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

couerdelion

letape wrote: »

I must admit I have no idea what that means?

Godwin's law is someone comparing something to Hitler / Nazis.

Boards equivalent is someone insinuating Sky are dopers / evil.

Arequipa

Enjoyed the stage today...
Nibali was class and seemed to win relatively easily.. But at the same time he didnt get as far away from Valverde as i first thought...
Porte had a really bad day...

I still wonder, how would todays stage have panned out with a fully fit Froome & Contador ...!
In the Dauphine, Froome & Contador were stronger than Nibali, but maybe their fitness peaked too early, & Nibali is peaking at the right time...
I guess we'll never know!!

Think Nibali is very goid at hiding any pain or suffering..puts in a fab poker face, which must scare the crap out of anyone trying to topple him...

Brian?

Rodgers

Brian? wrote: »

Rolland will certainly have a go, might make it.

Today is the day the race will really miss Contador. I think we'll see Nibali and Porte pace up the final climb with a small attack at the end to take 10-15 seconds.

Well I was fairly wrong about that. Savage ride by Nibali.

Dr. Bre

looks like we are heading for another comfortable winner of the tour. Wiggins Froome also did so 3 in a row

Stevo1983

Porte look spent today, Nibali bossed it again.

happytramp

Sky have made an utter bags of the season so far. Not necessarily their own doing but that's the way it goes. Who would have thought Ian Stannard's classic campaign and Wiggin's Roubaix surprise would be the hi-light of their season! (I know Froome won Romandie but by his standards it's still a disappointing early season)

dastardly00

happytramp wrote: »

Sky have made an utter bags of the season so far. Not necessarily their own doing but that's the way it goes. Who would have thought Ian Stannard's classic campaign and Wiggin's Roubaix surprise would be the hi-light of their season! (I know Froome won Romandie but by his standards it's still a disappointing early season)

I'd just add that Wiggins winning the Tour of California and Kennaugh winning the Tour of Austria were very good results as well, but yes, they made a bags of their season

Richie Porte has had a brutal season in particular.

gordongekko

Bit harsh no teams have had an outstanding season. It's not that long ago that vino was having a go at Astana.

dastardly00

Sport can be cruel.....

Katusha's Alexander Porsev was outside the time limit by just 34 seconds

Giant Shimano were a bit lucky. Marcel Kittel crashed very early in the stage and that resulted in himself, Timmer, Veelers, and Devenyns making the limit by approx. five minutes.

GT_TDI_150

Eurosport mentioned Porte got medical attention in the last few kms ...

Any idea why? cynic in me wonders about clinging to the medical car on the way up....

Dr. Bre

sky have to let nieve have a go at a stage now. he looked good today until he had to go back for porte

letape

Rodriguez

More terrible form from Valverde - presumably all the riders know what to expect from him at this stage. Would love to see him drop 20 mins one of these days, like his misfortune last year!

I also thought it was poor of Majka to sprint past Koenig at the finish. It looked like Koenig did all the pacing and Majka sat on for the full climb.

letape

Rodriguez

RIP Fabio Casartelli -19 years dead today.

buffalo

Porte

GT_TDI_150 wrote: »

Eurosport mentioned Porte got medical attention in the last few kms ...

Any idea why? cynic in me wonders about clinging to the medical car on the way up....

I remember reading one of Horner's tales from the medic's car... I'll see if I can find it.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/book-corner/2014/5/29/5761342/reading-the-race-by-jamie-smith-with-chris-horner

Every good European pro knows that as long as the medical car is servicing you, you have permission to hold on to the car. As soon as the car pulled up, I asked the doctor to spray some numbing spray on my open wounds. After he attended to the wounds - and for the record, I pointed out every single open would I could find for him - I waited until he had put everything back into his medical bag before I asked him if he could please cover them up with bandages, too.

There's more at the link, but I don't want to risk being Sherlocked.

MPFG

I don't think Porte was injured yesterday ...says nothing about it in his blog

Just a bad day at the office

He was not the only one ....many riders suffered yesterday in 40 degrees heat .....final climb seemed to never end