Tour De France 2014 Stage 10: Mulhouse - La Planche des Belles Filles

[Ichabod Noodle]

Ok, said I'd be the first to apologise for my remarks earlier about Contador quitting seemingly without a fight - fractured tibia counts - surprised he managed to get back on and get as far as he did with a broken leg.

While it is Nibali's to lose now, it was Froome's or Contador's and look what happened to them. You gotta be in Paris at the end to have any chance and there are no guarantees this year it seems.

 

[Vader]

Wow, what a stage. First Contador crashes, breaks his leg - then rides to the top of a cat 2 climb, with the broken leg - only to be forced to abandon. Then Nibali destroys all the pretenders on the final climb, winning the stage by 15 seconds.

If Nibali can avoid following Contador & Froome into the medical departure lounge, then he should win this Tour with daylight second. Seriously, this could be the biggest winning margin in well over a decade. He already leads by 2:23 and there are 4 more mountain top finishes still to come. It's not inconceivable that he could win this race by 5 min, which hasn't happened since the days of Lance Armstrong.

Nibali has shown himself to be in a league of his own when it comes to climbing in this tour. Contador & Froome were the only other riders in his class (or better). Riders like Porte, Valverde, Talansky and Van Garderen are all pretenders compared to him. He's also a fairly handy time trial rider - not in the same league as Spartacus and Martin, but he's not going to lose time like the Schleck brothers.

I don't think that a Nibali victory would be regarded as a Bradbury. He led Contador by more than 2:30 coming into this stage. Contador may have made up that time gap if he hadn't crashed, but that was by no means certain. On the other hand, if Nibali were to crash out as well, then the winner (probably Porte) would most definitely have pulled a Bradbury, with the 3 gun riders - all a class above the pretenders - having all crashed out.

 

[Vader]

Just reading more about what happened to Contador. Apparently he crashed twice while descending the Petit Ballon - initially while trying to overtake Jurgen van den Broeck, then again while his teammates were guiding him back up through the peleton after his first crash. He then rode up the cat 1 Col du Platzerwasel and descended down the other side, before abandoning with a broken tibia.

How on earth do you ride a cat 1 climb with a broken leg?

Contador must have been in agony, going through three levels of hell as he tried to stay in the race. Credit where it's due, he didn't make the decision to abandon the race lightly.

 

[dart]

Nibali also won the Giro last year which was one of the toughest climbing Giro's in recent memory, so I don't think anyone could (or should) begrudge him the victory or claim it wasn't deserving (should he win).

Amazing last night though, as you said, he destroyed everyone, was great to see the (effective) leader of the race put in an attack to get further in front, instead of just sitting in and waiting for others to make the move.

I am still really disappointed that Contador is out, but Nibali is making things entertaining to say the least.

 

[grouse mate]

It was a bumpy road and he lost control???????? = Specialized make a lot of $$$ from bike sales and Tinkoff will look after the sponsor.

The story surrounding the broken frame is amazing to me, the pictures clearly show a snapped frame with number 31 attatched to it, first it was Contador's back up bike that fell off the roof, then Specialized say nah it was Roche's bike and it was ran over earlier in the stage . Clearly B.S. Then the story evolves into Contador's back up bike was taken off after the crash and then ran over by the team car whilst attending to his leg, plausible but as the pics show, this clearly hasn't happened. Now the official story has apparently come out that a Belkin car clipped the side of the Tinkoff car with the bike still on the roof and broke it. Now I realise the car was loaded up with bikes on the roof but they never hangout over the edge of the roof, if it got clipped by a passing car the car would have lost a side mirror and have damaged door panels.

 

[dart]

here's a run down on the broken frame palava

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014...ls-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328

I don't think this could have been the bike he was riding in the stage because it's perfectly clean, even the tyres and brakes.

it was pizzing with rain yesterday, any bike actually used in the race would be filthy

(as my poor little cervelo knows only too well)

 

[phantom13]

here's a run down on the broken frame palava

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014...ls-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328

I don't think this could have been the bike he was riding in the stage because it's perfectly clean, even the tyres and brakes.

it was pizzing with rain yesterday, any bike actually used in the race would be filthy

(as my poor little cervelo knows only too well)

I was tired last night but that looks like the bike i saw on the side of the road at one point on the coverage (distinctly remember the seat being all skewed

 

[dart]

there's this picture too

 

[phantom13]

there's this picture too

Thats not his bike is it?

Edit* Thats a 7 on the number and i read this morning Roche was riding the McLaren S-Works bike. Roche is 37... Illuminati?

 

[Vader]

there's this picture too

Contador crashed twice. This photo shows him standing over bike #37, which belongs to Nicholas Roche. The bike with the broken frame was Contador's, having number #31.

I believe Contador took Roche's bike after the first crash. This photo was taken after the 2nd crash.

 

[phantom13]

Am i the only person who thinks this might be HAUGGGGGGGGGE!!!! If the bike has failed (which happens apparently) and Specialized is trying to cover it up that sees like a big deal to me...

 

[grouse mate]

there's this picture too

This is Roche's McLaren which he left for him after the crash and then Roche took his own back up bike which is just a normal S-Works from the team car when they got there. I find it very odd that they claim Contador's back up bike had a race number on it.

 

[phantom13]

This is Roche's McLaren which he left for him after the crash and then Roche took his own back up bike which is just a normal S-Works from the team car when they got there. I find it very odd that they claim Contador's back up bike had a race number on it.

The whole thing seems very very odd/suspicious. There are just enough inconsistencies to make me really question the whole thing.

 

[grouse mate]

The whole thing seems very very odd/suspicious. There are just enough inconsistencies to make me really question the whole thing.

An NBC reporter says he arrived shortly after the crash and says he saw a mechanic pick up the broken bike and chuck it into the back of the car.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014...ls-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328

 

[phantom13]

An NBC reporter says he arrived shortly after the crash and says he saw a mechanic pick up the broken bike and chuck it into the back of the car.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014...ls-alberto-contadors-tour-ending-crash_336328

So many version of events. If they collected the Belkin car seems like an easy way to bed the rumors is to show the damage to the belkin car. I don't know what happened but it sounds dodgy as a three day old curry.

 

[Vader]

So many version of events. If they collected the Belkin car seems like an easy way to bed the rumors is to show the damage to the belkin car. I don't know what happened but it sounds dodgy as a three day old curry.

The article quoted by grouse mate indicates that Belkin have confirmed that there was contact made with their team car:

The broken bike had Contador’s number on it, suggesting it was his primary bike. But it was also quite clean, suggesting it had been on the roof, rather than ridden. Most teams don’t put numbers on riders’ second bikes, but Munoz has done so in the past. It is plausible that the broken bike had indeed been on the roof of the team car, rather than under Contador. CyclingTips was able to corroborate the crash story with the driver of the Belkin car.

 

[dart]

here's a picture of a specialized with a broken frame being extracted from a tangle of belkin bikes

could be a set up though.

 

[phantom13]

The article quoted by grouse mate indicates that Belkin have confirmed that there was contact made with their team car:

Hmmm still seems dodgy. I don't know, each of the individual stories seems fine the fact that there are four of them and all of them are VEHEMENT denials of a frame failure (as in none of them is even entertaining the thought of a potential frame issue) is whats piquing my interest, that plus i love a good conspiracy theory.

 

[Belnakor]

If he hit a pot hole on a descent even if the bike frame did break he was hardly going to keep riding without any difficulty. Either way sounds like a nasty crash.

 

[alfy!]

Other riders do/have done - and then go in the breakaway a few days later all bandaged up. It's the TDF, you don't just walk away from the TDF.

No offense but he seemed to give up just a little bit to easily. I've seen riders torn up and seemingly in worse shape (Johnny Hoogerland got smacked by a car into a barbed wire fence for f*** sake) still get back on and finish the stage. Ok so they haven't been GC contenders but to me, it doesn't look good for him - oh I'm hurt and my chances of the overall are gone, so I might as well pack it in.

Happy to be proved wrong by broken bones

I hope you've learnt something from last nights stage. Fair enough, apologise and admit you were wrong after the fact all you want, but that was some terrible posting.

Nibali also won the Giro last year which was one of the toughest climbing Giro's in recent memory, so I don't think anyone could (or should) begrudge him the victory or claim it wasn't deserving (should he win).

Nibali is in the worlds best 3 riders at his best, certainly not a tainted victory in my eyes if he goes on with this.

Am i the only person who thinks this might be HAUGGGGGGGGGE!!!! If the bike has failed (which happens apparently) and Specialized is trying to cover it up that sees like a big deal to me...

It's not and it hasn't.

The final story that has come out seems logical and I see no reason to doubt it.

 

[alfy!]

 

[Beavis07]

Hopefully Contador can recover in time for the Vuelta because that is shaping up as a superb field at the moment. Shame about the route though.

 

[monty1104]

Dem Feels.

 

[Andronicus]

I missed the stage. Guessing the biggest story was contador not finishing. What happened there?

Any other big stories I won't get from just seeing the results?

 

[monty1104]

I missed the stage. Guessing the biggest story was contador not finishing. What happened there?

Any other big stories I won't get from just seeing the results?

Contador broke his leg. Plenty of differing account of what actually happened. Climbed a cat 2 climb with a broken leg, overtaking the autobus plus a bunch of other riders.

Voeckler and Rodriguez duking it out for the KOTM was entertaining until Voeckler realised he could never beat Purito up a hill.

Tony Martin going into Panzerwagen mode and dragging Kwiatkowski (and others) all the way until the 2nd last climb, only for Kwiatkowski to crack and lose the white jersey to Bardet.

Sagan making the break and getting another 20 points at the intermediate sprint point.

Machado falling, announced as abandoned, then continuing to ride.

Nibali showing he is by far the best climber left at the tour.

Yeah, you didn't miss much