Giro d'Italia / Tour de France

[Paddingtonwolf]

Puncture for Sagan too. This is set up for a Cavendish win all day long

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Oh - Cav you went too early there. Good win for Griepel.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Big gains for Froome, TVG and Contador on the other favourites though.

 

[Knockout Ned]

Lot of work from Sagan to get back on to that lot!

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I think that is already a big advantage for Froome and Co. Nearly 90 seconds will wipe out anything from the team time trial so any gains for the favourites are going to have to be made in the mountains. For me it is already Froome v Contador.

 

[Knockout Ned]

If they can get over the cobbles without losing any significant time.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

That is the key. I hate the cobbles. Fine in classics. Not sure they have a place in the grand tours.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Wild stage, it's good fun but a shame to already have Nibali and Quintana so far behind. Poor sprint from Cav, badly mistimed. Paddy, I know what you mean about the cobbles but I feel they have their place so long as it's not over-done, I think it's great for the riders to be tested over all terrain. Should be a fun stage anyway, shame it's on a weekday!

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I shall definitely be watching. Just gutted I am going to miss some of the good stuff as I am Portugal for a week.

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm not very well clued up on these things, but the interview with Cavendish I have just read made him come across like a complete spoilt, graceless brat...and it looks like his team manager agrees

http://www1.skysports.com/share/9904431

 

[Knockout Ned]

Hmm, difficult to just 'hang on' when you're in a sprint and already far into the red...when you blow you blow. I can kind of see his point, it was fairly tight and if he had enough to hang on then he'd have had enough to take it.

Even so he probably would not have expected Cancellara to be there...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Big crash. Cancellara down and Dumoulin immediately abandons so he must be pretty badly hurt. Commisars have neutralised the race which the riders who avoided the crash are not best pleased about.

 

[Knockout Ned]

Jaysus, they were shifting a bit...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Several more riders abandoning. It was a very nasty crash at very high speed and a lot of riders seemed to pile into a lamp post.

 

[Knockout Ned]

Gerrans, Bonnet and Ten Dam out...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bonnet looked in a pretty bad way.

 

[Sniffer]

Is the race for today null and void? The BBC live text is somewhat confusing.

 

[nimrod]

I stepped out the room for 5 mins and wondered wtf was going on when I saw them all stationary. nasty.

 

[Knockout Ned]

Is the race for today null and void? The BBC live text is somewhat confusing.

They've neutralised it to allow the survivors to get back on, I imagine they'll race on the Mur...

(also gives the medics more time to get back up the bunch to cover the front end)

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

They will get going again fairly soon. Just waiting for all the walking wounded that aren't abandons to catch up. There are plenty of riders who look short of a fair bit of skin.