Tour de France 2017

Still so many nuggets of info about yesterday; Nairo was the mystery rider who put Contador on the floor on Mont Du Chat, and Contador and Trentin were on the floor in the same crash with Majka that took out Geraint, whose bike hit Dan Martin but he stayed upright. Trentin subsequently OTL as a result.

I'm surprised that the race jury didn't reinstate Trentin, usually they apply a bit of leniency to someone who missed the time limit due to an accident.

Bora-Hansgrohe are having a shocker of a race too. Sagan DQ'd and now Majka's ambitions derailed by a crash.

Given that their sponsorship was based on the tour, they said so themselves, it really is crap.

"The organisers got what they wanted..."

Dan Martin on the crash with Porte and the general carnage of yesterday's stage on those wet, dodgy roads...

Ok all good points @Acliff @andyp @jontea @tommmmmmm et al. I have reined in my frustration a bit :)

And yes AG2R and Sunweb have both been doing a great job.

Nairo was the mystery rider who put Contador on the floor on Mont Du Chat

Was the moment Nairo 'hooked with' Contador on a descent by any chance?

trollface.gif

Hmmm I'm not sure what his beef is. The ASO gave martin and the GC guys a chance to ride these roads (at race speed) at the dauphine so they knew what to expect

Tin foil hat brigade out in force on Twitter - the real reason Froome swapped bikes was because he was on a bad day and needed his one with the motor in it.

The kind of bad day when you still have 3 team mates on the final climb.

No Sky presser on rest day.

They all will over the next few years.

Sounds legit. Must be how he rode clear and won the stage by 50 seconds...

And lots of UK journalists getting vexed about this.

I don't want to come across as a Sky apologist, but is anyone really surprised that the management at Sky don't want to be accommodating to the press? In past years they've been remarkably open, yet all they've been asked about over and over and over, is whether they are clean or not. Everything they say is analysed and twisted to suit a narrative, so it's no surprise, to me at least, that they've decided to not engage this year.

As an example, look at the Telegraph today. In it, the headline says that Froome denies his collision with Aru. If you actually read the article he clearly says it happened but it was accidental, yet the headline is twisted to fit a narrative.

Just seen his interview again, he clearly felt it wasn't safe, said he thought Porte lost it on a wet patch made worse by the loose gravel that was all over the road surface...

He also said that Porte's bike took him out, but it was actually Porte himself. Small detail, but he clearly doesn't know exactly what caused the crash, and seeing the state of his helmet, it's a surprise he recalls anything at all.

I'm amazed its taken this long for someone to suggest that - that was my immediate (tongue in cheek) thought when I saw it commented on here at the time

The bike is a rider's appendage, or if you wanna be anthropomorphic, the rider is a bike's appendage.

Either way the kit is probably indivisible until it's a loose bottle.

Dat helmet tho.

He's not making friends

Cyclingnews approached Dave Brailsford for comment outside the Team Sky bus and for a rare moment at this Tour he appeared willing to talk as Eurosport raised their cameras. However, the excitement was short-lived.

When Cyclingnews and a second journalist from another respected publication indicated that they wanted to be party to the Team Sky principal’s musings, Brailsford made clear, and in no uncertain terms, that he would not only refuse to answer our questions but that we were not allowed to record the Eurosport interview. The interchange ended when Cyclingnews asked if we could record the piece. “No,” replied Brailsford. “Hey, I’m fucking telling you now,” he added.

Any links?

Given the comments on Cyclingnews stories, that pass moderation, are the editorial staff of that website surprised they don't get cooperation?

They did a hatchet job on Brailsford too, didn't they? Then express indignation when he refuses to speak to them. The poor wee lambs.

I heard worse: insinuations of Porte being on PEDs because he told the medics he felt ok after crashing. Never mind the adrenaline and shock. I think plenty of these dickheads have never turned a pedal

A couple of minutes in the cyclingnews forums and I feel dirty. It's juvenile, incredibly partisan and distinctly anti-Sky. More over the moderation team are largely of the same ilk and posters that go against the over-riding 'everyone is doping' narrative are heavily censured and banned, while really unpleasant characters that troll regularly are free to bully and mock. It really is a cesspit. That nugget about Porte comes from there.

I LOVE THE TOUR. What a great entertaining weekend of racing!
I actually need this rest day.

The vitriol against Cavendish was just horrible to see.
My disbelieving reply after a particularly deluded comment that Cavendish had his collarbone broken after the crash in the hospital to gain sympathy after causing the crash was moderated out.
The Facebook comments on the cyclingweekly updates are just as bad.