Tour de France 2014

If valverde had any balls he would put them out today

There will still be tons of entertainment. I won't miss Contador, and now there is a very unpredictable tour, which personally I will enjoy a lot more.

But no throwdown between Kittel and Cav and Froome and Contador. Yes I like how the race has opened up, but still there were a few questions we were looking for answer for.

I bet Purito is narked he spunked so much time so he could go stage hunting, now the overall is up for grabs.

Anybody but Valverde, how I notice he was trolling the world today by claiming he's a stronger rider now than he was before his doping ban

Jimmy_Fingers.... yours and my knowledge of Pro Racing and TdF is pretty much at the same level, i.e. limited but improving slowly. We learn stuff from the oldies on here, from news reports and the odd blog here and there. But the difference is that as soon as you gain the tiniest nugget of new knowledge you feel you have to form an opinion about it.
Then you arrive here to shout out your most recent opinion, that you've held for all of five minutes, and the arguments begin....

Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Alberto Contador has abandoned Tour de France following a hard crash on stage 10. Contador crashed on the descent of Petit Ballon and injured his knee. After receiving medical care and a new bike, Alberto was determined to get back on the bike and quickly continued in an attempt to close the gap to the peloton.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s attempt to bring Alberto back in the peloton was made difficult by the mountainous terrain and the high speed up front. After 20 kilometers of chasing Alberto was not able to pedal and abandoned the race due to his knee injury.

.

Martin is a monster.

Is anyone putting in an order for one of those caps? #Want

Just tried to order one, looks like they'e already sold out :(

lets face it, the Tour is slowly being robbed of its entertainment, although it does throw up the possibility of a real outsider grabbing victory.

I do not consider Nibali a real outsider, and yes two of the GC favourites are out but how that will lessen the entertainment is unclear to me.

Can we just have a new 'Tony Martin' classification jersey?

So apparently the bike didn't fall apart, but a bike fell off the team car's roof that took him out. Huh. (via ITV)

In fairness, I think he means 'anyone but Nibali' in terms of real outsiders. I'm looking forward to it all much more now there's a chance of all the jerseys (bar green) changing on a regular basis...

Not how I read it:-

Philippe Mauduit: "According to some rumors, his bike has been broken but that's not the case. A bike fell from our racks after we fixed Nicolas Roche's bike."

Me too, much wider field now, literally anyone can win.

Christ. Eighteen percent for 1.8km. That is like canonbie road for the length of the victoria embankment.

Not how I read it:-

Philippe Mauduit: "According to some rumors, his bike has been broken but that's not the case. A bike fell from our racks after we fixed Nicolas Roche's bike."

Ah - yeah. So the falling bike thing is just how the bike broke. I getchya.

^^Come at me.

makes another sandwich

Contador's knee was apparently completely opened up by the impact : /

I do not consider Nibali a real outsider, and yes two of the GC favourites are out but how that will lessen the entertainment is unclear to me.

Yeah didn't mean Nibbles, a definite favourite from the start. And it will still be entertaining, but a kneejerk reaction to hearing Bertie was out

Christ. Eighteen percent for 1.8km. That is like canonbie road for the length of the victoria embankment.

But with a better road surface.

The Panzerwagen cracks

^1st

Jimmy_Fingers.... yours and my knowledge of Pro Racing and TdF is pretty much at the same level, i.e. limited but improving slowly. We learn stuff from the oldies on here, from news reports and the odd blog here and there. But the difference is that as soon as you gain the tiniest nugget of new knowledge you feel you have to form an opinion about it.
Then you arrive here to shout out your most recent opinion, that you've held for all of five minutes, and the arguments begin....

Err, pardon?

Owch. That hurt Tony Martin.

^^^^ Yeh ok fair dos, you're right.

Moving on... Tony Martin. What a fucking legend.

Anybody but Valverde
this!

Contador's knee was apparently completely opened up by the impact : /

Shudder.

Gallopin, Talansky cracking.