Tour de France *LIVE* *SPOILERS*

[72gmc]

Hey, Ray! Good to see you, hope you're enjoying life. Too bad about the asthma, but guitars look to be a good replacement rabbit hole to fall down.

I'm hoping for JA or Pinot on the top step.

[Red Tornado]

Originally Posted by john903

I just have to say that this years tour is shaping up to be real exciting. It feels like racing now instead of watching a fast group ride where no one attacks. My wife is really happy having two French riders in contention this year, she is hoping for two Frenchmen to podium. I is really cool when your significant other gets excited about the things you enjoy too.

This

[tony_mm]

Originally Posted by galgal

Fair enough. Tho you know Pinot is also the rider who has released 6 years of his training and race data. Anyone on Team Skineos do the same? For a team that prides itself on an attention to detail, they do have a habit of surprisingly losing their medical data, which is something other than a stupid mistake.

Btw, for the JA isn't suffering enough crowd, have a look at him after today's stage, crying and puking over the barriers.

Yes Pinot is one of the few (maybe the only one) who released his data of training and races!

[Ray]

Originally Posted by 72gmc

Hey, Ray! Good to see you, hope you're enjoying life. Too bad about the asthma, but guitars look to be a good replacement rabbit hole to fall down.

I'm hoping for JA or Pinot on the top step.

Yeah, I'm doing pretty well for an old guy. Just had to adjust my sites a little.

I just want to see the last stage into Paris with a Frenchman in yellow. Doesn't matter which one. The fans along that route will be LIT!!!

-Ray

[Hellgate]

Man! What an awesome race yesterday and today. We have actual racers this year, not data nerds...

[CSKeller]

Most exciting Tour in a lot of years!!

I'm an Alaphillipe fan... I hope today was his bad day. I agree with Chris Horner's assessment. JA made a few tactical errors and Thomas just got lucky.

I hope JA can recover on the rest day and maintain or increase his lead in the last week.

It is amazing to see people racing with heart and fighting spirit instead of being robo-drones staring at their damn power meters and not watching where they are going.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[kiwisimon]

It would be better without radios.

[ultraman6970]

I do have to agree... when I saw him pulling i was just grabbing my head... "WTH are you doing!!!!"....

Hope he learn from that lesson because the next mountain stages are going to be to live or die. Valverde is chipping time from behind... uran did not look good today but who knows the next mountain stages...

Now the question, who is going to win this thing?? I cant tell, everybody looks the same, one bad day and game over...

Originally Posted by CSKeller

Most exciting Tour in a lot of years!!

I'm an Alaphillipe fan... I hope today was his bad day. I agree with Chris Horner's assessment. JA made a few tactical errors and Thomas just got lucky.

I hope JA can recover on the rest day and maintain or increase his lead in the last week.

It is amazing to see people racing with heart and fighting spirit instead of being robo-drones staring at their damn power meters and not watching where they are going.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[tony_mm]

Alaphilippe surely doesn’t listen to the radio of his DS!! LOL

And this is great!!

[galgal]

Originally Posted by tony_mm

Alaphilippe surely doesn’t listen to the radio of his DS!! LOL

And this is great!!

Yup. The team and DS are not helping much. I'm rooting for JA as it's been a while since I've seen somebody race the TdF this way, with heart. I guess I can understand the skeptics, but you could point the finger at everyone. How did Dumoulin become a mountain goat in the Giro, Thomas a TdF winner at 32yrs with no great record, to say nothing of the other Skineos winners.
Alaphilippe won the yellow jersey by attacking and riding to a skill set that by now are fairly well documented through his steady progress through the Classics, and on stages that favored his skills. So he won the time trial by picking up 9 secs on the last steep ramp, which is exactly how he has won Flèche Wallone the last two years.
Question is whether he can hold on through the high mountains. Probably not, as he is the first to say, while also saying that he hoped Pinot would pick up the torch when he faltered. Honestly, if we can't appreciate a rider pushing his limits and giving it all he has, why do we watch

[nalax]

Originally Posted by galgal

Yup. The team and DS are not helping much. I'm rooting for JA as it's been a while since I've seen somebody race the TdF this way, with heart. I guess I can understand the skeptics, but you could point the finger at everyone. How did Dumoulin become a mountain goat in the Giro, Thomas a TdF winner at 32yrs with no great record, to say nothing of the other Skineos winners.
Alaphilippe won the yellow jersey by attacking and riding to a skill set that by now are fairly well documented through his steady progress through the Classics, and on stages that favored his skills. So he won the time trial by picking up 9 secs on the last steep ramp, which is exactly how he has won Flèche Wallone the last two years.
Question is whether he can hold on through the high mountains. Probably not, as he is the first to say, while also saying that he hoped Pinot would pick up the torch when he faltered. Honestly, if we can't appreciate a rider pushing his limits and giving it all he has, why do we watch

Well stated!

[paredown]

Originally Posted by galgal

Yup. The team and DS are not helping much. I'm rooting for JA as it's been a while since I've seen somebody race the TdF this way, with heart. I guess I can understand the skeptics, but you could point the finger at everyone. How did Dumoulin become a mountain goat in the Giro, Thomas a TdF winner at 32yrs with no great record, to say nothing of the other Skineos winners.
Alaphilippe won the yellow jersey by attacking and riding to a skill set that by now are fairly well documented through his steady progress through the Classics, and on stages that favored his skills. So he won the time trial by picking up 9 secs on the last steep ramp, which is exactly how he has won Flèche Wallone the last two years.
Question is whether he can hold on through the high mountains. Probably not, as he is the first to say, while also saying that he hoped Pinot would pick up the torch when he faltered. Honestly, if we can't appreciate a rider pushing his limits and giving it all he has, why do we watch

Love this summary.

You could see the young Alaphillipe ride on heart in his first TDF, and I thought he was a flash in the pan. But he has that pretty rare win or die mentality--he's all in, like the end of today's stage.

He's still young enough that he may come out of the rest day able to give it his all again--for the pleasure of watching, i hope that is the case. He does have to learn to race more with his head though...

[weisan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWitZ3DIr2o

[martl]

1 JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE 21 DECEUNINCK - QUICK - STEP 61h 00' 22''
2 GERAINT THOMAS 1 TEAM INEOS 61h 01' 57'' + 00h 01' 35''
3 STEVEN KRUIJSWIJK 81 TEAM JUMBO - VISMA 61h 02' 09'' + 00h 01' 47''
4 THIBAUT PINOT 51 GROUPAMA - FDJ 61h 02' 12'' + 00h 01' 50''
5 EGAN BERNAL 2 TEAM INEOS 61h 02' 24'' + 00h 02' 02''
6 EMANUEL BUCHMANN 12 BORA - HANSGROHE 61h 02' 36'' + 00h 02' 14''
7 MIKEL LANDA MEANA 65 MOVISTAR TEAM 61h 05' 16'' + 00h 04' 54''
8 ALEJANDRO VALVERDE 62 MOVISTAR TEAM 61h 05' 22'' + 00h 05' 00''
9 JAKOB FUGLSANG 71 ASTANA PRO TEAM 61h 05' 49'' + 00h 05' 27''


Amazing stuff, 6 riders within 2 minutes of each other, and the first two positions didn't look invulnerable, as much as i enjoy JAs panache.
Buchmann is possibly the biggest surprise there and no one seems to notice; he did make no mistake whatsoever so far and was the guy launching the attack that dropped Thomas on friday. Sometimes, its good to fly under the radar, he might be good for a major surprise.

[soulspinner]

Originally Posted by kiwisimon

It would be better without radios.

Here here!