UKH

1) Egan Bernal to make his GT debut for Sky. Undoubtedly a major talent, but at 21 is he too young? Usually you see someone of that age withdrawn after a couple of weeks, but i’d be surprised if Sky weaken their team like that. 

2) No Ewan, no bouhani, Kittel and Cav off-form. Reckon the sprints will be down to Gaviria and Groenwagan, whilst Sagan should be a shoe-in for the Green if he can keep his elbows to himself.

3) According to the daily Mirror, Voeklar and Contador are amongst the riders to watch, whilst Mikel Landa is riding for team Mikel Landa. Actually they might be right about that

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Movistar triuvirate dynamic plays out over the 3 weeks. Could be mighty impressive (whichever way it goes) or a damp squib (hope not).

I saw that on a spoof account on Twitter and thought it had been written by him; didn’t realise it was actually in the Mirror. 

I need to get my TDF magazine guide  - it’s come at me a bit quick. 

Yep agree totally, movistar is always the most entertaining team to watch.

Cheers

Toby

As I may have said on another thread, I'm really looking forward to this year's tour it seems like a long time since the Dauphine and the tour de suisse. I think that the sprinting field is wide open with no individual standing out above the others, so the green jersey will be more difficult to predict (I'll still put a tenner on Sagan). As for the GC, Movistar and BMC will actually have to try something different if they want to put sky under pressure. It will be interested to see if BMC can actually hold it together as a team given their immenent demise (or not). So many variables......

Luke Rowe in for Sky which is nice to see but a bit of a surprise. 

I believe he does a lot early on the stage, cos you rarely see him at the business end. But Sky more than anyone will have a plan and a role for every rider. Interesting to see how the change to 8 riders has changed things - has accelerated to trend towards single focus teams, with little room for luxury items like a sprinter or a rouleur in a GC team. Bit sad in a way, but inevitable

ITV4 - live coverage every day?

9.30am Saturday  Live

Noon Sunday Live

ITV4 Highlights 7pm

And  on the subject of media coverage, if you haven't caught the Cycling Podcast sponsored by Rapha, it is a really excellent way of getting another daily dose of cycling throughout the tour. It is well informed with interesting guests and not too many adverts. Their coverage of the Giro was really good and made my daily commute a whole lot better There's a pre-tour episode up at the moment and another due before the start on Saturday and then daily episodes.

https://thecyclingpodcast.com/

Tres bon

Most probably know this but, for those stuck in an office the cyclingnews.com live feed is a discreet way of keeping up to date with what's going on, especially if you're not going to be able to catch up in the evening.

Yep agree with that - well worth signing up as a ‘Friend of the Podcast’ to get access to their kilometre zero shows and the specials.

With Luke Rowe, the pundits were predicting Van Baarle (yet another national TT champion in the Sky ranks !) to take that slot.  I guess Rowe has recovered better than we've seen and his road captaincy plus Froome's trust in him is what tipped it for him.

On the 8 man team - I started a thread on that the other week.  There was serious talk at one point of going to a 7 man team which I think really would have been a disaster.  As it is having people like Ewan missing (OK there may be other reasons for that..) - that can't be good.

Should have added the full coverage last year gave an insight.  Loads of time in the wind and winding up lanterne rouge !

Well! I don't normally pay to much attention too the flat stages but that one was worth catching...

That was carnage!

You don’t win the tour on days like these.....

However...

Normal service resumed after the TTT, for the GC, BMC, Sky, Mitchelton Scott and Sunweb did well ( as expected) and Movistar, AG2R Bahrain Merida did less well (as expected).

Back to a level playing field except for TD who still holds a valuable number of seconds advantage.

The once mighty Cofodis 22nd out of 22, could be the end of an era.

I seem to remember that the commentators on German Eurosport said that Cofidis were close to disbanding in spring, and then instead decided on a short term change in strategy. They now try to target individual breakaway stages rather than focussing on sprint stages and NB as before.

They also have absolutely no interest in the GC this year, but are supposedly planning to rebuild over the next years.

CB

I appreciate that they were never in it for the GC but leaving Nacer Bouhanni at home means that they are effectively not in it for anything ! I know they had their reasons for that decision but it does leave them in limbo.

It would be sad to see Cofodis fold, I'm missing Lampre already (the UAE colours are just not gaudy enough!) and who could forget their last GC contender:-

 https://www.bikehugger.com/posts/photo-of-the-day-fat-guy-in-sp/

(although I did hear some doping rumours involving intravenous cheese )

Great pic! I imagine they will try to break away today, and have accordingly conserved as much energy as they dared yesterday.

CB

As predicted: Two Cofidis riders in the first escape group. Doubt they will make it, though, too many sprinter teams interested today...

CB

Got to keep that sponsor happy ...... while they still  have one   A couple of hours in the wind will at least give them some TV exposure but probably not the  stage.

Never took to Bouhanni m myself, and I believe he's fallen out with the management too, which is why he hasn't got a ride.

I'm not got to click on that link - I know that my constitution is not strong enough.  It is one of the all-time greats though!

Is Cavendish past his prime?

Not looking good is he? Clearly lacking form, but also debatable whether he is mentally as strong as he once was. One possibility of the former is that the Epstein-Barr virus is still affecting him. And has he had too many crashes to be as fearless as he once was?

Eddy Merckx record is looking safer now

I can't help but think that irrespective of any injuries or fitness, he seems to have grown out of the intense fireball he was a few years ago, which he pretty much alludes to in his interviews, and his determination and intensity was likely a big part of his talent. My favourite sporting moment is still Wiggins leading him out and then watching that side view of his insane acceleration. Anyone riding behind him and seeing that would probably just give up there and then.  

How close was that? The last escaper caught within a few hundred meters of the finish...

Had that last crash happened just a few riders further in front I a sure all four could have made it!

CB

Not very TdF related but just seen the rumour that BMC are to merge with CCC, to form BMCCC perhaps ?

One thing I know for sure is that the team colours would be certain to give you a migraine !

Phew!  What a stage in the tour yesterday, breakaways, maechanicals, echelons, seconds gained, seconds lost and Dan Martin finally wins another stage, Go Dan!

Got to feel sorry for TM and RB but I guess it was just their turn for some bad luck.

Todays stage looks like its going to be a bit pedestrian but who can tell !

 Dan Martin - it looked early, brave and foolhardy but it worked - great stuff.

That'll be another fraught AGM then

Bit of a snoozefest today, tomorrow could be similar, but i’m really looking forward to Sunday’s mini Paris-Roubaix. 

I think it’s quite possible we will see two races, with the classics guys like GVA, PhilGil and Alaphillipe battling for the stage and the yellow, whilst the main GC guys focus on getting through in one piece, possibly several minutes behind. But of course if one of the latter decides to stay with the former, there are big gains to be made. Could we see Sky tell Thomas, junior PR winner, to take the risks whilst Froome plays it safe? Likewise Movistar and Valverde. And Nibbles will probably go for it regardless. 

Meanwhile I heard on a podcast tonight that Sky intend to repeat their Finestre tactics an deploy all available staff, 40 of them, at the roadside with wheels and bottles. I wonder how long it is before the UCI clampdown on this ? Obviously gives an advantage to the wealthiest teams, but wonder if they might be able to rustle up a safety argument as well.

What a race today!

I liked the pre-race comment on German TV by Heinrich Haussler whether it was necessary to include cobblestone stages, along the lines that "they make me ride up 30km climbs, which I can't do, so the climbers can eat some dust..."

CB

Amazing racing!! Crashes and punctures everywhere. An emotional win for Degenkolb who fully deserved the stage victory.

Brutal brutal day. Not quite sure if something happened to sagan when the final trio went away. I love the cobbles on the tdf and got a bit annoyed with commentators whingeing about it being too hard all day

I normally can't be bothered watching the full race,  the highlights are spot on for me,  but got watching this after an hour or so,  and it was brilliant to watch,  brutal in every sense....

Too many cobbles? Nah, I reckon they should have scheduled this stage for yesterday, and then sent them into Belgium today for more rough stuff and a finish up the Kappelmuur.

And yet, despite all the carnage, and with the unfortunate exception of Porte, there was virtually no change in the virtual GC. Even Bardet somehow only lost a few seconds, despite spending more time faffing with his bike than the watchfinder guy.

And today the lazy bastards take a day off, just when I will sit at the microscope all afternoon and could have a nice separate window open for the important stuff....

Anyway, I think the cobbles are great, and more of the other spring classics entertainment should be included. After all, the overall winner should be the overall best rider, not just the best compromise of climbing / time trialling ability. The climbers got lucky this year, anyway: Not much wind during the early, coastal stages!

CB

Just need a litle rain

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/photos/2001/apr01/parisroubaix/FShincapie.sh...

In fairness it'll probably take a fair bit of time to cough out all that dust. And whoever's turn it is in each team to wash the jerseys is probably going to have to have several goes at it

I was obviously joking....

Anyway, towards the end of the stage the rider at the head of the train trying to lead Bardet back into the main peloton looked as he had blacked up in the most non-PC manner possible: The only bits you could still distinguish was a set of white teeth and white eyeballs (glasses long dropped because of all the dirt), the rest was uniformly dark brown...

There was also an interesting comment by an ex-pro (Fabian Wegmann) explaining the huge number of crashes (especially on tarmac corners). According to him, for the actual Paris-Roubaix race teams mainly nominate riders able to handle the special conditions (including the lower pressure and wider front tires) and still a large fraction of the peloton usually drops out. At a TdF cobble stage the non-specialists also have to ride, and no one can simply quit the stage if they want to continue the tour. 

CB

GH was on LA's podcast putting him straight on a few things. one thing he said was that Sky took unnecessary risks on the corners.

LA can't explain the spinning back wheel incident(~20min)

youtube.com/watch?v=BhKqP-JuJ_E&

Have tried to listen to Lance's podcast but even putting aside all that we know about him, I find it tedious in the extreme as it is so narcissistic, he really wasn't kidding when he said 'Its not about the bike", he just forgot to add "it's all about me me me!"

And as for the toadying sidekicks .... 

i know what you mean and he's doing ads now but i do like to drop in sometimes- rather like the daily mail

back to the incident, is it normal for the crank to reverse direction when freewheeling?

And all those bleeding adverts ...  "I have <insert random product here> myself and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread". Sure you do Lance, Keeerrrr -Ching !!!!

Thanks, that made up for having no stage to watch at work!

What do you think about the mystery spin? It does look dodgy to me, to say the least. Also, as much I disliked LA as a rider, the podcast was excellent. I also liked his recommendation of the inner ring in the end,

CB

What you don't see in the original footage is Skujins spinning his cranks to put his chain back on. Seen from a different angle it becomes clear

https://twitter.com/TomEnthoven/status/1018751837766340608/video/1 

A view on the mystery spin http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/video-skujins-wheel-tour-france/

As we all know Lance is always the first to see the best in people, especially if it shifts a few more units of the Ronco lycra stretcher.....

Ok, thanks! I had so far only seen the video where it looks as if the rear wheel starts spinning as Skujins lifts his bike around.

CB

there's a slo mo clip somewhere where he appears to clip the pedal with his foot as he begins to turn the bike causing the crank to turn backwards (~1/4 turn) before it reverses direction...

could be a very sticky freewheel i guess?

Spinning wheel is a non event. As ever blown out of all proportion. Man puts chain back on bike, spins pedals  to change gear to something more suitable. Wheel spins. Cue twitter and conspiracy outrage. 

LA was a bit ahead of himself on his podcast for that one. Generally it is excellent though, although the ramped up product placement is getting tiresome. 

Mountain stage today might be an indicator of who's in form.

Hope it's as exciting as the womens race.

Agree. And whilst the tin-foil hat brigade are distracted it sounds like Bardet's recovery was less miraculous and more moto-assisted, at least if a very angry Matt White is to be believed. Seems to be claiming that French TV deliberately avoided getting coverage of it. 

As to LA, I've got enough podcasts to listen to without having to hear from him. Wiggins likewise. They may have some interesting insights, but they also have a an axe to grind. 

Moto or not, Bardet looked like he'd left it all on the road on Sunday.  He looked in a right state afterwards.

Anyone finding 'Pippa's' commentary a bit tepid? He/she writes good blogs but seems very unenthused live. 

She is called Pippa, no need for the punctuation marks. 

Can't say I've heard her commentary, but it's got to be better than Kirby and Kelly

Will always be Robert Miller in the guise of Philippa York to me.

Sounds like you are a tiresome shit on many topics.

Ah, bless.

Right, hands up, who expected GVA to increase his lead by two min?

Yep, totally...

He probably didn't expect it himself, but it's nice to see him fight for it for as long as he can

Anyone else a bit surprised that Sky didn’t put in a bit more effort to put Thomas into yellow. I know GVA isn’t considered a threat - he had a 6 minute lead a couple of years ago, but it isn’t as if Sky saved themselves any effort, they were still on the front all day. 

So one possibility is that they are delaying a leadership problem, waiting until the first big summit finish.  Froome tends to lay down a big marker early on, so if he does that tomorrow then he will either take yellow, or at least let Thomas know who is the boss.

Alternatively Sky are bluffing - Froome is cooked, he hasn’t recovered from the Giro and/or he has saddle sores the size of golf balls. So they are in no rush to reveal that, or put Thomas in yellow with the extra pressures and commitments, for an extra day at least.

Admittedly with 2 brutal alpine stages to come the most likely explanation is that everyone is keeping their powder dry, but where’s the fun in that!

I think that will depend on just how much the breakaway emptied the tank there.  That might have been GVA's last hurrah and he's totally done now.  Chasing down that break might have been too draining in the long run.  Also I'm not sure how much Sky want to give a free ride to Movistar right now.

Some good (if obvious, but rarely expressed) thoughts from Nibali on yesterday and racing generally. Broadly it's become a race to lose, not a race to win.

https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/tour-de-france/nibali-it-may-seem-boring-b...

Although I would expect some sort of fireworks today or tomorrow.

Thanks for the link! Did you also see the Landa interview?

https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/tour-de-france/landa-wants-to-help-movista...

The interview itself is mostly bla bla, but the intro picture (Landa rolling up to the start) must be one of the worst and funniest sports pictures in years....

CB

Haha yes indeed. 'Honey I shrunk the bike' 

I was also a bit intrigued that they rode all day....my guess is that a steady tempo, even a hard one, will stop any attacks from Movistar. Also maybe with recent events they may wish to avoid yellow at this point....next 2 days will tell.

Excellent ride by GVA....old school respect to the yellow jersey!

The comment by the ITV4 team was interesting: the fact that Luke Rowe lead over the first two climbs meant they weren't really burning their boats.  Just showing who was boss by packing the front would be my guess.

Tough day for the sprinters today (to make the time cut), just 108 Km with 2 x HC, 1 x 2nd cat and 1 x 1st cat finish 'should' make for an interesting day.

I'm sure the time honoured tradition of ignoring the time cut will be applied if sufficient 'names' roll in with the gruppetto after time has been called

They've given the grupetto a little extra time (2%) so you'd expect them to get home in time. Isn't their some rule that anyone reinistated gets docked points ? Mind you since Sagan has wrapped up the Green Jersey I guess that's academic

how come yellow jersey ruled himself out today after doing so well in the mountains yesterday?

Great stage for the views today. Assuming uk tv gets the feed I'm seeing on french tv at the moment some very nice mountainous scenes.

Perhaps he's tired.

maybe he could ask a mate in team sky about recovery methods?

It was pretty obvious that yesterday was a last hurrah for GVA.  He basically rode himself out so its not surprising he is struggling today.

Well a good start is not to go into the red the day before.

Out on the MTB tonight so just been watching the ticker tape live feed --- ooof!!!!  What a stage.  

Fantastic stage today. There's some biggish gaps opening up

My son (11) got quite drawn into the race, daughter (9) was oblivious until it showed those guys slackline across the gorge, if you got that feed. 

I hope Geraint Thomas is 'allowed' to go on for the overall victory.   Budge over Froome.
It's rejuvenated my interest in the actually racing.

It might be better PR for them too given recent events. 

It'll be better for my wallet!

I put a fiver on him before the race.... I could cash in for £15 at the mo... I'm hoping to see weakness in froome tomorrow surely he can't do 4 grand tours in a row?

You could always cash in and out as they fluctuate. At a risk of course. Now the footie and tennis is over interest in the tour will build and more new money will come in.(presuming you are on an exchange)

Given that we are talking about 2 of the most accident prone riders in the peloton, i’d say that Sky need to keep them both in contention if possible. They did work well today, Froome making sure he didn’t give anyone a tow back to Thomas. Expect we will see something similar tomorrow 

Thomas will be allowed to go for victory, Sky will be confident that at some stage he will have his usual crash thus leaving Froome in pole position and have everyone then switch allegiance from Stabilisers to Froome (ok, only Sky followers) but it would help them 

Negative vibes man!

Was it GT who slid off a corner at 80kph into the trees a couple of years ago and went on to finish 3rd or something?  He can handle the odd crash

The odd crash? Name a GT he hasn’t crashed on - or one he has finished? 

This is his 13th Grand Tour, he has finished 10 of the previous 12.

To be fair he usually both crashes and finishes, last year was the first time he failed to finish a GT. But he is also pretty good at surviving his crashes - he only lost 20 seconds after a nasty crash in the Dauphiné Prologue and still went on to win

What was most impressive, was the burst of speed GT put in to overhaul Mikel Nieve, vey reminiscent of his form in the Dauphine, certainly looks like he has the legs to win, whether he has the head to win or the team backing are matters for 'endless' discussion.

We saw something similar from Simon Yates a few weeks back, though.  Hope Sky have their fuelling better sorted than Mitchelton Scott did on that one - they should have.

To be fair Nieve was almost at a standstill; not going much faster than Kwiatowski was after his stint on the front of the peleton earlier in the race. Thomas looked strong at the end but so did Dumoulin and Froome. 

You had to feel sorry for him after all his hard work - he looked pretty crushed as Thomas (and then the chasing group) blasted past. Still not as heartbreaking as van der Breggen's overtaking on Tuesday, mind

Excellent short piece by David Millar on Cav, and Rod Ellingworth

https://chpt3.com/blogs/journal/well-done-mark

What a brilliant piece of writing. It sent shivers down my spine......first and last. 

I concur, Mr Millar writes very well, thanks for the link

Sky, boo hiss https://twitter.com/cycling_podcast/status/1019881462596816897?s=19

The race commissars are legendary for making arbitrary and frankly confusing decisions and here is a classic example. 

Kudos to all involved (except the race commissars!)

Talking of bursts of speed. The peleton covered the first 23km in 23 minutes at the start of the 12th stage. I know it's slightly downhill but even so......

Tricky one

Remember when Porte (then at Sky) got a wheel off a fellow Aussie on a different team. And got a 2 min (?) penalty (he crashed out a few days later). Now I thought that was fair because you already have 7 or 8 riders to support your leader, you don't need another 9.

Support from a team car for a stranded rider is a slightly different matter though. Yes the team is allowed 2 cars and how it deploys them is part of the tactics. But when someone is at the back of the race then this does seem harsh   

Interesting stage to say the least!  I think we know who isn't going to win the Tdf but I'm not so sure about who is. 

If nothing significant happens in the following 'quiet' days then Froome is going to have to attack in the Pyrenees if only to hold on to his second position, as good as he is at time trialling, Dumoulin is better and Froome currently only holds a slender gap over TD. Therefore, in attacking TD, this probably means  he will be attacking G as well and then the team politics gets messy!

Speculation speculation speculation, those are my priorities

He needs to find where the green Auto button is on his camera though...

And dont get me started on those Ar%$&oles with the smoke flares who have cost Nibali the chance of a Grand tour podium,  or the twa@t who attempted to punch Froome, or the d1ck who ran alongside Steven Kruijswijk trying to get a selfie.

Its good to see that it's not just some English sports fans that are a national embarrassment.

Did Jens Voigt get a fine for borrowing that kiddy bike in 2010?