[Closed] Le Tour - Stage 11 - Who's got something left?

My prediction is a breakaway for the win.
Even though I hate to see it - Thomas Voekler looked like he gave up early yesterday to save himself. Maybe.

LOL, I'll admit I hadn't checked on Porte's position - when did he lose all that time?

Every day in week 1, he was used as a battering ram at times after the crash/restart he was up front doing a big turn to get the break back then dropped off. Did a decent stint in most stages.

Another prediction from me..

All Sky riders will all be wearing Raphas new Sunglasses, having grown hipster beards overnight, chucking 1980's musettes over their shoulders and chillaxing in da hood that is the Sky train fixed peddling at 65rpm in the big ring whilst everyone else looks on with utter jealousy.

Brailsford grows a beard, Bradley comes out of the Bus with Neal Galagher in tow and proclaims Beady Eye are defunct and the new name is Beardy Chin.

Yo' erd it ere' first.

Prediction: Froome to do a bikechange at the foot of the Tourmalet to one with the pedals mounted in reverse so he can ride away from the peleton facing backwards and flipping the bird.

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All Sky riders will all be wearing Raphas new Sunglasses

Damn it, I thought I was in sort of exclusive club after getting that email, I'll be sending 'em back now if the riffraff are able to buy them!!

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/us/live/aso/
First 4 off the front
BOASSON HAGEN E.211MTN+00:27:04
KWIATKOWSKI M.111EQS+00:38:49
WESTRA L.9AST+00:45:59
JUNGELS B.147TFR+00:54:59

That's not a bad group, not sure its strong enough to stay away all day but it's a lot stronger than I expected to go.

12:27
Peloton on a fast pace
The peloton keeps riding hard at km 16 with a deficit of 35 seconds.

Not enough teams represented, there'll be loads wanting to chase that down.

FDJ pulling hard, trying to get Pinot KOM?

Hmm.. I can see Westra and Jungels sticking at it for a while, EBH though? na.

Could have done with at least 4 more in that group..

Incidentally, Radio 5 won't bloody shut up about Chris Froome this morning - big media charm offensive from Murdochland ?

For balance, about every other word in the many mentions I heard was 'drugs'.

EBH can climb well, he's not a pure climber but he's a whole lot better than many, Sky certainly used to use him on the hills. Kwaitowski can also do a job there, if they can get a good gap they could do something.

Nibbles is gone, at least in terms of GC - Vinokourov's [url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/jakob-fuglsang-to-lead-astana-at-tour-de-france-after-nibali-cracks ]promoted Fuglsang[/url] to lead the team

EBH has bulked up quite a bit for the classics and sprints though since moving on from Sky.

Vino just doesn't seem to like Nibali that much. Gave him a lot of stick in the press last year too before the Tour. Wonder how long Nibali will stick with Astana?

Reckon this is the last season for Nibbs with Astana.. Vino will promote Fuglsang (as above) and bring in another Dommi' to help out. Thing with Nibbs is (IMO) he as seriously hurt by the Astana affair most recent and wants to distance himself from the bad press.. but distancing himself from this years TdF lead GC contenders isn't a particularly smart move IMO.. 🙁
I expect he'll leave at the end of this season in some deal or other.. All his mates are over with Garmin and Saxo and he could take Landa with him if he doesn't go to Sky..
I could see Nibbs at Saxo/Tinkoff with Bertie taking time out for one last hit next year before he retires.. thereby Nibbs taking over for the next couple of years.
Just a thought.
As for EBH, classics rider only these days. For some reason his time at Sky did him no good what so ever.. which is a real shame. I hoped he would benefit greatly but seems content doing classics in small teams/groups these days.
What if Sagan went to Astana? That could work really well, Tinkoff wants rid, they could do a swap with Nibbs..

Just thinking out loud.

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He's off

So the break:
MORABITO S.27FDJ+00:26:37
PAUWELS S.218MTN+00:32:57
SIMON J.177COF+00:47:37
MAJKA R.45TCS+00:51:03
DEMARE A.24FDJ+00:53:28
VOECKLER T.129EUC+00:59:18
BUCHMANN E.

With Dan Martin trying to bridge

That's more like it.

And we begin the Aspin 🙂

Yes Tommy, yes!!!

Martin doing a fantastic job here. That's still a big gap to close though.

Had a feeling about Pauwels looking at the start sheet earlier. Now he's in the break I'm going for him. Would be great to see them win a stage.

So missing something but where are all their HRM's

Martin's caught them!

Many don't bother. For effort, some just go on feel, some go on power. You'd think they'd still collect the data though. Or maybe they're using wrist band based ones.

Nice work by Dan Martin.

brassneck - Member

Incidentally, Radio 5 won't bloody shut up about Chris Froome this morning - big media charm offensive from Murdochland ?

For balance, about every other word in the many mentions I heard was 'drugs'

Cripes, Dan dug deep.

#restupladthengoagain

I reckon one of the sky boys* will fall off trying a wheelie on the Tourmalet after they've buried the rest of the field.

Also - how the heck did Quintana get the white jersey?
he looks about 50 ffs!

*not G mind as he is freaking awesome

If he's in decent nick at the top of the Tourmalet, the Romain Bardet has got a chance. His descending in the Dolphiny (Stage 5?) was pretty good. He's a good enough climber to keep the gap on the last hill.

He got dropped out of the peleton about 5 minutes ago...

edit:

Bardet is back with the peloton after a quick trip to the medical car. It seems that he is having trouble with the heat and he's been given some tights filled with ice to keep his temperature down. It's been very hot in France for the past week and a number of riders were complaining about the heat after yesterday's stage.

Martin takes the points - What an effort!

Oh. 🙁 Yep. just checked and he's currently wearing ice tights according to cylingnews.com

They might help his descend though.

Bardet has now been sick with heatstroke. I wonder who else to curse instead. Scarponi.

So missing something but where are all their HRM's

Why bother when people rip you apart when it gets leaked 😆

Also - how the heck did Quintana get the white jersey?
he looks about 50 ffs!

If you've ever seen him up close then you'd actually confuse him for a 12 year old girl

Also massive lols at everyone suddenly proclaiming Porte as a podium contender or next GC main man at BMC after hanging off the end of the peleton to save his legs for a week in preparation for putting in one big day.

If you've ever seen him up close then you'd actually confuse him for a 12 year old girl

This is because he wasn't born, he was erupted fully formed from an Andean volcano so he's both young and fresh and old as the hills. It's also why he's rock hard.

Sky dictating an easy day to recover after yesterday?

They seem to ride a slow, slow, quick, quick, slow run of stages - at least looking at 2012 & 13.

😆

Quintana has been the most impressive rider for me so far. We all expect him to climb but he has been a bit of the boil for the past year or so, so actually expecting alot from him this year too was optimistic. His rides in the first week were nothing short of amazing for someone who is 3 foot 5 and 40 kilos 😆 If only the commentators drew our attention to this more too

From Cycling News:

Reports coming through that Ivan Basso had a successful operation today and he will leave hospital tomorrow.

Pinot dropped again & Astana have decided to show up for a bit.

unfairly tarred with the lance-brush

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The only way to prove you are clean in cycling is to be sh1t and never win anything. That is why we believe the French teams to by and large be clean 😆

If only the commentators drew our attention to this

Dan there is another thrad for all that
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/le-tour-dopingspeculationrumourconjecture-thread
as I said there, nobody asked you Lance, go **** yourself.

Fair enough

Tommy V climbing at the head of a group is a thing of beauty!

Sad to see Peraud pedaling squares