Tour de France Stage 13 – July 18th, See mod note post #107 **Unmasked Spoilers**

MS.ing

Eamonnator wrote: »

Can anybody hear the Fat Lady singing?

the one who sang for froome and contador?

Shakakan

Eamonnator wrote: »

Nibali's average speed was 37.9 KPH.

not on the climb!

Darkglasses

Spilak

Here comes Lemond's section :rolleyes:

Darkglasses

Spilak

New top 10 in GC -

Eamonnator

Valverde

MS.ing wrote: »

the one who sang for froome and contador?

No, the one, who sang for Froome, last year, and Wiggins in 2012.

It's all over.

simonrooneyzaga

Darkglasses wrote: »

Here comes Lemond's section :rolleyes:

They're not gonna wait til Porte finishes!! Could be 15 minutes at this stage...

pelevin

Porte

gordongekko wrote: »

My love for cycling died a little with that acceleration.

He put in one real attack & finished 10 seconds ahead of Majka & Konig. I don't think it's reasonable to make that kind of response to what Nibali did today.

Shakakan

mistermatthew wrote: »

It is hard to say how he would of done against froome and bertie. But Froome raced a fairly weak field last year, with a not top shape bertie, no nibali. Quintana learning to ride a grand tour and loosing bucket loads in the TT.

But Nibali has put in a more dominant performance than any winner in the last 3/4 years, 3 stage wins already and could conceivably be 6 or seven.

Questions will be asked for definite.

For arguments sake, had Froome and Contador finished 20 secs ahead of Nibs, with Valverde another 40 seconds back...would you be asking questions about Nibs then?

Furthermore, I think Nibs bossed last years Giro in a similar way against a similarly weak field...

And you can't say that Froome's performance last year wasn't dominant!

Kav0777

buffalo wrote: »

Does anybody like Valverde?

His mother?

letape

Rodriguez

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

Nibs in the TDF compared to Nibs in the Giro. Two completely different riders.

Nibali wasn't in giro in 2014?

mistermatthew

Shakakan wrote: »

For arguments sake, had Froome and Contador finished 20 secs ahead of Nibs, with Valverde another 40 seconds back...would you be asking questions about Nibs then?

Furthermore, I think Nibs bossed last years Giro in a similar way against a similarly weak field...

And you can't say that Froome's performance last year wasn't dominant!

I'm actually a big Nibs fan and think he's clean. My main point is that a lot of the Froome talk is speifically a dislike of Froome and sky and the rest of the riders don't face it. Astana have a lot more Skeletons than sky.

This time last year boards was coming down with accusations, I don't know why it isn't this year?

It's great that A proper bike rider like nibbles is gonna win, he races hard every race and I can see him making amends this year at the worlds for the last year.

pelevin

Porte

mistermatthew wrote: »

But Nibali has put in a more dominant performance than any winner in the last 3/4 years, 3 stage wins already and could conceivably be 6 or seven.

Questions will be asked for definite.

If only Contador or Froome of the big 3 were here, they would have, it's pretty fair to say, very likely won the 2 mountain top finishes Nibali won, & perhaps like today managed to distance the likes of Konig by a bigger margin than Nibali did. Nibali by a mile was the top favourite even before the race of the riders that are still here. It's pretty much as one would expect that by far the most proven GT rider in the race would be dominant if he was on form.

MS.ing

Eamonnator wrote: »

No, the one, who sang for Froome, last year, and Wiggins in 2012.

It's all over.

*whoosh*

simonrooneyzaga

letape wrote: »

Nibali wasn't in giro in 2014?

my apologies - I am talking about the Dauphine

pelevin

Porte

Doc07 wrote: »

Mod snip

Rubbish. He beat Majk & Konig by 10 seconds. A 10 second win is 'miraculous'?!

Darkglasses

Spilak

Some of you are getting into dangerous territory, so I will remind everybody right now - do not even hint that somebody has doped if it has not been proven in the public domain. Do so, and you will be taking a holiday from the forum for the rest of the race. This warning goes for the rest of the tour.

Shakakan

FYI

On the final climb
In 2014, Nibali did it in 50.03 (average speed 21.7k)

In 2001, Armstrong done it in...47.46...

According to this guy @ammattipyoraily on the twitter thing

Pudsy33

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

my apologies - I am talking about the Dauphine

He was only bested by Froome and Berty, and they aren't here so.....

retalivity

3 French riders in the top 6 in gc....watch the pressure ratchet up on pinot and bardet especially

letape

Rodriguez

I have always had a lot of time for Nibali. Great aggressive rider in all circumstances.

He always seemed the natural successor to Contador before sky "discovered" their winning team.

QueensGael

And here's the Oleg spot on Eurosport :P

Shakakan

letape wrote: »

... before sky "discovered" their winning team.

I think posts like this one insinuating stuff about Sky are the board's cycling forum's equivalent of Godwin's Law..

mistermatthew

Kav0777 wrote: »

His mother?

I think even his mother would agree he's nothing but an absolute C**t.

He has no class whatsoever like.

I fully expect Pinot to climb f his bike, get a mini pump of a spectator and beat him back down the mountain with it.

Doc07

pelevin wrote: »

Rubbish. He beat Majk & Konig by 10 seconds. A 10 second win is 'miraculous'?!

Can everyone calm down. The Armstrong quote in my mod deleted post was actually because I do believe a talented, clean cyclist can attack and win a stage without doping. I'm not naive but I don't assume everyone dopes in 2014. My reference to Pantani was about riding in front and winning the stage rather than limiting losses. It was a reference to Nibali's style and nothing to do with drugs. My God it's a sad day if you can't even mention the word Pantani without having the post deleted. In fairness to the Mod, maybe my use of inverted commas was seen as 'suggestive' but that was not my intention, I'm just a romantic cycling fan who enjoyed Nibali riding up front.

By the way Pantani burnt up plenty of energy riding up front to win stages by as little as a minute or so in 1994-1999. Plenty of that was to with his style and sense of pride as a climber and nothing to do with EPO. It's the 'non-drug' side of Pantani that Nibali showed a glimpse of today. Sorry if that offends people.

Leroy42

mistermatthew wrote: »

I think even his mother would agree he's nothing but an absolute C**t.

He has no class whatsoever like.

I fully expect Pinot to climb f his bike, get a mini pump of a spectator and beat him back down the mountain with it.

What did Valverde do?

pelevin

Porte

Fair enough Doc, but surely you recognise describing a ride as miraculous in the current environment would be taken by most people to intrinsically signify not believable.

mistermatthew

Leroy42 wrote: »

What did Valverde do?

Refused to help Pinot close the gap to nibali, claiming he was wrecked, then attacked him twice when pinot was trying to ride them back to nibali and then mugged him at the finish for two seconds after wheelsucking pinot for the entire climb.

Standard Valverde tactics.

Doc07

pelevin wrote: »

Fair enough Doc, but surely you recognise describing a ride as miraculous in the current environment would be taken by most people to intrinsically signify not believable.

Fair enough, too soon for Armstrong jokes. I probably should have put a footnote that it was Tongue in cheek using that quote. I can see why people would assume I'm accusing Nibali of something but I wasn't and it's a shame that's the natural reaction these days. I completely agree with you about the minimal time to the chasers. Many Yellow jerseys might let someone else get the stage and just watch their nearest rivals but it's nice to see the winner win sometimes!

Aoibheann

Shakakan wrote: »

FYI

On the final climb
In 2014, Nibali did it in 50.03 (average speed 21.7k)

In 2001, Armstrong done it in...47.46...

According to this guy @ammattipyoraily on the twitter thing

I'm going to be terribly pedantic here.. The two times can't even be treated in the same way - the 2001 climb was for a 32km ITT, while today's trip up Chamrousse was towards the end of a 197.5km stage! It's comparing apples with oranges essentially.

I am always happy to see the times and speeds returning to the realms of normality (and this has definitely been the case), but you'd need to see the 2014 times for an ITT, or the 2001 times for a stage like today's - otherwise you can't draw any decent parallels.

letape

Rodriguez

Shakakan wrote: »

I think posts like this one insinuating stuff about Sky are the board's cycling forum's equivalent of Godwin's Law..

I must admit I have no idea what that means?