Pro Cycling 2015

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I don't think Valverde is better than Quintana for a grand tour. There's a reason Quintana has actually won a grand tour (two even) and Valverde hasn't.

this is not true at all.

he won the vuelta in 2009, and has finished in the top 10 in the last nine consecutive grand tours he's started - nobody's done that since miguel indurain (not even lance when he was doped to the eyeballs). on top of that he's won classics and minor tours every single year, including 3 tours already this year in spain.

on second thought i might retract my statement that valverde is *better* (i definitely stick by my assertion that he is a more versatile and well-rounded rider though), but if him and quintana had both been on different teams and valverde was on a team where he was the undisputed #1 going into grand tours i think it's pretty easy to say that there is a good chance they could be at least on equal terms as far as major victories go. after all, quintana only has one more GT win (giro 2014) under his belt and far fewer "minor" and classics wins. valverde's career has definitely suffered having to play the domestique to quintana instead of being given free rein to race for himself.
 
Okay, I forgot about that Vuelta win. But even so, Quintana has been second multiple times in the Tour. Valverde is an awesome rider, better than Quintana overall, but his climbing capabilities are just a level below those of the best grand tour riders.

I'm not sure Quintana has been number one more often than Valverde has. He's been around for so much longer. Valverde's also the main man at Movistar and still Quintana was number one going into the Tour these last few years. There's a reason for that.
 
valverde's career has definitely suffered having to play the domestique to quintana instead of being given free rein to race for himself.
He wasn't the best domestique though. There were times where he should have gone to the front earlier in climbs to weaken the Sky train but he just stayed in the wheels to make sure he could get a podium place himself.
 
you're right, he wasn't a great domestique. would have been very interesting to see how their careers went if they were the consistent #1 on separate teams.

in any case, i think we can both agree he's usually an exciting rider to watch whatever the team's strategy and it's a shame we don't get to watch him and nairo in the mountains.

tomorrow's stage :drool::hyper:

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what a hell of a stage. hope porte is okay, that was a nauseating crash. even the commentators were begging whoever controls the video feed to stop showing the replay again and again. amazing that dan martin was able to get back on and keep up as well as he did.

on reddit fabio aru seems to have gone from fan favourite to scumbag villain instantly. now everybody loves uran for finishing on a two-speed.
 
how is porte not dead! how did martin not die too! how did uran win! how does contador carry on!

with sagan being gone and the gc crowd being thinned to nothing the rest of the tour will be kind of boring. we'll just be waiting to see how much froome wins by. there will still be some excellent, exciting riding but I think the majority of the tension (for me) will come from watching how much Quintana and Contador lose by. I wouldn't be surprised if Contador finishes 10 minutes down. He really should have retired at the end of last season.
 
now we've got a tour :hyper: what a finish today. people are losing their shit over nieve riding away from froome but it was a 17% gradient at that point, there was nothing nieve could do to pull froome up on that slope. he did the smart thing in trying to take away the bonus seconds from froome's rivals.

i have a feeling bardet is going to take it in paris. he's clearly the rider with the best legs right now. froome is obviously vulnerable, i expect he'll be attacked a lot more often from here on out. the fitness of the sky domestiques might be the determining factor in this tour.
 
It was Landa who rode away from Froome.

I still think Froome is the favourite to take yellow. Don't forget there is another ITT to come. If he can limit any further losses then I'd tip him to win back yellow on that ITT.
 
Both Aru and Bardet need a minute and a half at least before the time trial indeed. Hope one of them can take it.

Too bad Uran got a time penalty as he was really close as well.
 
Woops, Uran doesn't receive a time penalty after all. They probably noticed they'd need to give Bardet one as well as he took a bottle too during the final 10k. The jury is really making a mess of it this year. Imagine if Uran wins the Tour with less than 20 seconds advantage. I won't care if it's ahead of Froome though. :lol:
 
It was Landa who rode away from Froome.

I still think Froome is the favourite to take yellow. Don't forget there is another ITT to come. If he can limit any further losses then I'd tip him to win back yellow on that ITT.
oh right. yesterday evening was the start of my vacation, i was half in the bag and got my mikels confused. :drunk:
 
time for the annual "davec and nielsgov post a dozen times about cycling" thread!

le tour starts tomorrow. so many exciting questions to be answered. will chris froome make it 5* or will the weight of all the urine thrown at him finally slow him down too much? will we see the first giro-tour double since pantani did it with a heart composed entirely of EPO and pure bolivian flake? will mark cavendish get four more stage wins to pass eddy merckx for the new record, or will peter sagan's other elbow have something to say about that? can richie porte avoid cycling directly into cliff faces for an entire three weeks?

stay tuned to this thread as i post updates throughout the tour that absolutely no one will read!
 
Feels really weird that the Tour's started with the World Cup still going on.
 
sunday's going to be a great day for sports. the tour on pavé in the morning and the world cup final in the afternoon. i hope the crowds by the roadside are extra hyped with their team in the final (sorry neilsgov lol)
 
Let's hope one of the Belgians can take revenge on Sunday.

Sagan dominating the first week as expected. What I find most crazy about him is that he's always positioned well. Almost every rider misses sprints in the Tour because they're either too far back or get caught up in crash. This almost never happens with Sagan.
 
i feel bad for richie porte. but apparently he didn't break anything and may have quit the race a bit prematurely by the sounds of it. considering lawson craddock has been riding for a week on a broken shoulder blade and completed today's stage on the cobbles, it's not a very good look for richie if that report is true.

i got up at 8 am this morning after going out last night so i was only about 40% awake to watch this morning but i'm definitely pumped to watch the replay this evening.
 
it was dislocated. i was off base with my last post, i wouldn't ride on that either. poor guy has no luck in france.
 
I hate to say it, but he may not be that good at riding a bike. Has he ever ridden a grand tour as leader and actually finished it?

Was very impressed by Quintana especially yesterday. I really hope he finds his form of 2-3 years ago back.
 
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the alps were great. in some recent tours i've felt like the GC riders just try to stick with team sky and doesn't challenge froome all that much and he wins the tour just by outlasting everyone else by small chunks. this year though the contenders are actually attacking and it's entertaining as hell.
 
i thought that extending the barriers back a couple more km's from the top of the alpe would take away from the excitement of the ascent but in hindsight i don't think it did, if anything i think it helped the excitement of the race, letting the main group ride in a bunch for the last few km rather than forcing them into single file.
 
What a stage yesterday! When the four leaders were "sur placing" with 2km to go...

It's indeed nearly impossible to attack when there are no barriers. I actually think Froome did not even dare to attack beforehand out of fear of getting hit. And with Nibali being forced to abandon... the crowd really was a disgrace. They should put barriers for the whole climb as it's clearly gotten out of hand on the Alpe.

Such a shame that Thomas didn't have the balls to just ride with Dumoulin once Froome was dropped.
 
anyone else watching this year?

i love alaphilippe. he reminds me a lot of thomas voeckler. aside from bardet (wtf is happening with him in this tour? he must be ill or hurt somehow) this is looking like the best chance in a long time for a french rider to win - i predict pinot will be on the top step in paris, with kruiswijk and bernal also on the podium. geraint cracked pretty badly today near the top of the tourmalet, and he had a bad run up to the tour with lack of preparation and a crash in the tour de suisse so i don't see how his form is going to get any better over the next week of climbing.
 
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