Tour de France 2012

[RedWill]

Froome is a machine... Popped and recovered twice and still had a sprint left in him. Think Wiggins will take the overall from here now. Feel for Tejay 'tho... Recon he's much stronger than Cadel but your captain is your captain. Those two boys might just have a future in cycling.

Yeah some good young exciting talent coming through, Peter Sagan also included. Think BMC might let Tejay go for a win in one of the mountain stages towards the end, would be a good boost for him and to consolidate the white jersey.

[Chris]

Still can't say I am impressed with Wiggins though. He is clueless without Froome. Yes he had a few minutes at the front, but that was really nothing. I still want to see him defend a position by himself over one half of a climb at least.

Oh well, my support has now changed to Nibali...

[Rocket-Boy]

Froome is going to need to find a new team next year. If he was allowed to then he would be in the yellow jersey right now. He has pulled Wiggins through this whole race and always has to hold back to keep pulling him. That man would easily be on it.

I have not been impressed by Wiggins at all aside from that individual TT that he rode, he just has a really good team.
Im still cheering for Cadel though because he fights damn hard and he mostly fights by himself.

[B@rrels]

Wiggo did an excellent lead out for his team mate at the end the climb.A bit more oomph he might have taken the stage win himself.

[RedWill]

So after today's stage, the Tour seems pretty much wrapped up for Wiggans, barring some kind of catastrophe. Cadel cracked again up the mountains, a bit sad really. Nibali tried one or two moves, but besides the initial kick doesn't seem to have the capability to go on and really climb away. Of course it was once again that guy Chris Froome, with a killer engine, seemingly pulling Wiggans up the mountain with an invisible cord...rather impressive the way he can motor at a mean tempo. Will for sure need to get his own team if he wants to win the Tour in future.

[OzzieCapie]

Froome is going to need to find a new team next year. If he was allowed to then he would be in the yellow jersey right now. He has pulled Wiggins through this whole race and always has to hold back to keep pulling him. That man would easily be on it.

I have not been impressed by Wiggins at all aside from that individual TT that he rode, he just has a really good team.
Im still cheering for Cadel though because he fights damn hard and he mostly fights by himself.

Mate, Wiggins was in yellow and didn't need to ride any harder than the next guy not in his team, i.e. Nibali, Evans etc. Wiggins also has a 'preferred pace' of climbing so that he gets to the top quick but without smashing his legs for the next day- he has the yellow, why should he. So his team is told to go at that pace and no faster/slower and the order of guys is based on their ability and place therefore Froome is last guy to take lead if needed. The rest of pack- Evans, Nibali etc also benefit from this pace- if not their preferred pace then they have a right to go faster or slower, nothing stops them. Once Nibali/Evans break was caught there is no need for Froome to then show off by trying to drop them. Being in 2nd he of course he doesn't have a yellow to defend.
Put Froome in another team then he is in exactly the same position as Nibali, Evans, Vd Broek etc and he will be shut down in the same way.

It is all a bit hypothetical and silly to suggest that a 2nd place guy, who also had the benefit of sitting in group for most of way is denied a yellow or better simply because of meaningless bursts near the top of climb that the yellow is not interested in.
In fact had he smashed himself more from outside the team, then I am sure he would have lost more to Wiggins in TT.

[Rocket-Boy]

Mate, Wiggins was in yellow and didn't need to ride any harder than the next guy not in his team, i.e. Nibali, Evans etc. Wiggins also has a 'preferred pace' of climbing so that he gets to the top quick but without smashing his legs for the next day- he has the yellow, why should he. So his team is told to go at that pace and no faster/slower and the order of guys is based on their ability and place therefore Froome is last guy to take lead if needed. The rest of pack- Evans, Nibali etc also benefit from this pace- if not their preferred pace then they have a right to go faster or slower, nothing stops them. Once Nibali/Evans break was caught there is no need for Froome to then show off by trying to drop them. Being in 2nd he of course he doesn't have a yellow to defend.
Put Froome in another team then he is in exactly the same position as Nibali, Evans, Vd Broek etc and he will be shut down in the same way.

It is all a bit hypothetical and silly to suggest that a 2nd place guy, who also had the benefit of sitting in group for most of way is denied a yellow or better simply because of meaningless bursts near the top of climb that the yellow is not interested in.
In fact had he smashed himself more from outside the team, then I am sure he would have lost more to Wiggins in TT.

All that can be made are assumptions. Wiggins was good at individual TT and started two leadouts which were fine because he was protected the whole way so he wasnt tired.
If Chris Froome has a good team like Wiggins then he would have been able to beat him in my opinion. All that sky did was control the pace of races by holding the front and shielding Wiggins, its what their job was and they did it better than the other teams did.
You suggest that Froome had meaningless bursts but when a breakaway needed to be caught it was Froome working and not Wiggins, he did the least work of anyone aside from his individual TT's which he knew he would be strongest on.

If you think im insane then take a quick google of "is sky backing the wrong man"
I think you might find that im not the only person who is a "bit silly" suggesting that Froome should have been the leader.

[Freshy-ZN]

Mate, Wiggins was in yellow and didn't need to ride any harder than the next guy not in his team, i.e. Nibali, Evans etc. Wiggins also has a 'preferred pace' of climbing so that he gets to the top quick but without smashing his legs for the next day- he has the yellow, why should he. So his team is told to go at that pace and no faster/slower and the order of guys is based on their ability and place therefore Froome is last guy to take lead if needed. The rest of pack- Evans, Nibali etc also benefit from this pace- if not their preferred pace then they have a right to go faster or slower, nothing stops them. Once Nibali/Evans break was caught there is no need for Froome to then show off by trying to drop them. Being in 2nd he of course he doesn't have a yellow to defend.
Put Froome in another team then he is in exactly the same position as Nibali, Evans, Vd Broek etc and he will be shut down in the same way.

It is all a bit hypothetical and silly to suggest that a 2nd place guy, who also had the benefit of sitting in group for most of way is denied a yellow or better simply because of meaningless bursts near the top of climb that the yellow is not interested in.
In fact had he smashed himself more from outside the team, then I am sure he would have lost more to Wiggins in TT.

Absolutely. Wiggins was awesome, Froome was awesome at his job, team Sky was awesome. They played the game perfectly and ended up with a one two for their superb efforts. I must admit I wasnt a fan in the beginning but they won me over with their brilliant team game plan.

Cadel cracked, lets face it. He had just as good a support team in BMC and he was the weak link there. Nibali did well and there was lots of impressive performances that made this a great Tour- Sagan, Voeckler and Van Garderen all thoroughly deserved their accomplishments.

I missed Andy Schleck this year.....sniff. Froome might also end up being offered a spot as team leader and ride against Wiggins next year which will make it interesting, will have to wait and see.

All in all a great Tour.

[Rocket-Boy]

Absolutely. Wiggins was awesome, Froome was awesome at his job, team Sky was awesome. They played the game perfectly and ended up with a one two for their superb efforts. I must admit I wasnt a fan in the beginning but they won me over with their brilliant team game plan.

Cadel cracked, lets face it. He had just as good a support team in BMC and he was the weak link there. Nibali did well and there was lots of impressive performances that made this a great Tour- Sagan, Voeckler and Van Garderen all thoroughly deserved their accomplishments.

I missed Andy Schleck this year.....sniff. Froome might also end up being offered a spot as team leader and ride against Wiggins next year which will make it interesting, will have to wait and see.

All in all a great Tour.

Stop being a girl and come play some BF3 with me.
Right now that is out the way...
I loved Voekler in the tour which im sure many others did too, he fought seriously hard and pushed himself like crazy.
Sagan was also awesome, he at least had some personality and he came very close to Cavendish on that line in the Champs Elise, if he had a better position I recon he would have taken him.
Van Garderen was also really good, his final TT showed what class he has. Its a pity about Frank Schleck, I wonder what will happen with his doping allegations, Andy is adamant he would not have taken anything.
Do you think Contador will come back after his ban is up?