Tour de France Stage 3: Verviers - Longwy 212,5km

neris

Belgium, Luxembourg & into France from Germany, a bit like 1939 all over again. Thomas still has yellow and Kittels in green after a decent sprint finish.
Up hill finish on a Cat 3 climb. One for Dan?

A coincidence or destiny, the Tour will take off from Verviers just two days before the 35th birthday of the city's native, Philippe Gilbert. And the day's course could well inspire the Wallonian. Indeed the climb going up to the Longwy Citadel looks a lot like the Mont des Alouettes where he had conquered his only stage win on the Tour in 2011. Whatever the outcome, the punchers will be on attacking soil, and the Yellow Jersey will be up for grabs.

General Classification standings after stage 2:

1. Geraint THOMAS
2. Stefan KÜNG + 5''
3. Marcel KITTEL + 6''
4. Vasil KIRIYENKA + 7''
5. Matteo TRENTIN + 10''
6. Christopher FROOME + 12''
7. Jos van EMDEN + 15''
8. Michal KWIATKOWSKI + 15''
9. Edvald BOASSON HAGEN + 16''
10. Nikias ARNDT + 16''
52. Dan Martin +49"
111. Nico Roche +1.14"


Top 5 Points Classification after stage 2:

1. Marcel KITTEL 63
2. Arnaud DEMARE 38
3. André GREIPEL 25
4. Sonny COLBRELLI 24
5. Mark CAVENDISH 22

DNF's today:
Luke DURBRIDGE

Last KM

bazermc

Sagan

Inquitus

Peter Sagan 5/2
Michael Matthews 17/4
Greg Van Avermaet 13/2
Philippe Gilbert 13/2
John Degenkolb 22
Arnaud Demare 12
Edvald Boasson Hagen 22
Matteo Trentin 33
Diego Ulissi 25
Daniel Martin 40
Fabio Felline 40
Ben Swift 40
Sonny Colbrelli 40

pelevin

I'll go for Gilbert to win.

Lusk_Doyle

That first line is the best opener of any stage thread ever!

Somedude9

Allez Philly!

Love these punchy finishes

Lusk_Doyle

Dan Martin 40/1. Great odds for that finish.

dastardly00

I'm not sure if it's steep enough for Dan.

Sagan ftw

Decuc500

The results of the first two days have been a bit predictable. Sky dominate the time trial and Kittel wins a bunch sprint.

So Sagan should win the first uphill sprint today.

MPFGLB

I'm hoping someone attacks at the 5km point...like Wellens and opens it up

But teams are behind the usual suspects like Sagan, GVA, Matthews, Gilbert

CramCycle

Am I the only one who keeps reading it as if they are going the longway, rather than to longwy?

neris

https://twitter.com/HaleFishLtd/status/881768977961279488

CramCycle

neris wrote: »

https://twitter.com/HaleFishLtd/status/881768977961279488

He stole my joke, d1ck :pac:

robyntmorton

CramCycle wrote: »

Am I the only one who keeps reading it as if they are going the longway, rather than to longwy?

Well 212 km is a long way

On the Spa circuit now, you never get a sense of the climbs when seeing it in F1.

MPFGLB

So Jens Keukeleire's dad thought Sean Kelly was Stephen Roche's son , i.e. Nico ( I think) :eek::eek::eek:


Mind you Kelly has aged well when you compare him to Roche & LeMond

Nice piece on Andy Schleck shown there with him in his bike shop.

REBELSAFC

Anyone having problems with the tour live tracker?

Itziger

Deleted User wrote: »

Nice piece on Andy Schleck shown there with him in his bike shop.

In the village where I live! 1 church, 3 bars and a bike shop. (Not counting the very successful company his Da-in-law owns)

Itziger

Itziger wrote: »

In the village where I live! 1 church, 3 bars and a bike shop. (Not counting the very successful company his Da-in-law owns)

Ha very apt user name for you so :pac:

velo.2010

Brian Smith on ES, 'I have an original Brad Wiggins podium jersey on my wall'. Burn it Brian, burn it.

Too much of a Brit love-fest now on Eurosport.

neris

:D

https://twitter.com/140CharTerror/status/881140122082836485

Macy0161

Was away for the weekend, so I've only seen highlights so far - ITV4 > Le Tour with LeMond imo.

ThisRegard

velo.2010 wrote: »

Too much of a Brit love-fest now on Eurosport.

On British Eurosport?

This comes up every race. It's a British station with a British commentary team for the most part, with a successful British team and riders. You can forgive them that.

Somedude9

What bugs me is their apparent forgetfulness in regards to the Irish riders. ITV listing the top dozen sprinters in cycling, no mention of Sam. ES talking the TT times of the top dozen GC men, no mention of Dan.

EC1000

Somedude9 wrote: »

What bugs me is their apparent forgetfulness in regards to the Irish riders. ITV listing the top dozen sprinters in cycling, no mention of Sam. ES talking the TT times of the top dozen GC men, no mention of Dan.

Sam is not taking part so no reason to mention him. Dan is borderline top 10 and gets mentioned a good bit - more likely to grab a stage than finish top 5 I would have thought (hope I'm wrong).

brianhalpin

Long time lurker, but I had to register for this.

How can anyone be complaining about British Eurosport talking too much about British riders?

It's all on TG4 if you want to ignore the English language completely - they also mention Dan. And why wasn't it mentioned in the poll? I think TG4's coverage is great, albeit I can only make out the English words.

Ps. For any fluent Irish speakers, how is the commentary?

velo.2010

Rob hatch and Sean Kelly now on commentary. The best ES line up IMO.

retalivity

The Irish lads on tg4 are pretty knowledgable...and come with some mad quasi-irish words!

07Lapierre

brianhalpin wrote: »

Long time lurker, but I had to register for this.

How can anyone be complaining about British Eurosport talking too much about British riders?

It's all on TG4 if you want to ignore the English language completely - they also mention Dan. And why wasn't it mentioned in the poll? I think TG4's coverage is great, albeit I can only make out the English words.

Ps. For any fluent Irish speakers, how is the commentary?

+1 and if your like me..watching while in work with the sound turned down), the commentary is irrelevant!

Eamonnator

Anything happen yet?

Somedude9

EC1000 wrote: »

Sam is not taking part so no reason to mention him. Dan is borderline top 10 and gets mentioned a good bit - more likely to grab a stage than finish top 5 I would have thought (hope I'm wrong).

They were talking in general, not about the sprinters at the tour. Dan is very much a GC man in this tour.

07Lapierre

not yet 2.5k to go....all together.

Inquitus

Dan got 3rd behind Sagan and Matthews!

MPFGLB

Great ride by both Irish lads....bonus seconds for Dan

DominoDub

Sagan unclips and has to start sprint again and still gets it :eek:

MPFGLB

Got to start thinking of Dan for the podium ...I know he is fast on these type of climbs but he is in fantastic form

Esroh

brianhalpin wrote: »

Long time lurker, but I had to register for this.

How can anyone be complaining about British Eurosport talking too much about British riders?

It's all on TG4 if you want to ignore the English language completely - they also mention Dan. And why wasn't it mentioned in the poll? I think TG4's coverage is great, albeit I can only make out the English words.

Ps. For any fluent Irish speakers, how is the commentary?

Give it 3 weeks and you will be fluent in Cycling Irish. It's like watching the Cyclo-cross on Sporza you will understand what you need.
14 years of school has it set in your subconscious 😆

velo.2010

Porte looked strong there. Sagan won that on practically one leg. Amazing stuff.

General classification after stage 3


1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 10:00:31
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:12
3 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:00:12
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:13
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data 0:00:16
6 Pierre Roger Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:25
7 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:30
8 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:00:32
9 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:32
10 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:00:34

De Bhál

great finish


That Eurosport jingle sounds like something from Who Wants to be a Millionaire

neris

Why is sagan wearing bmx goggles

neris

neris wrote: »

Why is sagan wearing bmx goggles

Because Sagan I guess is the best answer

pelevin

To win after clipping out more or less in the sprint - incredible. Great to see Dan right up there & especially pleasing to see him positioning himself well right through the last couple of km's.

MPFGLB

pelevin wrote: »

To win after clipping out more or less in the sprint - incredible. Great to see Dan right up there & especially pleasing to see him positioning himself well right through the last couple of km's.

positioning himself is the phrase as little help from the superstars at QSF

pelevin

MPFGLB wrote: »

positioning himself is the phrase as little help from the superstars at QSF

Twas easy to see Dan all right as you couldn't confuse him with other QSF jerseys. Good that didn't hinder him though. As the Beatles song goes, "Think for yourself cos I won't be there with you."

Eamonnator

neris wrote: »

Why is sagan wearing bmx goggles

Because he is paid to show them off.

CrowdedHouse

Eamonnator wrote: »

Because he is paid to show them off.

and I saw on twitter he's going snowboarding this evening!

https://twitter.com/nealrogers/status/881905059360985088

Lusk_Doyle

40/1 for Dan as an e/w would have been good today if only I had listened to myself!

rtmie

retalivity wrote: »

The Irish lads on tg4 are pretty knowledgable...and come with some mad quasi-irish words!

What's "bonyfikshun" as gaeilge?

rtmie

rtmie wrote: »

retalivity wrote: »

The Irish lads on tg4 are pretty knowledgable...and come with some mad quasi-irish words!

What's "bonyfikshun" as gaeilge?

I mean bonyfikayshun of course!