SA Footy

fell asleep halfway through green edge's TT very happy to see them get their second stage win and the Yellow Jersey.

Fair crash 500 m out from the finish. An FDJ rider hit the tarmac bloody hard.

Cavendish wins the stage but Gerrans and OGE keep the milliot jeune.

tonight the action begins for the GC.
Interesting to see what happens.
Stage details below

Froome destroys the peloton to get yellow ...

That was amazing. Been a few years now that the leaders have waited until pretty late to try to sort things out so to see that much on the very first real mountain climb. Wow. The next stage it will be fascinating to see what reactions there might be or whether Sky and Froome try to really deliver a knockout blow.

To be honest, I think it was very smart. You take what you can because who knows how Froome and Sky might be travelling next week, or week 3. Who knows what Contador, Valverde, Schleck, Evans et al might have been like then too. Take the time gaps on offer today.

But I think we can safely say Sky will be backing up their win. They will probably get another quinella and third will be a battle between Valverde and Contador. Raises a little bit of suspicion that Contador is struggling so much now, Schleck is obviously still getting back from injury and Cadel Evans is seemingly finished. He's peaked and a few injuries have taken the form from him and now it's too hard to regain.

One bloke that did brilliantly today was Daryl Impey. A bloke who should be still finishing with Sagan, Cavendish. Griepel etc finished just under 8 minutes behind. Ahead of Damiano Cunego, Teejay Van Garderen, Ryder Hesjedal, Rein Taaramae and a host of blokes supposedly there to stay with their leaders in the mountains. He won't get anything out of it, but it was great to see him show some pride.

Sadly, with this first stage seemingly showing a clear heirarchy from 1-10 the only GC question will be the winning margin.

Regarding Contador, it's fairly obvious that he can't cut as a clean rider ...

Unfortunately its over already, Froome & Sky are far too good.
Porte is monster, will win a Grand tour in the future.

dedja wrote:Regarding Contador, it's fairly obvious that he can't cut as a clean rider ...

exactly right,there always have been whispers about him

Dan Martin from Garmin wins the stage.
Porte cracked big time lost 17mins .
Froome was isolated very early on in the stage.
Epic fail from Team Moviestar, so many riders at the front and did nothing

Shame about Porte, but that sort of thing does happen fairly regularly with young riders.

Not sure what more you wanted from Movistar. They isolated Froome, then attacked him several times but he closed down the attack each time. Froome isn't the race favourite for nothing. But they'll try again. The great thing about the race opening up so early is it means everyone wanting to climb up positions has to attack and whenever they have a chance. Froome will also be wanting a bigger gap if possible so I imagine every tough mountain stage we'll see serious action.

Froome 2nd in the TT ... blows away the GC contenders.

Amazing he took that much time. I expected him to beat everyone else and compete with Martin for the stage, but I also thought Contador, Evans and a few other of the traditionally strong time triallers to be within 30 seconds.

It really feels like Froome is going to keep going further and further away. I expect him to attack every chance he gets if he's feeling good because you just never know. A crash or just a bad day could see him lose 10 minutes and some of these stages are really tough, it could be even more.

Let's hope he's clean ...

dedja wrote:Let's hope he's clean ...

I've been resentful that the same thought has come to my mind. Feels like if it's not a close contest that someone must be cheating. Hopefully in a few years we can get some confidence back.

Just read that Boassen-Hagen has withdrawn with a broken collarbone. Another Sky rider out just helps the rest of the field a bit. Still highly doubtful it'll be enough without something dramatic happening.

dedja wrote:Let's hope he's clean ...

lol.

Nobody clean.

Froome dropped by Team Saxo Bank. Valverde dropped earlier after suffering a puncture.

cracking stage.
saxo bank have just blown this race wide open.
Sky are looking very vulnerable

Cavendish wins the sprint from Sagan.
Mollema, Contador and a few other saxo bank riders gain 1:08 on Froome.
Very interesting stage, looking forward to Mt Ventoux on Sunday.
Froome still leading by over 2 mins but his team looks cooked.

well done to SaxoBank ... it's not a forgone conclusion now.

Froome will be isolated at every opportunity now.

Although I'm only new to the tactics involved in road cycling, I'm finding it fascinating.

1) When you say that Froome's team is cooked, in what way? Obviously they would be feeling stuffed, but surely that is the same for all riders?

2) when you say Froome will be isolated at every opportunity, the rest of the field can't really do much about that, or can they? Surely if his team mates hang around Froome's, other riders can't actually push in between or anything, or do I have the wrong end of the stick?