After a plane transfer and a rest day at Saint-Nazaire, the Tour heads into Western France once again for a magnificent finish beneath Saint-Malo’s ramparts. It’s fair to say that this is a stage designed with tradition in mind, in as much as it will enable us to honour the memory of Louison Bobet and pay tribute to Bernard Hinault. This 100th edition of the Tour de France will feature another great symbol of national life: for the first time, the riders will pass through the heart of the Coëtquidan military camp, where the elite cadets from the Saint-Cyr military school will line up in their splendid uniforms to honour them. The moment will provide some unforgettable, moving and typically French images. Then we will probably see the sprinters perform…

Well that’s the first rest day out the way. Hopefully Porte will have his legs back, and Sky will be back on form. A flat day before the TT to get the legs zipped up. Too much to say about stage 9, that I feel has already been discussed to great length during the rest day.. Here’s the highlights though, just in case you’ve been in a cave.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVwZ_grVzVQ[/video]

Photos from Stage 9

Today? Cav.

Could someone tell his team mates not to get over excited and try to lead him out with 15k to go though? It doesn’t work…

Alternatively, Porte to whack it in the 53 in the first 10k and solo it to the finish line, gaining the 18 minutes he lost in stage 9.

A few useful links

Live Cycling News Text Updates
Steephill
Official Tour Live Feed App
Classifications
Withdrawals
Fantasy League Standings
Loser League Standings

As Porte goes backwards, so do the three teams that were on top yesterday in the fantasy league, causing Mike`s Men – no Fro(ome?) by mikewingrave to take the lead, by quite a margin, but without Froome can surely only stay there for so long… And of course, Time to do some crashing is still dominating the loser league. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that I don’t know how to lose a race 😉

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/quintana-we-showed-the-world-sky-also-has-weaknesses – think it’s been discussed enough, but it’s definitely something that the teams will look to exploit again

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/539297/chris-froome-s-tour-de-france-weapons-of-choice.html – just when I was starting to like Froome, he goes and puts a tiny spacer under his stem. Why Froome, why??

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/richie-porte/the-highs-and-lows-of-the-tour-de-france

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-de-france-eight-conclusions-from-the-first-nine-stages – good summary of the first week

An interesting little video on what the riders are eating during the racing.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rolr6fsZJtk[/video]

And somehow, OGE have managed to top Call Me Maybe (this might be my favourite thing that’s come out of this tour so far).

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAl1-mBhFpU[/video]

And finally, I believe it’s time to discuss the most important of matters – Ryder’s sunglasses.

I do like these posts!

Adds a new dimension to watching it on telly – cheers

Yes very good realman. I like.

Been trying to do some betting on the TdF this year, but it’s starting to annoy me…

Cav seems to have the attitude of “If I can’t win the stage, then there’s no point”. He could easily have been in the top 3 the other day, but slipped to 4 by sitting up before the line…

No odds on Porte, except his placing vs Kreuziger which gives 11/8 for Porte… Or 10/11 on Cav being in the top 3…

Good god, did he forget his shades and have to borrow his wife’s pair?

nice to see the pros are eating cake like us mortals too

Good god, did he forget his shades and have to borrow his wife’s pair?

They’re Swedish apparently

http://www.pocsports.com/en/3/eyes

Neither Cav or Sagan has made it into my Road.cc team today, the first time I’ve left either of them out for a sprint stage.

That probably means a nailed on win for the Manxman with Sagan coming in second.

What odds can I get on a Cav/Sagan reverse forecast ?

Jens to launch an all out attack just outside Coëtquidan, and the graduates of the elite St-Cyr academy to all go and hide.

33-1.

hmm, a traditional sprinter stage if ever there was one….

but, is it beyond the realms of possibility that a couple of teams might try poking Sky again? TT tomorrow, they may want to try tiring out Froome, very unlikely I know, but Moviestar and Saxo have both said they need to shake things up.

What could they do that the sprinters teams won’t do already? And even if they did get off the front, the sprinters teams would chase them down with Sky, Froome wouldn’t have to do a thing..

Jens to launch an all out attack just outside Coëtquidan, and the graduates of the elite St-Cyr academy to all go and hide.

33-1.

Those odds are a disservice to the great man… and lets face it… the french have some form in running away from a determined German.. so odds should be much tighter than that… £20 on that for me please

you’re probably right Realman, but would the sprinters teams chase from the get go? probably not, forcing sky to do the work. every little bit helps, just a thought, I doubt we’ll see it happen though

No they wouldn’t, they’d do what they always do – let the gap go out, then start chasing with 80 or 90k to go. And Sky would be more than happy to let that happen, if a load of favourites wasted a whole load of energy being out front in a break all day, they’d lose tons of time in the TT tomorrow.

It’s not a GC day today 🙂

If the other favourites tried to get out the front Sky would just close it down straight off. They wouldn’t allow a gap to open, so they’d never need to chase it down anyway.

Love those shades! 😯

Sky will cruise at the back of the pack. Or as close to as they dare. Chances of any GC contender getting off ,the front are zero, the rocket boys want this one, it’s the last sprint stage before Paris I believe, so Sky can rest assured only a crash and split in the ‘ton can affect GC today.

Last sprint stage before Paris? … Not sure about that.

What about the 3 stages after the ITT ?

it’s the last sprint stage before Paris I believe

Stage 12, 13, and of course, 21, are all flat sprinters stages.

Stage 14 will most likely be a break, but it could also be a bunch sprint with Sagan winning.

Fair enough, I know it’s a sprinters stage, but just putting it out there 🙂

Sky will cruise at the back of the pack.

no, the last place they will be today is back of the pack. They’ll be in the front 1/4 all day

Those odds are a disservice to the great man… and lets face it… the french have some form in running away from a determined German.. so odds should be much tighter than that… £20 on that for me please

How quickly we forget battles like Verdun, and the complete failure of the BEF in WWII…

Obviously a sprinter’s stage, Omega etc will chase down any break. No change to GC, Cav for the win. I hope.

Yeah… oould be talking utter rubbish there… Where that idea came from I have no idea. However, the sprintershave it today still holds for me.

I predict sky to hide all day.

Well whatever happens it’s certainly more exciting than last year, not that I’m complaining about Brad winning, it just seems far less predictable.

I’d like Froome to win but it was great to see another couple of teams really going for it and trying to shake it up. Fascinating stuff! 😀

huge crash at 4k and a random taking the win in what will look like a three legged race (the sprint)

Sorry – bit fanciful to imagine that Sky can “hide”. They need to be in front of any crashes and also fully on their guard against a split caused by sidewinds. Froome has got too many challengers to mark on his own so we’d better hope that Sky have recovered well enough to ride hard and keep control.

With the Brits invading St Malo its got to go Manx

Sky sit in the shade all day long

Cav mullers everyone on the sprint and does an celebration th elikes of what we have not seen

Some mad man/men/fools [JENS?} lead a futile attack from a long way out that has no chance of success

Froome dog looks relaxed throughout

Don’t think Jens does ‘futile’ Junkyard. When asked why he attacked on stage 6 of the Tour of California he replied “To cause chaos and mayhem. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

they may want to try tiring out Froome

How would they tire out Froome without tiring themselves out at the same time?

Break’s gone, with Valverde, Contador, Quintana, and Jens all in it, and they’ve got 3 minutes on the peloton, 184km to go.

…Or it might just be a load of randoms who are all over an hour down in the GC, I didn’t really look that hard 😉

^^^^^

I’m not going to lie – I panicked briefly till I read the rest of the post!

Word on the street is it’s not as perfect a sprinter’s stage as the profile suggests so I’m going Sagan to bag me a few much needed points.

Cav seems to have the attitude of “If I can’t win the stage, then there’s no point”. He could easily have been in the top 3 the other day, but slipped to 4 by sitting up before the line…

Precisely. That’s why we love him. It’s a win or nothing. 3rd and 4th are just different flavours of loser.

it all pales into insignificance after the OGE video!
Awesome.
the racing has been good too.
Cav to win today 😀

I find the live tracker on

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/live/aso/

Is very good for keeping track of things (especially breakaways) alongside TV/Radio/Whatever.

I find the live tracker on

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/live/aso/

Is very good for keeping track of things (especially breakaways) alongside TV/Radio/Whatever.

Hey yeah, I should probably include that in all the OPs… 😉

Just been looking on Paddy Power, I can’t believe they’re offering odds of 14/1 on Sagan to win the stage, it looks like it’ll be an ideal stage for him.

😆

Ooops!

Have some good news re Geraint Thomas to make up for it:

Another of the team’s top rider, Geraint Thomas, is riding with a fractured pelvis after a crash in the opening stage of the Tour.

“This is the worst injury I’ve ever had and it has definitely been my most painful week on the bike. When I had my spleen out in 2005, I was obviously not riding my bike and I was in hospital on morphine,” Thomas told the BBC.

“I’m feeling better every day, and yesterday I had the best day so far. If I keep going as I am in the final week I should be able to play a strong role again.”

Thomas has been assured that riding with the injury poses no extra risk.

“The bone doctor said I will not do any more damage by riding, because the fracture is on the bone that goes up my back and I am not sat on it. It will be healing; if I’d have caused damage in long run I wouldn’t have carried on and jeopardised my career.”

I find the live tracker on

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/us/live/aso/

Is very good for keeping track of things (especially breakaways) alongside TV/Radio/Whatever.

The “CyclingNews Tour Tracker” app on Android is also pretty good for this.

Just having a look at that and yes it is!

Why are Sky riding?

I know they need to be near the font to guard against spilts in the wind but why actually be on the front.

Surely they couldn’t care less if this break gets 30mins so why do any work at all? Just leave it too the spinters teams.

Just tradition coz they are in yellow?

Riding with a broken pelvis, now that is nails.