Tour de France 2015

grouse mate

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Phil Liggett is a great commentator.

Paul Sherwin on the other hand can **** right off.

Phil is terrible. If they are gonna persist with him he needs cue cards to be handed to him. In the last 2k's alone he called Bob Jungles as Wilco Kelderman. How on earth a paid profeesional can get this wrong is an embarrasment to the sport. They are on different teams with completely different colours and one is wearing the national champs jersey of Luxembourg which was only raced a week ago, as bad as Dwayne Russell is he would never get stuff like this wrong. Then he called TJ, VanAvermaet. This is excusable because their both from BMC but he should of known who was at the front of the race.
 

grouse mate

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Oge have been decimated, Impey is out as well and Matthews must have some big question marks on whether he will race tonight. Anyone nursing injuries would be debating whether its worth riding on cobbles.
 
Paul and Phil are good for casual cycling viewers as they are good at explaining the basics. This obviously suits the tour as more casual watchers tune into this race than any other.

For enthusiasts they are rubbish though.
 

Ichabod Noodle

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Paul and Phil are good for casual cycling viewers as they are good at explaining the basics. This obviously suits the tour as more casual watchers tune into this race than any other.

For enthusiasts they are rubbish though.

Eurosport commentators are so much better (even if you can't understand Sean Kelly) pity they don't have the rights to the Tour.:(
 
Onto tonight, the glorious Pave and as much as the regular punter loves a stack lets hope for a clean set of wheels all round.

Who we backing? I like Boom, Sagan or maybe Vanmarcke?
One from left field, Rui Costa.
 
Stage 4: Searing - Cambrai
Finally the tour hits French soil, and what a way to do it; over the cobbles. Tonight has seven cobbled sections, totalling 13.3km in length. I don't have any information regarding each section, however riders have commented that these are more difficult than at Paris-Roubaix because they are all on a false flat.

carte.pdf


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  • Km 53.0 - Côte de la Citadelle de Namur2 kilometre-long climb at 4.8% - category 4
Being a fairly flat stage, there is a chance for a bunch sprint, but given that 6 of the 7 cobble sectors come in the last 35km, and the two longest ones are in the last 10 km, I'd say that today is a stage for some of the cobblestone specialists. Keep an eye out for Sylvain Chavanel, Johan Vansummeran (though he got pretty badly beaten up in the crash last night), Greg Van Avermaet, Sebastian Langeveldt, Stijn Devoler, Zdenek Stybar or Stef Clement to launch a long range attack. Of the sprinters, expect Peter Sagan, Alex Kristoff and John Degenkolb to all be there when the whips start cracking. I'm tipping John Degenkolb for the win this evening.


 

ben_1301

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God I dislike Froome.
Watching the crash my first thought was how lucky they were it wasn't another 20m up the road as someone would have wrapped themselves around that light pole!
 
God I dislike Froome.
Watching the crash my first thought was how lucky they were it wasn't another 20m up the road as someone would have wrapped themselves around that light pole!
Really, why?

I like him more than Contador. Not saying much because I can't stand Contador, though.
 
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Really, why?

I like him more than Contador. Not saying much because I can't stand Contador, though.
Hard to like any of the GC contenders really. They all have solid doping pedigrees, other than (maybe) Quintana.

Contador had 2 years out of the sport after being busted for using clenbuterol. He's never shown any signs of remorse and refuses to acknowledge that he didn't win the Tour & Giro that he was stripped of. Before that he was involved in Op Puerto, but they didn't have sufficient evidence to charge him.

Nibali rides for Astana - AKA "Dopers 'R Us". This is the team with such a fine doping pedigree that the UCI almost stripped them of their World Tour license earlier this year. No sooner had they been given the OK to race and they turned up to the Giro with a whole team that was blatantly doped to the eyeballs, with several riders going on to top-20 finishes who had never been inside the top-50 in any previous Grand Tour. Landa and Aru in particular were blatant. Nibali is guilty by association, given everything that has gone on at that team since its inception (and before, given Vinokourov's record).

Froome turned from a donkey to a thoroughbred racehorse virtually overnight. He's never tested positive, but nobody will ever be able to convince me that he's even remotely close to being clean. UK Postal - enough said.

Quintana at least has a natural genetic physiological advantage, having been born and raised at 3000m. He sucks at TT, but he's an outstanding climber - which fits perfectly with his background. I've never heard any suggestions that he's been involved in doping. It's just that he has no personality whatsoever...
 

ben_1301

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Really, why?

I like him more than Contador. Not saying much because I can't stand Contador, though.
He looks horrible on a bike, there's no chance he should be that weight yet still able to kick those watts up that kind of hill.
 
Hard to like any of the GC contenders really. They all have solid doping pedigrees, other than (maybe) Quintana.

Contador had 2 years out of the sport after being busted for using clenbuterol. He's never shown any signs of remorse and refuses to acknowledge that he didn't win the Tour & Giro that he was stripped of. Before that he was involved in Op Puerto, but they didn't have sufficient evidence to charge him.

Nibali rides for Astana - AKA "Dopers 'R Us". This is the team with such a fine doping pedigree that the UCI almost stripped them of their World Tour license earlier this year. No sooner had they been given the OK to race and they turned up to the Giro with a whole team that was blatantly doped to the eyeballs, with several riders going on to top-20 finishes who had never been inside the top-50 in any previous Grand Tour. Landa and Aru in particular were blatant. Nibali is guilty by association, given everything that has gone on at that team since its inception (and before, given Vinokourov's record).

Froome turned from a donkey to a thoroughbred racehorse virtually overnight. He's never tested positive, but nobody will ever be able to convince me that he's even remotely close to being clean. UK Postal - enough said.

Quintana at least has a natural genetic physiological advantage, having been born and raised at 3000m. He sucks at TT, but he's an outstanding climber - which fits perfectly with his background. I've never heard any suggestions that he's been involved in doping. It's just that he has no personality whatsoever...

He looks horrible on a bike, there's no chance he should be that weight yet still able to kick those watts up that kind of hill.
I guess there'll always be that sort of speculation with GC contenders. Except maybe when Richie Porte finally gets his chance with a full team.
 
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I guess there'll always be that sort of speculation with GC contenders. Except maybe when Richie Porte finally gets his chance with a full team.
You're not trying to suggest that Porte is clean? I take it you didn't watch the 2012 & 2013 tours? UK Postal doping at its finest.
 
You're not trying to suggest that Porte is clean? I take it you didn't watch the 2012 & 2013 tours? UK Postal doping at its finest.
Did you watch last year? If you dope you don't blow up like that on a stage that you're very suited to.
 

seanoff

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Did you watch last year? If you dope you don't blow up like that on a stage that you're very suited to.
Lol

Like his run up the first mountain in 2013 followed by a tactical tank.

Him and froome climbed that mountain in a time not seensince they got serious about doping control. Then suddenly a whole team storms onto the mountain and the two leader smash the field to pieces.

Even the peleton were convinced they were on something. Or they are the two greatest riders of all time.
 
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