Cycling

[Jim]

Yeah he was odds on favourites for the Maglia Rosa during the Giro but had a crash caused by a motorcycle and through injury ended up not finishing the tour.

He's definitely a team leader in waiting but as long as Froome has a shot at his 4th I can't see them favouring Geraint. He's just not as good on the climbs either, but then again few are.

It's looking good for Froomey this year unless something major happens. Valverde out already which will cause Movistar problems down the line, BMC look good though behind one of my old favourites from his Team Sky days, Richie Porte. Contador struggled on the first uphill sprint a few days ago and gave up the wheel which isn't a good sign for him.

Could be an outsider who wins it if an injury takes out Froome/Porte.

[Jim]

Also I'm very, very shocked they disqualified Sagan. I thought a time penalty or relegation to the back of the Peloton would have sufficed but apparently Data Dimension protested and it was increased to a DQ. It looked far worse from the overhead camera.

I think the fact that two other riders were affected didn't help.

I think Greipel's gripe (ahem) was that Sagan was riding dangerously yesterday too at the intermediate sprints. It was actually Bouhanni (the Confidis rider) who triggered off the big sways to the right culminating in Cav's nasty crash. Bouhanni has previous too so I'm surprised more wasn't made of it.

[mrblackbat]

Yeah he was odds on favourites for the Maglia Rosa during the Giro but had a crash caused by a motorcycle and through injury ended up not finishing the tour.

He's definitely a team leader in waiting but as long as Froome has a shot at his 4th I can't see them favouring Geraint. He's just not as good on the climbs either, but then again few are.

It's looking good for Froomey this year unless something major happens. Valverde out already which will cause Movistar problems down the line, BMC look good though behind one of my old favourites from his Team Sky days, Richie Porte. Contador struggled on the first uphill sprint a few days ago and gave up the wheel which isn't a good sign for him.

Could be an outsider who wins it if an injury takes out Froome/Porte.

I don't think anyone would have said G was odds on favourite in the Giro. Quintana was always the favourite for that and it was a shock when Dumoulin kept up in the mountains.

At the moment Froome is a major shoe in for the tour, even with a course set up to try and make it easy for an out and out climber to beat him with the short time trials.

Quintana and Esteban Chaves are probably the big rivals. G won't be allowed to race unless Froome gets hurt; if they're honest, Sky don't really want G in yellow right now.

GC is actually a little boring now, considering the number of top quality riders hoovered up by Movistar and Sky; hey have three or four guys who could all win if given the support of a team.

[mrblackbat]

Can definitely see Sky happy if one of Eddie Boss, Gilbert or Voeckler from the break takes the yellow jersey today, especially if none if they're then able to put time into the gc rival; passes it on to another team to defend over the next few days.

[Jim]

Horrible, horrible crash for Richie Porte today. Initial news is it isn't a broken back and he's got a concussion, cuts and bruises. Miracle he wasn't badly injured if that's true.

Lovely riding by AG2R today, especially Bardet, and young Barguil too for Sunweb.

A not so classy stage for Aru and Quintana however, they attacked as Froome had a technical issue (which as I understand it is severely frowned upon by the rule makers but isn't illegal? Is that right?) which to be honest was a very classless act. Quintana found out wanting again as was Contador by the end of the stage though, losing a lot of time on Froome and Aru.

Good to see Froome extend his lead over Aru though, sad to see Richie Porte out of the tour though.

[mrblackbat]

Disservice to Quintana there, he didn't attack.

To be honest, the "gentleman's" agreement over mechanicals needs to be dispensed with, its a race, part of the race is the bike and if it breaks so be it. They spend so much on making bikes lighter that its going to have an impact on reliability so perhaps they should make more reliable bikes.

But then Froome didn't stop to see if Porte and Dan Martin were alright, either.

[theadore]

I like the tradition... although I would rather it was a more general respect to rivals rather than being specifically about the yellow jersey. It's more about how you want to win for me rather than keeping with tradition... was interesting to see Andy Schleck speaking before the Luxembourg start... clearly not quite made his peace with Contador for 2010 even if they have buried the hatchet.

Shame we've lost so many jersey contenders... the polka-dot could be the only one still up in the air in the final week.... Froome looked good but still not quite his form of old. His saving grace this year might be that there isn't anyone else with top form to take the race to him... if Dumoulin was here in his Giro form it would be interesting... same for the Quintana we've been used to, or Valverde if he could have maintained his classics form.

[mrblackbat]

Yeah Dumoulin would definitely have made it more interesting, even with the short time trials.

The big issue for me is that there just aren't many gc contenders coming through either; all the more exciting riders seem to be more punchers and classics guys. And then Movistar and Sky have plenty of potential leaders working as domestiques.

Just disappointing the likes of TJ, Pinot, Bardet, Barguil, Gesink and so on just don't seem to have gone on that step further.

[Jim]

Didn't attack or couldn't attack? We've seen time and again now how Quintana hasn't been able to live up to the hype when it comes to Le Tour. I've no doubt he's got the ability to contest but maybe he needs to focus entirely on Le Tour instead of the Giro too.

Unbelievable how attritional this Tour has been so far and how many big names it's claimed. Heard Rafael Majka may have to pull out today too.

The French teams, especially AG2R really seem to be upping their game this year also but as said, Team Sky have an embarrassment of riches in the team. That said BMC do too and arguably Movistar too.

Kwiatkowski has been an absolute monster for me this Tour for Sky and is going to have to be even more so now Thomas has retired. Froome relies on him, Nieve, Henao and Landa so much and arguably all of them could lead another team.

I don't get the vitriol Sky get for it though, it's just good management and picking guys up young, hungry etc and developing them.

Shows they are doing something right when half the other teams are snapping up their riders like nobodies business, looking at you BMC and Data Dimension.

[mrblackbat]

Didn't attack or couldn't attack? We've seen time and again now how Quintana hasn't been able to live up to the hype when it comes to Le Tour. I've no doubt he's got the ability to contest but maybe he needs to focus entirely on Le Tour instead of the Giro too.

Riiiight but you were having a pop at him for attacking when Froome had a problem....

I don't get the vitriol Sky get for it though, it's just good management and picking guys up young, hungry etc and developing them.

That's exactly the point, they don't really do any of that. Out of the riders you just mentioned, only Henao could argue to have been really cultivated by Sky; even Geraint Thomas probably had more love from British cycling than Sky.

Kwiatkowski, Landa, Nieve and previously the likes of Mick Rogers, Richie Porte, Rafal Majka, Nicholas Roche and so on were all brought in as the finished article.

[Joe]

It's so painful to watch Kittell get all these easy sprint stages

Especially the one EVB came second in last week.... Cav would have be at least half-way to the Merkx record by now if he'd stayed in and won (which he looked to be en route to doing) the Sagan saga stage.

I've seen so many different views, angles, videos, culprits, victims etc of that incident now....not which are definitive.... that I'm happy to go with "it was just bike racing" and Cav and Sagan were unlucky. Still such a shame two of the more entertaining cyclists are out. So many big names out in fact.

Sky's dominance is rather boring now. They're doing nothing wrong.... its just boring. Quintana doesn't look to have it in him..... neither did Porte before his crash either. There are a few stages for descending in the latter part of this tour.... so hopefully Bardet could do something?

[mrblackbat]

I agree that it was just bike racing. The point Boardman was making about the angle of the new boarss makibg it seem like there's more space than there seems really valid too. Still don't think Cav would have beaten Kittel so much though with his recovery; but to lose all of Cav, Sagan and Demare makes the sprints a bit one dimensional.

[theadore]

Kittel looks to be on fire at the moment - can't see a half fit cavendish beating him in a sprint at the moment. Think the best chance is after the mountains where he tends to lose it a little.

[Ethiaa]

Kittel looks to be on fire at the moment - can't see a half fit cavendish beating him in a sprint at the moment. Think the best chance is after the mountains where he tends to lose it a little.

Are you talking about a different Cavendish to the one who is at home with a fractured shoulder blade?

[theadore]

The one who has missed the whole season with Epstein Barr.. and even though he was looking competitive it seems fanciful to give him much chance against Marcel Kittel in the form he was in yesterday.