“I ‘m winning the Tour and you can’t prove sh*t”

(photo from velonews, my caption 😉


My time to blog about the Tour, even watch the Tour is about to get limited but I’ll write a short one while I can.

As you know, I’m no fan of Froome’s, but my dislike for him grows it seems with each passing stage.

Today (again) he took food within the last 6 km where it isn’t allowed. He called for his teammate Porte to get him gel from the team car. Porte did, wihile the race referees shouted at him. Froome was in danger of bonking, admitting after the stage he was out of sugar. The effect of that if he had not received the gel could have resulted in a bonk and possibly time loss. It has before (Landis in 2006 comes to mind), but instead Froome/Porte/Sky made their own rules and did what they felt they had to do. Their penalty? A 20 second time loss for Froome and Porte.

Froome, being the whiner he is whined, “If you look at it technically, Richie actually took the feed from the car, not me. Maybe that’s something that should be taken into consideration”. Ugh.

What a stand-up guy. Sky breaks the rules when they need to, yet we’re not supposed to believe despite Froome’s off-the-charts performances day after day (after day) that Froome uses performance enhancing drugs.

Right…

Enough about him.

NBC showed the entirety of the stage so we got to see early attacks and the break form. One more thing about Froome, it says a lot about the guy that when Contador’s support riders attacked early on, Froome chased them down isolating himself! Everything came back together, but still, a bone-headed move by Froome. It seems he can’t stand when his rivals attack – regardless of the size of his lead. Not a smart racing strategy.

Tejay Van Garderen rode a perfect race; the only problem was his bike didn’t. On the descent of the Col de Sarenne Van Garderen hit a bump which caused his gearing to lock up, or so it appeared. He had to get a bike change, which he had to wait on, but even so he managed to catch back up to his two other break-mates, Riblon and Moser before ascending Alp d’huez again. Van Garderen dropped them on the climb, but as he got closer and closer to the finish he got slower and slower.

He was so close to finishing it off and getting a much deserved victory – and maybe he would have if a teammate had got him a gel or two – but it wasn’t to be.

Instead Riblon got the French their first victory of the 100th Tour de France.

The top 5 finishers for Stage 18:

  • 1. Christophe RIBLON, Ag2r La Mondiale, in 4:51:32
  • 2. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at :59
  • 3. Moreno MOSER, Cannondale, at 1:27
  • 4. Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, Movistar, at 2:12
  • 5. Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER

The top 10 places in the general classification now:

    • 1. Christopher FROOME, Sky, in 71:02:19
    • 2. Alberto CONTADOR VELASCO, Saxo-Tinkoff, at 5:11
    • 3. Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS, Movistar, at 5:32
    • 4. Roman KREUZIGER, Saxo-Tinkoff, at 5:44
    • 5. Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, Katusha, at 5:58
    • 6. Bauke MOLLEMA, Belkin, at 8:58
    • 7. Jakob FUGLSANG, Astana, at 9:33
    • 8. Michael ROGERS, Saxo-Tinkoff, at 14:26
    • 9. Michal KWIATKOWSKI, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at 14:38
    • 10. Laurens TEN DAM, Belkin, at 14:39

Stage 19:

Tomorrow’s stage profile looks like a beast. We certainly could see more movement in the top 10-20 places in the GC.

Stage profile