Giro d'Italia / Tour de France Cycling thread 2013

[The Left Side]

Beautiful scenary in the mountains yesterday.

[Dave Cooper please]

Cavendish now has 41 stage wins in the three Grand Tours, he might never catch Eddy Merckx (64) but could get close to Petacchi's 48 in the TDF if all goes well.

[Jon Crofts]

Wiggins doubtful for the Tour due to a knee injury, let the conspiracy stories begin..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/may/31/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-france

[bertlambshank]

Wiggins doubtful for the Tour due to a knee injury, let the conspiracy stories begin..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/may/31/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-france

Out according to SSN.Maybe packing in the fags will help his chest infection!

[Yossarian]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/22735801

[Dave Cooper please]

Wiggins doubtful for the Tour due to a knee injury, let the conspiracy stories begin..........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/may/31/bradley-wiggins-tour-de-france

Nah, no conspiracy. You don't enter the Tour unless you are 100% fit and Wiggins isn't.
What it does though is open up another spot for a dedicated domestique to help Froome.

[N'Rexy]

Porte will be Froomes main helper. Lopez, Cataldo, and Thomas will probably make up the rest of his guards.

Very handy injury. Stops the internal warring. Means that he gets to miss a race that doesn't suit him this year.

[N'Rexy]

Henao signs for Sky for another 3 years. Uran is off to Omega Pharma. Froome will re-sign for Sky just before the Tour and Stannard  and JTL are gone.

I hear that wiggo is on the shit list and has probably got a season left there.

[Dave Cooper please]

Froome is handily placed in the Criterium du Dauphine, 5 seconds behind the leader but well ahead of the rest of the climbers with the big hills to come including a Huapt Categorie climb to the finish today.
Could be his fourth stage race win of the season, he's in great form for the TDF.

[bertlambshank]

Frome just took the piss there Great stuff.

[Dave Cooper please]

Awesome from Froome, and you can't take it away from Team Sky who just paced him up that hill.

[Jon Crofts]

Slightly off topic, I was out riding Thursday early doors, when I crept up on a rider crawling up a minor ramp on the cissy ring, he was wearing the Sky Kask team helmet, Sky team Oakley glasses, Sky Rapha team jersey, Sky Rapha team bib shorts, Sky team issue over boots & sat atop a Pinarello Dogma 65 in Sky team colours c£10k of bike.  I had to double take when I saw who it was, or actually who it was not, it was just some overweight banking type on his commute through Richmond Park, there's liking Team Sky & there's taking it a bit far, team kit is for the team.  Rule 17 applies here.  Know The Rules http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

[N'Rexy]

Froome looks good. Did well again today. In fact all the 'Skyborgs' as they are unflatteringly now known looked good. TdF team will be super strong.

Love to see crap riders in all the gear. Still I'd rather that then no-one out on the roads as it used to be 5 years ago.  Then it was a nice surprise to see someone.

[Dave Cooper please]

Yes, Sky are going to become the team everyone else hates aren't they?

[SteveN]

Froome and Sky look to be in good form for the Tour.