2017 season thread

[Lowlandbrit]

First topic message reminder :

Big changes for the WorldTour this season, with 10 races added to the calendar (although teams won't be required to enter all of them yet). No Italian teams this year, with Lampre becoming UAE Abu Dhabi.

AG2R La Mondiale (ALM - FRA)	Astana (AST - KAZ)	Bahrain-Merida (TBM - BRN)
BMC (BMC - USA)	BORA-hansgrohe (BOH - GER)	Cannondale Drapac (CDT - USA)
Dimension Data (DDD - RSA)	FDJ (FDJ - FRA)	Katusha-Alpecin (KAT - SUI)
LottoNL-Jumbo (TLJ - NED)	Lotto Soudal (LTS - BEL)	Movistar (MOV - ESP)
Orica-Scott (ORS - AUS)	Quick-Step Floors (QST - BEL)	Sky (SKY - GBR)
Sunweb (SUN - GER)	Trek-Segafredo (TFS - USA)	UAE Abu Dhabi (UAD - UAE)

World Tour races:

[whocares]

Difference between having no team (Aru yesterday) and luxury ´servants' (Froome today) quite obvious. Quintana having yet another bad day.

[whocares]

Great effort by Mollema to win the stage after 20 or so Kms cycling solo.
Dan Martin wins a few seconds in the last 3 kms otherwise no change in the top 5.

[Guest]

In other news - political correctness taken seriously by the government could end the British Cycling Success Story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/40624170

[whocares]

Bit of a shame considering how big amateur cycling is big in UK. For instance one quarter of the amateurs competing in this year "étape du tour" are Brits (off a total of 15000 riders!)

[Mad for Chelsea]

Plenty of excitement on what looked on paper to be a fairly routine stage, mostly due to the aggressive move by AG2R. Nice stuff. Good recovery from Froome after getting caught out a bit initially and then suffering a puncture at a terrible time, with great help from his team. As whocares says, the strength of the team could end up being the difference, though I still think Aru made a bad mistake yesterday, should have been tightly marking Froome.

A fine win for Mollema today. Not for the first time we see a small chase pack which really should catch the lone rider up front fail to do so because they spend too much time calculating just how much effort to put in.

Overall it's been a pretty exciting tour so far IMO, and plenty of riders still very much in the GC mix.

[whocares]

Yep it goes to show that maybe limiting the number of riders per team could level the playing field a bit. Anyway roll on the Alps. Last chance for Bardet and Aru to try something. Dan Martin would also be in contention if it wasn't for his fall. Great character.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Good to see Simon Yates riding well also - after Adam's good showing in the Giro earlier this year, would be good to see Simon secure a top 10 finish too.

[Guest]

Some debate who is next strongest after Froome 32 in team Sky for GC - Mikel Landa 27 - seems to be making a strong shout.  I thought Geraint Thomas 31 was the next in line after Froome - but it seems maybe it is now Landa.

[Guest]

Alberto Contador announces this is his last Tdf

[dummy_half]

From the sounds of it, its a windy day today and there have already been echelons forming - biggest loser so far is George Bennett, the NZ climber who has done brilliantly to be 12th on GC, as he is currently about 3 minutes off the back of the bunch (reports that he is ill as well).

Kittel also in a split about 1:30 behind, which means Sunweb are hammering to give Matthews a chance to make up good ground in the green jersey competition.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Bennett over six minutes down now

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Bennett over six minutes down now

Literally as I post he abandons - what a shame

[Mad for Chelsea]

Sunweb played a blinder today, and credit to Matthews for finishing it off, makes the green jersey battle a bit more interesting. Martin caught out in the crosswinds, not helped by Quick Step not having as much presence as they'd have liked.

[Guest]

Other news. It seems that blood storage and later testing is going to remove most of the doubts many outsiders are going to have regarding doping. This is todays news in the athletics world - Jessica Ennis becomes a three times world champion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40650500

[Mad for Chelsea]

Other news.  It seems that blood storage and later testing is going to remove most of the doubts many outsiders are going to have regarding doping.  This is todays news in the athletics world - Jessica Ennis becomes a three times world champion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/40650500

Good. IIRC it was considered an open secret that the two heptathletes Chernova and Dobrynska were doping, and late justice is still way better than no justice.

[Guest]

Kittel abandons

Even though the GC is close, it's been pretty dull in all honesty.

Froome
Uran + 27
Bardet + 27
Aru + 53

[whocares]

Agree Sky is making it very tough for the competition.
Bardet tried a couple of times but it only resulted in Aru and Martin losing time.

[Mad for Chelsea]

Tough day for Aru, who drops 30+ seconds to the Froome, Uran and Bardet (+ time bonuses). Even tougher for Yates, who drops two minutes to those guys, and a minute and a half to Meintjes. White jersey battle back on.

Uran wins the sprint for second ahead of Froome, Bardet loses a few precious bonus seconds to those two, and finds himself "tied" for second with Uran, 27 seconds behind Froome. A slightly disappointing lack of real GC action TBH today, thought Uran/Bardet could have tried to push on a bit more up the Galibier when it became clear Aru was struggling.

[Guest]

Great win for Barguil, has been magnificent

As for the GC, totally predictable & no fireworks whatsoever. Highly forgettable GC fight in all honesty, which Froome & Sky have controlled with ease. Uran & Bardet just seem happy to be on the podium.

Froome (Pretty much confirmed Tdf winner, bar crashing)
Bardet + 23
Uran + 29

[Mad for Chelsea]

Nothing much happens re GC, shame. Great win from Barguil, thoroughly deserved, and a brilliant ride today.

Uran goes through three weeks of riding, gets to within 30 seconds, and tries nothing... Bardet grabs a handful of bonus seconds in third, which moves him ahead of Uran into second. Uran actually dropped a couple of seconds in that final sprint.

[whocares]

Uran hasn't tried anything in the whole 3 weeks and at least recognise this... to his credit he is a bit late in his career and his target was a top10...
Bardet did try at times but you have to be willing to lose everything in order to have a go at Sky. AG2R is not strong enough anyway at least compared to Sky.
Pretty sure Uran will get back his second place in Marseilles...
Barguil celebrating his polka jersey in style. Impressed he still has energy in this race.

[Guest]

Quintana has been under par this tour - but is still only 27 years old.  There is a group of riders aged 24 - 27 from which it looks like the next tour de france winner is going to emerge.  Froome is now favorite to win his fourth title - but how many years does he have left.  However four Tour de France wins is not too shabby.  I am surprised he didn't even make the extended short list for last years Sporting Personality of the Year.  I suppose it is partly associated with the poor reception cycling has in mainstream media especially the BBC nowadays - as they seem to have spent the last few years hammering British Cycling.

[Lowlandbrit]

The start and finish of the TT being in the stadium is a really good idea.

[Guest]

Maciej Bodnar wins the TT. Chris Froome wins his fourth Tdf. Uran moves into second, and Bardet finishes in third. Landa finishes in fourth, just one second behind Bardet.

Froome
Uran + 54
Bardet + 2:20
Landa + 2:21  (Landa attacking tomorrow)

You can't take Bardet as a serious contender, with such weak TT

Highly forgetful Tour, in all honesty.

[Guest]

For Landa to gain that second he would have to be in a breakaway - but if he is in a breakaway that would threaten the yellow jersey and tradition dictates that he cannot do that.  So he has to accept his fate.  But fourth place is not to shabby and he was also King of the Mountains in the Giro. Unless it is a very late break right at the end.

[whocares]

Bardet TT performance was really horrendous even by his own standard. Simply had no legs today, all those efforts during 2 weeks took its toll.

[whocares]

Froome also confirmed he will compete in the Vuelta this year.

[dummy_half]

Bardet TT performance was really horrendous even by his own standard. Simply had no legs today, all those efforts during 2 weeks took its toll.

I think it is clear that Bardet gave everything he had in the mountains, which is why he was perhaps less aggressive than he would have liked. Uran is the bigger disappointment, as he looked strong in the last week but just lacked ambition.

So, unless Froome does something ridiculous today (Hinault did once win the bunch sprint on the Champs Elysee in the yellow jersey), he joins the 'elite' list of riders to win the TdF without winning a stage.

[Guest]

This will be Froome's third victory in a row.  It could have been Froome's fifth in a row if it hadn't have been for a crash in the 2014 tour.  Froome is one of the all time greats in track road cycling - yet he doesn't get the credit he deserves - not even by the British media especially the BBC.  It is really incredible as he is the perfect role model, always saying the right things, always generous to others.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

This will be Froome's third victory in a row.  It could have been Froome's fifth in a row if it hadn't have been for a crash in the 2014 tour.  Froome is one of the all time greats in track cycling - yet he doesn't get the credit he deserves - not even by the British media especially the BBC.  It is really incredible as he is the perfect role model, always saying the right things, always generous to others.

He could've had 4 already if Sky hadn't decided Wiggins was going to win the tour instead of him

[whocares]

Yep and even this year he is stronger than Wiggins ever was. Hopefully he get some sort of recognition or award be it sport personality of the year or being called Sir.

[Guest]

Froome also confirmed he will compete in the Vuelta this year.

Think Froome, Nibali, Kruijswijk, Contador, Fabio Aru, Rafal Majka, Miguel Ángel López, Wilco Kelderman, Bardet, Zakarin, Pozzovivo, Tejay van Garderen, Esteban Chaves, Rui Costa & Samuel Sánchez are in the line-up. Looks more exciting than the Tdf already.

[Mad for Chelsea]

Not the most exciting TdF, certainly in terms of GC riding. Bardet at least tried, but seemed to pay for his efforts on the last TT, which even by his not very high standards was fairly horrific. Uran wheelsucked for three weeks and got second, strong TT at the end suggests he had some left, so a shame he didn't at least attempt to put Froome under pressure. Froome won despite never really looking that great, and a course which didn't suit him. Think what you want of Sky etc., but four TdF wins is an amazing achievement.

[whocares]

Read a Froome ITW in L'Equipe today where he says that he would have been in much bigger trouble would have he been attacked in the Peyresourde climb and even told his team mates to slow down at some point. Bottom line attacking late is not worth versus Sky but j'en you also need a strong team yourself.

[Big]

Personally I thought it was a great Tour, and just seemed to be relentless - hardly a quiet day. And even in the GC Froome looked vulnerable (at least in the first couple of weeks), it wasn't the seemingly invincible performance of recent years.

I'm pleased for Matthews, but the last man standing approach to the green jersey was sad - have to feel sorry for all the contenders wiped out, whether by injury or (in my opinion) harsh penalty. But I suppose sometimes with the Tour the reward goes to whoever makes it to the end.

It is a great result for Sky obviously. It's hard to imagine that less than 10 years ago people (myself included) were scoffing at Brailsford's ambition to get a British Tour winner at all - let alone 5 in 6 years. It will be interesting to see how it goes next year, but I do think Froome's days at the top are limited, and there look to be a few contenders for future years not far behind him and with enough scope for improvement that they could challenge him in due course.

[Azabache]

Was there at that stage where Froome lost the jersey. That runway section is very steep. We saw about 3 autobuses come through then many duos and solos. Their faces when they turned that final corner and saw the bank ahead! One poor devil did an impersonation of us ordinary hacks and was wavering all over the course.

[dummy_half]

Was there at that stage where Froome lost the jersey. That runway section is very steep. We saw about 3 autobuses come through then many duos and solos. Their faces when they turned that final corner and saw the bank ahead! One poor devil did an impersonation of us ordinary hacks and was wavering all over the course.

I can imagine - you ride 200 km over some pretty lumpy terrain, get to the last 800 m or so and are confronted with something that was about a 20% gradient. It was the one place in the race where Froome as a 3 times winner looked in trouble, so you can only imagine how someone the size of Greipel felt on getting there...

It was a funny race - the GC was tight throughout and I honestly don't think Froome was particularly strong (certainly wasn't a dominant winner), but he rode smartly and kept his opponents in check for the majority of the race (bar the stage mentioned above) with terrific help from Landa, Kwiatkowski and Kiriyenka (less so from Henao and Nieve, and hurt by the loss of Thomas).

Aru looked a major threat in the first two weeks but faded quite badly. Bardet was close but not strong enough to put on the pressure that would have brought the couple of minutes gap needed in the mountains. Uran was really quite anonymous for someone who came second overall - happy to sit in the GC group and nicked a stage on a sprint finish, but really looked the strongest without the ambition to really put the pressure on Sky. Dan Martin was probably a bit unlucky to lose time in Porte's crash, and was always just a bit too far off to mount a serious challenge, while Simon Yates achieved his main aim of the white jersey and a high overall placing without ever really animating the race.

The sprint stages were mainly pretty dull - ride hard then Kittel will be too fast. Green jersey competition looked to be shaping up well with Matthews consistently picking up the intermediate sprints on the hilly days to close Kittel's initial lead, but then MK crashed out. The DQ of Sagan clearly changed the dynamic of the race.

KoM - No contest, but a magnificent performance from Barguil. The tour was probably a couple of weeks too soon in his injury comeback to allow him to challenge for the GC, and this lack of pressure probably helped him ride so aggressively and effectively.

[Azabache]

Here's my notes to a friend from the last two days!

We were in Marseilles Saturday (the fifth of six stopovers!) in the Velodrome,
and the booing from the French at his entry, start and return was noticeable and
rather disappointing. Also a band singing some Bardet verses to some patriotic
music, chanting...The great Spanish multi-grand tour winner-Alberto Contador-
was warmly applauded, and there was no animosity towards the Colombian and
Aussie podium/jersey winners; it seems to be a Froome thing.

The TV coverage (there were wide screens) was laughable; you’d be forgiven for
thinking that Bardet was winning the race on that stage to cement a famous last-
gasp victory over Froome-the reality was that he lost nearly 2 mins., Froome very
nearly caught up with him at the end, and he only achieved 3rd place in the final
placings by 1 sec. Despite Froome being the last one on the track (the leader starts
last in time trials) the TV coverage only gave him about 20% exposure-disgraceful.

Of course, the French haven’t won the thing since Hinault in 1985, and it rankles
(cf. us and Wimbledon); I would have liked to have seen Bardet win-he tried his heart
out and ultimately knackered himself. There is a feeling there that Sky is US-Postal
(Armstrong) all over again. I just hope that nothing “emerges” a few years later...

On Sunday’s finale, the French TV promptly cut to adverts when Froome picked up
his baby son to take him on the podium.

'Liberte, equalite, fraternite’ !

[Lowlandbrit]

KoM - No contest, but a magnificent performance from Barguil. The tour was probably a couple of weeks too soon in his injury comeback to allow him to challenge for the GC, and this lack of pressure probably helped him ride so aggressively and effectively.

End of the Tour means the start of transfer season, and Sunweb's potential future leadership conundrum has resolved itself: Barguil's off to Fortuneo-Oscaro. In other news, Peter Kennaugh is going to Bora-Hansgrohe.

[wiretapper]

Here's my notes to a friend from the last two days!

We were in Marseilles Saturday (the fifth of six stopovers!) in the Velodrome,
and the booing from the French at his entry, start and return was noticeable and
rather disappointing. Also a band singing some Bardet verses to some patriotic
music, chanting...The great Spanish multi-grand tour winner-Alberto Contador-
was warmly applauded, and there was no animosity towards the Colombian and
Aussie podium/jersey winners; it seems to be a Froome thing.

The TV coverage (there were wide screens) was laughable; you’d be forgiven for
thinking that Bardet was winning the race on that stage to cement a famous last-
gasp victory over Froome-the reality was that he lost nearly 2 mins., Froome very
nearly caught up with him at the end, and he only achieved 3rd place in the final
placings by 1 sec. Despite Froome being the last one on the track (the leader starts
last in time trials) the TV coverage only gave him about 20% exposure-disgraceful.

Of course, the French haven’t won the thing since Hinault in 1985, and it rankles
(cf. us and Wimbledon); I would have liked to have seen Bardet win-he tried his heart
out and ultimately knackered himself. There is a feeling there that Sky is US-Postal
(Armstrong) all over again. I just hope that nothing “emerges” a few years later...

On Sunday’s finale, the French TV promptly cut to adverts when Froome picked up
his baby son to take him on the podium.

'Liberte, equalite, fraternite’ !

I was on the lower slopes on Mont Ventoux last year with my brother and after the autobus went through we headed back to Bedoin to catch the finish on the big screens. We were on the outskirts of the town when an almighty loud cheer went up so we ran towards the nearest screen to find out what had happened. When we got there we spoke to some Dutch fans who told us that Froome had crashed but wasn't out. They said that they were cheering for Mollema but others because Froome had crashed.

[wiretapper]

KoM - No contest, but a magnificent performance from Barguil. The tour was probably a couple of weeks too soon in his injury comeback to allow him to challenge for the GC, and this lack of pressure probably helped him ride so aggressively and effectively.

End of the Tour means the start of transfer season, and Sunweb's potential future leadership conundrum has resolved itself: Barguil's off to Fortuneo-Oscaro. In other news, Peter Kennaugh is going to Bora-Hansgrohe.

Does Barguil's status mean Fortuneo-Oscaro get one of the world tour slots and if so, which team drops out?

[Lowlandbrit]

Does Barguil's status mean Fortuneo-Oscaro get one of the world tour slots and if so, which team drops out?

No, but it certainly doesn't hurt their chances of getting wildcards to the bigger races.

More transfer news: Kristoff to UAE Abu Dhabi, and apparently Fernando Gaviria has said Kittel to Katusha-Alpecin is done.

[Azabache]

There doesn't seem to be anything in the rumours re. Quintana-Sky. The extra disciplines there might, might just make the difference but, heh, he's won grand tours so maybe it was just the Giro-Tour jinx. I'm not sure how tough he is mentally so maybe a Latin team like Movistar is the best bet for him to feel comfortable-as was said-he's human! And he's got a few years ahead of him so you never know...but there are half a dozen youngsters out there with great potential.

Re. honours for Froome, I personally feel that the whole system is so sickeningly creepy, even without the ultra-creepy BBC Sports Whatever it's called, and has been so tainted over the years-admittedly more in political areas-that there's more prestige and humility is being just plain Mister-think of John Lennon, David Bowie....

[Ozzy3213]

https://bikesballsandwellbeing.wordpress.com/2017/08/02/ride-london-surrey-100/

I did Ride London on Sunday to raise money for the mental health charity MIND. Here's my blog about it in case anyone fancies a read, and if anyone fancies sponsoring me that would be amazing! Thanks

[Azabache]

Well done! A mate and I have never actually managed to enter it-we always get the colour brochure "con" where miraculously you get a place if you join a team. So we join it at Kingston and ride a lot of it before exiting-as many others do-and send a contribution. Re. the cramp, sounds like you went too fast, maybe strained, and didn't drink enough. I rode it on 11/2 legs due to a bout of bad sciatica, but I'd done the 180KM Etape 2 weeks before with the same disability so find these UK rides rather easy-there are no "climbs" just nasty little hills that are soon over. (I do the Box Hill always on the big ring, typically 50x23, my personal best being 8:17-my son timed the leading pros on the TV and they did it in under 6 minutes! Humbling eh?

[Ozzy3213]

They are seriously quick Azabache. I'd never done Box Hill before so didn't really know what to expect, but I agree it wasn't to taxing, especially having gone up the 3km long 17% hill the week before. It is fantastic getting to ride on closed roads and not having to worry about cars though.

With regards the pro race, I do wonder whether it's too easy a course really for a world tour level event.

[Azabache]

True, but, no matter what the organisers do (and for the Olympics they had -was it 9?-circuits of the Box Hill/Headley loop), and 2, 3, even 20 loops of that Ranmore circuit with that nasty hill with the 15% hairpin, the fact remains that if they want it to end in London there's going to be 50KM+ "downhill" for these superhumans so the bunch sprint sprint is inevitable.

I think the answer is a circuit like that nasty one on the Tour that Nibali won in Sheffield. There are plenty of draining hills in Surrey (look at the route of the 80KM Surrey Legs of Steel as an opener), take the thing up to 300KM, but-again-if they are obsessed with "the Olympic Legacy" and finishing in London......superhumans!

[Mad for Chelsea]

Landa to Movistar confirmed.

[Azabache]

I assumed so as he wasn't in the Sky team listing earlier for the Vuelta. Fantastic rider, but let's see
if he maintains the Sky discipline...

[dummy_half]

Aza

Landa was never slated to be on the Vuelta team, regardless of his contract situation. He's been riding a lot since spring, including the Giro where he was supposed to be joint leader with Geraint Thomas but was scuppered by the same crash as eliminated GT, then the Tour and subsequently has not taken a break, winning San Sebastien and Vuelta de Burgos.

Anyway, it is on paper a very strong Vuelta line-up: Froome, Bardet, Barguil, Contador, Aru, Yates x2 etc. Be interesting to see if Froome has come out of the Tour with any energy reserves...

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