but he didn't know that did he? and though it was being talked about I was extremely surprised at the decision. it's the 14th after all, a day for fireworks.
It was heavily rumored at the start this morning. 60 mph winds, temps just a little above freezing at the top is/was the forecast. Anyhow, I wonder if its Froome at the moment or the team, in a planning session, that choose these opportunities. Either way its genius. For now, when you circle a day on your calendar, you better be looking close at the day before.
I don't think any decision on what to fo was taken before the race, it was a spur of the moment thing following Sagan, pure opportunism. as for the shortening of tomorrow's stage I'm still surprised. the temps and winds up there were a risk when they were laying out the ride a year ago and the way the weather changes I thought they would leave the decision as late as possible, and gone for the gusto if at all possible.
Well its good that he takes these risk/rewards opportunities. Quintana clearly is not willing to do it. I for one am seriously disappointed.
Fantastic finish today. The world champion is a bloody monster isn't he??? Great that Froome jumped right on it. Those 4 literally worked their collective arses off for to take that one. Froome must have put salt on his back wheel to lose the little leach Quintana. I laugh in his face...ha!
so, awful decision to shorten today's stage. forecast at the top for this afternoon 8c and winds 32-34 km/h. which, for the locale is about as perfect as you're going to get.
one doesn't get to one's sixtieth year without seeing a great deal that is pathetic but i can't recall seeing anything so pathetic as the justifications on french TV right now for not going to the top. gerard holtz wearing a down vest and sherpa scarf with people behind him in t-shirts... then he interviews a group of OAP including a couple of english pepperpots who went to the top this morning... finally the announcement from prodhomme that after all it was "only" 8° at the top (wtf? if he had decided the other way he would be telling us temps were perfect and he would be right).
They just reported on Eurosport that the wind is blowing at 120 KPH (74 mph). That is hurricane force winds. Wind chill is below 20 degrees F. While the temps really aren't an issue, to move all that equipment into hurricane winds would be dangerous for all those involved, let alone just the cyclists fighting the wind.
yes, I saw some shots of people who had cycled to the top in the morning and were unable to mount their bikes to come back down early afternoon. the forecast was pinpoint, I have to admit. the change in plans brought its own problems though by concentrating spectators even more.
Yes, making the best out of a bad situation. Way too many assholes in a concentrated area. It was mayhem.
it seems unfair to all the others who haven't gotten the same help from commission intervention but I think the right decision was taken. I'm actually having a bigger problem with his getting the yellow group to wait for his teammates. ok, some sh*t shouldn't happen, but that doesn't mean sh*t NEVER should be allowed to happen.
Some sense of order has been restored. Richie Porte lost some serious momentum that he was going to have had his move not ended in the back of a motorcycle.
Probably the only fair decision the race committee could come to. Seems that times were frozen at the moment of the accident. TJVD went up in my mind when he suggested they do something like this. That somehow the sporting history of the tour is being eroded away when people take advantage of the leaders in an accident.
Froomestrong is untouchable. He will win this easily. With help from Brailsford and Cookson (junior).
I think making any change after the Ventoux was a mistake but if you're going to make a change, they went with the best option. Cycling, particularly the Tour is turning into a sport where they should just ride in a velodrome. Any kind of "outside influence" is being taken out of the sport. The day before Movistar complained it was too windy to ride the stage. Really? Too windy? If it were me I would have said "sh!t happens" and left the results as is after the crash. The UCI never adjusted results when Lance went down or Merckx got punched. If the riders want to sort it out in the peloton afterwards that's up to them but the organizers shouldn't be making arbitrary decisions on the slimmest of justifications.
The bonus seconds for Quintana was senseless though, but many think that was part of the compromise/middle ground. Quintana wasn't affected by the crash in a direct way.
Quintana got himself a free tow from a motorbike away from the crash site. Can't say I blame him though. It wasn't a place to go down with all that traffic. Froome happens to agree with that as well and didn't see a problem.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bi...NPAKYsk1UpUAJyCKyO/story.html?p1=BP_MainPhoto The Big Picture. Some really good shots of this year's tour. As always.