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Tour de France

Chubb

International Regular
A moment of sadness yesterday. I was watching Froome and Wiggins at the front of the Stage 6 climb and thought, "I must go on CW and see what Craig thinks about them".

RIP. Says a lot there is no Tour de France thread on the board yet.


If Wiggins wins, and it's a big if, it would be one of the greatest British sporting achievements ever.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Yeah, I always think of Craigos whenever I see anything about cycling. Still can't quite believe he's gone, poor sod. :(

Anyway, go Bradley. Seems a top fella too, unlike Cavdenish.
 

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Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Wiggins has it won as long as he doesn't crash IMO
In a great position but has no real Tour pedigree and is not an elite climber

Much will depend upon his team because it could all turn to **** if he gets isolated on the big stages coming up
 

PhoenixFire

International Coach
In a great position but has no real Tour pedigree and is not an elite climber

Much will depend upon his team because it could all turn to **** if he gets isolated on the big stages coming up
Isn't an elite climber but there aren't really any proper elite climbers in this tour who are genuine GC challengers. I'd say there are only 3 or 4 people who are genuine challengers, none of them are so much better climbers than wiggo that he'll be scared of them. There isn't an Andy Shleck/Contador type climber to really challenge.

Plus there is another TT which obviously plays right into Wiggo's hands.
 
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Spikey

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I mean, the only way Evans is wearing yellow in Paris is if Sky gets busted before then
 

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Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
uh have you seen his ****ing team?
They undoubtedly have the best team which is more than half the battle but this a long way from over

2 stages ago, there was a moderate mountain stage, Sky were busted and Wiggins had to fight to hang onto the back of the others

He needs to do that 4 or 5 more times to be safe
 

Spikey

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a couple of stages ago team sky just ****ing blew the peloton apart leaving evans basically isolated, and then evans tried to steal some time and froome flew past him like he was a bug. It's a bit like Evans v the Schlecks over all again, except these two can actually time trial. I'd love to say Evans is still in a good position and what not, but a mixture of a favourable course for wiggins and a team that's suss as **** (Froome? who the **** is he? Rogers? didn't he say he was quitting grand tours after 2010?! since when has wiggins been able to beat cancellara by 50 seconds in a TT?) makes it pretty hard to do so. I don't see Wiggins being isolated very often. team sky will be the guys setting the pace up the mountain. good luck getting away from there evans. he's basically relying on pinching time on descents, cause that's about the only sky/wiggins weakness available to exploit.

of course, it is early, and hell the descents could change everything, and I'd love to repeat almost all my previous form when i make serious posts, but man i just don't see how you can be anything but horribly pessimistic about evans. we're on the first rest day and the favourite has yellow, is almost up 2 minutes on the next favourite, and all the other team leaders are basically out of it. the chief domestique for wiggins is 3rd, and they've both just thrashed the man considered to be the best TTer in the world...and there's another TT to go. The 2nd favourite is left having to do something fairly foreign to him in the tour - make up time climbing
 

Spikey

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On the plus side, all the other team leaders being toast, evans having to attack like hell to get back into it, and the extraordinary performance by Sky means the race should be fairly exciting despite the seemingly inevitable conclusion....and leaves a fair bit to discuss...
 

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Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
On the plus side, all the other team leaders being toast, evans having to attack like hell to get back into it, and the extraordinary performance by Sky means the race should be fairly exciting despite the seemingly inevitable conclusion....and leaves a fair bit to discuss...
I think that this is my point

If they have any ambition, they will have to attack and try to break him (30 seconds per day wont cut it as there is still another time trial to come)

Fortunately, there are now a number of stages coming up that traditionally dont suit him (unlike the first week and a bit) so it could still be very interesting
 

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Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Plus side for you chaps is that Wiggins's old man was a crim, so you can bask in his reflected glory too.
And 2 of the main guys in his team that will be expected to protect him in the mountains are Aussies

Would be an unbelievable victory for Wiggins as an Aussie only won for the first time last year - that puts Wiggins about 20 years ahead of the usual schedule for Brits
 

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