Tour De France 2018

Ohh canyon aeroads, perhaps Cav would have been better swapping even without a mechanical...

Watching cav today was like watching a re-run of all previous stages. He’s there, can’t get through, gives up. I find myself expecting him to explode like in the old days, would love to see it one more time.

I think it’s clear to see he is scared of crashing, which is unsurprising, given the last 2 years.

Maybe if he gets a clear lead out, or get on the right wheel with space for days, we will be able to see if he still has the speed.

The trouble is, his leadout is more clapped out than he is. Renshaw has done nothing in his time at Dimension Data, I can't recall the last time I saw him drop Cavendish off at the front with 200 metres to go like he used to.

The whole team needs a complete shake up, especially off the coaching team, and should focus on bringing on young African talent, not paying fading stars over the odds so they can top up their pension funds.

young African talent

Pray 4 meintjes

Agreed, Renshaw hasn’t been dependable like he has been in previous years, he seems to work best with a proper chain.

When Cav last one his stages, he didn’t benefit from good lead outs, but clearly had form to beat the rest.
His post race comments seem defeated, rather than angry, which I would suggest lack of confidence in himself and his team.

Had he stayed with Quickstep, he would probably be at 34 stage wins already.

He’s had a spate of fucking horrific crashes, bad enough most people would never want to ride again.

It’s not surprise he’s not at the sharp end, he’s not had the training and has possibly lost his bottle a bit.

He’ll be back.

Who else is in DD, is it Thor?

Cav needs an exit strategy, he can get away with it for now, but clearly time has caught up with him, please go with grace. Don't hang on for too long and face ridicule, hes too great a rider for that.

What’s Afrikaans for “meh”?

Only catching up now. Bad luck for Dan Martin, tomorrow's cobbles are gonna hurt after that crash. Looked like they were going to catch up with the peleton but still lost well over a minute.

Voetsek!

Hello

Perhaps if we wrote that on the road he might finally be compelled to attack. That and “pasop! Hamba wena mfana!”

Bless you

Similar to gronewegen, I reckon if he wins a stage his confidence will improve and he'd win another

Edvald bh as well.

It definitely sounds sometimes that cav has renshaw as part of his contract, so they're probably a combo deal

Too bad but totally understandable, Sep's under team orders today to guide Uran over the cobbles... I guess we'll be seeing a lot of Quikstep action today. And Sagan. Groenewegen's not that bad on cobbles either but it will take a lot of effort from the team to protect him and I don't see that happening, as Kruijswijk has to be 'brought home' too

Cavendish for the stage. :)

(Only half-joking. It would be great if he got it.)

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I think Bora-Hansgrohe has a nice setup with Sagan and Maciej Bodnar both feeling strong on cobbles. On the other hand Poljanski said in Polish Eurosport that their main goal for today will be taking care of Majka’s safe passage. They have quiet huge and understandable ambitions for Majka’s GC placement.

Wonder what setup will different teams use on today’s stage. Wider tires (28s?) and double handlebar tapes is a given I guess. What else do you guys think they’ll accommodate?

Not to mention Daniel Oss...

He never came up in the interviews with the Bora team members. On Eurosport PL we get an interview with Poljanski, Bodnar, Majka and often Sagan on every single stage - sometimes before and after the stage.

Oss is a more of a TT rider, not sure about his experience with the cobbles?
Poljanski said straight up that he never ride on the cobbles and feels kind of uneasy. There is a strong pressure in the team on carrying Majka safe today. And huge hopes for Sagan - as on every stage thus far.

He domestiques for Van Avermaet last classics season and Sagan this classics season as they both won big and was cited as a key player for both and potential winner of PR/RVV if he wasn't riding for Sagan.

Yeah, he's got good experience. And I don't think he's ever been in the top ten for an ITT in the World Tour.