Another long stage. This one stretches 217 km from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Cap d’Agde, where the bunch will embrace the Mediterranean. A treasure trove of beautiful TV pictures… and the prospect of a sprint finish, at least among those fast men who have managed not to lose contact on the climb up the Mont-Saint-Clair, 23 kilometres from the finish. In other words, the stage is not a piece of cake and the race could go crazy. Moreover, the wind is always a menace near the Mediterranean, and we already saw what it can do when the Tour visited La Grande Motte in 2009…

CAVVVVVVV.

Great pictures as always, from stages 11 and 12.

http://www.steephill.tv/2012/tour-de-france/photos/stage-11/

http://www.steephill.tv/2012/tour-de-france/photos/stage-12/

3 crap days in a row now, kinda need Cav to bring it back.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/stw-tour-de-france

A few useful links

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

If you haven’t seen this already, it’s worth checking out.

http://tourdedickhead.blogspot.co.uk/

Also not really related, but still funny.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usa-olympic-team-kits-unveiled

What happened to the Peter Sagan love in ??? Gawd realman you can be so fickle sometimes! 😉

Although I would love to see team sky go out there and boss the stage today and set it up for a big finish for Cav i think the liqigas boys may be thinking they need to be a bit more for Sagan after yesterday.

I’m gonna go for another win for Sagan and a finish line celebration mimicking karate kid.

Now I was wondering if Sagan could jump out the front on the final climb, whack it in the 53, and solo it to the finish line, but it is nearly 25km. And besides, I also love Cav, and he deserves another one I feel.

What do you mean by “after yesterday” btw? You know Goss had 30 points deducted from him – Sagan got them?

Sorry am i watching yesterday on eurosport – maybe im going back to itv 4 these buffoons chat is exactly same as yesterday !

No it is yesterdays . Doh

Just noticed that Petacchi was outside the time limit and has been kicked out, and Renshaw has gone home.

I knew Goss got points deducted but didn’t realise it was all of them for the day, thought it was just the ones for the last sprint – my bad.

Also thought they may want to give him a bit more support as Goss and his team seamed to be the ones in command when it came to the sprints.

Currently points look like..

1. SAGAN Peter 254 pts
2. GOSS Matthew 198 pts
3. GREIPEL André 181 pts
4. CAVENDISH Mark 129 pts

Sagan look pretty comfy.

Yeah definitely missed that the points didn’t look like that when itv posted them after the stage.

No terrestrial coverage today then?

According to the planner on my tv Itv4 live from 2pm

Fete Nationale today, so I’m expecting at least Chavanel to do something.
Hedging my bets on plenty of cat and mousy stuff.

FWIW it isnt windy down here for once (relatively speaking) and it’s a good 3° cooler than yesterday.

awwww bless and now they are olympic team mates

Thanks rusty, yes the tvguide hasnow updated but newspaper doesnt show it on itv4. Might watch the end to see if there is a good sprint

That’s a great pic Klunk.

Looks pretty windy.

How steep is that climb….scenery looks amazing

doesn’t look like a Cav day, does it?

SAGANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

😀

Cav a minute off the main group, pace of the main group is slow, we’ll see. left all by himself though, not even Bernie.

Greipel all the way… he has loads of riders with him.

ARGH that was close.

Yellow jersey leading the sprint out 😯

🙂

Cav fell away on that climb really quickly considering he has lost weight to help him in the Olympics .I think he is going to get worked over on Box hill every lap .I suppose he will have four riders working with him unlike today where he was left to fight for himself.Lets hope so anyway

TdF should be good training then!!

Wiggo right in the fight, leading out EBH: class.

I’m sitting in the campervan with a glass of wine looking down on tomorrow’s route and trying to keep out of the fierce westerly wind. I’m not far from the top of the Col de portel. only a cat 3 climb I think. hell, I used to send mrs stoner to go down and up it to get the shopping…on the singlespeed 🙂

drove a fair bit of the approach into quillan – road is in a shocking state in places. but its nice and wide. watch out for the railway line crossing at the foot of the climb. pinchtastic.

some mates have lined up a good spot and a BBQ on the roadside for tomorrow. and the banner is ready to cycle over there with the kids in time for the caravan tomorrow morning.

excited? I’ve nearly peed 😀

That hill in Sete is very steep, far far steeper than box hill, which will look pretty flat on tv, it is only 5%.

lol sean k has just parked up.
I think he’s a bit tired from the drive from the finish today.

“spot of chienning, Sean ?”

“surtaintly, just mind the paintwork !”