Le Tour de Pharmaceutical 2018

lo@Froome.... wonder if he will ever compete in France again?

Great finish to the event coming up with four riders still in the mix. With a steep mountain stage and a TT still to come, the outcome is still in the air. Thomas, Dumoulin, Froome and Roglic are all strong time trialists so a lot will depend on todays stage. There should be some 'all or nothing' efforts tonight.

Some heroic descending tonight?

JGK wrote:Some heroic suicidal descending tonight?

Fixed

Good tactical ride by Roglič to take the stage win & move ahead of Froome in the GC order. It all boils down to the TT today but i cant see Dumoulin making up the 2'05" required to edge out Thomas.

so barring a crash

So Thomas to win after another tour de force by Sky

First British born winner... but sixth in seven years for Sky under the British flag. Thomas is a deserving winner though, as someone who has been such a good team man over the years, and had his fair share of bad luck with crashes etc.

Dumoulin did well to stay so close without a strong support team in the mountains. Sky’s budget must be so far ahead of the rest these days, they are always likely to have three or four who can really dish it out on the big climbs, including a couple of GC contenders. Can they keep two or three leaders happy though, and what next for Froome? He’s probably got another yellow jersey in him if he bypasses Spain and Italy in between, but Thomas will be keen to defend his title as number one rider, and then there’s 21-year-old Colombian Bernal who looks like their man of the future.

Mayhe Froome should retire and set himself as a consultant pushing 'vitamin supplements'. I'm sure there are. plenty of blokes on tour who are vitamij deficient.

The TT couldn't have been closer with Dumoulin 1s ahead of Froome with Thomas third. I suspect the ride into Paris will just be a procession with the gentlemens agreement that no one attacks the yellow jersey on the final stage. With all the other jerseys sewn up it should be a stress free ride.
Congrats to Thomas & Sky for another win. Beams is right about Sky especially with the demise of BMC. Its going to take a team with big bucks to topple them.

Yeah, the other “big beast” teams of recent years have all fallen or retreated. BMC, Saxo, Trek, Astana etc... Movistar (whose history goes right back to Indurain’s Banesto) are still reasonably strong I guess, but failed to produce a genuine GC threat this time. But it’s hard to see who can challenge Sky, given their riders will probably be taking pay cuts even to move to another team as leader. It’s probably just a case of how long the Murdochs keep pumping in the sponsorship... other major teams have closed abruptly when you would have expected new sponsors to be queuing up.

Tourism France should get in but I spose they're already getting it gratis