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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 1, 2017 7:51:55 GMT -5
The 104th edition of the world's biggest annual sporting event is about to start.
The race is starting in the German city of Dusseldorf this year before heading through Belgium to Liege. Then onto Luxembourg before finally heading into France.
Three time former winner the British rider Chris Froome from team Sky is the favorite heading into the event but many experts are predicting that his former team mate & close friend Australian rider Richie Porte, now riding for BMC is his major rival for the title as he is on career best form.
21 stages over the net 23 days will decide who will wear the yellow jersey on the podium in Paris on July 23rd.
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 2, 2017 0:31:37 GMT -5
Ominous signs for the chasing peloton after the individual time trial in stage one with four Team Sky riders in the top ten. Tricky conditions saw several crashes. Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde (a podium finisher in all three grand tours) forced to abandon the race after a nasty fall.
Britain's (and Team Sky rider) Geraint Thomas will wear yellow on the road to Belgium. Race favorite Chris Froome is in 6th place 12 seconds behind. Crucially though he has at least 25 seconds over his major rivals already (Porte, Quintana, Contador, Aru & Fulsang).
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 3, 2017 3:04:07 GMT -5
Marcel Kittel won stage two. Some crashes in wet conditions including from Froome & Porte but no abandons. Geraint Thomas still in yellow. All the main contenders finished with the same time.
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Fundertaker
El Dandy
Hideo Kojima should direct every ending ever!
Posts: 8,906
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Post by Fundertaker on Jul 3, 2017 14:20:58 GMT -5
And today the Saganator left his mark already with the win.
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 4, 2017 4:30:42 GMT -5
And today the Saganator left his mark already with the win. Peter Sagan is a beast, I don't think any other rider would have won after his foot came out of the binding like that. |
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Fundertaker
El Dandy
Hideo Kojima should direct every ending ever!
Posts: 8,906
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Post by Fundertaker on Jul 4, 2017 5:22:30 GMT -5
And today the Saganator left his mark already with the win. Peter Sagan is a beast, I don't think any other rider would have won after his foot came out of the binding like that. His ability to quickly go from nothing to max speed is second to none in the whole peloton. His problem is that usually his max speed isn't as high as most pure sprinters who are launched by their trains already at high speeds, hence why he usually makes a bunch of top 10's in sprint bunch finishes instead of several victories. Then again, he's going for Erik Zabel's record of green jerseys and Zabel was a master of winning the jersey without winning a single stage, so it's not like there isn't a precedent. |
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 5, 2017 8:16:28 GMT -5
What a crazy day yesterday. Cavendish out, Sagan disqualified!
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Fundertaker
El Dandy
Hideo Kojima should direct every ending ever!
Posts: 8,906
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Post by Fundertaker on Jul 5, 2017 8:23:30 GMT -5
Them elbows man. Them elbows. The first mountain stage is on right now. No one will win the Tour here, but I bet we can get a few names out of the way. And this seems like the perfect time for the annual "Will Daniel Martin be a true GC contender this year after a powerful showing?" stage of the Tour  |
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 5, 2017 8:25:54 GMT -5
Them elbows man. Them elbows. The first mountain stage is on right now. No one will win the Tour here, but I bet we can get a few names out of the way. And this seems like the perfect time for the annual "Will Daniel Martin be a true GC contender this year after a powerful showing?" stage of the Tour Randy Savage would have been proud of the elbows. Sucky thing about being in Australia is I have to go to bed now so I don't get to watch the finish of the stage. Looks like it will be very interesting. |
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Fundertaker
El Dandy
Hideo Kojima should direct every ending ever!
Posts: 8,906
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Post by Fundertaker on Jul 5, 2017 10:13:45 GMT -5
Great win by Aru, gaining about 20 seconds on the Sky Train. I hope this is a sign of things to come and we have a lot more holes in Sky's usually boringly perfect strategy. I hated when we had the Armstrong-led train of US Postal/Discovery, and I hate the Sky Train all the same. One of the several reasons why I wish there was a budget limit on the World Tour teams. EDIT: And Dan Martin was second! So my prediction was true!  |
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Fundertaker
El Dandy
Hideo Kojima should direct every ending ever!
Posts: 8,906
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Post by Fundertaker on Jul 8, 2017 12:02:29 GMT -5
Best stage so far today. Tomorrow's mountain stage promises some excitement.
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Post by The Lach is very tired on Jul 9, 2017 5:53:30 GMT -5
Today looks to be the most important stage of the race so far, maybe the most important of the whole race. The course lends itself to attack with 7 categorized climbs and possible wet weather. This is the sort of day where the cream will rise to the top.
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