the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

It has been an intriguing Tour so far. 3 successive heavy mountain days took most of the sprinters out of the race (Lotto Soudal now down to just 4 riders total out of 8) and Vicenzo Nibali out after a crash yesterday caused by a smoke cloud and a dangling camera strap...The final time trial could be pivotal in the GC with 9 riders within 6 minutes of the lead... mountains classification also still in contention between two riders... Peter Sagan pretty solidly in the green jersey

Sagan would have to drop to lose the green. He beat Christoff on a flat stage and Gaviria are out. I don't recall, but is Cobrelli still in. He gave Sagan a pretty good run for the money.

As expected, Froome will probably win GC with the time trial.

Sagan comes in fourth today! Wow.

What do you think about the spectators this year? I haven't seen as many costumes, runners or walking water bottles.

i think the organizers made an effort to publicize that the running is a hazard to the racers... unfortunately it didnt work with the smoke generators...

I would imagine Sky will try to go 1-2 on the podium so there is some interesting potential there with Froome and Thomas... they obviously dont want to get knocked off the top spot and IIRC Dumoulin is better TT rider than either of the two Sky guys, so I would expect they will attack Dumoulin pretty heavily during the last week probably Thursday which has a cat 1 running into an HC mountaintop finish, should be interesting, Primoz Roglic also is a decent TT rider and climber and Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa are good climbers as well but Bardet would be the worst TT rider of the top 5, Nairo Quintana is also hanging around in the top 10, Dan Martin is always game... a lot also will be attrition at this point because at some point it should kick off fireworks and it will be down to who has the most strong teammates remaining to help them with the attacks from Sky- I would imagine they dont want to go to the final TT with less than 2 minutes of buffer between Froome-Thomas and Dumoulin. Sky will try to catch Dumoulin out and drop him a couple of minutes and then let him and the better climbing GC riders fight it out for 3rd on the Friday. If they could get away I suppose they could send one of their GC men up the road earlier on but I would imagine that on fresh legs and only moderately heavy mountains the rest of the GC riders will be able to counter tomorrow and Wednesday (thinking back to Tom Dumoulin's Giro 2017 win in the mountains here, he isnt a bad climber so I won't expect that he will crack very quickly)

Dumoulin is world TT champ, so it's sure that Sky wants to create a big buffer. Tomorrow's stage will sort a lot of this out. It's a short, but mountainous stage that will have a furious start. Those riders not in GC contention will go all out because they've got nothing to lose (but more time), and they'll have no chance to make time in the Pyrenees.

I think limiting the runners is a good idea. The fog, smoke, and fan flags over the roadway should be stopped, too. They're just there for the sake of the tv cameras. Cheering the rider is one thing. Getting a tv selfie is just rude.

I do miss the old, old days when it was safe for a rider to get a drink or some food from a spectator. But, it's like helmets. Times change.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0W__FNIGwA

no shakeup today as expected... I expect tomorrow and Thursday to be more interesting

The shakeup was GIlbert's. That was scary.

he is lucky it was a short fall. i blame the white grate cover on the road, he didnt know what to make of it and it messed up his line when he was at high speed. they should have put a cone over it

Didn't realise when reading the map that there is a flat stage tomorrow. I liked Quintana, Roglic and Dan Martin going big today, that being said I think Dumoulin is in a good place, but the last mountain stage will be the difference with Thomas and the rest. Froome says he wouldnt mind if Thomas wins but in this case he might actually have to sacrifice for him in the last stage for the Sky win, either that or he will have to win the stage himself

Froome would prefer GT to win because it will take some pressure off his drug issues. He still gets booed. If, after winning the Giro, he wins a fifth Tour, there'll be no end to the rebukes. Bernard Hinault wanted the riders to protest.

So, I think it's likely that there are team orders preferring GT over Froomie. It'll be interesting to see whether Dumoulin can put any pressure on GT. It doesn't look like, but the time trial will be a must watch.

Yeah, it was a lucky spot for Gilbert to take that fall, even though he broke his knee cap. He hit the wall at an unusual angle. Sagan also took a spill today and was really scratched up. A spectator may have caught it on camera. Hopefully, the fall won't spoil Sagan's style. I heard that he wants to win on the Champs Elysee.

Agreed about Froome and your analysis of the situation with the doping suspicions and GT. It's 2 minutes... do you think GT would be able to keep in yellow with that amount of lead. I admit to not having researched the individual TT stage and the amount of time that could be lost on them but I totally remember watching Quintana lose the 2017 Giro on the last TT.

Any chance someone in the GC will take attack on the C4 climb at the end of tomorrow's stage and try to take a minute or two on the final run-in? I would say so.

Dumoulin is world TT champ and GT is British champ, but GT looks stronger. Dumoulin has managed to keep up with Sky so far, and all he has to do is stay on Froome's wheel. I wouldn't be surprised if Egon Bernal (the young Sky rider) tries to get into a breakaway. Though, I think he'll be told to nurse Froome.

In a way, I hope it rains tomorrow.

quiet day today. Looks like Peter Sagan is pretty much on autopilot just to get across the finish line before the broom wagon after his tumble yesterday. Tomorrow will be a good one...

Yeah, it looked like Sagan was too far out of position and didn't have the gas at about 300 meters. It's amazing that he stayed up front as long as he did after his fall yesterday. He deserves to go on autopilot. The French are ecstatic over the finish, though.

Well Alaphilippe winning the polkadot is also a nice one. I do like Quickstep in some ways the last couple of years, they always have an interesting group of riders without being too heavily specialized on the GC.

Speaking of which, that is done and dusted as of today... pretty crazy descent on that windy road in the mist but the riders didnt have too much problem with it

I don't know whether it's scarier riding in the Pyrenees when there is fog or when you can see the drops. I think you have to be young to be fearless enough to make those racing descents.