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Have I missed something regarding Chris Froome?
Particular attention should be drawn to point 2) - though one suspects the dominant feeling is disappointment rather than feelings of foolishness - everyone was expecting this to be something it didn't turn out to be.Some Cove on the Intertubes said:Here are five reasons why Sky and Froome are getting a grilling and Nibali didn’t last year.
1) French hopes were sky high for a French winner this year after last year’s podium and with all this year’s mountains. As the French challenge fades, cue strong French media antagonism towards any non-French rider dominating the race. Allegations that the non-French rider is “cheating” in some form is an easy way of avoiding having to admit that the French riders aren’t good enough this year.
2) The expected showdown between the Big Four (Five) hasn’t happened yet and some of the journalists who predicted it may be feeling a bit foolish and looking for a reason why it hasn’t happened.
3) Britain is a parvenu in road cycling terms and has the audacity to tell the old hands how to do it. Worse, British riders and a British team are successful and show up the old hands.
4) So far, there has been little happening at the top of the GC apart from Froome increasing his lead. So the media is looking for something to write about.
5) Many of the TdF press don’t cover cycling for the rest of the year. They may not understand the details of cycling tactics, are used to thinking of “cycling = doping” and will tend to follow the rest of the crowd. The Giro doesn’t get the same scrutiny or the same size media.
6) Nibali’s lack of grilling last year could be as much due to the double French success dominating the French media’s thoughts as to Contador and Froome crashing out.
If the time differences were measured in seconds rather than multiples of minutes, as was expected/hoped, this last week would have been batshit mental with attacks, counter-attacks *cough* marginal gains *cough*, ie much excitement.
Think of Sky as Chelsea a la last season and you get something of the picture.