Marcel Kittel wins the sprint (stage). A crash occurred right before they started the final sprint, taking down Greipel. Cavendish was ahead, looking to win the stage when Kittel came from behind, barely beating him at the line. That was surprising since Cavendish never looses when he takes off.
OMG, what an exciting stage! Usually flat stages are boring until the last km when the sprinters fight each others. Not this time though! Team Omega-Pharma started to raise the pace, putting Valverde (2nd place) in trouble. Froome was in the lead then all of a sudden, the the Saxo team started accelerating, putting Froome in trouble and dropping most of the sprinters. Cavendish beats Sagan at the finish, winning his 25th stage. Froome came 1:08 min later, loosing some time for the yellow jersey. Contador wins that minute over the leader! Wow, that was unexpected!
I missed today's stage. The dish guy came to install 2 hoppers and he had some technical problem so it took a long time and I lost my recording since it was on my DVR.
Don't worry, I'm still watching! I just couldn't post my opinions here :P
Valverde definitely seems out of the running for first now. To be honest, he didn't look too good even on probably his best stage, the first mountain one. It's just everyone else didn't look good either!
I'm probably just going to be pushing for Nairo Quintana to win the white jersey and maybe even have a high finish in the overall standings now.
About your time trial remark: time trials are a bit boring to watch, but in a way they are the essence of cycling: no tactics, no hiding away, just you against the chrono. The strongest man wins.
I assume that, without accidents, Froome will keep the yellow all the way to Paris. I also expect Quintana to move up a spot or two on the GC by then. He made me a fan. As a Belgian, it is a pitty Vandenbroeck dropped out, because considering the relative weak field, he could have ended on the podium.
I'm especially looking forward to the stage with 2x Alpe dHuez
Oops, my mistake, I thought American TV massacred the name like they often do.
I'm especially looking forward to the stage with 2x Alpe dHuez
Me too. Andy Schleck disappointed me, I thought he was good in the mountain stages. Hopefully he'll recover or maybe it's because most of the top riders are doping and Andy isn't.
So, first yesterdays time trial over two small climbs: Froome showed his suppremacy in this TdF by winning this challenge with 9 secs over Contador.
Then today's "queen stage" with 2x Alpe d'Huez. Top 3 today were leftovers from an early breakaway: Van Garderen attacked on the Alpe but, in the final kilometers was overtaken bij Riblon who won. Moser was third. In the group with the favorites, we saw Froome attacking early on, leaving behind Contador. Quintana and Rodriguez got away from Froome and finished 4th and 5th, taking about 1 minute on Froome (7th) and 2 minutes on Contador (11th).
The combination of these two stages have brought some changes in the GC. Numbers between brackets show positions up/down since the resting day (monday, thus: last 3 stages).
Personally, I think this a very interesting Tour. Even tough it was already clear on the first mountain stage that Froome would win, the race hans't stopped. Froome still attacks and that's a good thing. (Others would only counter attacks once they're in yellow) And places 2-5 are still wide open.
Marcel Kittel wins the last stage in Paris, barely beating Greipel and Cavendish. Froome wins the yellow jersey, Quintana wins the white and polka dot jerseys and Sagan wins the green jersey. The podium ceremonies were pretty cool with the light show on the Arc de Triomphe in the background. It was overall a great Tour de France. The Sky team was amazing, they were to Chris Froome what HTC was for Cavendish the previous years.
Due to the lack of interest in the Tour, I don't think I will make a thread next year but I will participate if someone else makes one.
