Tour de France 2012

[E.J.]

Sagen wins again....... Wow, this kid is talented...

General Classification after Stage 3
SUI 1 CANCELLARA, Fabian (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) 14:45:30
GBR 2 WIGGINS, Bradley (SKY PROCYCLING) + 7
FRA 3 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP)
USA 4 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) + 10
NOR 5 BOASSON HAGEN, Edvald (SKY PROCYCLING) + 11
AUS 6 EVANS, Cadel (BMC RACING) + 17
ITA 7 NIBALI, Vincenzo (LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE) + 18
CAN 8 HESJEDAL, Ryder (GARMIN - SHARP)
GER 9 KLÖDEN, Andreas (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) + 19
NED 10 MOLLEMA, Bauke (RABOBANK) + 21




Was only about to watch for about an hour while I read the paper and drank coffee this AM, but LOT OF carbon hitting the pavement....

[E.J.]

Hesjedal is done, that's too bad. Another victory for Sagen. No other big changes, save for Hesjedal, at the top.

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by E.J.

Hesjedal is done, that's too bad.

Garmin is two steps from dropping out at this point.

[tsolomon]

Waiting for the mountain stages. Looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday.

[E.J.]

Fun stage today.... Froome wins with a late push(what looked to be a response to Cadel's move) and the field is split even more.

Cool to see Wiggins, who will now wear yellow, raise his fist in celebration for Froome's late push to take the stage.

GBR 1 WIGGINS, Bradley (SKY PROCYCLING) 34: 21: 20
AUS 2 EVANS, Cadel (BMC RACING) + 10
ITA 3 NIBALI, Vincenzo (LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE) + 16
EST 4 TAARAMAE, Rein (COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE) + 32
RUS 5 MENCHOV, Denis (KATUSHA) + 54
ESP 6 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, Haimar (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) + 59
BEL 7 MONFORT, Maxime (RADIOSHACK-NISSAN) + 1:09
IRL 8 ROCHE, Nicolas (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 1: 22
GBR 9 FROOME, Christopher (SKY PROCYCLING) + 1:32
AUS 10 ROGERS, Michael (SKY PROCYCLING) + 1:40

I've never ridden a 20% grade, has my head spinning....

[E.J.]

HOLY Bradley Wiggins...nice ITT. It is early, but he just may have locked this up, assuming nothing catastrophic happens to Team Sky.... You have to assume they will put more time into everyone in the TTT.

Froome just put himself into the GC contention....(though he was odds on 5th before the tour started, when I posted the odds)

Team Sky looks VERY good right now.....and the doping rumblings have started.....booooooo.....

[E.J.]

No team TT, another ITT.....

[mosesbotbol]

Wiggins and Sky are going to get hammered on the next mountain stages. There hasn't been any big battles yet and for me it's way to early to speculate on Wiggins. He had an amazing Time Trial, but can Sky reel in the attacks?

[E.J.]

Congrats to Voeckler for his Stage 10 win.

Great ride by Jens....there is a reason everyone loves that guy!

A lot of race left and Wiggins could crack, have a mechanical at a bad time or wreck, but.....save for any of that, I think what we saw today is what you are going to see in the next 4.5 mountain stages. The rest of the 2012 TdF is Teams trying to get stage wins and jockey for a spot on the podium with Wiggins.

Everything else is flat and with another ITT. In a nutshell, Cadel would need to make up the time he is down AND put a chunk of time into Wiggins to have a shot....and I just don't see that happening.

I could be wrong.....

[E.J.]

1. WIGGINS - SKY 43h 59' 02''
2. EVANS - BMC + 01' 53''
3. FROOME - SKY + 02' 07''
4. NIBALI - LIQUIGAS + 02' 23''
5. MENCHOV - KATUSHA + 03' 02''
6. ZUBELDIA - RADIOSHACK + 03' 19''
7. MONFORT - RADIOSHACK + 04' 23''
8. VAN DEN BROECK - LOTTO + 04' 48''
9. ROCHE - AG2R + 05' 29''
10. VAN GARDEREN - BMC + 05' 31''

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by E.J.

Everything else is flat and with another ITT. In a nutshell, Cadel would need to make up the time he is down AND put a chunk of time into Wiggins to have a shot....and I just don't see that happening.

I could be wrong.....

There are 4 teams beyond Sky that have rider that could win and/or podium. Sky team is going to some work on their hands to keep the tempo and attacks at bay.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

There are 4 teams beyond Sky that have rider that could win and/or podium. Sky team is going to some work on their hands to keep the tempo and attacks at bay.

Like Evans, I do not think that either Nibali or Menchov are going to cut 4:00-5:00 minutes into Wiggins and thus, think this TdF is over... I could be wrong, but I'm calling it now....

You can call me wrong and quote me a week from tomorrow(the 19th), where either Evans, Nibali or Menchov will not only have to have Yellow, but realistically, a gap on Wiggins....

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by E.J.

I could be wrong, but I'm calling it now....

You can call me wrong and quote me a week from tomorrow(the 19th), where either Evans, Nibali or Menchov will not only have to have Yellow, but realistically, a gap on Wiggins....

Not saying you are wrong at all, but a lot of things can happen and that's one of the reasons this race is so beloved. 4-5 minutes is a big deal for sure, but he was able to build that gap in 10 days; it can be taken away just as quick. One day like Hesjedal had and that's it...

[tsolomon]

I'm cheering for Wiggins, but there is a lot of racing left and anything can happen. Tomorrow is another tough day and then stages 14, 16 and 17 in the Pyrenees will be tough on everyone.

[E.J.]

Tom & Moses,

Just to be clear, it is why I qualified with

Originally Posted by E.J.

A lot of race left and Wiggins could crack, have a mechanical at a bad time or wreck, but.....save for any of that.....

.

The other GCers can put some time into Wiggins on the mountain stages, but I don't think they can put that kind of time into him without something catastrophic happening, not with the way Sky is running. Who knows, that is why they race the race....

The way Froome looked the other day.....what are the chances that he works for Wiggins that final climb tmorrow, then tries to overtake Evans for 2nd at the Summit....

Tomorrow is going to be fun, 2 HC's early, then Cat 2 and Cat 1 Summit finish....

[CigarGuy88]

I really hope Sky isnt stupid enough to force Froome back to help wiggo if he has a horrible day/badly timed mechanical. Sky is so rediculously strong this year with Boasson Hagen Rogers, Porte (who IMO is a potential GC contender if he had his own team) they should have enough potential to let froome be a backup GC guy in case wiggo has a bad day. Sky is starting to remind me of Postal and Discovery in the LA days except those teams never had anyone who could keep up with their leader the whole way up climbs

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by CigarGuy88

I really hope Sky isnt stupid enough to force Froome back to help wiggo if he has a horrible day/badly timed mechanical. Sky is so rediculously strong this year with Boasson Hagen Rogers, Porte (who IMO is a potential GC contender if he had his own team) they should have enough potential to let froome be a backup GC guy in case wiggo has a bad day. Sky is starting to remind me of Postal and Discovery in the LA days except those teams never had anyone who could keep up with their leader the whole way up climbs

Some good points, but Postal and Discovery did have plenty of GC guys who could've won. Heras, Hamilton, and Landis are the first 3 off the top of my mind. Not to mention all dopers, lol...

[CigarGuy88]

Heras if I remember correctly is the only one with a good grand tour resume and the vuelta isnt the tour as we all know, hamilton never got anything going with CSC or phonak and landis got caught doping...

[mosesbotbol]

Originally Posted by CigarGuy88

Heras if I remember correctly is the only one with a good grand tour resume and the vuelta isnt the tour as we all know, hamilton never got anything going with CSC or phonak and landis got caught doping...

Heras won the Vuelta 3 times, podium 2 times after riding the Tour which is no easy feat. Hamilton won stage in TdF, 2nd in Giro, and Liege Baston Liege which is bigger than winning any single stage in the Tour. Hamilton is one of the best American hill climbers ever.

This is not take away from Armstrong, but cycling is a team sport and there can only be one leader at a time.

[E.J.]

Originally Posted by CigarGuy88

I really hope Sky isnt stupid enough to force Froome back to help wiggo if he has a horrible day/badly timed mechanical.

They didn't bring him back due to a terrible day or mechanical, but apparently it looks like they stopped an attack.... I was just getting updated on the phone, so don't know exactly what happened.