Le Tour Review : Tue Jul 29, 2014 9:03 am
Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire!I can still barely believe that Le Tour visited my home county, home town and just how much it was embraced and celebrated while it passed through.
Le Tour weather seemed to stay with us and good old traditional Yorkshire weather follwed Le Tour.
Cav crashed on stage 1 when he never looked like winning and Kittel went on dominate the first week sprints. But then he started to look a little more human and Cav must have fancied his chances in the sprints to come where Kristoff and Greipel won. Paris would have been quite tight too by my reckoning.
Froome crashed on stage 5. To be honest.......it saved him from a poor final position. He wasn't in the form needed to win this year. His team was awful too. In fact I'd go so far to say that this is the worst team that Sky have put together for Le Tour to date. What on earth is happening in that team?
Contador crashed out on stage 10 (I think). This robbed us of a fair fight for the top podium place as I do believe him and his team were strong enough to challenge Nibali.
Nibali was imperious. Stage 5 was when he won it for me. We always knew he could handle a bike but we never knew he could handle the cobbles so well. Maybe he'll have a crack at Paris Roubaix before his time is done. Nobody then was able to take it to him in any meaningful way. I still find it incredibly unpalatable that he has Vino as a team manager though.
The French are coming!! For me this was the highlight of the race. Peraud, Pinot and Bardet. Maybe we will have a French winner of Le Tour in the next few years. I do worry if the rumours are true about Pinot moving to Team Sky as that will finish his chances of ever getting on to the top step of the podium being used as a domestique for Chris Froome.
So - what are we left with going forward.
The Vuelta. Looks like Froome will be there and Contador won't. Will Team Sky send a squad capable of winning? I reckon we'll see Quintana there, maybe Valverde, Rodriguez, Talansky and Uran. Likely to see Chris Horner too and probably a few of the other Columbians like Henao and Betancur. I predict a second grand tour win for Quintana.
