cmh

Sky should have brought Wiggins.

grolby

I thought Wiggins showed he deserved a place on the team, as far as his form goes, but he wouldn't have been much help for Froome today and would not have been a realistic contender for the GC in this Tour, even as a backup. Porte is their guy, now. Of course, he's a big question mark as well.

save10

poor Talansky was with him in the final 30km, but he followed a Lotto rider into the mud and lost contact. might have been a big day for him as well

Ygduf

I just like stages that have winners with my style of riding. Boom!

Also, coincidentally awesome name.

Racer Ex 

He would have thrown himself under Froome before each crash to cushion the blow.

He's that kind of guy.

Wylde06

That may or may not be the only reason I picked him for my velogames team.

jsutkeepspining

meh, what would he have done? gotten 5th? Been a ***** and complain nonstop? Wiggo doesn't have the form right now to compete in this tour, especially with how contador and nibali are going right now.

cmh

He would have gotten through todays stage upright and with the leaders and therefore been in contention for a podium spot... but yeah his spring sucked.

cmh

lol. Yeah, so maybe they were right to not bring Wiggins, but it was my first thought when I saw today's results.

Racer Ex 

Don't agree. Stage was hard and miserable, but not any more dangerous than any other race in Europe. That's the only reason you should neutralize, not because it might upset the formula of "wait for the time trial or the mountains to really race"

These guys race in the rain all the time. That's what played into today, though Froome crashed on a straight, flat road two days in a row, so it's hard to point at the rain or cobbles creating bad luck or inattention.

They took the two iffy cobble sections out and most of the damage on what was left were in a couple of turns where guys crash anyway in P-R, wet or dry.

Nibali got all that time today because they (Astana) raced with balls, tactics, and skill. Classic Vinokourov.

grolby

Nibali and Astana raced from the front. Like you're supposed to. Hats off to them, Nibali earned every second of time he gained over the rest of the GC contenders.

hack

I thought Cancellara's comments re: neutralizing was that it shouldn't be neutralized because it is essentially just another stage. Granted, it's a tough one that didn't favor the GC climber mold, but the hillier stages aren't neutralized when they're tough for the sprinter/classics guys.

With all that, I thought it was a great stage, very tough, but tested different skill sets other than putting your head down and testing watts/kg. It's too bad Froome went down, but I suspect he had some more serious lingering pain from yesterday's crash and the crashes today just pushed him over limit (physically and mentally). At the end of the day, that's racing. I haven't heard discussions from the GC about eliminating sprint finishes after Cavendish went down. They just seemed to go along with the "that's racing" group.

substructure

Get out da way!

echappist

only when it's favorable for him. people somehow thinks the guy is more "noble" than others.

lest you forget, last time they hit the cobbles in 2010, he neutralized the previous stage, saying it was "dangerous." Then on the real dangerous stage (with the cobbles), he shredded the peloton, dragging Andy to the front. There was carnage, but no talks of neutralizing. the guy is a bike racer, not a saint

PS. don't disagree with Vinokurtov or else Vinokurtov doles out punishment
does Vinokurtov agree with Vinokourov?

love him or hate him, Vino is like a younger Bjarnes Riis.

Inquisitor.

I picked Lars Boom for my team after watching footage of him racing in a breakaway. I had a feeling he was the type of rider that could win stages if the conditions were right. He's a strong rider that seems to instinctively know the right time to attack.

thechemist

yup. that is what I was getting at in less and more useless words.

Creatre

I almost always pick Boom for my fantasy teams because he's such a beast. But he's never gotten me any points so I didn't pick him this year. :|

I thought the stage was fantastic. The majority of the carnage happened on normal roads. Nothing more dangerous about it than any other wet day except people were nervous. It's part of bike racing that it can rain. And it just happened to rain on the day with the cobbles to setup an epic day. It was great to watch, and I bet it was a blast to ride (if you survived the day unscathed).

carpediemracing 

When I started racing there were way fewer efforts at controlling spectators etc. People wandered on the course all the time. My teammates told me to aim at them while I hollered. If you tried to get around them they'd jump in your way, like if you try to go around someone in a hallway. If you aimed at them then as long as they moved you'd miss them.

carpediemracing 

+1

I watched the guys at the front, they looked like they were totally in their element, even with the dabs and stuff. The ones at the back, not so much. I used to revel in those kind of conditions, searching out the dirt roads near my house whenever it rained. Now I get on the trainer but hey, I used to be young at heart. Heh.

Grumpy McTrumpy

All it took for Cancellara to change his tune was rain.

I agree that it was very dramatic, but I was at my limit of tolerance and starting to feel queasy. Maybe I have personally crashed too many times, but I don't care much for watching them. Yesterday's stage was mainly about luck. Good luck for the winners, bad luck for a lot more. Trial By Crash... not my favorite kind of racing.

MDcatV

it didnt look that different to me than a strade bianchi (probably spelled wrong) stage in the giro a few years ago when evans won the stage over vino, and nibali was in pink but crashed early and lost time (at least I think evans won). easily one of the most exciting days of GT racing I can recall. yesterday was similar. absolutely exhilarating to watch.

i've found cancellara to be annoying for a long time. he's incredible on the bike, he's sparatcus, he's a rock star, but he's also an ungracious winner (also called a poor loser - see flanders where nyuns won) and changes his tune on neutralizing races whenever it suits him.

yesterday he lost. accept it and move on.

gsteinb

Funny, the thing that made me queazy is a bit more than three hour century. On cobbles. In the rain. Yep. Good thing the sport got cleaned up.

grolby

I strongly disagree that it was about luck. Bike racing is about skill, not just power, and the guys at the front of the race were riding skillfully. Respectfully, I think your reaction may have more to do with seeing crashes in those conditions rather than the crashing per se; as it happened, the only DNF was Froome. There were crashes, sure, but fewer serious injuries than there had been the previous days, when both Greg Hendersen and Andy Schleck smashed their knees. This Tour has actually been quite low on crashes up to this point.

Cancellara has had a tendency to get petulant when people ride against him, and it really gets under my skin. Flanders and Roubaix in 2011 both saw him whining about guys marking him out. You're a big winner, dude! You're going to get marked Guys marked Merckx like crazy, but he didn't whine, he raced his bike and smashed them. And when he lost, he lost. Being a great champion means riding against guys who are riding to make you lose, and winning anyway. Cancellara's problem was that he had one trick, and he expected to be allowed to keep using it forever. His 2013 P-R win was his best, IMO, because he did something different and rode smart rather than just trying to ride everyone off his wheel at 50k to go.

FWIW, there was apparently a very strong tailwind during the stage. Power data would be illuminating.

mattm

yesterday's stage was great! yes it was hard, and dangerous, but the cobbles had little to do with that.

the first week of the tour is often crashy, and most of the crashes were just due to rain.

sad to see froome drop out, but it makes for a more dynamic race.

todays stage sucked, b/c iceman didnt win.

ShutUpLegs

Sagan should have won todays stage, but looks like another tactic mistake. Should have waited instead of responding to GvA.

On another note, what the crap was BMC doing attacking and drilling it on the front while Tejay is off the back gutting himself to catch back on?!?!?