Desert Nomad

Le Tour have said today's ITT will go ahead in the face of the carnage in Nice last night. Good brave and forthright decision from ASO here that should be applauded. The ITT is actually reasonably fitting as it's a much calmer way of racing.

The 3km rule doesn't apply on mountain stages, but given what happened today, they could've gone that route. Mollema would quite rightly be raging.

Just watched replay of end of stage, De Gendt, Pauwels and Navarro had no motos ahead of them, one following, crowd parts no problem. Then we have Porte, Froome and Mollema, four motos in front. That's what causes the problem. ASO need to get shot of motos ahead of the riders in the finale.

Four motos in front of the riders. Shambles

Agree with you, but and there's always a but, first time this has been done. Greg Van Avermaet will be wanting last year's San Sebastian Classic awarded to him. Can of worms. ASO need to organise better, and UCI need to come up with hard and fast rules. Not fair on the riders.

Froome still in yellow, gave him the same time as Mollema who finished ahead of Quintana and Yates.

Given the wind higher up, they'd no option. Crowds have always been crazy on Tour mountain stages, particularly on Bastille Day. It was an accident waiting to happen. ASO the Tour organisers should've been aware and done more to prevent it. It's nothing new, remember the Alpe d'huez TT a few years back? Armstrong going down at Luz Ardiden? Any number of Dolomite passes in the Giro. Merckx got punched by a guy on Puy du Dome in 75 Tour, 100k on the slopes.

Yates provisionally yellow, but I'm not convinced the result will stand.

Sky train too strong for best climbers in cycling to drop, followed by big attack from Froome. Tour over, but then Porte crashes into a motorbike, Froome loses bike and starts running up hill, gets given a neutral bike which was too small. This is crazy stuff.

Good preview of today's shortened stage here http://inrng.com/2016/07/tour-de-france-stage-12-preview-mont-ventoux/

Tomorrow's stage to Ventoux won't go to the summit. It'll stop 6km lower at Chalet Reynard due to high winds. Quintana already losing opportunities to get time on Froome.

Valverde has plenty experience as well. Totally left wanting. Sagan showing the rest what he's made of. The most talented rider outside of the GC men.

Froome off the front with Sagan and Thomas. Quintana proving to be tactically very naive. He's losing time again. Froome making the rest look very stupid.

Seems not everybody in the peloton is taken in by Sky. It'll be put down to petty jealousy of course [emoji19] [/img]

I'm reading The End Of The Road by Alasdair Fotheringham just now which is about the Festina affair and the 98 Tour. Looking back, it's utterly mental just how untouchable riders and teams thought they were. In retrospect I think it would've been better for the sport had that Tour not made it to Paris. Mind the revisionism you hear from the likes of Jalabert thesedays is frightening. I totally get why there's such cynicism today, when we still have user dopers like Vino running teams. Noticed a Festina advert the other day featuring non other than Richard Virenque. Doping sells watches!

Froome should easily have the race in hand with two ITT's still to come. Poor race design to put Ventoux in the day before an ITT.

Whatever your thoughts re doping and mechanical doping, the similarities between Sky/Froome and US Postal/Armstrong are there for all to see. Absolutely bossed that stage with a Postal like train, Henao was absurd. Froome might say it wasn't a premeditated attack, but looks like it was to me as he attacked before the summit. I'll let it ride, but if tomorrow brings another Sky train then Froome victory, I'm as good as done with the race. Hopes for a few of the others though.

The most ridiculous descent I've ever seen. Looked like Froome was almost struggling with the revs his legs were turning at. Pretty far-fetched for my liking, even Nibali and Sagan can't descend like that, let alone Froome who's never been known as a descender.

UK Postal looking particularly strong today.

Pinot in the break, but three climbs to go and he's nine minutes down on GC anyway. Nibali out the back. Think the top guys will ride in tandem, allowing Valverde(who like Nibali also rode and podiumed at the Giro) or Dan Martin to take the stage.

Aye A'Bunadh is a cracker of a cask strength. Got a litre of Old Pultney Dunnet Head coming through duty free last week. Might open it tomorrow.

Top work from GVA to get in the break, might extend his time in yellow by another day. Shadow boxing by the GC guys, Pinot huge loser though. Navarro and Impey will be sick they didn't help Nibali pull Cummings back, particularly Navarro who looked pretty strong. Strange tactics to throw a stage away so easily like that.

I`d be surprised if GVA were to hold on past Thursday. Cat 1 climb close to the finish on Friday, even with 5+ minutes in hand, I`d expect him to lose it. Certainly won`t hold on past Saturday.

Liggett and Sherwan are utterly hopeless. Liggett in particular is a complete w****r. Has his own special place in the Armstrong years. Glad to see the back of these jokers.