Tour de France

[The Bedlington Terrier]

That Hoddle is a proper tealeaf sinkov and spouts pure bollox. Some of the comments he made at the World Cup were truly embarrassing.

[oldcolner]

Sky wake up
Thomas takes the stage (with Froome 3rd) so he has the yellow jersey. Froome in second place 1.25 behind.

1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 44:06:16
2 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:25
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:44
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:02:14
5 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:23
6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo0:02:40
7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:56
8 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale0:02:58
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:03:16

[Norder]

.

...it came to life - but sad for Nieve... with the finish line just round the corner, his lone effort rewarded with Thomas (et al) flying by to take the win...a super ride from Dan martin to come in sixth, after his bad crash....seems like he's recovered - he made Froome's day - and whats with Quintana/Bardet/Nibali etc - looking at each other to follow while Froome disappeared up the road...or didn't they have the legs ?

a biggy up next - Stage 12....Bourg-Saint-Maurice - Alpe d'Huez 175k.

Froome's gotta want this.



..

it's a Gamble Sinkov....but it's still early days - and anyway...you get some decent entertainment regardless - the Money isn't everything, is it ?

[oldcolner]

Cavendish and Kittel have gone out of the tour for missing the 30 min finishing time limit.

[oldcolner]

Another win for Thomas who took a further 13 seconds out of Froome. Lead now 1.39
Dumoulin third.
Great ride by him. Froome rode away but ended up being caught.

[Norder]

.

....Thomas with a back to back win in the Alps - thats some going - but what an irritating end to the stage - can't decisively say who was the weaker or stronger....last few km's (up until the final sprint) saw Thomas/Dumoulin/Froome/Bardet just hangin out - no cat and mouse with no late attack...was it decided that because of his crash (flag,Motorbike?) to wait for Nibali - because why else allow Landa/Roglic/Quintana etc to make up time. was an Interesting stage - sort of.

coming up - a flat and few hilly stages, then a rest day....then back to the mountains.



as it stands :

[sinkov]

It's not the money Norder, the amounts I bet are not life-changing. It just adds a bit of interest, and sometimes excitement, to the proceedings. Yesterday I had an each-way bet on Roglic @ 25/1, paying on the first 4, halfway up the Alpe I thought he was tied on for first 4, but he couldn't stay with them and finished 6th. To be honest I find cycling a nightmare to bet on, I do far better on the gee-gees and footy, but it adds to the fun.

[sinkov]

Race stopped. French farmers blocking the road and spraying pepper spray in the rider's eyes.

[sinkov]

They've decided it wasn't pepper spray now, it was the tear gas the police were using to shift the farmers off the road.

[oldcolner]

Geraint Thomas and Peter Sagan of Slovakia were among those to be affected.
Hope there are no long term effects and there wasn’t any salbutamol in it!