Tour de France 2017

I couldn't agree more! I've thoroughly enjoyed this year's Tour. Froome, Kwia, Landa and Nieve were all great for Sky. I personally thought that Barguil was fantastic to watch!
Stage 4 was a definite low point though... will Sagan go to the Vuelta? or concentrate on the World Championships?

And homoerotic sidi ads, plz.

It would probably have been more exciting if Cavendish, Kittel, Porte and Thomas hadn't all dropped out.

And Sagan hadn't been thrown out. I enjoyed it though.

I wonder what might have been if Aru's break when Froome had a mechanical had somehow worked and stuck. Maybe it would have encouraged the others to challenge harder too and opened up the battle.

Kwito is incredible. Rider of the tour for me.

The retirements, the crashes, the dq, the fact Quintana was off form, the performances of Yates, Barguil, Kittel, Aru, Landa, CallMeJane, Froome's immense TT, Contador's resurgence.

Dan Martin.

It's been brilliant.

This.

And this.

There was a Tour in 2011?

Wow, the boos as Froome comes in almost immediately after Bardet.

The French aren't enamoured of anyone who isn't French, that's just how it is . There is a regard for Froome, but everyone here assumes (rightly or wrongly) that he's a doper. The French cycling press included.

At least they aren't throwing bidons of piss at him this year ;)

Well Brailsford bag and Knaven wasn't as clear as his best mate Klier all fully legal least gallic on the podium.

Have enjoyed seeing AG2R trying to take it on from the front and the way Sunweb rode together but this will not go down as a classic edition.

The terrain bored me. Little for the puncheurs. Gouvenou needs to shape up or ship out.

+1 The route was pretty hard to watch, with long flat stages/sections where you knew nothing would kick off till 20k to go. The French, as ever as turned out in their millions. I think Brits forget this is really just a day by day party for them - four course lunches by the roadside, bottle of wine and then back to work first thing the following afternoon.

Is it true that Sagan will only be allowed to race TT in future?

On step through.

where you knew nothing would kick off till 20k to go.

From what I saw no team ever took a rest anymore on the road but on day before TT. All this racing probably explains that this was a historically fast tour.

Merckx used to get booed by the French as well, didn't he? Goes with the territory, innit...

They'd have booed Indurain too, if anyone had been awake to do so.

I liked the idea of the route, as removing those set piece GC deciding stages could make for an exciting race. But the riders weren't sure what to do with them, so the racing was pretty cagey.

The never ending sprint stages can do one though, they could at least throw in some hills in the second half of the stage to strike a balance between the sprinters and the puncheurs.

BBC sticks its oar in about why nobody likes Froome.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/40692045

Dunno what it's trying to say, cos it's the BBC and they have clickbait on their homepage these days so nothing can be taken seriously.

Written by Dan Craven's partner:
https://medium.com/@collynahart/winning-isnt-everything-why-i-think-every-professional-athlete-needs-a-second-story-f352ddb12959

There is quirk and there is humour. Thomas tells a story from the pair's younger days when they were preparing for the national championships by staying at his girlfriend's parents' house.
Two nights before the race, Froome insisted on making everyone a potent Kenyan cocktail called a dawa. Except the ones he made for his team-mate were both more numerous and significantly stronger. He ended up beating his host by 10 enfeebled seconds.

If the goal of the article is to make people like Froome this just makes him come across as a snide cunt.

There was also an engaging naivety. "Sometimes he had no idea about other riders," remembers Thomas.

"'Who was that guy? He looked strong today.' 'Yeah mate, that was Nibali. Only someone who's won every Grand Tour there is to win…'

"He's still like that now. Someone can switch teams and it will fool him. 'Who's that in the Trek jersey? He's quick!' 'Mate, that's Contador…'"

Also just makes him sound daft or conceited if he doesn't know who Contador and Nibs are.

Overall 2/10 did not warm to, would throw flask of piss if presented the opportunity