The Pro Cycling Thread

S.Yates currently a million miles away, while Chaves is improving - The Orica climber types are going fine, though one of them should have got into the break - Froome is in trouble - Porte is playing with him on the climbs - Fuglsang and Aru are in good form which should add to the dynamics of TDF - One thing I know about Astana is they set an infernal tempo on climbs, if there GC guys are in form - Which could make for an interesting TDF.

Dauphine form is not definitive for TdF.
Sure, you like to be traveling well at this point, however, all is not lost if you’re not,.
Still 6 weeks away from the TdF, you’d prefer to be building form rather than at top flight.
Porte is red hot, but has he peaked too soon?

Recent years indicate a good performance at Dauphine translates into the TDF - Baby Giro about to enter stage 3, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Mitchelton Scott squad performs - Storer was a late withdrawal so team is relying on Hamilton and Hindley for GC - Tour of Suisse stage 1 a 6km prologue - Dennis destroys the field to win by 6 seconds from Matthews and Dumoulin with Durbridge in 11th place.Interested to see how long Power can survive in the mountains, and there is a chance Plaza or Verona could steal a mountain stage.

Any news if Dennis is riding the TdF in support of Porte?

I believe it’s undecided - I suspect Porte may want Dennis in the team, but Dennis may prefer to ride the Vuelta - It may also come down to whether Dennis targets the World’s ITT, though the course may not suit him.

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Kreuziger and Chaves in the break!

Break reeled in.

That loss of stage could have almost cost porte the tour.

Dissapointing for porte super ride catching froome after being isolated and doing all the work. And to lose by ten seconds which was the stage win bonus fugslang got.

Porte made the cardinal mistake of not realising Fuglsang and Aru are in better form than Froome - Porte wasted too much time marking Froome - Shades of the 2014 edition - A disastrous edition for Orica who got little out of the race,except for a headache - Albasini 4th behind Gilbert in a messy sprint in stage 2 of the Tour of Suisse - Interesting the only other Orica rider to finish in the peleton was Verona.

I doubt Froome will finish on the podium in the 2017 TDF.

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So did Orica not send riders to the Dauphine?!

Froomes strength over porte was descending, didnt have it on the hills at dauphine

It was a low key performance some could say a training ride - The DS Lapage wrote in his daily reports that some in the team were coming back from injuries which is true of Chaves and Impey and the rest were coming off a break - I guess Orica can only improve.

Matthews gets a win at the Tour de Suisse.
Beat Sagan out pretty easily.

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It was a comprehensive victory by Matthews - Stage 4 is a lumpy day - Interested to see how Verona performs - Thought Plaza may get into the break but not to be.

OS riders couldn’t match it with the others on the first big hill.
Verona did the best out of them, the others fell back to the groupetto to save effort for another day.

Plaza has crashed out in tonight’s stage. Off to hospital for scans.

Bewley is in the break which has just finished the big mountain climb - Break has a bit over 4 minutes with a long descent, and a short climb - Aound 80 kms to go.

Hamilton wins the TT at the Baby Giro - He and Hindley can have a real shot at GC in the next two mountain stages. Robert Stannard what a future - He’s right up there in these races at 18 years of age.

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Sagan does it easy. Albasini right up there.

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