Tour de France

Massive win for Froome!

Lead now five minutes despite 20 second penalty!

Froome cracked a bit today - owes a lot to Porte for getting him home and limiting his time loss to the Colombian who now seems to be his main rival.

Massive day in the mountains tomorrow - can't wait to watch it!

Looking good for Froome. Finished 3rd today and still has a 5 minute lead. Barring a catastrophe it's his for the taking.

He's won it RT.

There is a tradition in the Tour that the leader is not attacked on the last day.

Tomorrow is about a gentle cycle into Paris then a race for the sprinters to see if Cavendish will win the iconic finish for the fifth consecutive time.

I don't think it is a given he will, Kittel looked really good earlier in the Tour - but I guess the big question will be is whose legs are the freshest after going over the mountains for the best part of a week?

The race will be held in the evening so it should look spectacular with Paris all lit up!

Sluffy, don't count your chickens. I mean he may get a puncture or have a fall. 
Will he get a Knighthood?

I can't see Cav winning tomorrow, Griepel and Kittel seem better than him right now.

I think Cavendish will win it. My only concern with Froome is if he were to be involved in a collision or suffer a puncture or some other mishap.

It looks like Murray may have Froome and Westwood as contenders for BBC SPOTY.

Sluffy is quite right in that no other rider goes for contention of winning. Whoever is leading going into the final day is the outright winner of the Tour. The stroll into Paris is just a formality and bit like a lap of honour.

bwfc71 wrote:Sluffy is quite right in that no other rider goes for contention of winning.  Whoever is leading going into the final day is the outright winner of the Tour.  The stroll into Paris is just a formality and bit like a lap of honour.

I love it when they have a glass of champagne on route on the final day, such a class thing to do.
I would want the whole bottle.

I always feel quite sad when the tour ends each year, it is such an amazing sporting event.

Michael Bolton wrote:

bwfc71 wrote:Sluffy is quite right in that no other rider goes for contention of winning.  Whoever is leading going into the final day is the outright winner of the Tour.  The stroll into Paris is just a formality and bit like a lap of honour.

I love it when they have a glass of champagne on route on the final day, such a class thing to do.
I would want the whole bottle.

I always feel quite sad when the tour ends each year, it is such an amazing sporting event.

I have only been following it since Sluffy highlighted it as a sporting spectacle. What I couldn't get my head round was the fact that each team puts forward their favourite candidate and all the rest of the team have to kow tow to their orders.

Last year, Sky nailed their colours to Wiggins and this year it's Froome.

Reebok Trotter wrote: What I couldn't get my head round was the fact that each team puts forward their favourite candidate and all the rest of the team have to kow tow to their orders.

It's a team game RT.

Just think of it as a football game where the team includes defenders and a keeper but they can't win unless the striker can scores a winning goal.

The team is trying to get their man to finish first and so may have to defend - by chasing down breakaways, may have to get the 'ball' off other teams - by forcing the pace and making the others chase them - and delivering their star striker to the front of the nets in as good as shape as possible - so that he can score.

There is a wonderful amount of strategy and tactics involved - and various other competitions within the Tour other than actually winning the Tour itself - that it is hard sometimes to actually understand why various thinks are happening - especially if this is the first time you've actually followed the Tour.

The more you watch it over the years the better the race actually becomes because you get to understand things more clearly.

Tbh I think Sky got out of jail a bit this Tour because they clearly were not the best team and had to rely on the brilliance of Froome in the Pyrenees and up Ventoux.

His performance on those days were so much better than anyone else you could understand people thinking it may have been using performance enhancing drugs.

On the other hand though most of his main rivals - Contador, Valverde and Schleck have all been under the cloud of drugs before and so maybe it as reduce their capabilities to ride 'clean'.

All adds to the theatre and spectacle of the race imo.

I have £3 on Griepel to win on the Champs Elysees = 5/1

Good luck Mike. Some of the views are tremendous.

Soul Kitchen wrote:Good luck Mike. Some of the views are tremendous.

Yes, isn't France a beautiful country? On this year's tour we've seen Corsica which looked incredible, the French Riviera around Nice looked amazing, the Alps, Pyrenees and Paris. Fantastic country!

And we'll see the puddings in Yorkshire next year!

What a great sprint. 3 of them split by about 1 metre. Dammit, I thought Griepel was going to do it. Shame for Cav, he never seemed his old self this year.

Awesome tour, gutted it is over!

Well done Chris Froome!

How did you enjoy the tour this year Sluffy?

I enjoy every Tour - they are all so different to each other.

Wonderful scenery as always (wasn't Corsica beautiful) and some stunning achievements - Froome and Porte in particular. The fantastic breakaway stage by Contador and the Saxo Bank boys on the 'nothing' stage - that took a minute off Froome and sunk Valverde's race - and was won by Cavendish - marvellous days racing.

Good to see new stars on the horizon - Kittel seems to now have the edge on Cav - and the little Colombian can certainly climb.

Something happened to Sky on the second day in the Pyrenees that nobody as explained yet - why did Porte crack so badly and why did one of the 'hardmen' Sky riders not even make the time limit to get round in time whilst monsters like Griepel could - all seems very suspect to me.

Nice to see glimpses of Peter Kennaugh in the race - he's probably the next British rider who may be good enough to win the tour - but I'd like to see more of him before I'd bet my house on him though.

Tour of Spain next - not half as good as France - but a chance to probably see the Spanish boys Contador, Valverde and Rodriguez battle it out for local pride and it will be interesting to see who would lead Sky - I think it might be Porte or Uran - can't see it being Wiggins somehow.

Can't wait for next years Tour though - only 49 weeks away!