Tour de France 2014.

[Ashmada]

So, Cavendish or Greipel today?
Froome or Quintana taking the yellow in Paris?
Sagan in green again?
Will the french fail to win anything (except combativity, biased jury is biased) despite half the riders or more being french, again?
Will VDB find a way to fall and break ALL HIS BONES again?

[Kang]

When the Gorilla is in the race, all bets are on him.

[Ashmada]

Well, the Cav tries to force his way and falls with Gerrans, the Gorilla is nowhere to be seen, Sagan is too short to catch Kittel.

Cav looked in poor shape, shoulder blade broken maybe?

[Kang]

Griepel got caught behind the crash, what a shame.

[Kang]

I'll be rooting for Andrew Talansky to win the GC. Can't go against Ryder Hesjedal's teammate. Talansky just came off the biggest win of his career recently at the Dauphine. Since Ryder won't be there I'll still root for Garmin-Sharp. I also don't want Froome to win. I'm tired of Sky.

[Mugekuge]

Quintana isnt part of this tour.

[Ashmada]

Going to root for VDB/Lotto as usual, but I'm not very optimistic.

Talking of VDB, I don't get his strat in the final today: why did he go after Fuglsang & Van Avermaet? Didn't have anything to gain from it, merely
helping Sagan.
Nibali played it well, deserves the win.

Quintana isnt part of this tour.

Oh. Giro?
In that case, I can't see who'll be able to rival Froome: Andy Schleck might be able to keep up in the climbs but will lose a lot of time in the time trials, Valverde is clearly a bit slower, VDB is too tall/heavy to really do better than 4th-5th, Contador will have difficulties getting his "steaks", maybe Kwiatkowski?

[Kang]

Andy Schleck hasn't been relevant in a while so it won't be him. I wouldn't dismiss Nibali just yet, he is a legit contender.

[Mugekuge]

I feel bad for Cavendish injury, but he recognizes was his fault.

[Kang]

I feel bad for Cavendish injury, but he recognizes was his fault.

His injury is exactly like what happened to Dan Martin during stage 1 of the Giro. Hometown hero (stages 1-3 was in Ireland) severely hurts himself during the opening stage of a grand tour. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens to one of the Spaniards at the Vuelta.

[Kang]

Marcel Kittel takes his second stage in three days as the English version wraps up.

[Tyrath]

[Vaspinne]

This is going to be very otaku/weaboo of me, but after getting into Yowamushi Pedal I can actually get into watching this should it be on and I have nothing else to do/watch. I never had interest in the sport and event before, but now I feel like I could get into it!

[Kang]

This is going to be very otaku/weaboo of me, but after getting into Yowamushi Pedal I can actually get into watching this should it be on and I have nothing else to do/watch. I never had interest in the sport and event before, but now I feel like I could get into it!

The finishes are always where it's at with road cycling. It's also great to see if the peloton can actually reel in a breakaway group. Most times they can but the odd time they don't so it is really compelling.

[Enedin]

Wet cobblestooooones today

How many cyclists will have to retire with injury today? 5? More?

[Enedin]

There goes Froome.

[Ashmada]

They removed some cobbled sections judged too dangerous under the rain in today's stage, that's how bad the wet cobblestones could've been.

Currently, Contador is in trouble, losing 43s on Nibali & VDB. I think Van Gaarderen is in that group as well.

Edit: Lars Bak just decided to fly straight into the ditch, VDB fell as well.

E2:
Current situation:
Group 1 including Nibali & Kwiatkowski, Omega Pharma taking charge for Kwiatkowski, Nibali in an ideal situation: potentially gaining time on most final yellow jersey opponents without his team having to work.

Group 2 including Talansky & VDB.

Group 3 with Contador & most of the peloton, 4-5 Saxo riders working for Contador.


E³: Nibali got distanced from group 1, currently between group 1 & 2 with 2 others.
Sagan virtual yellow, Kwiatkowski getting the best longer-term result.

E4: Nibali back in group 1, 1min 26s in front of group 2, 2mins ahead of Contador & co!

E5: Nibali, 2 other Astana and Lars Boom got away from Kwiatkowski, Cancellara, Sagan and the rest of former group 1 slightly.
Cancellara still favourite to win the stage.
VDB isn't in Talansky's group, he disappeared somewhere. Nobody knows where the Lotto are. Gallopin, VDB & Roelandts are apparently lost somewhere.


Final: Lars Boom wins, Nibali gains time on everyone else.

[Kang]

Today was brutal. On the plus side, Froome is gone so I'm happy.

[Enedin]

Glad to see Lars Boom, an ex-cyclo-crosser, win. Cyclo-cross is very popular here in Belgium and love seeing guys like Boom and Stybar do great on the road. Not totally unexpected really because of the cobblestones. Also Fuglsang is an ex-mountain bike world champion so that makes sense as well.

I'm more into cyclo-cross and mountain bike than road cycling but seeing the cyclists' reactions today made me realize how much of a different skill set riding on cobblestones must be for them. It's not a surprise Contador lost so much time, I guess.

[Kang]

Mr. Greipel won the stage today. I'm glad he's won one stage here after he's had an up and down season already due to injury.