Tour de France 2017

There's so many contenders though I hope they dont cancel each other out. Another day for Cummings perhaps.

I would love for Landa to just do one up the road. He's a stone cold SOB and I really like that!

I'd expect landa to be up the road, it's a good tactical move. Force the other teams to work and use him as a satellite.

What's the rationale of the no feeding in the last 20km rule?

To prevent sticky bottles giving a bigger advantage?

I'm looking forward to today. No one seems to have a clue what's going to happen which bodes well.

What time does it start on Eurosport?

Yea - no team car shinanegins

Firing Nieve or Kwia is surely the safer bet?

Has to be someone high up in GC to force other teams to chase.

Ha - what of Lefevre getting right alongside Phil Gil at the end of Flanders to shield him from the wind?

Makes sense. Thanks.

Banking on Froome shitting the bed again for more polemica.

Betancur to shake off four years of sloth and mockery by going crazyhorse and attacking from km 0. Cracking at KM 10 before the young guns CallmeJane, Meintjes and Barguil club together and overthrow the old boys network that's been keeping them down.

G to fall off the sofa and hurt himself, Quintana to bonk climbing out the team bus.

On a train for the next two hours. Whens the stage start? Eurosport coverage starts at 1330 I think. That it?

Ha that's about right!

Stage starts at 14h35 (local time).

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2017/us/stage-13.html
-> A Sporting View
-> Time Schedule

Surely whether or not Bardet drank from the bidon or not is irrelevant. The rule is against taking a feed in the last 20 km. Not drinking in the last 20km. He's fallen foul of the rule. TBH it's BS. Surely it's there to prevent sticky bottles? Rule should be changed so that you can take from stationary helpers IMO.

Edit- Andy p already said this, D'oh

Thanks!

Call me a sceptic, but I've been hurt before.

Yesterday was just a bit too US Postal.

Hoping sky are a bit tired after yesterday and froome gets isolated early

Sky do have a team of nearly all GT leaders.

Kwito, landa, henao, knieve, knees, so it's not surprising they can dominate.

Not forgetting cyborg kiryi, he's so good.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a dose of healthy scepticism, although the US Postal comparison can do one.

We should question Sky and seek to discover how they get their advantage. But I think it's clear that a large part of it is budgetary, they have a larger budget than most teams and spend that budget wisely. They also manage to get big name riders to subsume their own personal ambitions for the good of the team. The likes of Landa, Kwiatkowski, Thomas, Poels and even Henao would be leaders on other teams, but at Sky they sacrifice personal ambition to back Froome.

I'd also add if Froome is doping then he needs to up the dosage.

Maybe it's a ruse, to make him look human so people cast doubt on him doping.

#tinfoilhat

;)

yeah loved watching during kiriyenkas turn yesterday. awesome ride

Is the budget that big of a differentiation?

Tour de France team budgets (estimated 2016)
Team Sky – €35m
Katusha – €32m
BMC – €28m

Interesting to see on BSP the advice Matt White was giving to Simon Yates - treat the last climb like an ITT, don't react to anything, just ride to your own red line.

I like the insight BSP gives, but if Orica Scott are probably the most conservative and boring team in the race in terms of their race strategy. No sprinter, no-one in any of the breakaways, no attacks from Yates - just keep the white, and stay in the Top 10. It's effective, but it's not very exciting.

Well it's how they're spending it then - because as @andyp has said, Sky's budget is obviously focussed towards building a team where your domestiques are better than most teams' leaders.

Fuck knows where the other teams' money is going - trying to establish a setup like the one Sky have had for years?

Vaughters reporting that the UCI have rescinded the penalty for Uran, and presumably Bennett