[Closed] TdF Stage 14 [Possible Spoiler Content]

Voigt or Sylvain to win by the way 😉

Then again, this is the fifth time a Tour de France stage has finished at Plateau de Beille, and the stage winner has always gone on to win the Tour..

I dont see anything wrong with the stem if its being used on a mountain stage or by a protected rider - A slightly more comfortable bike would be very useful if you dont have to worry about the wind resistance.

[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tdf-exercise-program ]Come on and join me![/url]

My wife (if she weren't out shopping) would be proud: I'm multi-tasking 8)

Cripes this is a hilly stage. Very nice scenery.

Jens having a mare! "**** off" to camera!

Jens Voigt down! 🙁

Jens Voigt down!

I feel sorry for the ground.

Jens having a mare! "**** off" to camera!

LOL. Jens now back on his bike, towing the remains of the cameraman behind him....

😉

from Twitter

the pictures on my living room walls just rattled...earthquake? No, just @thejensie crashing #tdf

I want to see someone blow the schleks off the mountain, dunno why but they get right on my tits.

dunno why but they get right on my tits.

They barely do/say anything to annoy anyone though. And Andy is just plain cool.

[img] [/img]

commentator talking about LA's victory over Basso in 2004 on this climb- on the previous stage, LA looked completely knackered, next day bounced back with anger for the win- commentator says-'that told me all I needed to know, changed my opinion of Armstrong forever' - is the tour commentary full of coded phrasing? Lots of similar references over previous days to 'unexpected' performances, both good and bad.....

Has Roy been in the peloton for longer then 5k at all in this tour?

let's see who's got the legs now.

frank ftw (sorry wors)

Packs been blown apart.

Basso ftw. (no worries headfirst)

I think Jens is dropping the peloton

basso did look very cool and calm yesterday...can I change my mind???

Basso ftw

jens is one tough b*****d

what's happened to Schleck, attacking again!

I think I could watch Contador climbing all day, great style.

Cadel FTW.

enjoy DS you may get some time off from watching him 😉
Still cant tell how much he has in the tank tbh but yes he does have style

Looking at the crystal ball again Junky? 😉

¡Vamos Samu!

very loud applause for voeckler's efforts

Is Contador bluffing? We keep getting told he's in trouble but I reckon he's looking pretty good.

Schleck's got someone else's helmet on

alle voeckler!

Do you think my wife would be upset if I got a tattoo of a heart with 'Tommy V' in it?

Bloody he'll - did I just see Cadel Evans make a move?

I told you vanendert would win.

Where do these belgians and dutch climbers learn to ride up mountains??

chapeau Voeckler, that's the way to ride with heart and pride

Hmmm.

Tommy suddenly able to climb with the climbers, call me Mr cynical..
The Schlecks are tactical inept streaks of wee, who deserve nothing so far.

i'm absolutely with crikey. that tommy v, who knew? and what a team. that pierre roland, better domestique than o'grady, voigt and the like, better than cunego. what a 'performance'

You're out of order crikey!

Who knew?

Grrrr 👿

EDIT:

Tommy suddenly able to climb with the climbers

So you weren't watching earlier when they showed his stage win here previously??

Grrrr.....

Vanendert in KOM, Uran in white.

The Schlecks are tactical inept streaks of wee,
who deserve nothing so far.

No sorry, I've watched too much cycling to act like a French housewife.

I reserve the right to be as cynical as **** when I see that kind of ride. I would also bet my boots on the fact that a Frenchman, in yellow, at the Tour would never ever ever test in any way positive...

I thought that was a tedious stage; lets all sit and watch each other, lets not even try to ride with a view to actually winning. It was more like a 3/4/J road race where not letting anyone get away is far more important than winning.

I suspect we are seeing a clean(ish) Tour... bit dull.

lets all sit and watch each other, lets not even try to ride with a view to actually winning.

The Schlecks are tactical inept streaks of wee, who deserve nothing so far.

I'm sure you could've done much better 😉

[i]I'm sure you could've done much better[/i]

Ah, I see.

I'm only allowed to comment if I've actually won a stage... Belm..

Bring back Lance, at least he had the guts to attack.

he also had the legs. Someone will need to attack in the Alps, but yes not quite a race was it 😕

I'm not sure what you two were expecting - one of the riders to motor up at 30mph? And then if they did would you just have said they were on drugs?

My response was partly (but only partly) in jest... I don't like the smell of this new guy vanendert, it has a big dollop of the floyd landis about it...out of nowhere with no similar victories in his palmares (unlike voeckler) does seem too good to be true.

I agree that the GC contenders* are not enlivening the race at all. I think the 'modern way' is to let someone else and their team carry the burden of the yellow jersey for as long as possible - and Europcar are more than happy to do that - and look to make that one decisive move. I fear that that 'move' has happened already with the stage 1 crash and Conta's mini-crack on whatever stage that was. Schlecks are just waiting for Tommy to fade and then they'll just defend and defend. But I could be talking absolute twaddle.

*the only exception to this being Samuel Sanchez, but when he gets closer to the top of GC he'll be marked out of the race.

[i]I'm not sure what you two were expecting[/i]

Um, a little more in the way of tactical intelligence from Le(eeeee)opard Trek?

Put guys up the road, ride hard all day, then watch as the Frandy muppet show gets all of 2 seconds...

Either keep your powder dry, properly, or bloody go for it instead of that tedious 'Where's my bro, Ooh better not try anything, ok it's the last 100 yards I can ride quick now' rubbish.

Dragging 'Little Tommy' [i]and his domestique[/i] all the way up the hill?

Come on fellas, go big or go home.

headfirst, look at vanendert's past, it isn't often that domestics get the chance to go for stage wins, particularly if they can climb as they end up having to pace their team leader.

I think you're forgetting that riding away from Contador and Evans and Basso and Voeckler without dropping each other isn't that easy.

They probably just wanted to test people today, see how fit everyone is, see who has to be marked. They were prepared to take time if they could without killing themselves, but they don't need to right now.

mrmo, fair point 'our lads' GT and EBH being cases in point, but even so...nobody had even heard of him!

EDIT:The two above are bad examples, they've both got pretty decent palmares

headfirst, and how many riders in the Lotto team can you name? i will accept he isn't a very known rider, but the peleton is full of them.

And something to think about, Andy schleck is a crap timetriallest, now have him enter the average club 10 in the UK and i suspect he would still destroy the field. You don't get a place in the tour without some ability and even the domestiques are good riders.

Finally throw into the mix that his winning didn't matter to GC and they could let him go safely.

i suspect he would still destroy the field.

Suspect? He'd probably set a new club record. Equally Cavendish and any club hill climb.

[i]They probably just wanted to test people today, see how fit everyone is, see who has to be marked.[/i]

I agree, but it's a wee bit strange that Europcar can manage to have TV and a domestique all the way to the finish, while LEEeEEEEeeeEEeeopard end up burning out all their riders just to put AndFrank in a position to sit and watch the Voeckler show with popcorn.

Maybe I'm biased, but they don't deserve Jens...

without cheating gilbert, greipel, van den broek and other assorted belgians.

How many times does someone [i]as 'unknown' as today's winner[/i] win a stage, especially one like today's?

its a fair point dropping the main GQ men on a climb like that will not be easy.
Being poor amongst the top 200 riders in the world is not really being poor now is it.

I agree, but it's a wee bit strange that Europcar can manage to have TV and a domestique all the way to the finish, while LEEeEEEEeeeEEeeopard end up burning out all their riders just to put AndFrank in a position to sit and watch the Voeckler show with popcorn.

You do know someone has to be on the front to drive the pace? Europcar weren't going to do it, they don't need to. Leopard-Trek used riders to drive the pace up, shelling all riders from the bunch who weren't strong enough to hold on.

are you suggesting it is easier to hold someone's wheel than drive the peloton along.
I dont understand why only cav gets to the line with HTC is that like the same thing but in flat stages.

[i]You do know someone has to be on the front to drive the pace?[/i]

Only if you are going for stage wins or to make sensible time gains. To use your team up like that then sit and wait gains you little except sore legs.

They are riding the way they 'should' ride, I agree, but are not delivering at the crucial point, which has been a feature of Les Freres Schleck for a while now.

Perhaps 'panache' is not in the Oxford Luxembourg dictionary.

There is along way to go and they are ahead of bertie who they probably view as the main competition the alps have longer climbs and shorter stages so they need something in the keg for then. How did yesterdays winner do today in terms of race pace?

I think the Schlecks are going to lose this as Contador gets back into form for the alps.

They don't seem to want to take the risk of blowing each other out, or blowing up big style. I do think a big risk is going to be the only way to beat Contador.

Evans I can understand with the more cautious approach as he will be close to Contador or even beat him in the TT.

Did the bus get in within the cut-off?

matt

[edit] Eurosport have talked up Vanendert quite a bit this week [\edit]

Andy Schleck will want at least 2mins on everyones favourite angry Leprechaun and thats not looking likely at the moment.

Yup, Cav got it - pretty close though I think.

You do wonder why the Schlek waited until the last dew hundered meters before attack. They need to mtfu and sort their tactics out. Dropping one if it means the other can get big time gains. 2 seconds gained today - pointless. Not to say I didnt enjoy the stage though.

whatnobeer - Member
Yup, Cav got it - pretty close though I think.

You do wonder why the Schlek waited until the last dew hundered meters before attack. They need to mtfu and sort their tactics out. Dropping one if it means the other can get big time gains. 2 seconds gained today - pointless. Not to say I didnt enjoy the stage though.

I agree, it was a great stage to watch, always something happening. Alot of the things were quite dumb though. The breakaway group, broke up and came together, then attacked again so many times they must have been shattered by the time they got to the final climb!

Matt

And something to think about, Andy schleck is a crap timetriallest

He's either going full-bore already or tactically inept and with a faulty team radio

Tommy V - WHAT A RIDE! Chapeau, mon brave, chapeau!

yeh - to me that's the crux of this. Even at this year's level I assume Contador and Evans can murder him/frank in a TT, so WTF is he doing not attacking on a hilltop finish before a flat day ??

There's still the Alps to go. All they were doing today was marking each other and making a mental note of any weaknesses although to be fair most of the attacks from the GC contenders came from one or other of the Schlecks - Contador didn't attack once although he was able to follow fairly easily.

Schlecks have 2 min on Contador so they don't really *need* to attack, it's Contador who HAS to go for it which he'll do in the Alps (when he's stopped off for his special Spanish steak). TT is only 26 miles, that's easily sub 1hr even for the Schlecks so time gaps will be marginal there.

Alpe d'Huez will be the decider.

remember that the TT has already been done this year and the gaps were big,
[url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-upt/stage-3/results ]criterium du dauphine stage 3[/url]

I think the Schlecks are going to lose this as Contador gets back into form for the alps.

Contador's blown it hasn't he ? Sure he can time trial but he'll need a monster breakaway in the alps also to be in with a podium shoot.

He's less then 2 mins down on Andy, not that much.

Contador hasn't blown it, if anything the Schlecks have given him hope by failing to attack having burnt their team and then not going for it.

Surely the ride of the day was Jens (as ever), in the breakaway then crashing twice and then tearing the peloton to bits. Not to mention telling the camera bike to 'F*** off' when he crashed for the second time.

Fschleck was 90 secs behind Contador in the TT last year so the former's lead isn't that big. One successful break and a problem free TT and it's Contador's Tour.