Tour de France 2017

Dan Martin with classic cornrow haircut

It's all a bit Beckham '03

Is it wrong to be slightly depressed by Froome being in yellow? Aru put down a marker today, we saw flashes of his climbing form in the Dauphine, with only a short TT left he's a major threat overall.

haha!

All that Froome is out of form talk seems to have died a death.

Aru showed some legs, but since this was stage 5 it's really hard to predict if he's gonna have enough steel in his muscles to rip the yellow of Froomes back. Also other contenders might still pick it up (tho didn't look so)

You think he was hiding his form a little in the run up?

I was rooting for Conta and am a bit surprised he was so much behind.

bit upset that Quintana had such a poor climb, looks like everyone who rode in the giro will be worth nothing in this race.
Great stage, enjoyed it..

Aru knows how to win GTs though, unlike for example Porte. BMC looked amateurish, chasing the break then getting swamped by the Sky train when it mattered, so Porte was isolated.

Feels like competing with Sky would make anyone/makes everyone look foolish.

Some words said (maybe on here) about Porte being team leader and captain on the road and suggestions that he makes poor tactical decisions.

Movistar is quite good at bullying Sky. Ideally the entire peloton teams up on them like they did in 2013, dropping Porte and isolating Froome in that stage in the Pyrenees, at AX 3 Domaines. They got a right spanking there.

Well it was certainly reminiscent of early Sky tactics, very gung ho. Was it Och saying ahead of the stage that BMC were as strong as Sky? I think they were trying to lay down a marker but instead ended up a looking a little daft. Still Porte has good legs so anything is possible.

Porte being isolated on the first mountain of the race doesn't bode well for BMC. He was clearly the strongest rider at the Dauphine but struggled because of his team on the last day or a one week race. He's going to be fucked after 3 weeks of this.

Aru has tweeted which is a good chance for me to practice my Italian:

Quando sto bene, io attacco. Vincere con il Tricolore? Una grande cosa. La dedico alle persone che mi vogliono bene.

When I feel well, I attack. Winning in the Tricolore? A great thing. I dedicate it to the people who wish me well.

Revisionist much? Movistar isolated Froome, then wet the bed.

I think he went into the Dauphine still recovering from a heavy training load, i.e. he was tired.

The overload from that training block + the Dauphine has brought his form to where it needs to be.

I dunno, they dropped Porte who was second in GC at the time, and the rest of Sky doms only to find they couldn't hurt Froome. One of the Sky riders asked Millar why the peloton did it and he said to remind everyone that you (Sky) are human.

Also Movistar did a number on Sky earlier this year, at a stage race I forget which, they lost minutes.

Ominous then.

What a beautiful word from a humble man. A true winner!

Movistar had a metaphorical boot on Froome's throat in that stage then, inexplicably, took it off. Bed wetters.

Sky have been caught out twice by Movistar (and Tinkoff at the Vuelta). It'd make this race very interesting were it to happen a third time.

I wasn't sure if Sky would go full on at the final ascent. Lot of energy spent, not much accomplished. We'll see what happens on Saturday!

Fair enough. Nice to see Aru winning in the Italian champs jersey. Also nice for my ailing fantasy team!

Quintana and Contador dropped off when the initial attack went down but came back and are within a minute of Froome with only five days of cycling done. All still to play for.

That was a belter.
Game on.