The cycling thread

Got back from London last night and i'm on abit of a come down today, absolutely brilliant weekend. Just started working my way through my photos from the past few days.

Froome has gone down early on stage four. Back on his back but looks like a sore one.

Nearly a stage win for Kristoff. /o\

My photos from the weekend if anyone wants to have a look

Focused more on the fans/crowds this weekend for a change

Is there anyone left in the tour who can compete against Kittel in the sprints? Totally dominant and he's in lethal form at the moment

Peter Sagan and Alexander Kristoff?

Not sure why youd bother to say Sagan hes no where near beating Kittel, Kristoff would also need a bit of luck. Greipel is probably the only one who can challenge him but hes riding shit and losing team mates. Annoying Cav is out as OPQS are doing some nice lead outs for Renshaw.

Btw nice photos KL.

Yeah no ones even close to Kittel really, Kristoff could beat him but it would have to be perfect for him to do it and Sagan doesn't really seem that bothered about winning any stages up to now he just seems to be all about getting the Green Jersey.

Cheers Carroll

Todays stage is going to be carnage i think, been raining all weekend and they've just had to remove sectors 5 & 7 because of it.

Just praying Froome gets through today's stage without losing time. It's a tricky one after his crash.

Froomes out after crashing twice today.

Not even a massive fan of Froome as a person but such a huge blow for the Tour, going to be a lesser race without him there now.

Vuelta this year will be awesome now though, Froome V Quintana!

Cavendish first and now Froome - what rotten luck. Has anyone else even withdrawn?

The decision to leave Wiggins at home looks a foolish one now.

Nah its not foolish at all, Wiggins is mince in the wet weather

No one else has withdrawn today, but only just started the cobbles so still early days yet.

Tour is going to be a bit shit now without both him and Cav, at least for me personally.

Saying that has really opened it up a lot with Contador, Nibali, Valverde all with a shot. Maybe even Porte or Thomas?

Awesome stage!

Great stage. Lars Boom is a machine. Huge result for Nibali today and Contador looked really poor.

Nibali's tour to lose so. Contador has some huge work ahead of him in the mountains!!

Dont think its that clear cut, Nibali hasn't been climbing well in races before the Tour so 2 minutes is nothing really.

It's Porte's time to shine.

Will be interesting to see if each Sky Team member can push up a place to cover. This is where we'll see the true strength of Sky with no Wiggins or Froome.

If the pattern continues as it has the last two years Porte will win!

The pattern being Froome was main man to Wiggins, then Porte was main man to Froome.

So many bloody crashes again yesterday, sky down to a 6 man team now

No more crashes than any other year i don't think, first week is always pretty bad.

Not going to lie, this Tour might get a bit boring with Froome and now Contador gone. Nibali easily the strongest out the rest

Nah no chance, Porte is looking good and theres guys like Kiwa, VDB, Rolland, Valverde are more in it now than they were. Much more open now Contador's out because he looked much stronger than Nibali.

Contador was the only one who could match Nibali, he just easily rode away from them today and I doubt any of the names you mentioned will be a big threat. Valverde let Nibali walk away then sat on Porte who was trying to chase it back, what is the point in that

Still way to far to go for it to be all over, only takes one bad day for Nibali (like he had at the Dauphine) and thats it for him

Yeah but he had to contend with Froome and Contador there, and Talansky was going good too. Seems the same case as the sprinters, where its only Kittel who can beat himself, rather than the others

Kristoff. \o/

Greipel was fuming then, his German accent was the bomb

It's all but over. Porte even said today he's focusing on the guys behind him rather than catching Nibali.