cincipeddler

who is the better time trialer out of Nibali and Contador?

cincipeddler

By the way, if Porte happens to now win this tour that will end any doubt regarding Sky

nun

Nibali is amazing....reminds me of last year's Giro d'Italia he was great in the snow.

dm83

enjoi07

Excellent stage! Great effort for all the riders.

MikeM21

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic!

HardyWeinberg

This was just awesome.

cincipeddler

Awesome stage.

Thomas just said he didn't know and then followed with we intended to protect Porte anyway as we didn't know how Froome would cope today.

Tells me his injury was indeed not a good one yesterday and they feared this could happen.

DLBroox

Can Contador make up nearly three minutes in the mountains?!

MikeM21

Quote of the day:


NBCSN: Richie had a tough Spring, is he ready to take the lead of this team right now?

Gerraint Thomas: He better be, he is!

busygizmo

Wiggins finished with the lead group at Roubaix this year. As they say, past performance is not indication of future performance but I think it is safe to say he would have done better than Froome. Plus he just won the British time trial championship in the rain. I think he is better in adverse weather.

I'm not convinced Wiggins can climb with the best in this tour but Sky would better off if he was in the Tour right now.

cincipeddler

Dunno who time trials the best out of the remaining contenders?

busygizmo

He put 1:45 into Nibali in 8 days at the Criterium du Dauphine.

If Nibali's fitness has truly improved since then he is in the driver seat. If not I think Contador will take time on every summit finish.

Time trialing they are fairly equal although at the Criterium du Dauphine Contador took time out of Nibali in the time trial, especially on the flat sections.

On paper TJ and Porte are the best time trialists left in the GC and either could take a minute out of Contador or Nibali in 54km.

Not to beat a dead horse but Wiggins could probably taken 2-3 minutes over the same distance.

cincipeddler

So Nibali and Porte the better time trialers of the GC guys left.

cincipeddler

sorry, didn't see your post, you know more than me regarding Nibali's tt efforts i suspect.

Gonna be an entertaining tour thats for sure.

chasm54

I'd expect Contador to TT better than Nibbles.

cthenn

If Wiggins were anywhere NEAR Nibali today, he could have won the entire race with his TT'ing skills. Sky kind of get what they deserve. Wiggins wouldn't allow Froome to attack in the mountains in 2012, and Froome/Cound keep Wiggins off the roster in 2014. Karma is kinda hitting both of them this year.

If Porte wins then I may very well just give up on cycling. It's just not normal that Froome's lap dog is better than AC, Nibali, Talansky, Valverde. Just not.

Nibali/AC on the TT, probably the edge to AC, but not by a lot. Even if Nibali's fitness is better, so is AC's. Both of these guys are high level pros, they know how and when to peak.

AC down 2'37" to Nibs is doable, but it's gonna be a fight to the finish. Anyone who thinks AC is "done" after today have NO clue about this man's ability to fight.

busygizmo

You never really know with most of these guys. If Nibali holds onto yellow all the way to the time trial it will mean he is most likely very strong will be very confident. Nibali, Contador, Valverde, Costa and others can all ride a decent time trial on their day. The only GC guys that seem to be consistently time trial well are Froome, Wiggins and to a lesser extent Van Garderen and Porte but they have a smaller sample size.

In some ways this makes for a much more exciting Tour because Froome was always going to have 1-2 minutes in his pocket in the last time trial over the rest of the GC contenders so to beat him he would really have to have a bad day or days. Now it will be exciting to see Contador attack everwhere, although downhill won't work with Nibali. If Van Garderen has the form he had two years ago and/or Porte has the form from last year they could be wildcards since they could each make up a minute in the final time trial.

Really sad that the toptwo from the Giro aren't here.

fietsbob

Been in Ypres , not far from the Kimmelberg , so juicy a cobbeled hump they run Ghent Wevelgem over it twice

on the way back , after getting in 100 miles , to the Belgian coast and back ..

Wevelgem_Kortrijk to Ghent is not that far, as the Crow flies, Or following a canal connecting them ..

but they went NE from there .. past Just some of the many WW1 war graveyards..

Ypres itself was leveled in the War.


Wet & greasy , lots of crashes , this the weather they lacked for the P-R.

busygizmo

Good point on Wiggins.

I too would be sad with another Sky win, just not a fan. Kind of like Wiggins and his personality but still not happy about the way he and Sky forced his way out his last year at Garmin.

Nibali and AC are two of the most exciting racers going but I'm a little conflicted since AC has been popped for doping and Nibali rides for a team run by a convicted doper.

It will be interesting to watch though especially after the coup Talansky pulled of at the Dauphine.

AdrianFly

As a man who won the TDF the same way Lance did 7 times I don't doubt his ability to fight at all.

That being said, GO NIBBLES!

HardyWeinberg

It's true he only had subcutaneous fat hanging out all over France yesterday, no actual bone was showing, but still...

Gallo

Great racing but I am not sure I like see so many riders hit the ground and a contender go out so early. This is the tour not a classic. I think many of the crashes were due to riding on tires specific to the cobbles as so many riders simply washed out. Nibali rode like a champion today and defended the yellow with honor and grit. The effort by Fulsang and the entire Astana team was incredible. Sagan continues to amaze me and I wonder what future he holds. He looks more and more like an overall contender even if he loves green. Between yesterday and today he has show enormous handling skills.

chasm54

Yes, I tend to agree. In general I like a parcours that forces the riders to demonstrate that they can cope with all terrain and road conditions, but those Pave sections are hideous in the wet.

Ironically, though, Froome went down on ordinary blacktop.

ijsbrand

Stage winner Lars Boom said that too many riders simply approached the wet corners much too fast.