like to see the changes in odds between froome and thomas after today
still a lot of racing left, you dont win a Grand Tour midway it ............ Thomas is clearly stupid strong, and in uncharted waters. He said before the Tour started he's never felt better before the start of a Tour de France
coming into Tuesday i didnt see Thomas wearing the yellow after today, lol
still a lot of racing left, you dont win a Grand Tour midway it ............ Thomas is clearly stupid strong, and in uncharted waters. He said before the Tour started he's never felt better before the start of a Tour de France
coming into Tuesday i didnt see Thomas wearing the yellow after today, lol
One thing to keep in mind regarding Froome. Today’s finish was more of a all out quick acceleration type finish. We kno ,that Froome’s style is more a steady driving cadence. A steeper slope finish favors his style better. I’m certainly not into thinking Thomas is now the favorite ! However it’s obvious that he’s in top form and Team Sky has given him a green light to go ! Also we can look way forward and take into consideration that there is still an individual Time Trial left ! All 3 top GC LEADERS are very good time trialists ! Tom Dumoulin is only trailing Froome by 11 seconds ! These small seconds gained in yesterday’s and today’s stages don’t seem that big but they could be huge if the Yellow Jersey comes down to Time Trial gaps.
Yes it was a great day for Dumoulin but perhaps then it was a fantastic day for Thomas ! He increased his lead over both Dumoulin, Froome and not to mention the entire rest of the field ! Very impressive and of course his margin is far beyond anything that he could lose in the Time Trial on day 20 I believe. There are still the mighty Pyrenees ahead so it’s far from over. I’m not tearing up my ticket on Chris Froome ! ����
stage 12 finish line quotes;
[h=2]Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - stage winner, race leader[/h]Honestly I'm speechless. I don't know what to say. Not a chance in hell I thought I was going to win today. I just followed Dumoulin, Bardet and Froome were attacking - obviously a bit of bad luck for Nibali, I rode over his back wheel. I nearly came down myself. I don't know what to say.
This is just unbelievable, can we just go to Paris now? @)
I said yesterday this race is made for me now, today I can be happy for sure now.
[How long to keep the jersey?] Maybe the next few days I can keep the jersey but this race is so hard. You never know how your body reacts. Like I said, I'm still riding for Froome, he is still the man, he knows how to ride for three weeks. Legend is a word that gets used a lot but he's the man. He's probably the best ever.
I'm just going to enjoy it. Alpe d'Huez man, speechless. (Eurosport
[h=2]Julien Jurdie (AG2R La Mondiale directeur sportif)[/h]A big and early stage with lots of climbs. A lot of pace put on from the beginning and a lot of people struggling from the beginning, which you can see with sprinters in the race. Romain [Bardet] did well on Alpe d'Huez, he did well to pull away from Froome and Thomas but didn't have enough to pull away. He didn't quite have enough in the end but it was a great effort.
Team Sky were very good but there's a lot of people putting the pressure on. Nibali and Landa are putting on the pressure and it makes for an interesting race, it's hard to get past Sky with Bernal driving the pace and it is hard to get gaps at the moment.
It was pretty special, Kruijswijk did an incredible job to get out there and it was bad luck not to hold on in the end. It was a legendary stage. (Eurosport)
[h=2]Egan Bernal (Team Sky)[/h][Was it the plan for Froome to win?] I think it was the plan, Froome felt good in the past days and before the stage he wanted to attack and we did a good effort in last climb.
It was good a good experience for me. It is amazing to work for Froome and Geraint. I need to learn a lot, I am only 21 and in the best team in the world but I like to work for them and I'm proud of myself.
I was at the limit when they attacked but you need to control yourself. In the radio Nico said to keep the gap and control yourself because then Froome will attack. (Eurosport)
[h=2]Nico Portal (Team Sky directeur sportif)[/h]I think it was racing, it was a pretty hard day. We had about six minutes with Kruijswijk and we planned to attack with Froome and Geraint was to follow. If people came back then Geraint could go but I think for Geraint to finish it of on Alpe d'Huez is incredible. He won his first mountain stage yesterday of his career on the Tour but winning on Alpe in the yellow jersey, dropping Quintana, Nibali is a big achievement for him. Beating those guys is incredible.
[On Bernal] He's 21-years-old, riding his first Grand Tour, Alpe d'Huez after 4,000 metres of climbing, riding like this and dropping his compatriot. He has a nice future ahead of him but he was unbelievable how he did it. Today was huge. (Eurospor
[h=2]Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - stage winner, race leader[/h]Honestly I'm speechless. I don't know what to say. Not a chance in hell I thought I was going to win today. I just followed Dumoulin, Bardet and Froome were attacking - obviously a bit of bad luck for Nibali, I rode over his back wheel. I nearly came down myself. I don't know what to say.
This is just unbelievable, can we just go to Paris now? @)
I said yesterday this race is made for me now, today I can be happy for sure now.[How long to keep the jersey?] Maybe the next few days I can keep the jersey but this race is so hard. You never know how your body reacts. Like I said, I'm still riding for Froome, he is still the man, he knows how to ride for three weeks. Legend is a word that gets used a lot but he's the man. He's probably the best ever.
I'm just going to enjoy it. Alpe d'Huez man, speechless. (Eurosport
[h=2]Julien Jurdie (AG2R La Mondiale directeur sportif)[/h]A big and early stage with lots of climbs. A lot of pace put on from the beginning and a lot of people struggling from the beginning, which you can see with sprinters in the race. Romain [Bardet] did well on Alpe d'Huez, he did well to pull away from Froome and Thomas but didn't have enough to pull away. He didn't quite have enough in the end but it was a great effort.
Team Sky were very good but there's a lot of people putting the pressure on. Nibali and Landa are putting on the pressure and it makes for an interesting race, it's hard to get past Sky with Bernal driving the pace and it is hard to get gaps at the moment.
It was pretty special, Kruijswijk did an incredible job to get out there and it was bad luck not to hold on in the end. It was a legendary stage. (Eurosport)
[h=2]Egan Bernal (Team Sky)[/h][Was it the plan for Froome to win?] I think it was the plan, Froome felt good in the past days and before the stage he wanted to attack and we did a good effort in last climb.
It was good a good experience for me. It is amazing to work for Froome and Geraint. I need to learn a lot, I am only 21 and in the best team in the world but I like to work for them and I'm proud of myself.
I was at the limit when they attacked but you need to control yourself. In the radio Nico said to keep the gap and control yourself because then Froome will attack. (Eurosport)
[h=2]Nico Portal (Team Sky directeur sportif)[/h]I think it was racing, it was a pretty hard day. We had about six minutes with Kruijswijk and we planned to attack with Froome and Geraint was to follow. If people came back then Geraint could go but I think for Geraint to finish it of on Alpe d'Huez is incredible. He won his first mountain stage yesterday of his career on the Tour but winning on Alpe in the yellow jersey, dropping Quintana, Nibali is a big achievement for him. Beating those guys is incredible.
[On Bernal] He's 21-years-old, riding his first Grand Tour, Alpe d'Huez after 4,000 metres of climbing, riding like this and dropping his compatriot. He has a nice future ahead of him but he was unbelievable how he did it. Today was huge. (Eurospor
Since today is a stage for the sprinters, it’s fair to point out which top sprinters have been eliminated ! Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel, Fernando Gaviria and Dylan Groenewegen have all either abandoned or been eliminated by the time requirements! It’s accurate to say that Peter Sagan will once again win this year’s Green Jersey.
A quick look,at tomorrow’s stage 14. It’s a hard stage to figure out ! It’s starts out as fairly flat but then it gets difficult. I expect Team Sky will allow,a breakaway to escape as long,as no threat to their Yellow Jersey exists. However the last climb is very steep at gradient up to 18% at one point. I expect some action amongst the GC contenders and wouldn’t be surprised if Chris Froome might attack to try to gain some time. The final 15 minutes of stage should be interesting but I doubt the stage will be won by any of the main GC contenders! GL
Froome, Dumoulin and Thomas finish in a tight group so no change in top 3 in GC race ! Great day for all 3 as another tough finishing stage and they pretty much gained time on almost all other contenders. Notable exception was Roglic who took back about 10 seconds but he’s far enough back that I doubt the top 3 are overly concerned.
Tomorrow’s stage 15 will challenge a new category 1 climb Pic De Nore. I doubt if we will see any big GC attacks as the climb is far away from finishing line. Rest day awaits on Monday and then come the Pyrenees! I think once again Team Sky will allow a breakaway to escape as long as there’s no GC contenders in group !
It was interesting listening to Geraint Thomas talking about the prognosis of who will win the Tour. He did say that he’d prefer himself winning over Froome which I thought was huge. Of course he also mentioned how foolish they would look if they allowed Tom Dumoulin to win ! I’m really curious to see the latest updated odds ! His comments makes me feel that odds would be getting close to even !
