Tour de France 2017

Loved the way Aru was half-tracking Froome ALL the way up the final climbs. He looked so strong, and a proper climber, which makes a nice change over Froome's 'robot pushing a supermarket trolley' style. And full credit to ITV coverage for using SL2 On a Ragga Tip as their outro music - has this been done before?

Yes

That's good news about those time penalties

Commissionaires views on the rule:

1) if we can help a Frenchman win without it being too blatant - do this
2) if not hang the rules and make the race exciting.

Re team gc, I thought the ? was how calc'd- it's each team's top 3 rider times for each stage, (5th across for ttt). I don't know what happens if a team is finishing with only two riders. I can't recall that happening- in cases of massive illness like PDM in 90ish, the whole team just withdrew.

So the Team scores on an average of the top 3 scores, or just all 3 of the top riders added together? I've watched the explanation videos for all the other awards, which seemed straightforward enough. But I didn't understand how they decided which team was winning.

(Sorry for these dumb questions. Le Tour's social media are great about being inclusive with lots of information for new fans, but that's one I couldn't find.)

Summed I believe. I wonder what the prize is on team gc? Will check later

It's 50,000. See prize money

Welp, not surprised Martin was active,or that there was not quite enough left for a clean thru, up the top. That he was able to get back in on the descent should have been a clear marker to uran really, strategically and tactically. The classics specialist is the guy to mark, u know he'll go again and he's right behind u on gc. Counter HIM, don't let him counter YOU. (Uran's move was ok, but waiting to follow Martin's move THEN having his own try was, I think, the way to run that finale, if you're Uran. I assume that Uran even knew Martin was back in the group, tho I'm not sure when Martin rejoined).

Great stage, obv. Give me these over 200+ km every day. Delighted for Barguil, who's having an amazing TdF.

Heard some praise for Sky's tactics but I'm not convinced. Landa's obv better than Froome at this point (who's 'attacks' on Aru were barely attacks at all), and he'll go for it, opening the ranks of the team. Dan Martin was great today.

McEwen it was, I think- was right. yesterday sorta made today possible. Never heard mcewen's commentary before this tour. pretty good talker. i really liked his pocket-rocket, super acceleration sprints and lines, back when. anyway his takes are spot on and his insights actually interesting and he's willing to talk about wine and chateaus and france stuff, without killing everyone, so that's nice.

Yeah, fantastic stage, near front to back great. Barguil's day to shine for damn sure.

Love seeing Contador come to life, thrilled for Barguil, Martin killing it... what a great day

Dan Martin's post-race condition gives some perspective O_o

@willfoth @IrishCorner10 have you seen this? Hard as bloody nails. https://t.co/M9skep1tZG

— Diver Buzz (@diverbuzz) July 14, 2017

I thought Aru was going to try and do that to Froome, not vice versa.

I think the same thing happened to Aru in a Vuelta when Dumoulin pulled this off and gaining 10 seconds (or so) on Aru.

Nice win for Matthews in any event!

yay Bling Matthews. Great finish

do Astana just not give af about trying to keep the yellow or do they not like Aru? they have been a weirdly non-cohesive in the past few years iirc with Nibali et al

when Aru won it seemed like he was prouder for having yanked it from Froome than the win itself, so maybe it was just the thrill of the moment idk

wtf this interview with Valgren after the stage, great team spirit they've got going on in Astana
http://www.instagram.com/p/BWktmicAB2G/

O_o

ok well i guess that partly answers my question jeez louise

That's the Danish guy he was doing the Macarena with last week, so honestly WTF? That's cold as ice.

(in Dutch: http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/Tour/1.3025846 )

Valgren about interview: "attitude wasn't right, but I was misunderstood"

Today, Michael Valgren Andersen tried to limit the damage in an interview with Sporza. "People now think I don't like Fabio - yesterday, I just tried to say it was maybe not that bad to lose the yellow jersey. We don't have the strongest team to control the race - that's why losing the yellow jersey was probably best. But it wasn't on purpose and a 25 second difference is a lot, of course.
Still, there are yet stages where Fabio can take back some time. If you attack as the general classement leader, everyone follows you - when he's wearing the Astana shirt, it's Sky's job to control the race and that means more chances for him. That was what I was trying to say - my attitude wasn't the best, but it was just after the stage and I was misunderstood. I always work hard for the team."

And about yesterday's time loss: "We haven't left Fabio in a good position - the team made a mistake and we'll have to look into that. We do our best, but this is the Tour and it's not easy. Sometimes you have a bad day."

So happy for Mollema, cracking 30km solo.

He's been there for so long and obviously a strong rider it surprises me that it's his first stage win

Ha I saw that Astana take and I totally got what he was saying, it didn't seem cray at all. Seemed like a shrug but with confidence in both aru and the sitch.

That was my reading as well.

It was a shame Bardet couldn't or wouldn't attack when Froome was behind '50. He got back relatively easy after his mechanical.

Martin is at 1.12 in the BC now. He lost 1.15 in the Porte crash earlier. *makes u think*

BC=GC

There are too many Martins in this race. After Tony's solo Spitzengruppe adventure I was looking up in the results of today's stage and found he'd only dropped back to 20th place. But then I looked at the GC listing and there was a completely different Martin at 20? Got my hopes up for a minute. I assume you mean the Irish one.

Is Kittel going to do anything for the rest of the race or just rest on his laurels? He's so far ahead I don't think he has to.

Meant the Irish one indeed.

Matthews could possibly pose a threat still, though Kittel's got one hand on green. Stages with some intermediate sprints are mostly up for grabs for Matthews, but Kittel will go for the Champs Elysee win to seal it (a stage which is never not a sprint).

The sprints [and thus points] in those stages are for grabs for Matthews I mean, not a stage win necessarily, but he's really strong by the looks of it. Kittel needs to survive the last mountains, be in on time, and nab the final win in Paris.

"Motivation" eh Laurent?

Ha, I had missed that, Jalabert sarcastic live on French TV about Froome having mechanicals just before key climbs. Fuel for the boos... https://t.co/Vik7AxoZos

— Ufe (@oufeh) July 16, 2017

wtg Mollema :D

Landa is so pretty,damn

bookmarking him for next year in Movistar for sure

Yeah, nice Mollema victory for sure, all chances taken at just the right moments to seal it. Loved that he could just pull up a little early and cruise in as a result.

Unlike last year, it's been good to see Froome work more for this as opposed to one or two moments and then the team did the rest.

It's def become much more of an exciting Tour than I expected, really looking forward to next week

Yeah, could be fun! More of Sky looking unexpectedly brittle, please.

Meantime, definitely a day of naked people on the sidelines.

Also going back a bit

McEwen it was, I think- was right. yesterday sorta made today possible. Never heard mcewen's commentary before this tour. pretty good talker. i really liked his pocket-rocket, super acceleration sprints and lines, back when. anyway his takes are spot on and his insights actually interesting and he's willing to talk about wine and chateaus and france stuff, without killing everyone, so that's nice.

Yeah he's been great, definitely not missing Phil/Paul at all.

if u need a phil/paul update:

paul: still hammering on about medieval churches
phil: still hammering on about traffic furniture
phil/paul: still muffing every other stat & prediction

It's almost like I can hear them now and zzzzzzzz

lol

i spend my time wondering what good commentary might be like

honestly i'd settle for jens & christian at this point

taylor phinney's weirdness is v pleasing to me

Watch 🎥 @taylorphinney ask @JohnKerry the hard-hitting questions at #TDF2017. 🐴🐶🙊 pic.twitter.com/ZUqJAfu1n8

— Cannondale-Drapac (@Ride_Argyle) July 17, 2017

he's more like a snowboarder than a cyclist

He's sorta on stage in an amusing way here, but didn't really come across that way irl (limited exp).

are you saying you met him? idg what you mean

Lol was gonna add something like "this says way more about my bystander status than it says about whether his style there is an affectation." Strictly Boulder events/mutual connections style.

i see you and yr humbebragging

humble even

he's been doing a bunch of videos for nbc & they are very chill & random

Sunweb delivering the best team effort this Tour by far. The way they tore up the peloton, dropping Kittel and QS etc was incredible. Love how competitive they are with Barguil and Matthews, who racked up 50 points for the green today, seriously threatening Kittel's jersey.