It's all over but for the crying

Yep...it's all over...again. Boo HOO! July always goes by SO fast. It's no surprise to anybody that Froome is on top, but at least this year he showed some pizzazz! It was quite refreshing to see him do some BOLD moves, stuff you don't typically see a guy in yellow do (well, he actually wasn't wearing yellow when he attacked over the top of the climb...it was that move that GOT him yellow and he never relinquished it after that).


We did have some wonderful revelations this year...one was a Frenchman on the podium in Paris! Romain Bardet's bold move in the Alps put him solidly into 2nd. You want to win BIG, you have to gamble BIG. That was a very BIG and BOLD attack on his part, and he passed all the guys ahead of him who were content to hold wheels. I was really hoping Richie Porte would have a bog bold day and pass a few guys and end up in 3rd. I was quite disappointed w/ Quintana...he sat on Froome's wheel the entire Tour. Valverde would have likely made podium IF Movistar had protected him and not had him work for Q the entire tour...he was quite strong and worthy of a podium finish this year, where-as Q was not (IMO).

Adam Yates in the White jersey sitting in 4th...boy was HE a breath of fresh air! And one of the unforgettable moments of this years Grand Boucle was back in Stage 2 (I think) when the 1k Kite fell down literally microseconds in front of an attacking Yates...he was zooming along gapping the front-runners, and the next moment he's doing a superman over the deflated kite. Had you planned that event you'd never have timed it so perfectly to wipe out an unsuspecting rider. Watching him riding in to the finish dumbstruck w/ one of his teammates, bleeding from 2 nice cuts in his chin...it was simply an incredibly crazy incident that was just about as likely as a plane falling out of the sky.


And speaking of sky, TEAM Sky was once again quite invincible. They are surely the NY Yankees of the pro peleton. If you've got a big enough budget to keep that many of the best riders in the peloton happy, well...then you've got Sky. I just have to wonder how LONG they can keep that bunch of podium contenders working for Froome.

Richie Porte used to be one of them, and he showed his mettle and potential. Except for ONE STINKING FLAT back in Stage 2, he'd have been solidly in 2nd place, pushing Bardet down to 3rd.


I was sad that NBCSN chose to show NASCAR instead of all the aftermath...we never got to see the polka dot jersey being awarded, nor the Best Team presentation...cuz you know, NASCAR is so important that they couldn't have possibly delayed that a bit.

ANYWAY....here are 3 pics I got off of Velo News from the Ventoux stage...I posted one of them before, but here are the set of 3 in order, and I think they are pretty epic pictures! To be IN the crowd on this day.....

 Richie Porte leading Chris Froome and Bauke Mollema towards the summit

 Photo by Leon Van Bon / BrakeThrough Media

After the stopped moto incident, Froome running with his broken bike

 Photo by Leon Van Bon / BrakeThrough Media

Froome RUNNING up Ventoux sans bike. You'll likely NEVER see another pic like THIS again!

 Photo by Iri Greco / BrakeThrough Media

When I have a chance I plan to go back thur the stages and find more pics that I think are memorable...the stuff I WANT to remember the 2016 Tour for. There certainly were lots of moments, I just need to find the shots.


OK...what are some of your fav moments (Highlights and / or lowlights)? What will you remember in years to come from this years race? I think it was a pretty good race all in all. I'm only sad it's over...but as always, NOW I can get a bit more sleep.