I'd echo what Cowboyhat has said about Froome - he's essentially come out of nowhere, his first year with Sky he showed himself to be a very good climber, by the second year he's beating times on mountains set in Lance et al's pomp and also beating the world time trial champion in time trials. He's boring in person and seemed to have dropped a real clanger of a biography (which I haven't yet read). He's also shit at bike handling, as evidenced yesterday, which should be pretty unforgivable for a GC contender. I like cycling because you don't have to support a team because they are 'British'.What Sky did when they started, taking the successful British Cycling developed riders from the track to the road was amazing, and they did a great job of bringing through many great riders. These days I think they are more comparable to Chelsea, Man U or City than the German team: they have essentially a blank cheque and have used this to build a team with super domestiques who could easily be GC contenders at other teams.
I guess this leaves Nibs as favourite.. though is this a bad thing that there is one clear leader/rider now?
Harsh. It's sounding like he crashed because his frame snapped! Rather than snapping as a result of the crash. Haven't found a clip yet to confirm. If it turns out that's is the case it's pretty unusual and a pretty poor ad for Specialized high end frames.
I also read on Twitter that it might have been a spare bike coming off the roof of support car and landing in front of him.... bad luck if that's the case.
There were rumours that Contador’s bike frame had snapped, causing him to fall. It was also suggested that a bike had fallen off the team car and on to Contador. Both were denied by Saxo-Tinkoff. Once TV cameras had missed the crash, speculation was inevitably going to follow.Later the Belgian rider Jurgen Van Den Broeck confirmed that Contador had crashed trying to overtake the peloton on the descent of the Petit Ballon, when he hit a pothole in the road at 65kph and flew over his handlebars.It took time for the medical team to reach him and for his right knee to be wrapped. Time too, for his bike to be fixed and cleats altered. When Contador finally got moving he had lost four minutes on the peloton. Progress was interrupted twice more: to talk to his Saxo-Tinkoff sporting directeur Bijarne Riis, and then to speak to the medical wagon.It was all to no avail. Contador kept going for another 20km but with 77km of the stage remaining he decided to abandon.
I feel sorry for Nibs, if he does go on to win it's always going to be a bit hollow with the two (on paper) favourites missing.
