What a fantastic race!! While I wish that TJ had won, I'm glad France claimed the hardest stage.
Froome momentarily bonking today made him seem vulnerable and human. This alone gives me hope he's racing clean. I wonder what the outcome would have been if Porte had played by the rules and hadn't gone back to the team car for food?
Just the crowd lining the course made for a great stage. Everybody old enough to tie his own shoes was higher than a kite from the cheap red wine they'd been drinking since they woke up this morning, and when the race came by they did their best to act like it. I saw T.J. backhand one guy who was bothering him.
And then it turned into a real race.
rrider writes:
"If NBC is all there is, it might be pathetic, like the Olympics coverage."
I was worried about the same thing, too. But NBC could not have done a better job. The whole stage - start to finish - LIVE. I waited 35 years for this. Maybe NBC will do the Olympics like the bike race.
I admire the heck out of TJ and would have loved to have him win and was sorry about the chain, but good for Riblon. He metered out his efforts masterfully. We have Bozeman people on ST. Given the size of the population, I wonder if they know him.
I've given up worrying about them drugging. If they don't get caught at the time, they get away with it. Unfortunately, I kind of assume the worst. I do wish we could take advantage of their experimentation to advance medical science though. All these data points are lost because they have to be so secretive.
If you want to see really how fast those guys are riding up hill check out the runners in the end of the stage. They can not keep up with the rider going up hill.
-especially when you consider a lot of the climbing is sustained 8-9 %...
Watching today's rainy stage live at the moment. Reminds me of the ride I did on Tuesday...
Like Dee said, Bravo to Rui Costa. Two very impressive stage wins.
And yeah, Quintanna is a classy rider for sure.
Chapeau to Chris Froome for hanging tough and taking everything the tour has thrown at him.
Radio Shack has also shown to be riding with panache. Huge kudos to Andreas Klodden, his 2nd place today was amazing.
One thing about today's stage, was when the rain started pouring down, after racing over 2 HC climbs and then 3 first category climbs, I was thinking, I bet hypothermia could really hit some of the riders.
Let us know!