Agree, cant remember being as excited about the Tour as for this years version. Re Froome, im guessing hes being cute with his training to give himself a better chance of a Tour/Vuelta double but nonetheless, Porte taking more than 30 seconds out of him on a flattish TT will have put the fear of God into TeamSky. Roll on July!Shorter stages are the way forward! Loads of attacking riding, from Aru and Valverde early on, then everyone else riding away from Porte, Porte riding everyone down and Fuglsang going for the win.
Froome didn't look on great form at any point in the race, but that was only his 27th day's racing this year. I think he's putting too much emphasis on training and not enough on racing. Porte's riding well, but Froome will still go into the Tour as favourite simply because he'll have the strongest team around him. Poels should be back from injury, Thomas will ride and apparently Landa might as well, that's three ridiculously strong domestiques. Way better than anything BMC can put up.
Riding the Giro will probably count against Quintana, and it depends which Contador turns up. Bardet and Pinot won't win simply by being French. I think Chaves is well worth a shout as an outside bet, although he didn't have a great Dauphiné.
A really strong lineup from all the teams as expected. This will be more than just a battle for the GC. 10 or 11 possible sprint finishes as well. With Dimension Data's sprint team I expect Cav to add to his list of wins. Should be an amazing 2 weeks.Teams for the Tour confirmed all bar Quickstep...
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_France_2017_Startlist
A really strong lineup from all the teams as expected. This will be more than just a battle for the GC. 10 or 11 possible sprint finishes as well. With Dimension Data's sprint team I expect Cav to add to his list of wins. Should be an amazing 2 weeks.
Sagan is unreal, unclipping in a sprint and still winning!
Not just a bit, that looked really nasty. Cav's tour is surely over, he looked really despondent when he met the press outside the team bus just now. Wonder what the jury will do with Sagan...he was a bit naughty today, elbowing Cavendish into the barrier on final sprint
He should be, IMO. Disgusting. Race clean, ffs. So fucked up. No need to throw an elbow whatsoever.Looks like Sagan's been kicked out! That's the latest report, no official confirmation. Insane drama but I can definitely understand it.
EDIT: It's official. A huge loss to the Tour but you can't throw your elbow out like that.