Off Topic Le Grand Depart

So Froome dropped a good half-minute to Quintana, but Thomas has dropped out of the GC Top 10.

 

Blatant doping from Nibali and Quintana today due to their higher Power/kg rating than Froome.

 

Crunch time for Froome today with two 'HC' climbs - one at the Col de la Croix de Fer (about half-way through the 110 km race), the other being the finish at Alpe d'Huez.
Froome has only 2mins 38 secs lead over Quintana. Either might win the stage and even, possibly, the race. Then again, Contador could just win the stage.

 

It's going to be an epic battle today, just sorry G hit the wall yesterday and lost a lot of time. I think it will come down to how much Quintana and Froome recover from yesterday, and whether both can get the support of their teams right to the end, as that could be crucial.

 

Yes, Froome lost almost all his team yesterday - Porte and Roche fell back, as well as Thomas.
Wouter Poels did a fantastic job of protecting CF. (Quintana had Valverde to help him)...

 

C'mon now Stanley, we all know that you don't know your Alpe d'Huez from your elbow.

 

Just been watching todays coverage, can't say I'm that impressed with the commentators, they gave me the impression that Froomes teammates had all been dropped and he was fighting a solo battle, next thing you know there are two Sky riders with him and last time I looked the whole team was there helping him. Is it just their way of hyping it up by not describing the action properly, also they were on about that Quintana then the next thing you know they were saying he was crap at descending and has a lot of accidents? Might as well have Burns and Swanny doing the coverage!

 

Forget that, Bojack. It's shootout time on Alpe d'Huez!

Quintana/Valverde against Froome/Poels/Porte...

 

This is it.

Froome leads Quintana in the GC by 2 mins 38 secs. Quintana is now 30 secs ahead of Froome on the climb...

 

6 km to climb and Q has 35 secs on F.

 

Q - 50 secs - F

 

3.3 km to go and it's Q - 1'02" - F

 

Quintana's aiming to win the stage and the bonus seconds. It could just win him the race.

 

Q - 1'15 - F (about 2km to go)

 

Pinot - Quintana - Hesjedal - Froome is the finish.

 

1'12

That's Froome's lead over Quintana ahead of the final stage and Finish in Paris, tomorrow.

 

Stage 20 result

1 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr 03:17:21
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 00:00:18
3 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 00:00:41
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 00:01:38
5 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
6 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 00:01:41
7 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky 00:02:11
8 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team 00:02:32
9 Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky 00:02:50
10 Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Lampre-Merida

 

What a great achievement by SKY and Froome, credit to Froome for taking all the ****e the French can throw at him and still come out on top.

 

General classification after stage 20
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 81:58:33
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 00:01:12
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 00:05:25
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 00:08:36
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 00:09:48
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 00:10:47
7 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 00:15:14
8 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 00:15:39
9 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 00:16:00
10 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 00:17:30

 

He's got King of the Mountains as well according to the official site.