Le Tour de Pharmaceutical 2014

Growler wrote:I still can't work out how to put up individual pics, but here's a slideshow of stage 1 on Saturday for anyone interested.

There's 46 pics in total - starting with a few of the publicity caravan about an hour before the cyclists arrive, then the leaders. closely followed by the main peleton. After that come the team support cars, with a few stragglers among them.

The IT nazi's at work won't let me look. I'll have to wait till i get home.   

Growler wrote:I still can't work out how to put up individual pics, but here's a slideshow of stage 1 on Saturday for anyone interested.

There's 46 pics in total - starting with a few of the publicity caravan about an hour before the cyclists arrive, then the leaders. closely followed by the main peleton. After that come the team support cars, with a few stragglers among them.

Good stuff growls. Looks like a really nice spot you were at.

Great shots growls. I note that most of the support vehicles are Skoda's but Sky Team have a Jag...nice.   

Big Dog wrote:Great shots growls. I note that most of the support vehicles are Skoda's but Sky Team have a Jag...nice.   

and the cops are in a bmw. classy

Kittel is thriving in Cav's absence. Two from three stages & the possibility of taking the first stage on French soil.
Not much movement in the GC.
General classification after Stage 3
1 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana 13hr 31min 13sec    
2 Peter Sagan (SVK) Cannondale 0:00:02    
3 Michael Albasini (SUI) Orica-GreenEDGE          
4 Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC          
5 Christopher Froome (GBR)Sky          
6 Bauke Mollema (NED) Belkin          
7 Alberto Contador (ESP) Tinkoff-Saxo          
8 Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Movistar          
9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (BEL) Lotto-Belisol          
10 Romain Bardet (FRA) AG2R

Two Cat four climbs in todays stage but nothing that will keep the sprinters from another charge to the line.

Rumours that Nibali has asked for permission not to wear yellow tomorrow... the new leader's jersey to be Dennis the Menace style black and red!

As I predicted, Kittel takes another sprint stage. GC remains unchanged despite a crash by Froome.
The notorious cobbles of Arenberg awaits today.

Been heavy rain along the route and there may be some alterations to the route including skipping a few cobbled sections.

tricycle wrote:Been heavy rain along the route and there may be some alterations to the route including skipping a few cobbled sections.

Shame.

7 cobbled sectors as opposed to 9. The last four appear to be untouched.

GE have sent their cobbles specialist to the break

Froome quits

All a bit 1999. Might as well hand this race over to Contador... Valverde dropped. Only Nibali who can challenge and he's been shite this year

Are you watching it trike ?

It's absolute bloody carnage out there !!

Aye, crazy out there...

And now Contador falls back. While as a stand alone event, it's the best day of racing, I don't think this sort of a stage lends itself well to a stage race, especially a 20 day event.

tricycle wrote:Only Nibali who can challenge and he's been shite this year

Well, what do I know?

Skinny climbers pulling away from the likes of Cancellara? Since when did that sort of shit happen?

Nibali wins and looks pretty set for the whole thing now.

Lars lowered the Boom (coat) on the opposition to claim stage five as the main contenders all fell by the wayside. Froome threw in the towel (i bet Brad Wiggins has a wry smile on his face).
General classification
1 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana 20hr 26min 46sec      
2 Jakob Fuglsang (DEN) Astana 0:00:02      
3 Peter Sagan (SVK) Cannondale 0:00:44      
4 Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:00:50      
5 Fabian Cancellara (SUI) Trek Factory Racing 0:01:17      
6 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (BEL) Lotto-Belisol 0:01:45      
7 Tony Gallopin (FRA) Lotto-Belisol            
8 Richie Porte (AUS) Sky 0:01:54      
9 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin-Sharp 0:02:05      
10 Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Movistar 0:02:11
Nibali will be hard to beat from here.
 
Todays stage has a couple of climbs which will make it interesting.
 

Problem for Wiggins is that now he'll have two superior climbers in the team for the Vuelta a Espana, a race he was to be leading for sky.

Will Froome go to Spain now then, or just save his energy for next year?

Brailsford's said he's going to Spain.

tricycle wrote:

tricycle wrote:Only Nibali who can challenge and he's been shite this year

Well, what do I know?

Skinny climbers pulling away from the likes of Cancellara? Since when did that sort of shit happen?

Ball busting, tight fitting lycra may be the reason . . .

Sky lose another man from their team today... presumably just going for breakaway stage wins now anyway. Contador also a team-mate down. Who does he have in the mountains, and will it matter? Nibali at least has the support of Fuglsang, dubbed the "third Schleck brother" a few years back. Seems to me they overplay that sort of thing a bit and the strongest climber generally wins anyway, although a strong team to control things makes it easier as we saw with US Doping Service in the past.

They are still going for the GC, just Porte instead of Froome. Judging by their post race comments (having their best classics riders Thomas and Eisel protecting Porte), it seemed that they expected Froome to abandon. Should get a top 10, and they've got Nieve for mountain breakaways or another backup GC.

Jesus Hernandez otoh is a big loss for Contador imo. Kreuziger's replacement, Majka, doesn't want to be in this race (had a strop on twatter) and only has Roche for climbing support given even Rogers has done the Giro.

Agree about the team bit, especially with these contenders.

It must be grouse to be German at the moment