Tour De France 2018

Last five on the day get time bonuses added to their team leader ? Or start last first on alternate days .

While true one of the main reasons there wasn't more of a GC battle this year wasn't Sky's supposed stranglehold, it was the fact that 3 of the main contenders had crashed out in Porte, Nibali and Uran.

I thought the mountain stages had a decent amount of drama, I think people/the French thought they were boring because they weren't watching the team/riders that they wanted to win, win.

Compare that to the fact that Sagan won his sixth green jersey in seven years, and had it pretty much sown up by the end of the first week and no-one is complaining about that (well apart from me) because everyone likes Sagan and the way he rides. So much of this hyperbole is down to people's personal bias against Sky, both from Lappartient and many cycling journalists who were talking about Sky's dominance and ways to end it with salary caps etal literally by the end of the first mountain stage.

Cycling is more than just the TdF, and the TdF is more than just the GC battle.

Change Sky's team name to something different (Team Earth). Make them all wear fake mustache's so no one recognises them. (this worked on knight rider).

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Froome’s style would be improved a great deal with a 80’s moustache....

Froome is eerily hairless. He looks about 6.

Marginal aero gains...

Built for global warming. I’m of a similar disposition.

Bet he has a TUC for this: https://www.boots.com/veet-for-men-hair-removal-cream-200ml-10046411?cm_mmc=bmm-_-Google+Boots+PLAs-_-BAU-_-C=%28GB%3AWhoop%21%29+Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Toiletries+-+Desktop_%28GB%3AWhoop%21%29+Veet&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2-nOi6HP3AIVaLftCh28YAocEAQYAiABEgJvkPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

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I've got a similar tache goatee thing going on at the moment. Wore a quickstep cap in to work the other day and had a realisation halfway that people may think I was doing some kind of tribute.

Just dropped in to say Valverde is probably one of my top 5 favourite riders. Love that guy.

It's his best result since the first week of the Tour

Arrive to work like JA and France colleagues will 💖 you forever.

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😂

Age has caught up with Senor Hairplugs, finally.

Who will claim his pantomime villain crown?

I love him so much that I try to ride like him most times, sit behind mates 99% of the rides and attack them. No sarcasm.

Nibali.

I did this to someone on a (v.) slow lap of richmond park this week. loser got DROPPED.

He passed me on dark hill 3 mins later. I let him go with my point proved.

Approved Valverde

I'm going to miss checking this thread when it finally sinks to the bottom

I'm not sure he's suitably qualified - seems to have his share of bad luck.

GC contenders don't win on their own. It's as much about the team that is built around them as it is about the leader's abilities. Teams know full well if there is going to be a TTT. How they build their team is a reflection of their strategy for handling the skills needed to do well in that stage.

Importantly, I think this same approach has a lot to do with why Sky are currently dominating at the Tour. They're building a team solely focused on getting one person to yellow jersey for Paris. Pretty much all of the other GC teams are mixing it up with some sprinters and letting people go for the polka dot jersey. If they really want to beat Sky then they're going to have to do one of two things. Either play exactly same game and hope to do it better or do something radically different as a long shot.