Tour de France 2014

haha wow, Talansky back on his bike!

Oh dear... tears

IAM are quite a stylish team, no?

Poor Talansky, nearly 20 mins back. They described him as 'cast to the wolves' which seems about right. I know why they're doing it but oof, still.

yow. if you can escape a break containing rogers sagan and kwiatkowski you deserve victory.

Def, but he had the fortune no one wants to go to the finish line with Sagan. Can only imagine how frustrated Sagan must be.

remember mid 00s boonen? "when you ride the finale with me, you're riding for second place" or something like that.

http://i60.tinypic.com/2zz2el2.jpg

Cofidis soigneur is a goodmcandidate for fat mantis

Some great racing today! Nibali's still dominating.

Great race from Nibale, but it kinda takes the excitement out the GC battle tbh. He's out of sight.

Porte loses almost 9 minutes btw...

but it kinda takes the excitement out the GC battle tbh

What GC battle? I think that ended when Contador crashed out.

Yeah at this point barring Nibali doing himself in it's all over but the shouting. And Sagan has a deadlock on the sprinting.

Well, on the green jersey anyway.

NBS, well obv. But today really sealed it. Sagan on green but it will be v interesting to see if he can win a stage this TdF.

Valverde kind of attacking today was a first shocker. Props to Pinot and Van Garderen today, really strong.

Valverde kind of attacking today was a first shocker

He's such a shameless wheel sucker, I'd be tempted to slam on the brakes and punch him

I know right? And yet, he's loved in the peloton, supposedly's a real likeable guy. But maybe you'd have to be, clinging on like that all the time.

True re Madchen's point (sprints vs sprinting).

I've never warmed to Sagan - he's such a cocky blighter and so daggy - but I found myself rooting for him to win a stage this year. Then he said something about coming second being written in the stars and I went back to finding it hilarious.

I have to say I've enjoyed him getting more and more resigned to not winning in his post stage interviews, he's a lot funnier when he's not winning.

http://vine.co/v/MQ9j1AhOh2K

Well that was all over the place (in a good way!).

Yeah that was good! Isouard descent was something to behold, too.

Had to miss that part but sounded great. Will catch up later.

Does anyone know what he was doing in that auto caravana? I've been girlie shopping this afternoon and am well behind on the sport.

Arnoud Démare had diarrhea all day, so when he had to go just went in a spectators caravan.

Man, I was pedalling along with Bauer then.

Damn right, we all were.

really thought they were going to make it :(((

Boy we were all quiet this past week here, weren't we.

enjoyed seeing Vos the Boss racing earlier on
who was the last Frenchman on the podium? a doped-up-to-the-eyeballs Richard Virenque?

Yeah Ned. I've enjoyed myself but it's not been the same without a fight for yellow.

Still, a deserved winner and a great tour.

the race for the podium has actually been really good!

peraud is a great story I think, I read about him when he turned PRO after switching from MTBs and his struggles with getting comfortable riding in a bunch, playing a team role, etc. you'd assume he wouldn't have too many grand tours left, though he's pretty lightly-raced for a 37-y.o. due to the late switch.

good to see nibali win. no great love for Astana or Vino, but European cycling isn't the same without Italian cycling. great to see Peraud & young Pinot up there as well.

reasonable/decent Tour. kinda amusing 'everything' was decided in that Paris-Roubaix stage. (Contador wouldn't have crashed if Nibali hadn't put 2 minutes 'behind him')

it was good to see so many helpers get their chance to shine because their team's top rider was gone/crap.

Yeah, definitely. Interesting to see Richie Porte crash and burn too - I wonder how much use he'd have been to Froome.

I missed nearly all of the final week because I'm on holiday (ironically in France), but I managed to catch Nibali's stage win in the Pyrenees the other day (I started watching maybe two minutes before he caught and zoomed straight past Nieve). I'm pleased for him (assuming he's clean, which I'd say is probably but not definitely the case). Also pleased for the French. And also pleased that Sky managed absolutely fuck all. And relieved that unrepentant cheat Valverde dropped off the podium.

i do hope it's not the red sox winning the world series, but i do enjoy seeing deserved (afaict) french success at tdf.

Kind of bummed about La Course, not the race itself which was everything a women's race can be, attack attack attack right from the gun. Not that we got to see it. Despite it being on at a convenient time for Oz, it started too early and ended up being a minor side show. Not having a combined podium at the end diminished the race. La course should have been scheduled to finish just before the Men hit the champs so we didn't have to watch the parade from Evry.

How the last shot of the coverage should have looked

http://i62.tinypic.com/33zfh3q.jpg

Really thou, Lacourse should have started back in Harrogate or Continued on from the Giro Rosa, see stage 9 here

http://prowomenscycling.com/2014/07/14/video-stage-9-giro-rosa-2014/

All the other highlights are on that blog

As for the tour, great race, Nibali is a well deserved winner. I think he could have taken it over Contador. as for Froome, he may have had it in him to get to the podium but I Sky would have imploded all the same so I'm not sure if he'd have made it beyond third. Anyway, you win the race you get to race. Nibali didn't put a foot wrong all race, he was very canny and took time whenever he could, I'm not sure Contador could have made back enough after the Roubaix stage, it would have been close though.

Super stoked for what Pinot does next, I hope being the great French hope isn't too much for him. Being heated by Peraud was probably a good thing in that regard.

Also, second hand lolworthy moment. Greg Lemond asking Vino is he would ever support a women's team, only thing that would have made it more priceless would have been Astana BePink rolling into shot behind him.

Need to catchup on Greg LeMond's Eurosport work, it has apparently been highly amusing, a bit too ADD for TV. (Probably how I would be)

what i saw of lemondtv was just terrible. i'm actually quite sympathetic to him, but, man.

re nibali- love the way the guy races, great winner. thought any shit he got about last year's vuelta and worlds was bullshit. but then, i totally loved the way vino raced, and now they are linked. *shrug emoticon*

oh man not gonna lie I checked out after early on cuz I thought it was gonna be boring w/o real contention for the yellow

are there good stages to watch in retrospect?

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2014/jul/27/tour-de-france-2014-cycling-pictures#/?picture=443148015&index=0

i like this gallery

baden cooke rumor-mongering that froome started the race with the busted wrist from the dauphine crash! lordy.

gbx how many stages did u see before checking out - should check:

- s2 (mini northern classic)
- s5 (cobbles)
- s10 (belles filles finish)
- s14 (rafa majka winking @ camera)
- s15 (can the break stay away??)
- s18 (hautacam finish)

Is there a Way TdF 2015 thread? Can't find one...

Haven't seen one

i made one Tour De France 2015

Cool, thanks!