Tour de France 2012

Skelator will stay at Sky-the course this year and the field have flattered to an extent and helped tee up a Wiggo/Froome victory and both of them should be fully aware of it. I'm not trying to dimnish their achievement, and before the Tour this was being said as a positive for Sky so don't see why it shouldn't be mentioned now.

More mountains and less TT's and next year it will be hard to imagine either of them winning, and the way their Mrs are mouthing off I think the internal politics will have changed significantly...

The only way I could see Froome leaving is if one of the teams backed by a wealthy benefactor, so essentially BMC or Quick Step now following Team Leopard's documented problems, desperately wanted him. BMC would seem to have a Tour GC replacement for Evans already signed up in Van Garderen, which leaves Quick Step, who do not have a good track record of signing GC riders.

What about Tinkov? Hasn't he just gone on record saying his plan is to buy a superstar team with interest in Cavendish and Cancellara? That's his sprinter and TT/Classic stars sorted...just a GC rider to find.

I'm hoping young Pinot come through to win for France in 2013 - I love that we've almost got a Tour in the bag, but imagine how beserk France will go with a real GC contender?

While Froome might have wanted the win, it looked to me like he also didn't want to leave Brad and wanted him to ride with him,** but Brad didn't have the legs**.

Brilliant. This is the same as the commuter racing theory that you are faster than someone else because you overtake them riding home from work.

Brad even said himself afterwards that he wanted to finish at his own pace, why should he dig deeper into his reserves when he's already in yellow with no more to gain than what he just had?

This is probably crazy, but I would love to see Wiggins in the Sky classics team next Spring.

It's all waffle, but I kind of like that about this sport! None of us are experts, we're fans! That's why we spout off like this with no real expert knowledge.

Speak for yourself. I'm not going to purport to be an expert, as nobody really is, even SS and DB would never say they knew it all, but my work does enable me to see a little more than perhaps the average cyclist sitting in front of his TV and hanging on the words of The Phil n' Paul Family Band.

Funny that you come out with such inane drivel most of the time on this forum ;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18899902

Why would Wiggo give a fuck about what the French think about him? And what's wrong with a clinical, boring victory in sport? Who cares how you do it, as long as you WIN.

Funny that you come out with such inane drivel most of the time on this forum ;)

Am I not allowed to troll?
You fixie hipsters need to be kept on your toes

Who cares how you do it, as long as you WIN.

Reminded me of..

RPM repo̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ped for trolling

Speak for yourself. I'm not going to purport to be an expert, as nobody really is, even SS and DB would never say they knew it all, but my work does enable me to see a little more than perhaps the average cyclist sitting in front of his TV and hanging on the words of The Phil n' Paul Family Band.

You watch Eurosport and ITV4 at the same time?

#pro

You watch Eurosport and ITV4 at the same time?

#pro

I don't have a television, all my info comes from wags on twitter

Reminded me of..(pic of Count Drac)

Cheating cockbiscuit he might have been but Veino was never boring....

C.R.A.S.H.

please don't

I blame the Aussies. Fat bastards sitting there with there Castlemaine XXXX all day in the heat waiting for their bum-faced leader to skulk by. Can't handle their drink and revert to their criminalistic ways.

Next year will all be regency themed campers, earl-grey and fine porcelain with polite applause and perhaps a dignified snifter of sherry raised in their honour as they pass by.

What ho.

Next year will see hordes of Stella swilling, knotted handkerchief wearing, tatoo'd, lobster red cunts who have just realised that the new national sport has no away and home ends and a whole heap of soft foreigners ready for a good pulverising.

Brilliant. This is the same as the commuter racing theory that you are faster than someone else because you overtake them riding home from work.

Brad even said himself afterwards that he wanted to finish at his own pace, why should he dig deeper into his reserves when he's already in yellow with no more to gain than what he just had?

Hardly, they were on top of a Pyranean Mountain. Froome was gesticulating at Brad to come with him, and Brad didn't go with him. Not a stupid supposition to judge that Brad couldn't keep to the pace of Froome, given the two of them had just shed all the best climbers in the Tour inc Nibbles.

Commuter? Really? Va ta couche

EBH in the break! Is this the first time a Sky rider has been in a break?

Next year will see hordes of Stella swilling, knotted handkerchief wearing, tatoo'd, lobster red cunts who have just realised that the new national sport has no away and home ends and a whole heap of soft foreigners ready for a good pulverising.

That's the spirit. Bad booze and xenophobia, sun stroke and bombastic bigotry-the British legions are coming!

How long till Alpe d'Huez starts resembling some shithole on the Costa del Sol? Brailsford et al. will be racked by guilt and wishing they'd never set eyes on a bike... a pyrrhic victory indeed.

EBH in the break! Is this the first time a Sky rider has been in a break?

Heard he's signed for Europcar on a 5 year contract for next season. His Mrs has confirmed on Twitter.

Eddy's off-fucking sick to death of Twiggo and Womb's bullshit and wants to ride for a team with some real jimmies. And Cav's farts smell bad enough without having to watch him sucking them up like they are honey nectar...

EBH in the break! Is this the first time a Sky rider has been in a break?

He's been after a stage all tour but after Sitsuio...Siutsou...Twittwo.. that Kosta bloke broke his leg he's been shackled to the Creeping Death

I think the brits who go out to support british cyclist on the continent will be viewed as the scottish or irish are when they go out for the rugby/football, a rambunctious, but good natured drunken rabble.

Got to say also this constant drip drip of dismay, disgust, cynicism, at what Sky have accomplished feels like super accelerated tall poppy syndrome, before the tour there was this fear that bradley wouldn't live upto expectation, even though the course suited him, and Sky had been smashing all and sundry in the shorter stage races. And now before he's even won the thing, we're pissing on his chips, and saying the achievement isn't as great as it "could" be.

Sky have no contract with the public to put on a spectacle, or provide drama, their aim is to win the tour. End of story. Win ugly, or lose dramatically, just so the audience, the fans can say what a smashing tour it was. It will be a historic tour, just like it was last year, Wiggins first briton to win it, two britons (plastic or not) in the top two positions, and a professional team that looks like it could win more grand tours in the coming years, and be a launchpad for a whole generation of good/great british riders to compete in professional road racing.

How is that boring?

I'm so fucking happy that this is happening whilst I'm of an age to enjoy it, and to see what may happen in the future...

Blimey Corny, I agree with some of what you're saying.

checks temperature

self medicates

Why are ITV4 not showing the Tour live today? I don't have Eurosport on the TV on my desk. Instead of live coverage from 11am, there was the highlights from yesterday, and now a programme about Wiggo. The live coverage doesn't start until 1pm. Rubbish.