role to perfection.

I see he gained another second on Quintana today. Slowly, slowly...

Anyone know - or tell me where I can find out - what time the first person to cross line was on today and yesterdays stage was please? I'm talking GMT not stage length. Cheers.

15:59 today

Anyone else hear this everytime the commentators mention Bardet?

https://youtu.be/gXCN1DhHTZA

16:08 yesterday