Tour de France 2016

Only just caught up after watching the stage late last night...who knew that Sky's marginal gains extended to #stickycleats

Has this been posted?

http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/tour-de-france/froomes-abuse-of-yellow-was-movistars-missed-opportunity_414736

Another well written article from the Froome Shouldn't Win Because We Don't Like Him camp.

No wonder he was struggling so much yesterday, hoped he'd win the polkadots

Go man go!

For the record, I think he's been fucking excellent.

But I thought it was an interesting article, and if accurate, worth calling him out, no?

It was a strange incident, but it was Canc at the front yelling at Movistar to slow down to wait for the yellow. I think calling it abuse of the yellow jersey is hyperbole.

I think the issue was that the yellow wasn't in trouble. Should the courtesy be extended to his team mates now? I would say that Quintana was perhaps too nice on this occasion but not that big a deal.

Quintana getting a little tow...

https://twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/753876376655171584

Anyone ask Canc why he stopped? Did he think Froome had a mechanical? The short video on the page seems to show Froome trying to halt the peloton.

It's a bit daft really. Opens by saying there's no rule that says they have to stop and then contradicts itself by Froome abused the power of the yellow jersey. It's one or the other so trying to claim both arguments just makes the author a twat.

There's plenty of occasions where one or a group of riders will call a stall to the race and it will be agreed. The most common is the natural break. Occasionally, a rider who has pissed off the peleton will be ignored and left to sort themselves out and effectively punished by having to chase back on. But here's the thing, while there's no rule saying the peleton has to wait for a stricken rider, there's also no rule saying they can't ask for it. If the peleton then comes to the collective decision to wait or not then that's their choice. Whether or not you respect Froome's decision to call for a stop is irrelevant really. As spectators, we should be respecting the peleton's decision to wait. They're the athletes and they're choosing how they want to race. This article is just anti-Froome spectator bedwetting and that's just fucking sad.

Errr not sure what to make of that

Apologies for posting something that's offended your superior sensibility of sporting ethics and fairness.

I don't know... I mean, when Contador went down, was there anybody at the front 'directing' the guys at the front to slow down?

I am not sure what you mean by the contradiction either. Surely the point is that because there's no rule, Froome almost guilt-tripped people into stopping when they didn't have to. Moreover, the point of the article is that the peloton missed an opportunity, so you are both essentially in agreement about it being up to the peloton to decide on how to react.

It appears to me that you are maybe too keen to label any sort of view that could be construed as a bit anti-Froome as fervently anti-Froome.

Apologies for posting something that's offended your inferior sensibility of sporting journalism ;)

Do these guys have no shame.

Cannot be unseen

I remember seeing that live - looking back now, I did not laugh enough at this at the time. Just brilliant.

Judging Nairo Quintana on the basis of a 1 second clip with no context is ridiculous. Maybe the bike slowed right in front of him and he put his hand up to avoid a crash and steady himself? Maybe he was using it to get going again, just as Porte was getting a push in front from a spectator to regain momentum? Do you really think one of the best climbers in the world was just taking a tow up Ventoux? I think it is fair to say it wouldn't have happened without the ridiculous farce unfolding all around.

Not judging, just figured people might be interested to see...

They also posted a little clip from last year (watch front car)... https://twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/753880447399190528

Calling froome out for the peloton stopping is wrong.
If they didn't want o stop, they wouldn't.
Racing was hardly on and le patron Fabian decided the peloton should stop.
If they wanted to keep going hey could have.

It's a silly article. Froome didn't abuse anything. His teammates crashed because of gerrens, so he stopped. The peloton itself decided to stop.

For an outsider, a non racer, to call froome out is a low blow. And any racer will just laugh. They made the choice, not froome.

To have attacked an capitalised on that moment would have been poor. It wouldn't have been a way anyone wants to win. Racing was hardly on.
If they had attacked, they would have been called out. Froome would have made it back on any way and they would just be silly.

The peloton chose to stop, because it was the fair thing to do.

Why a journalist with half a page of freedom chose to use it to call froome out, I can only think it's poor click bait from a poor journalist.

I don't see what's so inflammatory about saying there's absolutely no obligation for the peloton to wait for the yellow jersey just because he wants to wait for his teammates, but obviously my moral compass is less astute than our superior Forumenger. No surprise that Canc was the one first in line to neutralise the race though he probably thought it was Froome himself that was having the mechanical.

He was stalled at the bottle neck prior, probably trying to make up time/ get through the crowds. Very naughty but totally redundant now anyway.

The racing definitely was on, Barguill and Aru were in a group a minute back, the race having been split in the cross winds.

I think Fretz is spot on, Movistar were daft not to take advantage of an error of judgement on Froome's behalf.

Oh really?
Did not realise that.

Ignore me then.

But still, it's not froome to call out. It's movistar or the peloton.