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Crazy how they time it so close, seeing the clock at 2:30 seconds with 10km to go made it seem completely hopeless for the peloton to me. Funny that Sagan didn't even know he won, thinking there was two riders still ahead. Alaphilippe also extremely mad hitting his handlebars, but damn, he's looking so good, I definitely didn't think he could do that well. I know he won Tour of California and whatnot, but it was against a much weaker group, seeing him here beat out the likes of Valverde, Dan Martin, and Van Avermaet is super impressive.
On the flip side of things, Contador with another crash Losing 48 seconds today. Even worse though for Porte with a puncture losing 1:45, it's a tough one to come back from, not great prospects having one of them on your team (looks like 3 of us have Contador, and 2 have Porte).
It's going to be interesting times now, Tinkoff isn't a team that will chase breakaways, though it might work in their favor, as while Sagan is okay not keeping the yellow jersey, the sprinter teams will definitely be chasing the breakaways, and Sagan should definitely be able to hold the yellow jersey for at least the next two days.
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On July 04 2016 00:25 amazingxkcd wrote: are there ACE streams for this? dont want to rely on shitty flash players
I'm curious as well what you guys use for streaming, higher quality would always be nice.
Steephill.tv is a great website for recaps and watching the last few km of every stage: http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/
In terms of watching it live, I usually go on one of the sites here here, and cycle a few of the streams until I find something stable.
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Sagan made that look incredibly easy. Just casually let Alaphillpe go in front and then shot by him. Need to look at the stages a little more...but I think this has the potential to be an absolutely amazing tour from Sagan.
Contador apparently crashing again on his same shoulder as yesterday and losing more time. Definitely not ideal, hope he heals up.
Biggest news of the day though is Porte. Jesus Christ is that guy unlucky as all hell. He's like a teammate of mine who for the past 4 years has targeted the Tour of the Gila and every year on stage 1 he's had some sort of mechanical and been out of it immediately. Same with Porte every grand tour. Giro...gets a flat with 12km to go when the chase is ON. Loses well over a minute + penalty from wheel change issue. Then here at the tour, second day, and pops a flat at the absolute most inopportune time right when the race is full gas at 4km with a climb coming up. Over 1:30 in losses.
Sadly, there is no answer for that. It's bullshit any attempt you take. Porte didn't do anything wrong and lost 1:30. But you obviously can't give him a free 1:30 either, because he might well have lost some seconds near the end if he wouldn't have had the flat. Badly timed mechanicals may be part of the sport, but that doesn't make them any less stupid.
On the plus side, while his chances to win are definitely over (unless he is on some totally unexpected level) he could still easily get a stage win or two and/or contend for a podium position. We'll see how it goes, but I had Richie pegged to finish third or fourth behind Quintana/Froome depending on how Contador goes, and that certainly is still in play especially with Contador having lost time today and being banged up.
For the same reasons I'm not too worried for him and fantasy. As mentioned I saw Richie as a top 5 guy with a good shot at podium and maybe a stage win...and I don't think his bad luck will have a major impact on that; so from a fantasy perspective I'm not unhappy at all. Just feel for the guy, this is like 2 or 3 times in a row now.
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On July 04 2016 03:02 FiWiFaKi wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2016 00:25 amazingxkcd wrote: are there ACE streams for this? dont want to rely on shitty flash players I'm curious as well what you guys use for streaming, higher quality would always be nice. Steephill.tv is a great website for recaps and watching the last few km of every stage: http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/In terms of watching it live, I usually go on one of the sites here here, and cycle a few of the streams until I find something stable.
To watch live there are usually Eurosport links posted on steephill. Otherwise you can just watch the last 5-20km from the recap on steephill (most of the time this is all that is interesting to view anyway) shortly after the stage finishes.
Or if you have NBC you can just do what I do which is DVR it, then start watching it at 8 or whenever I happen to wake up.
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I guess Contador is doomed (not as strong as before overall and losing 48sec like this is very rough), that's pity to lose le tour like this but I'm not that disappointed,, it's not like I don't like the guy (in fact, I do like him) but his fans are the most annoying ever. With the trial bike, it will be hard for Quintana to gain enough time in mountains, moreover, he lacks of panach (the same goes for Porte who struggles in 3 weeks race anyway) if you compare to old big champions like Andy Schleck, with the addition of the Team sky overall strenght, I fear it will be a bit boring this year... Maybe not as bad as in 2012 because this year Quintana has been really strong but still. I hope he will prove me I'm wrong, I don't care if him or Froome win, I just want a good race.
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This stage is a turtle mech game ao far
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THE MANX MISSILE!!
<3 <3
edit: about as close a finish I've ever seen for a stage
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The difference is 5mm between the 2 riders wow! Has there been a closer finish in the TDF?
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Well this stage was the slowest and most uneventful I've seen in quite some time. I suppose the close finish made it kind of neat.
Next stage should be more or less the same, minus a potentially slightly easier time for breakaways as there's a 27km very slight downhill to the end of the stage. But it's roughly a -0.4% average gradient, which is too small. Really trying to find something to throw the breakaway a bone, but it's really not much.
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Tom Dumoulin commented on the stage length. He said nobody gets satisfaction from these >200 km stages in a grand tour. Would be much more exciting if stages were shorter. He expects tomorrow to be just as slow.
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On July 05 2016 07:43 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote: Tom Dumoulin commented on the stage length. He said nobody gets satisfaction from these >200 km stages in a grand tour. Would be much more exciting if stages were shorter. He expects tomorrow to be just as slow.
I absolutely don't agree. The entire point of a Grand Tour is to travel an insane amount of distance, to have a cycling achievement, and tour the entire country. With Degenkolb's perspective, you might as well make all sprint stages 50km and make every other stage a mountain finish.
All TdF between 1911 and 1929 were 5000km+, and this was back when average speeds were like 24-28km/hr.
Then until 1970 all TdF were 4000km+, in which the average speed climbed from 29km/hr to 37km/hr.
Since year 2000, the average TdF length was 3500km (compared to 3800km~ between 1970 and 2000), and this years tour is 3519km, and the average speed is at a hair above 40km/hr, compared to the peak of 41km/hr~ during the early 2000s doping era.
That works out to roughly 4 hours and 10 minutes a stage on average (though Champs Elysees and TT's are obviously shorter), but I am personally under the impression that a 4:30-6:30 stages are good lengths. When I go on a difficult hike it's around that length, when I go on any full day trip, it's around that length that I'm putting in an effort daily.
Make other races shorter sure, but TdF has always been an endurance touring race, and I'd like it to stay that way. I think there are plenty of one-day races in the UCI circuit for those that want to see action throughout.
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Movistar putting the heat on the peloton! Riders dropping like flies. Finally some excitement!
Landa dropped. Fuglsang dropped. Dumoulin dropped. Navarro dropped. Nibali dropped.
Maybe some of them are intentionally losing time for later stages though.
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Meh once Sky took up the front the speed dropped again
Van Avermaet going for a sick win though.
Final descent is very narrow, could be trouble for the bunch
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Contador seems severely hurt, Quintana extremely strong.
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Contador finally was back and then Bardet kills him with that final attack
Movistar and Sky looked strong today. Not sure if Astana is staying on the background on purpose.
I really don't know what was the deal with Tinkoff having Majka in front but him not helping Contador.
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Nice stage, movistar vs sky will be really interesting.
Van Avermaet is such an awesome rider, and also getting them points for my fantasy, lovely!
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Not enjoying this fantasy so far.
Contador looks like a lost cause at this point, having already lost 1:21 simply due to biking slowly and injuries. Hard to see how he can make that time up, plus gain more time to challenge for the lead, given that at this point the favorites are hardly trying.
Quintana and Bardet I still have good feelings about, and Dan Martin... I think he was a good choice still, quite a few here have Alaphilippe, but today he said that it was very difficult to keep up, so I imagine he will start getting dropped while Dan Martin will stay there.
Kristoff has been super disappointing to me, he has the biggest leadout train, they always take to the front, and then he just gets passed by someone so casually. As fro my other Norwegian Boasson Hagen, he's too good of a rider to be a lead out man for Cavendish. Hopefully Cav drops out soon to train for the olympics, and Boasson Hagen will be able to chase those stage wins.
Though I still see ways to win, other people have in my eyes completely useless picks like Ten Dam, Nibali, Dumoulin... Eric chose two riders not even in the race, etc. But ughhhh, I should've listened to my heart and gotten Barguil/Alaphilippe instead of Contador, and Sagan instead of Kristoff.
edit: Anyway, one more sprint stage, and then we will have three more proper mountain stages in a row. Stage 7 to Stage 9 will all really suck for anyone not in top shape.
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Pretty happy with my 3rd place. And Dumoulin is not useless, he'll win 2 time trials and win a mountain stage somewhere. I hope . Though probably Barguil would be a better choice in hindsight, he's looking really strong and Dumoulin looked weak today.
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On July 07 2016 03:56 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:Pretty happy with my 3rd place. And Dumoulin is not useless, he'll win 2 time trials and win a mountain stage somewhere. I hope . Though probably Barguil would be a better choice in hindsight, he's looking really strong and Dumoulin looked weak today.
We will see, I don't think the ITT's favor him, and I think he's tired from the Giro. Yeah, I would have picked Barguil if it wasn't for his poor performance on the TT of the second last stage of the Tour de Suisse.
Anyway, I finally purchased a Peter Sagan Jersey: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BZB8VMG/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Now I'll be able to show off my Slovakia pride. Their sizing is so weird, so hopefully an XXL is a good size, says for 173-183cm and 77-85kg, and I'm 176cm and 80kg, but pretty top heavy, so I hope my arms and shoulders fit okay, and that it's not super loose at my waist.
I did a lot of research on this BelarusVelo company, and they do make very good quality chinese knockoffs, so I vouch for them if you're looking to buy a cycling kit at 25% of the cost of elsewhere lol. $50 US or $65 CAD ~ with free shipping is solid, I just hope sizing will work out.
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On July 07 2016 03:15 FiWiFaKi wrote: Not enjoying this fantasy so far.
Contador looks like a lost cause at this point, having already lost 1:21 simply due to biking slowly and injuries. Hard to see how he can make that time up, plus gain more time to challenge for the lead, given that at this point the favorites are hardly trying.
Quintana and Bardet I still have good feelings about, and Dan Martin... I think he was a good choice still, quite a few here have Alaphilippe, but today he said that it was very difficult to keep up, so I imagine he will start getting dropped while Dan Martin will stay there.
Kristoff has been super disappointing to me, he has the biggest leadout train, they always take to the front, and then he just gets passed by someone so casually. As fro my other Norwegian Boasson Hagen, he's too good of a rider to be a lead out man for Cavendish. Hopefully Cav drops out soon to train for the olympics, and Boasson Hagen will be able to chase those stage wins.
Though I still see ways to win, other people have in my eyes completely useless picks like Ten Dam, Nibali, Dumoulin... Eric chose two riders not even in the race, etc. But ughhhh, I should've listened to my heart and gotten Barguil/Alaphilippe instead of Contador, and Sagan instead of Kristoff.
edit: Anyway, one more sprint stage, and then we will have three more proper mountain stages in a row. Stage 7 to Stage 9 will all really suck for anyone not in top shape.
Yea, I was absolutely going with Sagan this year. He's guaranteed for low-mid 1k pts range no matter what, and then with the way he has been riding all season his form is easily the best I've ever seen it. I just couldn't see not picking him, even with a higher cost. I'd probably have considered him seriously even at 30 pts.
Ten Dam is probably a useless pick. Riding more for himself on Lotto is one thing, but being here to work for Barguil and/or Doumalin he is just on domestique duties, and while a good rider he isn't a super domestique guy like a Geraint Thomas that might finish okay because he is strong enough to ride the front up climbs and still finish forward.
Doumalin we will have to see. His stated goal is the Olympics ITT. If he is rounding into form for that he could easily go well at these TT's. Doubtful he will do much besides that however, but I could see him being good for 300-700 pts.
Nibali, I forget what his cost was, but he is here to work for Aru + is coming off the Giro and we already know that any rider coming off the Giro isn't going to be worth much. Possibly will go stage hunting and have some good finishes, but I don't see him finishing top 10 or getting 1000+ pts.
Unless something happens to both Froome and Quintana, Contador is not going to be a factor to win. Still very possibly he could get stage wins and finish on the podium. That's probably good for somewhere 1-1.5k pts. This assuming his injuries aren't actually significantly more serious than he is letting on to, in which case it might be a bad situation.
I have no idea why you picked Kristoff to be honest. Where did you expect him to succeed? He's obviously no match for Kittel/Griepel (and this surprisingly resurgent Cav) on the flat sprints, but has no where near the strength of a guy like Sagan. Of all your picks that's the one I don't understand.
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