Le Tour

anybody watching?

Peter Sagan just cracked on the PAS DE PEYROL (PUY MARY)

looks like the breakaway is going to beat the peleton today

As much as I can. Hard on a phone at work. Nice to see Vaermaet take the win, a USA registered team. No real allegiances but would like to see Cannondale Drapac do well.

I watch on the weekends, can't watch from work during the week. I don't really have any favorites though it was nice to see Sagan continue having a great year with his stage win. The sport needs more Sagan's, total rock star but in a fun way. I guess if I had to pick a GC favorite, I'd love to see Quintana take on Froome and win. Not that I care one way or the other about Quintana but I love to see greatness and anyone taking down Froome would be awesome to watch.

I haven't seen it, or even an ad for it?

This thread reminded me that I do like watching the tour, I found the stage 5 video recap.  Lots of talking, very little action video.

I try and watch daily. I will watch the replay on nbcsports at night. I usually try to catch the last 30 minutes at least.

what a crazy day, chris froome running up the road with out a bike

crazy shit

That was insane today when Froom was running up the road.  they were saying because the moved the finish due to the high winds they didn't have enough barriers in place to keep the crowds out of the road.  It forced more crowds that would have been spread over 6km to concentrate in that one spot.  Normally the last Km is barrier controlled and this happened inside that.  

At least they did the right thing and adjusted the GC based on how there were at the site of the pile up.

It's like a national holiday in our household.

My 9 yo lives and breathes cycling so we're watching the entire broadcast every day (either the AM or primetime recast). He could probably name just about all of the top 10 GC contenders and their teams....which would be tough even for me to do.

He's a loyal Tejay fan, wears his BMC cap every day during the tour and sprinkles in his various jerseys based on how important he thinks the stage is that day....For his Bday last year we wrote a note to BMC Team to see if they would ask Tejay to send him a signed photo for his BDay. He was off training in Europe at the time and couldn't do it personally, but the team sent him the cap, a musette bag, a team photo, and some other swag. Probably the best gift he's gotten in years!

All that said, these guys have got to start making some aggressive moves on Froome if they're going to dethrone him--it's like they're all waiting for the last 2-3 stages and it's getting to be too late.

SIAWOL wrote

It's like a national holiday in our household.

My 9 yo lives and breathes cycling so we're watching the entire broadcast every day (either the AM or primetime recast). He could probably name just about all of the top 10 GC contenders and their teams....which would be tough even for me to do.

He's a loyal Tejay fan, wears his BMC cap every day during the tour and sprinkles in his various jerseys based on how important he thinks the stage is that day....For his Bday last year we wrote a note to BMC Team to see if they would ask Tejay to send him a signed photo for his BDay. He was off training in Europe at the time and couldn't do it personally, but the team sent him the cap, a musette bag, a team photo, and some other swag. Probably the best gift he's gotten in years!

All that said, these guys have got to start making some aggressive moves on Froome if they're going to dethrone him--it's like they're all waiting for the last 2-3 stages and it's getting to be too late.

Great to see your son so into bicycle racing. Too few of us around here in the States.  It is such a Euro centered sport, but it is good to see that we at least have a few races in the US that attracts world class riders. That is a new thing in the last 5-10 years.

SIAWOL wrote

He's a loyal Tejay fan...

How is he feeling about TVG's chances?

I think BMC needs to start thinking about backing Porte for a chance at a podium. Their current GC times don't show the reality... Porte would be much closer to Froome if he hadn't had the mechanical early on. Porte hasn't had his traditional off day and has matched Froome on all the climbs, whereas TVG couldn't keep up on Sunday.

I was kinda neutral on Sky and Froome doing the Sky train thing and making attacks (and interesting racing) almost impossible. But Froome has shown some guts and determination, I dig it. No one else has gone after it like he has.

What got me fully behind Froome was on Sunday's stage when he faked an attack and then looked back at everyone like "yea, what's up?" Not sure if he was taking a measure to see if anyone would try going after him, giving his rivals an FU, or both. But it showed he was in total control of things.