Tour De France 2014 Stage 5: Ypres - Arenberg Porte du Hainaut

[dart]

so worth staying up for, what a stage.

rest of the tour is wide open, boom and nibali, what beastly rides.

I made the dumpkoff move of taking him nibali of my fantasy team today as well. #rookiemistake

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

That was pretty damn special.

I'm going to be wrecked for work in the morning. Not looking forward to getting up at 6:30 to scrape ice off the windscreen, that's for sure.

But it was worth it to make it to the end of that stage.

Boom - wow.
Nibali - wow
Contador - suck

 

[blue gunslinger]

This will build and build

 

[bisazc887]

Spewin I got sucked into the hype of sparticus, always looked like top 10 but never looked like winning. Would have done better at his best or at the original full stage. Was my only bet. Ah well onto the soccer.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Oh man to have my kids on that podium ..

 

[eaglesfan99]

Porte a big chance here.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Spewin I got sucked into the hype of sparticus, always looked like top 10 but never looked like winning. Would have done better at his best or at the original full stage. Was my only bet. Ah well onto the soccer.

Go to tour thread said he was done

 

[Forward Press]

Porte a big chance here.

For GC? No way, needs a lot of things to go right.

 

[eaglesfan99]

For GC? No way, needs a lot of things to go right.

Last year he destroyed everyone in some of the hills while carrying froome, easily 2nd favourite here.

 

[monty1104]

Last year he destroyed everyone in some of the hills while carrying froome, easily 2nd favourite here.

Nah, doubt he will win. Maybe top 10.

For mine, from here it is (in order) Nibali, Contador, Talansky, Van Garderen, Kwiatkowski, Porte, Van Den Broeck, Valverde. Costa, Mollema, Pinot and Bardet all real wildcards.

 

[eaglesfan99]

Nah, doubt he will win. Maybe top 10.

For mine, from here it is (in order) Nibali, Contador, Talansky, Van Garderen, Kwiatkowski, Porte, Van Den Broeck, Valverde. Costa, Mollema, Pinot and Bardet all real wildcards.

talansky won't be ahead of porte doubt contador will to be honest with his 45 second deficit however tj I agree is likely.

 

[ben_1301]

talansky won't be ahead of porte doubt contador will to be honest with his 45 second deficit however tj I agree is likely.

LOL, Contador will put 45 sec into Porte on the first decent mtf, clearly don't watch much cycling...

 

[ben_1301]

And in regards to Nibali TT, if he's in anywhere near 2013 Giro form dis gon be gooood!

 

[eaglesfan99]

LOL, Contador will put 45 sec into Porte on the first decent mtf, clearly don't watch much cycling...

Watch the tour every year and last year porte broke away from contador easily with froome on his tail.

 

[TassieEagle]

Wet + Cobbles = Awesome. Now bring on the mountains.

 

[ben_1301]

Watch the tour every year and last year porte broke away from contador easily with froome on his tail.

Porte's not nearly in the form he was last year, Contador's a lot stronger and very confident! "Now I will take some rest and then we will arrive on my terrain."

 

[Slax]

I still think Nibali is the better time triallist though, especially over long distances. I'd have him top 20 in the world whereas Contador only top 30-40

Going to be insteresting to see just home much work Astana do over the next few days, can't see them really doing much to chase down breakaways unless they have someone who is a GC contender in them, preferring instead to save their energy for Stage 10. Contador won't make time up on Stage 20 so he needs to take a fair chunk of time out here considering what the last 20 kms is like, got a break on the Col des Chevreres and a good decent before the final time and he could get a few minutes even. If he can't make good time there then can't see him being able to do it anywhere else.

Biggest problem for me for Stage 10 is WC final is 5am that morning, so going to be a very, very long day.

 

[Vader]

Last night's stage was just amazing. The fact that Astana had 3 riders in the leading group of 4, with 15km to go, was just astounding. Sure, one of them dropped back to the next group, after doing a heap of work for Nibali, but that was an amazing outcome.

Dropping Spartacus on the cobbles in itself was no small feat. This is the man who has won Paris-Roubaix three times and finished on the podium every year since 2010. He hasn't ridden it in the wet though, with the last wet race having been way back in 2002.

Nibali was a revelation. We knew he had outstanding bike handling skills, from the way he descends. We had no idea that he was capable of riding the cobbles to such a high standard. It was incredible watching him picking his way past other riders on the cobbles, while Contador was being continually overtaken. I noted that very early (posting about it at 12:13 - after the 2nd cobbled section) and the trend continued every time they hit the cobbles.

Nibali has now made this a 2-horse race, with Contador dropping 2:37 and Froome abandoning the race. It's virtually impossible to see any of the other riders making significant time on him in the mountains or the ITT. Only Contador is capable of closing the gap - and he'll have his work cut out for him as well.

The weird thing is that many of the riders who fell off did so without the assistance of the cobblestones. Yes, there were some cobblestone related incidents - the best of which was the Lotto Belisol rider who cartwheeled off a corner and into a ditch. Froome fell off twice on the asphalt though, and Greipel, Kittel and many others also fell on the "good" roads.

What I really don't understand is why the peleton were in such a hurry. I understand them jostling for position going into the cobblestones, but they were going at 48-49kph for the first two hours, almost 100km before the start of the cobbles. I believe that this high tempo, combined with the wet & slippery conditions, probably contributed to many of the falls.

 

[dart]

Sky News

Tour de France: Chris Froome 'devastated' but insists quitting race was right decision

Love their use of quotation marks.

 

[ben_1301]

Sky News

Tour de France: Chris Froome 'devastated' but insists quitting race was right decision

Love their use of quotation marks.

As much as I dislike Froome how good would it have been to see him get through this stage ~3mins down on Nibali? it would have been like a perfectly executed handicap race!

 

[dart]

I agree from a spectator's point of view it would have been great.

But I feel the tour will be just as great without him, Nibali v Contador v Everyone else, it's going to be a wild July.

I'm not sure there's many other sports where you get such an up close & personal view of someone's dreams being crushed into tiny little bits, but you got that last night watching Froome abandon.

This morning's news is Sky/Froome are still unsure of his injuries:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-devastated-after-tour-de-france-abandon

I think he'll get a subtle roasting by the English press.

 

[ben_1301]

I remember Cadel losing yellow in 2010 with a fractured elbow, he still finished...

 

[dart]

I remember Cadel losing yellow in 2010 with a fractured elbow, he still finished...

who could forget that emotional moment when he finally finished the stage. . . .

cadel

 

[alfy!]

Personally I can see why Froome abandoned. I wouldn't wish doing 10+ km's of cobblestones with an injury on my worst enemy, let alone a wrist injury like that where it would have been brutalised all day.

Froome will never be seen again

Did laugh. He'll be back, maybe even for the Vuelta.

Last year he destroyed everyone in some of the hills while carrying froome, easily 2nd favourite here.

Porte simply hasn't been in the same form this season.

Watch the tour every year and last year porte broke away from contador easily with froome on his tail.

Don't judge this years TdF chances on last years TdF results.

Richmond looking good for a top 4 this season after a good 2013.

What I really don't understand is why the peleton were in such a hurry. I understand them jostling for position going into the cobblestones, but they were going at 48-49kph for the first two hours, almost 100km before the start of the cobbles. I believe that this high tempo, combined with the wet & slippery conditions, probably contributed to many of the falls.

Tail wind + nervousness + fighting for position = high speeds and crashes.

 

[alfy!]