Antonio Fletcha's passion & excitement overcomes him and I found him incredibly irritating, thats was until I saw him teary after speaking to Rolland after his stage win and I realise he just loves the sport.
Still sometimes he is incomprehensible and a bit disjointed.
Typical Argentinian/Spanyard really! He's great and was a fantastic rider but he needs a cohort, someone to steer him and do the actual presenting. I get the current 'thing' is to have a presenter ride part of the course and then comment on it, but get someone to discuss it with him or something.
Matt Stephens (GCN guy) was great on the commentary but again, so passionate he was getting pretty incomprehensible at time when things kicked off and there were riders and groups scattered over the final climb. Like when Froome attacked, both presenters commented it was Kwaitkowski when only a few seconds before we'd seen him burying himself on the front. Not even little flower could attack like that when already at max. Sure enough a second later we could see he'd clearly blown, almost stationary when caught & passed by Porte, yet neither presenter commented...! They were nattering about something largely unrelated to the action unfolding on the road.
Good stage yesterday. Porte, froome in a bit of a league of their own,cant see aru/fuglsang going for all 3 weeks in le tour.
It was a fantastic final. Only saw the highlights so really missed much of the early race. Sounds like it was brutal with attacks from the off! Porte did incredibly well considering how isolated he was.
Dauphine was awesome.
I was sad for Porte for about 2 mins and then realised it was a good thing that happened. He had an amazing ride up to bridge back to Froome and almost defend the jersey but I just cannot warm to the guy. His comments in his interview after were pathetic..... You have no team around you, it's the final day and people are racing you.... So you moan about it. Bell. Of course people are willing to throw away their 2nd or 3rd places when they could go all in and get the win.... The entire point of racing is to win and you are racing on the world stage where the people funding your sport want to see drama and excitement. But no, everyone should parade and let you win? **** off. Looking forward to him making it to week 2 in the tour and binning it.
Can understand his frustration, but equally what did he expect? It's bike racing! If he was annoyed then it's his team that wasn't up to the task & he can't expect immediate respect from other teams as a GC contender when he's largely unproven as a GT leader/winner. Everyone had done the same to Froome for many years when he was riding as one of Froomes domestiques, equally, he'd done the same to other teams when riding for Sky!
I think he and Froome should've been more aware of Fuglsang and Aru, they'd had a clear warning shot the day on Mont du Chat. The race was Astana's to chase and they really put it to Sky & BMC getting Aru up the road and Fuglsang in that GC group. I felt slightly bad for Froome, in that group and nobody else willing to help him chase, several of them could've podium'd if they'd caught Fuglsang - maybe even top 5 overall. Froome showed he's in good form but just lacking that last few % to finish it off, even without it he was dropping GC contenders from his wheel. Porte in incredible form (better than expected?) - he'll be the one to beat, but I just wonder if he's peaked too early. The real test will be on the rest of BMC - if they can't keep him protected I don't think he stands a chance, he can't chase 80% of the moves in the mountains alone.
There will be lots of new GC guys up there in the Tour, several of them will have cemented their Tour team selection. Fuglsang will be interesting to watch, I normally hate Astana but I've warmed to him as a rider. He comes across in interviews well too. So many young riders doing well is superb to see! And what about Ben Swift too, bet Sky are kicking themselves letting him go!
