2017-07-21
Amazing jump by Edvald Boasson Hagen, no one was able to get to him on a flat road.
He more than deserves a win this Tour so I'm really glad he grabbed his chance here. I bet he's gonna be very modest in his interview and thank his team even though he did it all himself today.
Tomorrow the ITT. Roglič or Froome, who's gonna grab it?
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2017-07-22
Bora will be so happy; their lost their two aces this Tour and still managed this great victory.
Props also to Michał Kwiatkowski; he's been working so hard for Froome all three weeks and still managed a great ITT.
Roglič apparently had gear problems almost from the start, until we know exactly what it was it's hard to say if he could have won without those problems.
Froome wanted to win this one and failed but I'm sure he'll be happy with his consolation prize; winning the GC. (Also quite funny that all those people who predicted Froome almost every day. failed.. :p)
Uran did quite well apart from hitting the boarding and only just managing to stay upright.
Bardet is the big loser of the day; was he out of energy or was it nerves? Two seconds slower and Sky would have had two men on the podium tomorrow. At least it will give hime more experience for the next years, I can't imagine him failing like this next year.
One more to go! Paris isn't far now. :)
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A pity the French crowd reacted the way it did when Froome started his time trial...
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Bardet and Barguil couldn't have been a treat for Froome during the time trial in normal circumstances except for an accident or mechanical failure and Froome nearly overtook Bardet.
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I barely knew Groenewegen at the start of this Tour and I must say that I was aware of him mostly through your 'hyping' his results ;). So I was VERY impressed today, how long did he stay in the wind ??? Amazing sprint!
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Thanks to Corran for organizing the event and putting up GAs and all the stages info and to everybody who took part in the predictions :)
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It's been almost a week now but I can't help but write a short review of this Tour...
General Classification (abbreviated as GC)
Froome won easily even if the difference in time was less than a minute. He claims he was scared a few days and didn't have the legs on every mountain stage. But his team is just so strong that he never was in that much danger. And that brings us to his opposition; they proved to be a bunch of scaredy cats... Maybe Porte wouldn't have been but he was out early after that really nasty crash. Dan Martin might have been able to do more if he hadn't gotten tangled up in it (and he fell again that stage); he rode for what he was worth this Tour. Contador and Quintana never were in it, as expected.
But Bardet and Uran... All they did was stay in Froome's wheel. I guess they were scared that if they attacked they might die halfway and lose time, but that's the only way to win. What's the point of following Froome through the mountains when you know his ITT is better than yours? It's a real shame, this Tour could have been so much more fun if those two had really gone for it. Props to Aru though; he was the only GC rider who tried to attack when he could (with success in the first week), in the end he just didn't have the legs for it. I'm sure he'll be back for more.
King of the Mountain (often abbreviated as KoM)
Such a shame Rafał Majka crashed out; he would have made the mountain stages a lot more interesting. Or maybe boring if he won every escape? Primož Roglič was a very nice surprised in the stage to Serre-Chevalier but he's not going for KoM points in the future, I'd bet. Warren Barguil really surprised me (and most cycling followers, I'd say) doing this well after his injuries, he definitely deserved the jersey.
Sprinters
Kittel proved so strong, winning five like that, who'd tha thunk it? Quickstep sure has an interesting situation with him and Fernando Gaviria (four wins in the Giro) in their team. A real shame that the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish crashed out, it would have been interesting to see what he was capable of. André Greipel didn't win a Grand Tour stage in forever, he will be sorely disappointed. Really nice to see Edvald Boasson Hagen win a stage though; he's a great guy and he deserved it. And what to say of Dylan Groenewegen? He sure showed himself to the world; he's going to win more Grand Tour sprints, a worthy Dutch successor to Jean-Paul van Poppel?
Man of the Tour
Well... Peter Sagan sure was talked about a lot... Not quite in the right way, unfortunately. Enough has been said about it, so let's just say he'll be back next year with something to prove. And let me congratulate his team; with both of their absolute super stars out of the Tour they still managed to do incredibly well for such a small team.
So who can we say was the man of the Tour? Mikel Landa? He sure was the strongest but reined in by team orders. Kittel with his five victories? Bardet for failing so hard in that last ITT and almost plunging his country into despair? Warren Barguil for his amazing KoM gain? Mikel Nieve for leading Froome and Aru between the campers? ;)
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tl;dr Yes, there are giveaways further down the page.
Tour de France 2017
No surprise I'm doing a prediction event for this one. :)
Due to me running out of time once again there aren't many Wikipedia links (might add these later) and the Tour Touristique was copied right off the official Tour site in a few cases.
How it works
Predict who is going to win each stage of the Tour. Anyone with at least one correct predicition will be eligible to enter the (50+ games) winners' event that I will organise at the end of the cycling season.
Preview
Even though there are no prizes for predicting the winners of the jerseys I can't resist doing a little preview on these.
Sites
Official Site
Wikipedia
A better list of riders than the official site, with thanks to bartwu
General Classification (abbreviated as GC)
This is the one it's all about, who will bring the maillot jaune (jellow jersey) to Paris this year?
King of the Mountain (often abbreviated as KoM)
The maillot a pois (polka dot jersey) goes to the best climber; who will it be this year? The good news is that the ASO has changed the rules and is now awarding more points for the 'real' climbs so we'll get an actual climber as a winner unlike some other years. Obviously the GC riders will all feature in this classification but there are some others...
Sprinters
This year a huge amount of sprinters will be appearing in the Tour and there is no one clear favorite making the sprints quite interesting (hopefully).
Feel free to leave your predictions for jersey winners and other speculations in the comments below.
Man of the Tour
We can say it before the start already; Peter Sagan will be the man this year yet again. After yet another green jersey and three stage wins last year what will he bring us this year? Here's hoping he will be telling "Froomey" to lighten up and how they are artists here to entertain the masses. He recently announced he's going to be a father, will that change anything? I am really looking forward to his wins and his post race interviews. Technically there are 11 stages this year that he is capable of winning but that would just be silly...
Update: Well, he certainly is the Man of the Tour today (04/07) but not in the way I had hoped. Exit Peter. :(
Tour Trivia
Sylvain Chavanel will start his 17th Tour this year, equalling the record held by Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt. He finished the Tour 14 times but the record of most Tour finishes stands at 16 and is held by none other than Joop Zoetemelk. O'Grady has 15 finishes and Voigt 14.
Adam Hansen will be competing his 18th consecutive grand tour; an amazing record.
Stages
This table/chart is RaChart™ compatible and was created with Giveaways Table/Chart Creator
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