Dauphine 2017 !!

[madmacca]

He commented that he was right on the edge of being in the red. Froome was following so still had something left. When he went Richie could do nothing without really going in the red. So maybe not 'nothing left' but could not follow without really going in the red.

I guess if he had tried to follow Froome then he possibly would have had nothing left for the final climb.

And the fact that he caught and gained considerable time on Froome on the final climb shows that Porte made the right decision not to follow Froome's attack. Presumably Froome did have to go into the red to get away, and it showed later.

While not covering Fuglsang's earlier attack (given he has just a few seconds behind Froome) was an error, at the point of the Froome attack, he could afford to let Froome get 20 seconds. What he needed to do was his best effort up the final climb to limit Fuglsang's gains, and in not following Froome, he played it smart.

Fuglsang looked pretty comfortable up the final climb, and I suspect has earned himself a lot of respect from his rivals. I doubt Porte (and others) will let him get away so easily in the future.

[MichaelB]

It's easy to say (and plenty have done it) what to do after the fact, but at the time, he probably made the right decision.

What he couldn't have known was that Fugslang would still be good enough to go when he did and stay clear.

No-one called that.

The fact that he lost by the win bonus makes it even harder, but c'est la vie.

Would love to see a power analysis of Porte vs Froome, vs Aru etc for that last stage like has been seen on Cycling tips lately.

That would be interesting.

[RonK]

It's easy to say (and plenty have done it) what to do after the fact, but at the time, he probably made the right decision.

Yes, it is easy to say after the fact, but many of us who were watching thought it was a tactical error as and when it happened.

It would be very disappointing to be having a similar conversation at the end of July.