Le Tour de Pharmaceutical 2018

Wide open, or a walkover for Sagan? He now leads green by about 200 points... if they want the out-and-out sprinters to make it to Paris they perhaps need to revamp that competition as well as relaxing the time limits in the mountains.

Possible breakaway chance I guess but they rarely stick these days.

Big Dog wrote:

tricycle wrote:The Alpe d'huez is not worth it anymore. As a climb, it's bog ordinary, and there is no semblance of control over the "fans". With the Dutch corner being a terrible icing on a rancid cake.

Maybe but you gotta love the scenery:

Agreed. Should be binned until the French rabble can be brought under control.

It’s far from unique to that particular climb though. Remember Froome running bikeless on Mont Ventoux a couple of years ago, the support vehicles could barely get through to give him a replacement... other than dropping the big mountains from the route and making it a totally different event, what can they do? Public no-go zones and fences?

It's unique to pretty much those two climbs in the whole season. Neither climb is spectacular, no Zoncolan/Angliru types. These are just uncontrolled messes. Flanders classics get huge crowds too, never hurt the race.

And the policing in the Tour of Spain is far more stringent than in France; heavy handed even.

beamer wrote:It’s far from unique to that particular climb though. Remember Froome running bikeless on Mont Ventoux a couple of years ago, the support vehicles could barely get through to give him a replacement... other than dropping the big mountains from the route and making it a totally different event, what can they do? Public no-go zones and fences?

Sooner or later a cyclist is going to get seriously hurt.

maybe it will be froome. Say what you want about the french but they are still crappy in a scrap.

Sagan takes his third stage with the GC unchanged. back to the mountains today.

Still in the anyone but club. But i imagine theyll do s carl lewis a la 1984

are there rules governing the tailgating of official race vehicles. i know theres very few other rules but some of the riders seem to be..darei say it.... cheating.

Yes, there are rules. It’s usually up to the commissars to decide if riders are cheating but they are allowed some leeway.

taipan wrote:

beamer wrote:It’s far from unique to that particular climb though. Remember Froome running bikeless on Mont Ventoux a couple of years ago, the support vehicles could barely get through to give him a replacement... other than dropping the big mountains from the route and making it a totally different event, what can they do? Public no-go zones and fences?

Sooner or later a cyclist is going to get seriously hurt.

A flare apparently thrown into the peloton yesterday, on an unremarkable intermediate stage.

Is crowd behaviour a bigger threat to the future of the Tour than doping?

beamer wrote:

taipan wrote:

beamer wrote:It’s far from unique to that particular climb though. Remember Froome running bikeless on Mont Ventoux a couple of years ago, the support vehicles could barely get through to give him a replacement... other than dropping the big mountains from the route and making it a totally different event, what can they do? Public no-go zones and fences?

Sooner or later a cyclist is going to get seriously hurt.

A flare apparently thrown into the peloton yesterday, on an unremarkable intermediate stage.

Is crowd behaviour a bigger threat to the future of the Tour than doping?

I see the brave french qunts were at it again today.

Attacking more or less defenceless people is a French default position.

taipan wrote:

beamer wrote:

taipan wrote:

beamer wrote:It’s far from unique to that particular climb though. Remember Froome running bikeless on Mont Ventoux a couple of years ago, the support vehicles could barely get through to give him a replacement... other than dropping the big mountains from the route and making it a totally different event, what can they do? Public no-go zones and fences?

Sooner or later a cyclist is going to get seriously hurt.

A flare apparently thrown into the peloton yesterday, on an unremarkable intermediate stage.

Is crowd behaviour a bigger threat to the future of the Tour than doping?

I see the brave french qunts were at it again today.

Yeah, Froome had a cup of (presumably) piss thrown at him again.

Will things be any better in the Pyrenees? Is it a case of less familiar summit finishes attracting fewer rowdy spectators than the iconic ones?

So, should I close out my bet of Froome?

No way. This is basically formula one rules on two wheels. Double down man.

If Thomas is still in contention when they get to the time trial, I guess it will be each man for himself. But I suspect he will have to ride for the team cause in the Pyrenees unless Froome cracks - if they fight each other they could let Dumoulin win.

Magnus Nielsen wins the stage with a well judged sprint to the line from Insausti & Mollema. GC remains unchanged.
Meanwhile Sky's Gianni Moscon has been booted out of the race for punching Fortuneo Samsic rider Elie Gesbert. Moscon was also suspended by Sky last year for a racial slur & was accused (but cleared) of deliberately causing a crash last season. I'd say his days with Sky are numbered.
Rest day today.

Will just add to Sky’s popularity in France...

Two cat 1 climbs to end this stage. Perfect for Froome to launch an attack on the lead.

Looks like some hairy downhill stretches as well.

hope †he sensible French continue †o heap merde on Froome.

Since leaving the Alps they’ve had flares, cups of piss and now hay bales and pepper spray to contend with... it’s certainly not just a problem of the famous mountain top finishes!

horace wrote:hope †he sensible French continue †o heap merde on Froome.

There's an oxymoron if ever there was.

Have poor old french farmers lost more subsidies