Pro-cycling thread

Gifting Dumoulin a 2 minutes advantage with the time trial still to come seems an odd choice.

Ha! You’re right. Closer to 10kg. Tom’s rubbish. Yates FTW.

He probably had the form, but the two crashes diminished it.

Showed he’s a champion today though, has a shit opening fortnight but sticks at it and comes back strongly.

And I don’t doubt he will continue to attack and try and make time. He’s back in top 5, and about 100 seconds away from getting to third. The TT should slash that.

Both Yates and Dumoulin still looking excellent though.

Cracking stage, the last few hairpins looked amazing when the helicopter pulled back. All set for a very exciting finish. Aru looked so bad at one point, I really felt for him

No doubt Froome will podium. His time trial will be impressive. Perhaps even better than Tom.

He and Tom are not dissimilar weight. And today he blew him away.

there's about 5 kgs between Froome & Dumoulin. I very much doubt he will beat him in the TT, but the climbing's not over yet... Exciting last week ahead! (and tomorrow of course)

Jack Haig has his HR on Strava 180bpm going up Zoncolan is amazing I'd probably hit 200 just looking at it.

I know the weight probably made no difference but it was crazy seeing Yates chasing Froome with a jacket in his back pocket considering Pantani would take out his nose piercing on the climbs!

I doubt it’s 4kg but even so it didn’t make that much difference today. Froome is doing good watts.

Their heartrates are something else. Svein Tuft had an average heartrate of 121 for MSR this year, at an average speed of 38kph.

Barring accident, Dumoulin will beat Froome in the TT.

Froome has only beaten Dumoulin in one TT in the last five years, and that was a mountain time trial at the tour.

https://www.procyclingstats.com/statistics.php?code=riders-head-to-head&rider1=140869&rider2=140118

That's a big statement.

I really think for all the difficulty and altitude of the Zoncolan, tomorrow's stage is going to be much more decisive. If Sky or Mitchelton–Scott can isolate Windmills before the last climb of the day, there could be some much more significant time gaps than we saw today. There's steep climbing all day long. Can we take bets on how much time Yates will lose in the TT? 2:30?

Tom's going to need his team to do a great job today.

Christ - this race is well balanced now Froome is going like a train.

You'd expect after the TT it would be:
1) Dumoulin
2) Yates
3) Froome

And then an almighty shit fight in the final week.

I expect Elissonde to be Froome’s last man today, appears to have had a leisurely one in the groupetto yesterday.

There’s a bunch of solid riders at around 4 minutes so I see a proper slug fest across the whole top 15 riders.

Also, Betancur in 14th it would be good to see him in top 10!

I expect Elissonde to be Froome’s last man today, appears to have had a leisurely one in the groupetto yesterday.

We haven't seen anything of him really, unless I missed it. So either you're right, or he's not got the form. I'd hope you're right.

I really hope we see froome attack on one of the climbs, a long range one. Today could produce some sublime racing.

He did a lot of work for Froome on the Etna stage.

Missed that, didn't watch it. So he's going well. Should be a good day.

I’d be surprised. Froome will be confident he can gain time this week, and he doesn’t need to do a do or die effort today, especially after yesterday. That said, he needs to take time when the opportunity arises so maybe we will see something.

Having said that isn’t it a rest day tomorrow?

Today would a good day to go deep.

I think everyone went deep yesterday. And it’s the last week so you need to measure your efforts.

I think it’s unlikely Froome will win from here, as he needs time on both Yates and Dumoulin. He’ll likely gain time on the former in the time trial, but lose it to the latter, so he needs both to lose significant time in the final four mountain stages, including today.

I’d be surprised. Froome will be confident he can gain time this week, and he doesn’t need to do a do or die effort today, especially after yesterday. That said, he needs to take time when the opportunity arises so maybe we will see something.

You're right of course, but we can dream.