And Hennie Kuiper. In the late seventies and early 80ies the Dutch dominated cycling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-Raleigh
well cove that was before my TDF viewing time, the first one i saw was 87 when roche won. so i remember riders like Erik Breukink on the PDM team
Enjoying the TDF immensely, as always. Was looking through some old photos of the tour, and have to say this made me laugh: please log in to view this image
https://twitter.com/jejeroule44/status/354911715261026304 Apparently a Frenchman on the side of the road threw urine all over Cavendish during the time trial.
I thought I'd see if there was any action on the Tour de France on this forum and it seems like a 2nd Canary forum page + Cove! Anyway I'll add something related to the OP. The last week is going to be immense! Many climbs! Even the ITT has two Cat 2 climbs! I think Quintana is going to be a weapon for Valverde in the mountains, although they missed a chance on stage 9 to attack. With 6 Movistar riders surrounding Froome they (Valverde and Quintana) should have attacked one after the other. Quintana did, but Valverde should have shown more initiative... His passive riding resulted in a missed chance to test Froome. Not that I'm complaining though! Here's a question for you guys. Peter Sagan is running away with the Green jersey, with him, Cavendish and Greipel winning one stage and Kittel winning 2... Is there too many intermediate sprints particularly on the more hilly stages (not the Pyrenees or Alps) which suits Sagan as he can climb some of the smaller hills and get the points uncontested? Inter sprints on the flats I think is ok but on stages with some category climbs I think isn't good for the competition, where all 4 would be very close together if final sprints are anything to go by... Just wondered what people think...
Not been the best couple of days for the ManxMan, one way and another. Maybe I'm biased, but didn't think he was at fault yesterday for Veelers crash, don't know what others thought. Well done to Froome today, was happy for Martin to win the stage, he's an awesome TT specialist.
Hi Astro, good to get your comments on this forum. Not sure why it's almost exclusively NCFC fans here! I love the TDF, but have to admit that I'm not too knowledgeable about it. I'm not crazy about all the intermediate sprints. Sagan is not a pure sprinter, but is still running away with it. I'm sure there will be some more intelligent replies to your question.
Well I think it's interesting to have two sprints in a flat stage. One: you get a wee bit of action in an otherwise completely dull and utterly boring stage. Two: it wears the sprinters down a bit levelling the playing field at the end of the stage. Sprinters like Cavendish and Sagan are very explosive but can only manage to push themselves only once a day/ Now they are forced to show that they do their magic throughout the day. Three: There are a lot of sprinters that benefit from their climbing abilities: Hushovd, Sagan and Degenkolb in the future, that the intermediate sprints are behind the first mountains or hill in the climbing stages is great because it gives more sprinters a chance to go for the green jersey, which widens the competition in theory. That theory is thrown out when the Yellow jersey contestants start attacking from mountain 1 and don't stop doing so till the last col of the Pyrenees. But the theory has worked at times in the past few years. Especially this year as only Kittel managed to win two stages. It's not as predictable as in the past where Cavendish wins 6 or 7 stages. Bummer for you Brits but overall the sprints have been a lot more exciting this year.
Thanks for the informed reply! I agree with a lot of this. Intermediate sprint stages (those contested by all the major sprinters) do add to the stage. The fact Greipel wins most of those ties in nicely with your comment on Cav and Sagan only sprint once a day, as he is strong enough to challenge more than once. You make a good point with sprints being behind the mountains opening the playing field, but I think they may need to bring them forward a climb or two. If it was behind one climb (cat 2 or 3 say) only, it may give an incentive for the pure sprinters (Cav, Kittel and Greipel) to attack the climb a little more to contest the sprint, knowing they may get points and any major attack for the GC would likely come later (but an attack for the stage would have likely happened on the first climb). Whilst good climbers still benefit from the position of the sprint, as they will be stronger for the actual sprint after the climb. Otherwise we go from one extreme (cav winning everything) to the Sagan dominating the Green Jersey by taking intermediate stages uncontested because he's better at climbing. Ideally every sprint should be a sprint (I'm guessing that's what everyone wants and not a tactical points competition) and every sprinter is there to contest it. When Sagan rolls over the inter sprint without competition you have to question the position of that particular sprint. But yeah the sprints have definitely been better this year. Whilst I enjoy Cav winning I like to see some fight!
well although the sprinting has been exciting with not one team able to contol the run in to the finish, the yellow jersey has been a bit dull tbh hoping to see froome and sky put under serious pressure on mount ventoux on sunday by movistar and saxo bank
Right on cue! What a stage! Good tactics by Saxo, let OPQS and Belkin do the pacing to eliminate Movistar and then attack in numbers to break away. I haven't mentioned Sky, which is illuminating... Mountains will be very interesting! Back to the sprinters, Cavendish and Sagan rode very cleverly today... And reaped the rewards. One of the most interesting flat stages I've ever seen.
What an absolute fantastic stage today! OPQS, Saxo and Belkin putting the pressure on Froome and Sky is falling apart. Contador burnt up his team whilst Mollema and Ten Dam had to push as well. Big winner of today is Contador, but Mollema has done great to get back to 2m 25 on Froome.
well done chris Froome on Mount Ventoux, blew everyone away. pretty much just needs to stay on his bike now to win
Great stage of the tour again today. Froome looked human today but who can blame him after all he's done. Quintana looks a future tour winner.
Great spectacle today. Huge effort from Richie Porte. Quintana gets better and better, podium finish for him I'd say.