Tour de France 2017

I hate them. Ruiners of everything.

(Kittel looked so unwell today; his face looked greener than his jersey. He was a trooper for staying the course.)

Had to catch the stage in bursts -- what a crazy mad dash from start to stop! I had to keep checking that the leaders (minus Kittel) were there the whole time, hell of a break they pulled off.

Meantime, fun read

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/sports/cycling/tour-de-france-mountain-stages.html

^^ Good read, and with great photos.

Really looking forward to tomorrow. Croix de Fer, Telegraphe and Galibier in one stage. The last two follow each other up nearly seamlessly, which makes for a whopping 40 km continuous climb. Wishful thinking but I hope Bardet attacks and can leave Froome behind on the Galibier and the following descent.

no idea if this will link but it is my fave tdf image ever:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71bmqw2jzqL._SL1050_.jpg

so excited for Sunweb & Matthews especially - am a fan of Bling from his stint with Orica, he's grown so much just in the last year. Sagan being out of the picture this Tour is def helping, will do wonders for his confidence if he keeps this up, whole team seem to have rallied together for him and Barguil which is excellent to see

those winds tho O_o

Matthews was perfect yesterday, great ride great finish.

Kittel just crashed and is suffering at the back. Hope he makes it.

Abandon Kittel

Awwwww. Pinot out too #tumbleweed#

Guessing it won't be the only two not making the finish (in time) today.

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

;_;

Sorry B. :(

I get bad news every time I set foot in Belgium. I was looking forward to celebrating his win in Germany.

Not gonna root for Matthews. And no way Greipel can catch up in that time, is there.

Kittel was SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE. Poor lad, he must be gutted with all this bad luck. Gute Besserung!

Bloody Aachen. Always lose signal here....

I'm sure that in a week or so after the TdF has ended, the good feeling of 5 wins will prevail for Kittel. It's part of cycling to lose; winning is relatively rare.

Yeah he'll be set for some great future challenges -- mind you, I'm sure Sagan will be back with a vengeance next year, but we'll see...

Fantastic ride by Roglic today, well deserved conclusion too, sweeping in on his own.

Today absolutely crushed me as a Nairo fan. Hoping he's just saving himself for an incredible stage win on Izoard, but that does nothing for GC since he's now almost 13 mins down. Magical thinking, but also hoping he and Urán Urán can maybe work together and get a nice gap on Froome/Sky prior to the next TT.

god what a stage

roglic, heroic finish there, what a great effort. sucks for kittel, what a day

http://media.nu.nl/m/y0txbvmap81n_wd640.jpg/topsporter-roglic-voltreffer-gebleken-lotto-jumbo.jpg

Roglic' 'landing' on the stage was great to see. Pretty incredible you can go from being a ski jumper to TdF stage winner. But now I'd really like to see the opposite happen, too: can you imagine Voeckler jumping off a ski ramp?

Today absolutely crushed me as a Nairo fan. Hoping he's just saving himself for an incredible stage win on Izoard, but that does nothing for GC since he's now almost 13 mins down. Magical thinking, but also hoping he and Urán Urán can maybe work together and get a nice gap on Froome/Sky prior to the next TT.

― naus, donderdag 20 juli 2017 6:02 (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ooff, you must have a hellish TdF as a Nairo fan. He's clearly got nothing left after the Giro. But as you said, maybe as a final trick he's been saving something for today. Contador will probably try (and fail) again today. At least he's going down guns blazing.

I am def rooting for Uran Uran

Ah man, WHAT a performance by Barguil. Stellar, stellar work. Truly a genius Tour all around for him. If Bardet holds for second through the end that obv replicates last year -- third time the charm for him?

Barguil delivered. Uran short but ok. Landa on orders.

Barguil made me cry a little. What a competitor. Beautiful stuff

i fkn love the mountains u guys

EBH <3

I love how determined he was that he would be the definite winner this time, not that I can blame him. Great ride.

The way he ditched Arndt was great. I wonder if him taking the other side of the roundabout was something he knew about or pure luck.

Bloody love EBH.

Relieved for him. That would have been heartbreaking if he'd missed out again.

Yeah, that was sweet all around. Took the chance, rode it brilliantly -- what a break!

Strongest rider got absurd good luck, even after a strong attack 2k earlier. Good for him.

omg EBH what a win. Slingshotting around the roundabout was a dope move

Aways a bit lame when a tour victor doesn't win a stage, but tbf it's not from lack of trying from Froome, just a lack of strong competition.

Not lack of trying maybe, but abundance of control, keeping an iron grip on the peloton.

Bodnar is a beast, great ride by him. Cool to see Daryl Impey made it out 5th place.

Bardet though - kid left his heart and entrails on that course. It wasnt pretty but it was probably as full gas as he's ever gone ... and with Froome nipping at his heels! Froome decisive as expected

Bummed that Rigo didnt pull out a bigger performance

Love this photo

Bardet #TDF pic.twitter.com/BQbkpTPXP9

— Ramiro (@Rama_mtto) July 22, 2017

xpost then again Rigo went up a spot overall and he crushed the climb so <3

Great photo, that.

So fucking annoying the TdF gave the prize for most attacking rider to Barguil instead of De Gendt. That's chauvinism for ya.

Landa is exactly 1 second behind Bardet for place 3 btw. If Landa decides to attack tomorrow I'm all for it, but it's prob so not gonna happen.

Yeah I heard the grumping about Barguil over De Gendt, that did seem weird on numerous levels. Would be interesting re Landa making the final day more than just a breeze-in (except for the sprinters).

Bardet's going to be sweating bullets to keep that lead. Landa's made it pretty clear he wants to podium. Should be a good day!

Have to go to a sleepover tonight & out again tomorrow night, hope i can squeeze in time to watch!!

Don't think Landa will go for third; though there's the chance the peloton breaks in the final Champs Elysee round, and I can see him push forward if that happens. I'm done with the truce on the last stage tbh. As nice as traditions can be, it's sport. It doesn't feel right.

xp

Did Landa make that clear? I must've missed that (not seen a lot of it today tbh)

the talk from commentary was that he had said he wanted to podium

landa can't take it out on sky, but he can take it out on bardet, and i wouldn't surprise me if he tried. and if he tries, i can't imagine it wont work. dude was pulling climbs _with his mouth closed_. he should be a little pissed. i don't really care either way, but if he wanted to do it i think he could.

It'll be interesting to see if Landa gets Sky's tacit blessing to go for it. I think usually the whole team hangs back to cross the line with the yellow jersey.

"tacit blessing" as apt a description i've ever seen :)

if Landa wants to try this at all (I don't think he will), I doubt Kwiat will be of any help

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFXNolkXcAAGlMk.jpg

:D

De Gendt not getting that most attacking rider prize:

Don't care. I stopped caring about this whole charade after the ridiculously amateuristic Peyresourde bidon incident. (Bardet wins, Uran and Bennett get penalised -20 seconds for taking a bidon from someone during the climb, Uran's team leader posts a video of Bardet doing EXACTLY the same thing - first reply from the jury: "we can't be certain he drank from it because there's no video of that" - result later that evening: instead of penalising Bardet, they reverse their decision re: Uran and Bennett)

xp lol

Think he'll give it a half-assed go just to scare AG2R a bit.