Mont St Michel, my belle - Tour de France 2016
Not a great Tour that, although at least it completed safely and successfully. I suspect it was closer to being called off after the Nice attacks than was necessarily apparent at the time. The racing for the GC was too defensive after Sky locked it down. There was one great day, to St Gervais last Friday, and it was also good to see a large number of breakaways succeed.
Froome won because he was the best rider on every terrain, he showed more tactical awareness than his previous victories and looked more comfortable in his own skin. When his career ends I expect we'll look back on this as his most dominant victory. I do wonder how much longer the Froome Era will carry on for though, there have been murmurings that what with his kid he's getting tired of spending weeks on end in a hotel on a mountain in Tenerife. Also it was very pleasing that we didn't have endless blather about doping this year.
Said this before on here, but I don't think Quintana has the skillset to win the Tour - the Giro / Vuelta yes, the Tour not. He seems to get frazzled by the nervousness on the flat stages and then can't switch to the mountains. Indeed I wouldn't be surprised if he bypasses July entirely next year as the prospect of duffing up Zakarin and Kruijswijk in Italy must be more appealing. If he does do the Tour Movistar need to have a major rethink on their whole approach. The Route du Sud is plainly inadequate as a preparation race, he should follow everyone else and do the Dauphine. Their tactics need to be more imaginative - the moment when David Millar said "I just don't understand what Movistar are doing" in commentary was rather telling. I see Nairo has already pulled out of the Olympics, presumably to prepare for the Vuelta.
Bardet is the real deal and now has to cope with the pressure of being France's main man instead of Pinot. I think he'll cope with this, he's approaching his peak and he could very well win the whole thing in a couple of years. Expect a "Bardet friendly" route soon.
Adam Yates did very well to finish 4th but I'm not convinced he will do any better. He needs to ride further up the group for a start, though that should fade out once he grows in confidence. What he did show signs of was fading in the third week, which is worrying given how defensive the race was. You either can cope with the third week or you can't (hello, Bauke Mollema), it's not something that really comes with experience.
Cav rolled back the years brilliantly, although the all time stage record still seems some way off, especially as you assume Ewan and / or Gaviria will be there next year, and Groenewegen will improve. Kittel was disappointing. Sagan was outstanding again, three stages, green jersey again, lots of attacking, and he's still only 26.
I also see the commissaires revised the initial result yesterday and Purito climbed back to 7th as they implemented the 3k rule following the Cofidis rider who crashed. That's rather a liberal interpretation of it.
Not a great Tour that, although at least it completed safely and successfully. I suspect it was closer to being called off after the Nice attacks than was necessarily apparent at the time. The racing for the GC was too defensive after Sky locked it down. There was one great day, to St Gervais last Friday, and it was also good to see a large number of breakaways succeed.
Froome won because he was the best rider on every terrain, he showed more tactical awareness than his previous victories and looked more comfortable in his own skin. When his career ends I expect we'll look back on this as his most dominant victory. I do wonder how much longer the Froome Era will carry on for though, there have been murmurings that what with his kid he's getting tired of spending weeks on end in a hotel on a mountain in Tenerife. Also it was very pleasing that we didn't have endless blather about doping this year.
Said this before on here, but I don't think Quintana has the skillset to win the Tour - the Giro / Vuelta yes, the Tour not. He seems to get frazzled by the nervousness on the flat stages and then can't switch to the mountains. Indeed I wouldn't be surprised if he bypasses July entirely next year as the prospect of duffing up Zakarin and Kruijswijk in Italy must be more appealing. If he does do the Tour Movistar need to have a major rethink on their whole approach. The Route du Sud is plainly inadequate as a preparation race, he should follow everyone else and do the Dauphine. Their tactics need to be more imaginative - the moment when David Millar said "I just don't understand what Movistar are doing" in commentary was rather telling. I see Nairo has already pulled out of the Olympics, presumably to prepare for the Vuelta.
Bardet is the real deal and now has to cope with the pressure of being France's main man instead of Pinot. I think he'll cope with this, he's approaching his peak and he could very well win the whole thing in a couple of years. Expect a "Bardet friendly" route soon.
Adam Yates did very well to finish 4th but I'm not convinced he will do any better. He needs to ride further up the group for a start, though that should fade out once he grows in confidence. What he did show signs of was fading in the third week, which is worrying given how defensive the race was. You either can cope with the third week or you can't (hello, Bauke Mollema), it's not something that really comes with experience.
Cav rolled back the years brilliantly, although the all time stage record still seems some way off, especially as you assume Ewan and / or Gaviria will be there next year, and Groenewegen will improve. Kittel was disappointing. Sagan was outstanding again, three stages, green jersey again, lots of attacking, and he's still only 26.
I also see the commissaires revised the initial result yesterday and Purito climbed back to 7th as they implemented the 3k rule following the Cofidis rider who crashed. That's rather a liberal interpretation of it.
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