Tour de France - spoilers allowed

**ny biker** · 07-12-2014, 02:32 PM

Nice win today by Blel Kadri. I love it when a breakaway succeeds. I did feel bad that Chavenel got caught so close to the end.

Tough break for Talansky, losing so much time after that crash. On top of all the preparation, you do need a fair amount of luck to do well in bike racing.

P.s. re: Chris Horner's NBC interview -- 7 Cokes and 5 Snickers... love it.

**ny biker** · 07-13-2014, 06:59 AM

Ok I messed up with the dvr (I blame the jetlag) and did not record today's stage. I realized my mistake in time to watch part of it live. So I turn it on and find Tony Martin in a solo breakaway and taking over the KOM lead. What the hell? I don't think I've ever seen a time trial master do anything like this.

====

Well now that I've watched to the end of the stage -- it turns out that Martin did the same thing during the Tour of the Basque Country. Good for him!! And good for Tony Gallopin, riding hard to the end when he realized he could get the yellow jersey today. This is one of those days when I really like to watch bike racing.

And BTW I am really enjoying Christian VandeVelde's commentary. He's a great addition to NBCSN's cycling team.

**BikeDutchess** · 07-14-2014, 11:47 AM

Another dramatic stage today. Contador abandoning after riding for half an hour on a fractured tibia - incredible! I guess that is what adrenaline will do for you. And rumors still flying about whether it was really the bike that he was riding that had the frame broken in half (some are reporting the cracked frame caused his crash, others are saying he was riding another bike and the broken frame was that of a bike that fell off the car).

Wow. A tour of attrition this year.

**BikeDutchess** · 07-14-2014, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by ny biker

And BTW I am really enjoying Christian VandeVelde's commentary. He's a great addition to NBCSN's cycling team.

I agree - great improvement over the 3rd guy they had last year (who probably was knowledgeable about cycling but whose monotonous voice just about put me to sleep).

**pll** · 07-14-2014, 04:47 PM

What a stage. Cycling Tips has the most detailed account of why one of the bikes was snapped... according to that blog, a bike on the roof of the Tinkoff Sax car got tangled with a bike from a Belkin car. The bike snapped while on the roof -- they included a picture where indeed it appears two bikes are tangled:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/07/ti...ontador-frame/

**ny biker** · 07-14-2014, 07:03 PM

I'm bummed that Ted King is out.

An article in Velonews said that Contador's bike may have broken when he hit a pothole at 40 mph, because carbon race bikes are not expected to be able to survive that kind of impact. If this is true, I want a new bike. Jeez.

P.s. Tony Martin is the man. I'm still watching today's stage -- he just cracked. Amazing ride.

**malkin** · 07-14-2014, 07:30 PM