Tour de France 2014 in UK

Berger said:
Wiggins beat GT at the British TT champs, in the rain, so his bike handling isn't that bad. He also kept up with him at PR so goes well on the cobbles. The only reason for not picking him is that they must really hate him at Sky now!

His climbing, he climbed almost all of Mt Diablo at the TOC on his own with no team on the front of the peloton then only got gapped right at the top. Where was the battering in the mountains when he won the TDF?

He's been one of the best Sky riders this season, Froome and Porte haven't exactly had stellar seasons...
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True, but he has also descended absolutely horrendously over the past 12 months, which is where you would need him to excel over the course of the Tour. His form at ToC looked good, yet when he needed to step up at the Tour of Switzerland, he lost the TT by quite a margin, and finished behind people he would usually smash to pieces, and looked even worse when it came to climbing.

2012 was a long time ago and he definitely does not have his climbing ability from back then. I don't agree with this, he started off fairly well, but seemed to peak and drop when others around him started to get on form for the real races in Europe in the summer. Porte is someone who looks like he could be peaking at just the right time.
 
Sky have lost another rider. Xabier Zandio out with what looks like a collarbone injury, so sayeth the BBC. Hernandez out for Tinkoff Saxo as well.
 
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I think it's down to motivation for Wiggins, and specifically maintaining his weight. He's said numerous times that he really has to work to get to his 2012 TdF weight and it's not natural for him. He's much happier 3/4 kilos heavier and should be targeting classics or IP Gold for me.
 
GSVBagpuss said:
I think it's down to motivation for Wiggins, and specifically maintaining his weight. He's said numerous times that he really has to work to get to his 2012 TdF weight and it's not natural for him. He's much happier 3/4 kilos heavier and should be targeting classics or IP Gold for me.
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Well he got back in that shape for the ToC
 
Sagalout said:
Personally I hope nibbles wins - really like him as a rider - not afraid to attack uphill or down, and his TT'ing has improved hugely too.

Its going to be fascinating in the mountains, as Contador is going to have to attack in the early mountains to try and grab a few seconds on each - the gap is too big to leave it until the last few days.
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Agree with that I would like Nibali to win as well, but it will be exciting watching Contador attack!
 
Greipel's power data from last 500m of his stage win yesterday:
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Looks like the max is a bit over 1600w.
Average power for the last 30 seconds is almost 1000w :eek:

more info
 
One More Solo said:
On merit, Wiggins deserved to be at the Tour and Sky deserve a lot of stick for mismanaging the situation to the extent that he couldn't be in the team for harmony reasons.

However, a short TT in the rain is very different to a road stage and recent form suggests Wiggins suffers in those conditions, thinking specifically of the Worlds and the Giro last year. When you look at the pedigree of the guys that finished in the top 10 of yesterday's stage, they're all either former MTB/cyclocross riders, cobble specialists or epic bike handlers. Wiggins is none of those.
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Wiggins has cyclocross experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5h-rnsF6I&feature=kp
 
Peter Sagan's a funny bugger. Funny as in peculiar. I guess his not-so-good grasp of English makes him seem a bit strange as he can't really elucidate what he's really feeling.
 
Contador has dropped out of the top 10. I can't find full standings to tell whether that's because he's lost time or because others have made it up. Of guess the latter. He's still got work to do, either way.
 
Cheers. It looks like it was stage 5 when he dropped out of the top 10, as it goes. He's not lost any time today. I'm sure he'll make a good chunk of it back.
 
Richie Porte riding a sensible stage today he looks strong and was ver confident afterwards interesting to see if he can back it up with the aid of the sky train when the roads gets more up and down.
 
Talansky whinging a bit. He was looking to the right at god knows what when Gerrans came past him on the left.

Gerrans came across to the right to try and get on one of the other sprinters wheels and Talansky drifted to the left as he wasn't looking where he was going.

I'd say 80% Talanskys fault and 20% Gerrans. You shouldn't really chop people up, but you should definitely look where you're going!

Edit: Found some still images, looks even worse, I'd say it's all Talanskys fault, wtf he was doing in 5th wheel at that point I have no idea, Nibali is sat on the back chilling out knowing he will cross the line and get ST.

The Europcar rider (Reza?) and the Belkin rider both have to take some major action to avoid him wandering around in the way of the sprinters too.

http://www.nonprocycling.com/2014/07/12/gerrans-talansky/
 
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