Tour de France (2023 from p54)

ColinTat said:

  Froome's stage 19 in the Giro was setup by 5 teamates racing the Finestre.  Literally racing out of every switchback, forcing the GC riders to race to keep the wheel in front.  The highlights were shit and barely showed it, mainly showing Elisonde hammering before the gravel.  Only the top few GC riders kept up with Elissonde, none could go with Froome. 

  Dumoulin was the strongest of the GC group.  Dumoulin says he made a mistake waiting for Reichenbach: Dumoulin reckoned Reichenbach slowed them down on the descents, descending like an "old lady''.  Lopez or Carapaz didn't do anything in the chase, Pinot virtually did nothing too.  Maybe that was a tactical error from Dumoulin, but everyone would have slated him if he blewup, like Ulrich not waiting for Ris in '98.  That's all by the by.  It was Stage 19 and today only Formilo was racing like Elissonde, Poels or De La Cruz.  Essentially Froome and Dumoulin were man on man for 80kms, with Carapaz and Lopez probably making him lose time on the climbs and the little group losing loads on the descending.

  We're talking about 30 kms from a whole GC group with some support riders on Stage 8.  I suppose you can argue Tadej would be able to ride a puncheur style early in the race, like Alaphillipe in 2019.  I'll not jump to conclusions, but some journalists need to get investigating.

  As an interesting reference point to the Armstrong era, UAE's altitude training camp is in La Sestriere.  Where did Dr Ferrari inject Hamilton and Armstrong at a training camp before the 1999 tour?  In his camper van on La Sestriere.  Doesn't mean anything really, just a perfect story arc for a journalist if anything is uncovered.

Addickted said:

stonemuse said:

ColinTat said:

  Froome's stage 19 in the Giro was setup by 5 teamates racing the Finestre.  Literally racing out of every switchback, forcing the GC riders to race to keep the wheel in front.  The highlights were shit and barely showed it, mainly showing Elisonde hammering before the gravel.  Only the top few GC riders kept up with Elissonde, none could go with Froome. 

  Dumoulin was the strongest of the GC group.  Dumoulin says he made a mistake waiting for Reichenbach: Dumoulin reckoned Reichenbach slowed them down on the descents, descending like an "old lady''.  Lopez or Carapaz didn't do anything in the chase, Pinot virtually did nothing too.  Maybe that was a tactical error from Dumoulin, but everyone would have slated him if he blewup, like Ulrich not waiting for Ris in '98.  That's all by the by.  It was Stage 19 and today only Formilo was racing like Elissonde, Poels or De La Cruz.  Essentially Froome and Dumoulin were man on man for 80kms, with Carapaz and Lopez probably making him lose time on the climbs and the little group losing loads on the descending.

  We're talking about 30 kms from a whole GC group with some support riders on Stage 8.  I suppose you can argue Tadej would be able to ride a puncheur style early in the race, like Alaphillipe in 2019.  I'll not jump to conclusions, but some journalists need to get investigating.

  As an interesting reference point to the Armstrong era, UAE's altitude training camp is in La Sestriere.  Where did Dr Ferrari inject Hamilton and Armstrong at a training camp before the 1999 tour?  In his camper van on La Sestriere.  Doesn't mean anything really, just a perfect story arc for a journalist if anything is uncovered.

Froome’s descending that day was, if I recall correctly, quite astonishing.  

Hasn't that 'off the bike' slipstreaming style he used descending, now been banned?