Congrats SotD on the GC victory. It was a great ride by Spilak to take it.
Very happy with Hautesl's performance. Seems like my little rant before the Pyrenees was enough to give them the motivation to attack and do something. Two in the Top15, a stage win and the KoM jersey makes that a very successful GT debut and a shining light on a poor season so far
Indeed, congrats to SotD on finally cracking the Tour de France. And also to jt and alex, for their team and rider's best ever TdF finish. And thanks too to Acquarius for the reports.
Keinath's race is a great result, 9th and a stage win is more than I could have expected. Still with a fair share of poor performances from him - I wouldnt like to take 20 minutes off his GC time. Thankfully with a strong finish on the last few stages.
But Kirsch' crash remains a great disappointment, as his GT streak was a big thing for me. Was a real pity to lose Schleck too - and a shame he didnt make it into a breakaway at any of the three GTs.
Great end to the race congrats to all the stage winners throughout the tour
First of all Phinney was fantastic throughout and I could of asked nothing more from a role play standpoint I see his stage 20 failure to win the TT due to fatigue of performing above himself every stage before that and to be within 45 seconds at the end is a fantastic effort
Secondly congrats to Sotd a deserves winner that brings the title race back into being a fight and to finally see Spilak deliver is also very rewarding
Last of all but most importantly thank you for the quick and amazing report Aquarius the TT report in particular had me gripped throughout and has me thinking Phinney could do it for a while great job!
SportingNonsense wrote:
Was a real pity to lose Schleck too - and a shame he didnt make it into a breakaway at any of the three GTs.
This.
Was hoping as well from Koep to see some more action. But think in all his GTs, he had like 1-2 break appareances. Probably back in Vesuvio loan days even.
Him performing around top50 is nice.
Him getting a breakaway win or top5 result would be huge for me.
Adam Hansen kind of riding I`d love. Helping helping helping and at times a chance for himself.
First of all, thank you so much for your words on my reports! I'm glad you have liked them
When roturn gave me the job/opportunity to report the Tour i knew i had to make an extra effort in the reports for the biggest race in the calendar. I would try that everything worthy to be mentioned was mentioned in the reports, so obviously each stage took me more than time than when doing other races. I think i was able to do it, which might be shown in that all but 2 stages had more than 20 screenshots, and the average of screenshots/stage was over 30.
The report that i'm more proud of is the final TT. After i did probably one of my worst reports all season in the first TT (even forgetting to take pics of the last three riders to start ) i knew that i had to make a great report in the other TT to compensate it. Tbh, i might have been luck that i did the TT around the same time as the final part of Vuelta was being posted, so i took some ideas from Tamijo's excellent TT reports, like putting the provisional results from time to time in the stage, so finally i was able to do a great TT report
Reporting-wise, for me it has been an amazing experience to be able to report TDF, and i would be willing to repeat it in next seasons. While i agree that taking on a GT is a massive load of work, given enough time to do the race, it's only a matter of motivation to do a race like this, something i have experienced with this race, as once the mountain stages started to come, i was eager to continue with the reports to know what would happen next; how would Taaramae strike back, the battle between Spilak and Phinney, Sagan's amazing GC run, what could do Tenorio if he recovered for the final week.
My favourite stage was the stage of the echelons provoked by Strava. While most of the mountain stages were good, there wasn't any stand-out stage for me, so how Strava destroyed a TDF bunch in flat roads takes the win for me. A shame they could get away with the win in that stage though, as would have been very fitting.
Only left to congratulate SotD for finally getting the GC win, that has been long overdue, as you have perfectly told us in your latest HQ post
I followed the Tour from afar as it coincided with an incredibly busy time - so time to comment finally
Firstly, Adam Yates is not normal. 7th in GC, winning the white jersey by the largest margin in Man-Game history and numerous strong stage results are far beyond what I could ever have expected from him. I think with two seasons of training he could realistically be a GC podium contender, but not sure if I'll be able to raise the cash
Have to congratulate SotD, who has been a massive help throughout my time in the ManGame - couldn't be happier for anyone to get the win here. Commiserations to Heine though, as Taaramae would likely have dominated it without the crash, but I'm sure he'll be back for more.
This could also be a big result for our hopes of staying up. When your best stage racers are 81 and 79 MO respectively you hope to get at least one GT top 10, being realistic. So to finish 6th, 9th and 7th in the three is a huge achievement. Should we stay up then having a 79MO Carthy added to the mix will hopefully build on that.
And finally, fantastic reporting throughout Aquarius. It's a real challenge to report a 21 stage race and consistently provide excellent reports throughout, but you absolutely smashed it!
) i knew that i had to make a great report in the other TT to compensate it. Tbh, i might have been luck that i did the TT around the same time as the final part of Vuelta was being posted, so i took some ideas from Tamijo's excellent TT reports, like putting the provisional results from time to time in the stage, so finally i was able to do a great TT report 
