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Le Tour 2016


Bud the Baker

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15 hours ago, saintnextlifetime said:

Great finale. Great speech from Froomey not only a champion but a gentleman too and good interview from Young Babyface Yates , despite not being on the podium 4th is still a great placing for him and great for British Cycling too . I look forward to seeing them both back next year for another Gran Debacle. .:D

What strikes me with all the talk about how SKY/Froome are invincible is how well Babyface did just by hanging on at the back of the GC leaders, 4th place only 20 seconds behind Quintana - fuxake wee man, only 20 seconds ahead of The Babe. Yates is a fairly inexperienced rider in a middling team and yet without doing anything spectacular (3 top 10 stage finishes - highest 7th on stage 8) he finished well ahead of top riders like Aru &  Nibali

 

Edited by Bud the Baker
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23 hours ago, Bud the Baker said:

Record number of finishers this year -174. Was the course too easy?

Show of strength from TeamSKY today rolling over the line as a group after Greipel wins the sprint finish.

********************

Another predictable win for Froome/SKY following the pattern of recent tours where a good Time Trialer with a strong team can win the tour by riding defensively on the mountain stages. To be fair to Froome he did spice it up by breaking away on the descent on Stage 8 to show he's got smarts as well as stamina.

I haven't looked at the 2017 route yet but if the Tour organizers want to spice things up they'll have to get creative and include stages with cobblestones or where the riders are likely to encounter strong winds, both of which can break up the peloton. Time bonuses for the mountain stages might also help - might stop the main contenders all rolling over the line as a group.

Personally , the cobbles have never been a favourite of mine . I can see the reason why they keep Paris-Roubaix going but to have in the Tour I think spoils it as Roubaix tends to be ridden by those who like the cobbles or want to do that particular classic . I think the Arhenberg forest must give a few cyclists nightmares .  When it was first done riders were all on steel bikes with big baloon tyres whereas , modern bikes are not so favourable on that shit and if I remember correctly it caused mayhem on the last Tour they had them , 2 years ago. .

Edited by saintnextlifetime
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