Froome lost a little time tonight.

Happy for Chaves after the accident he had

Tonights stage should be great.

Froome being dropped.

Aru has been very impressive.

Froome has also retired from the tour after fracturing his foot in yesterdays stage.

Huge time trial tonight.

'Mon Porte

Don't know if he can sustain the effort for the three weeks. He tends to have at least one disastorous day each tour ... hopefully he can turn it all around this Tour. Although I think Froome and Quintana are too strong for him.

Wonder if Nibali will become team leader if Aru struggles early on??

Porte has a 0% chance of winning the Tour, he is simply not good enough.

Agree, but its great to have someone to follow.

Gotta feel for Tejay. For ages he has to share the team leadership with an Aussie he is better than, until Cadel retired, only to have to share the team leadership with an Aussie that he is better than.

I'll be watching to hope for Greenedge stage wins and good Aussie performances.

Yeah I don't expect him to win, but it's nice to have someone to follow.

No longer Greenedge ... now BikeExchange :)

Porte pretty much lost too much time yesterday with a puncture I think. He might now be delegated to a domestique for Teejay (probably Porte's best role anyway I feel).

Matthews probably needs a bit more of an inclined finish to beat Sagan (he can't beat Sagan in a straight out flat sprint after they drop the big sprinters)

Last night was a wee bit boring, although I do love Sagan. He brings a great level of charisma to the sport and for a sport that has had so many drug cheats heralded as champions, it is refreshing to see someone as forth right and personalable as Sagan on the world tour. His little salutes to the crowd as they strolled along were quite humourous to me ... you don't see many cyclists acting like that in a peloton during a Grand Tour (unless riding down the Champs-Élysées).

I think Sagan and OGE (now OBE) have really been great for the sport in the last few years through their social media engagement and endearing themselves to cycling fans (and non-cycling fans). I know lots of people follow OGE Backstage Pass who may support another cycling team or cyclists not on their squad, but their social media (esp. YouTube) are just so popular. By far the most popular team on YouTube!

Nice effort by groomed on Sth 8. It's good to see the favourite being a real racer who makes good moves, not just a climber.

Porte looked veeeery comfortable. Such a shame his chance at a podium is over : (

I really didn't know if Yates would be able to hang on, but good on him to finish with that first bunch.

Edited by Aljay: 10/7/2016 11:28:25 AM

So frustrating that Porte had that flat tyre and lost over a minute, he rode great today.

Yates will almost certainly fade, but it is good signings for his future.
Porte will have a bad day like always.

What the fuck is happening

Can Porte have anymore fuckimg bad luck

Crazy day.

Sounds like I missed a crazy finish to the stage

:d

Froome still a very dominant position, it will interesting to see if Quintana tries to crack him on the alp stages, as he really hasn't fired a shot yet. Porte similarly needs to take a crack at Froome, being more than 4 minutes down now who knows ... Froome might even let him go a minute up the road of him without needing to chase too hard.

I don't think Quintana has the form this year. I think he'll just be trying to hang on to the bunch and hope that he can overtake Yates for third. The minor positions is where the real race lies atm. Froome has yellow in the bag.

I think Richie will play the same game - stick with his mate in yellow as long as he can in the high mountains and hopefully pick up a few places from some of the guys who aren't legit mountain goats. I think he'll aim for a top 5 just by following, not by attacking the yellow bunch. He's pretty risk adverse, especially given his history in 3 week races. Perhaps if he is feeling good in the last couple of mountain stages, after the 17km ITT he might try to drop Valverde and Bardet.

I also think I'm right in saying that without that puncture, he's currently be in third.

Well Porte attacked tonight, and managed to splinter the leaders well. Quintana struggled, and Yates looked good. Let’s hope Porte has a good one in the time trial tomorrow. Tejay should definitely be riding for Porte now ... so might be able to offer something in the mountains

Agreed, hopefully Porte can get on the podium.

Edited by iridium1010: 21/7/2016 02:04:07 AM

Missed it!! Went to bed early last night and will have to catch up.

Torn between wanting Yates to get on the podium for OBE or Porte to take third place

Wiggins a drug cheat who would've thought that. :Whistling: Now for the rest of Sky to be brought down. 

Yup