Pro-cycling thread

Why is Chaves still riding? Came in 118th 43 mins down

Well now, that certainly didn’t disappoint.

Fell asleep with 70km to go thinking Froome was on the piss. Woke up to watch the highlights on youtube and the "next video" was Froome being interviewed in Pink, spoiled.

the last 15 pages have been absolute classics, brilliant posts, witty comments and great forum punditry, thankyou contributors soooo much, i was in tears laughing

classic posts to match a classic days racing

don't think i've ever seen anything like it

I reckon that smaller team sizes has contributed to the level of fatigue shown by many of the GC contenders, With fewer teammates to share the workload, raids like Froome’s are more likely to stick.

Can’t remember the last time that the GC guys were alone with 80km to go...

Just rewatching as I had it on silent yesterday at work and I missed the point where Yates got shelled out the back.

Sky were ruthless. Hats off to them.

Ryan Mullen weighs 79kg

He was 84 kgs when the Giro started. Froome is around 68 kgs as his usual race weight I think.

Amongst a group of genetic freaks, Froome is the uber-freak. Combine that with a level of mental strength that is rare, even in elite sport, and you have a formidable GT rider.

I’ve woken up rather more pessimistic.
Whilst I’m 95% sure Froome to be clean I can’t see him explaining his AAF. Which I think is probably just from error.
Which in turn will lead to further questions and greater judgement from the wider public who will just label him a cheat.
I don’t know what to think of Bennett’s comments, on one hand I don’t think they are helpful but on the other, silence of the past wasn’t either.

Little Kenny Elissonde 😍.

I love how George Bennett is now considered a scion of the anti-doping movement because of a throwaway comment after the stage.

I like him, he speaks honestly about the sport, but wait until he does well and wins big, then the same people lauding him will look at where he started his career and turn on him.

“I decided two times to wait for Reichenbach because he wanted to ride with me. Maybe that wasn’t a good decision,” Dumoulin said. “On my own, I can descend just as fast as Froome, but Reichenbach descends kind of like an old lady. With hindsight that wasn’t the best idea. But it’s easy to speak afterwards”

Another thought - he should never have let Lopez rejoin the group on the Finestre.

Probably accurate given that he lost about half of the overall time on the descents. If Froome was juiced, it was with something that gave him balls rather than strong legs, he only gained a few seconds on the last climb.

His comment has now had a disclaimer added.

People like to hate Froome, but laude contador.
We’ve talked for years what it would look like if someone had a few more good genes than others, this is quite possible it. Froome is just better.

Stage starts early today // 11:30 on the telly.

Some interesting facts;

Froome's ascent of the Finestre, even will the full Sky lead out was the slowest there has been as 2005, 2011, 2015 were all faster.

Richard Carapaz ascended the Jafferau fastest, but was almost 3 minutes slower than Santambrogio and Nibali in 2014, a stage run in appalling conditions. Dumoulin and Froome both 20 odd seconds slower than Carapaz.

People are tired huh.

Froome just less tired.

Stage starting now. And Froome has a pink helmet.

Maybe he’s also doing a sponsored sportive to raise money for breast cancer?

Thanks - really good to put that in context

Did smile.

#rep

To me it looks like Chris Froome sees a problem and thinks how can I solve this thing in front of me. Remember when everybody was saying he was boring ? Looks like he's solved that one; with one great and no doubt long remembered G.C attacks.

Wonder if he (or Sky) had planned this from some time back ?

Mitchellson Scott recap video was heartbreaking.

I just saw that. The riders seemed exhausted and pessimistic before the stage even started, I think they were pretty much on empty after the previous couple of weeks, and when Sky "threw the bathtub" at them that was that.

Poor Simon. Hopefully after a few days, the three brilliant wins, and the active defence of the pink will make him rightly proud.

I got pissed off watching the highlights yesterday when they completely cut the 10km in which the break for caught and Sky started dropping Mitchelton Scott out the back, but after the stage had finished I realised why they had to - there was too much for an hour and a half.

Incredible ride from Froome (hopefully only in the usual sense), but what I enjoyed most was the battle for white behind him on Jafferau, with Carapaz and Lopez like two naughty children in an office while the two grown ups tried to get on with their work around them.

I was also heartened to see that Froome generally got left alone by, and generally even got a positive reception from the crowd, even where there was very little security. Rides like today show why it's so important he is found to be clean- the ruthlessness and the ability he has and his achievements can't just disappear under the suspicion.