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Brussels sprouts a new winner? Tour de France 2019

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    Indeed, you can Beck on Ett.

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      Hello all. Just returning after a hiatus of a year or two (and not re-read the entire thread, so apologies for any doubling-up, but...)

      I agree this has been a classic Tour so far. However, I actually think that Thomas might just be coming good (enough) now, after that early crash unsettled him and possibly hurt him more than he let on, too. But Alaphilippe has been looking amazing, and Pinot has put in some remarkable standalone performance too. So I think this is going to go down to the wire - possibly the closest Tour in a long time. Just a shame it's not an individual time trial onto the Champs-Elysees! ;-)

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        Mini highlight yesterday with Sagan taking a copy of his autobiography from a spectator and signing it, while climbing

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          He just strikes me as the Colin Hunt of cycling.

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            I never used to like Sagan either Ray. He was just seemed to win the green jersey every year by finishing third in every sprint, killing off the competition without being a top notch sprinter.

            But the wheelies changed it for me - the no hander up Alpe d'Huez in particular. He might try too hard to be a character, but I don't see anyone at the side of the road rolling their eyes at each other. He's different in a sport where, like ice hockey, people all kind of look the same.

            Every day is a Sagan day to me. (He's nowhere near knocking Britain's Geraint Thomas off top spot in my affections though.)

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              Originally posted by Billy Casper View Post
              Britain's Geraint Thomas
              Nicely done...

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                Sagan is cycling's Frankie Dettori, where the exuberance occasionally threatens to overshadow the brilliance. I really like him (although I dislike Dettori, probably as I don't back him because of lack of value due to his name recognition, so it annoys me when he wins).

                I love it in the sprints where the teams are engaged in complicated, difficult to follow manoeuvres to place their squad in the best position, while he just buzzes around doing his own thing and nearly always finds the right wheel to be on. Am I right in thinking he is not well liked in the peloton? It's the impression I get.

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                  Don't really have anything to add apart from love Ala, love Pinot, love christlike Kruijswijk, love Le Tour, love love love that racing at the weekend. Love all of them, even the Ineos riders, apart from Moscon and Keisse who can bugger off to miserytown.

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                    Listening to Dani Rowe talking up her brother-in-law Luke's (undoubted) ability to control the peloton, especially in crosswinds, makes me really worried that fate is being tempted today.

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                      They keep talking about this section of possible crosswinds, but then they head back south at Uzes and there's 28k of pretty much headwind back to Nimes.

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                        Cracking bit of mansplaining there from Matt Smith when he repeated Rowe's comments on echelons back to her.

                        Ooh, now Thomas has had another crash, he's back up and riding though.

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                          Tell me Rowe didn't clip him? Couldn't see what caused it on the replay.

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                            Oh, Pinarello...

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                              Peloton has reached the crosswinds, so far absolutely nothing has happened as all the GC teams went to the front and rode defensively. Apart from Deceuninck interestingly, they and Alaphilippe were some way back down the group.

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                                The peloton has split!

                                To navigate a roundabout, aah.

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                                  Unzue confirms that Quintana and Carapaz are leaving Movistar, with the Giro winner going to INEOS.

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                                    Wow, Les Gorges du Gardon. Suddenly we're in Arizona.

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                                      The Cevennes are really quite interesting

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                                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                        Unzue confirms that Quintana and Carapaz are leaving Movistar, with the Giro winner going to INEOS.
                                        Whereas Quintana is allegedly off to the ideal destination for his talents - Arkea Samsic. Landa may be off to Bahrain to replace Nibs, with Mas and possibly Fuglsang coming in as replacements.

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                                          And speaking of Fuglsang, he's down in a crash. Along with Cees Bol, who was Sunweb's designated sprinter for today.

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                                            Timed that well ...

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                                              Another nice win for Ewan as Viviani wastes a perfect lead out yet again

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                                                Are Movistar pulling out of cycling or just losing their better riders?

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                                                  I'm not sure that Nairo meets that standard any longer, and they have never had the budget that Sky/INEOS has.

                                                  Their decision making seems primarily designed to perplex.

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                                                    General churn rather than anything else really. Carapaz won't have been on huge wages and INEOS have presumably offered him more. Landa didn't get offered a new contract - as Pippa York said recently, every Grand Tour sees him losing time in the first week and spending the rest of the race trying to catch it up. They've also got Soler still under contract.

                                                    Astana's bad day has continued with Luis Leon Sanchez abandoning - he had back problems and now Fuglsang has gone doesn't feel it worth carrying on. Think Lutsenko might save their race in the next few days - he's had a strong season, keeps getting in the right moves and now has no leader to work for. He's 25th on GC which is an ideal position from which to win stages, he's far enough down overall not to be a threat to any significant position but it shows he's strong enough to be a factor at the business end if a break sticks.

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