Blagnac-Brive-la-Gaillarde: a 222.5 km hop to bring us a little closer to Paris and give leaders the chance to spin their legs before the Bonneval-Chartres time trial. This is obviously a golden opportunity for sprinters to shine again. I have already said that this Tour is not especially sprinter-friendly, since we have always chucked in one or two climbs to scatter the bunch. In fact, everything points to intermediate sprints being more important for the green jersey than the stage finishes. All in all, a race within the race, very strategic and exciting. There are 65 points up for grabs today!
Obviously I want Cav to have this one, but it's a little hilly - maybe Sagan? Just as long as the break doesn't get it again..
http://www.steephill.tv/2012/tour-de-france/photos/stage-17/
A few useful links
[url= http://live.cyclingnews.com/ ]Live Cycling News Text Updates[/url]
[url= http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/ ]Steephill[/url]
[url= http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/ ]Official Tour Live Feed App[/url]
[url= http://www.velogames.com/tdf/leaguescores.php?league=25113755 ]Velogames Fantasy League[/url]
[url= http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/classifications.html ]Classifications[/url]
[url= http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/withdrawals.html ]Withdrawals[/url]
EBH in the break..
liking that photo
:checks velogames team members:
EBO Haagen for the win!
[b]A dog has caused a crash in the peloton[/b]
There has been an accident in the peloton that's been caused by a dog rushing on to the road. Gilbert (BMC) is one of the riders involved and he's just made a point of walking over to the owner of the dog to give them a piece of his mind...
walking over to the owner of the dog to give them a piece of his [s]mind[/s] 2x4...
Should be lawful.
83.8 miles in 3 hours.
men of steel.
83.8 miles in 3 hours
Just like a club ride in my club. Perhaps a little slower if I'm honest.
13:32:45 BSTVinokourov has a small snack.
13:34:54 BST
The race is going by another lovely chateau. But we doubt that the swimming pool is the same age as the house.
13:40:37 BST
Today's fashion report: We think Europcar might have done better to skip the red polka dot shorts for Thomas Voeckler.
and who said this year's Tour was boring?
Somethink on eurosport comentary yesterday about voeckler in a past tour borrowing a copy of equipe off a spectator to beat on one of his competitiors who cut him up badly on the road. I think thats appropriate here for the dog owner 🙂
Somethink on eurosport comentary yesterday about voeckler in a past tour borrowing a copy of equipe off a spectator to beat on one of his competitiors who cut him up badly on the road. I think thats appropriate here for the dog owner 🙂
Sagan stops at the side of the road to snog Realman.
[b]John Lelangue: The dog was stronger than him...[/b]The BMC team manager recently offered some news on Philippe Gilbert who was involved in an accident with a dog at the 120km mark of today’s stage. “His hand has been injured a little as well as his elbow and knee,” said John Lelangue. “The dog was stronger than him – and it won that bout – but the important thing is that he could return to his place in the peloton"
Sagan stops at the side of the road to snog Realman....
.....who then borrows a copy of L'Équipe to beat himself off with
break coming back
my cash is on cav
I love the pantomime of the breakaway, chase and almost inevitable catch....
...they're behiiinnnnd you, woooosh !
**** that! come on millar!!!
Lol at the donkeys 🙂
if i was vino i'd be smacking them two's heads together. useless shites.
f i was vino i'd be smack[s]ing them two's heads together. useless shites.[/s][b]ed up to the eyeballs[/b]
FTFY
Those donkeys in jerseys were ace. 🙂
Surely has to be a bunch sprint - is Cav there?
Edit: yes
Yes, behind Wiggins
So a leadout by the MJ as a rehearsal for Sunday?
...here we go - how was that for a prediction? 😉
just want Wiggo to stay upright!
How awesome was that!
Where is that thread commenting on Cav not being as fast as he used to be?
NO WAY!
Cav leaves them for dead !
Whoop!!!
check the overhead shot!
Realman - your lover wasn't even playing the same game.
theres no keeping that lad down 🙂
Go Cav!
Great sprint.
LEGEND!
Ridiculous speed differential. Scuse me lads!
HOLY SHIT, the speed!
Loved the way Sanchez sat up with a WTF?! expression.
Whole office here watching it, everyone went wild. 🙂
Cav.. what a missile !!
Woo-hoo!
I can't wait to watch this on the highlights tonight.
He has lost a bit of top end hasn't he
how can h do that to world class sprinters at full speed he just literally leaves them and pulls out bike lengths, a trully AWESOME sight
Switch on the afterburners!!
from doooowwwwnnnn tooowwwwwnnnnn. boom. holy crap.
Wow!!!!
"Look at me" says Cav. Watch out on Sunday, and at the Olympics
Awsome disply of sprinting that... Brilliant.
Brilliant sprint from Cavendish; he came from so far back, he must have started in the Stone Age.
wow - what a climax!!
Sensational sprinting ... you could see it in his eyes ... that was going to be his and his alone.
Well done Cav, and the team for helping.
( The wife was laughing at me shouting "go on, go on ..." )
gobsmacking!!
That was visceral.
Hold on.. who was it said this was a boring TDF???
That was amazing! How fast did Cav go away from them. The Missile does it again.
Simply fantastic!
put that in yer pipe and smoke it (cavandish saying to sagan 😉
Does that make the score
GB 5, France 5?
What are the odds of 3 stages in a row for GB (and it could so nearly have been 4)?
BEST.WIN.EVER.
Cav looked very emotional in the interview.
****in' 'ell, Cav was absolute lightning there and from a good distance back aswell. As mentioned above the heli cam shot is incredible, the speed differential is maaaaassive!
did look pretty choked.
flipping fantastic. I hope Sticks smashes them to bits in the TT tomorrow.
Watch the slow mo, his bike is skipping/wheelspinning about 10-20 metres before the line, so much power.
the look on the face of Sanchez, priceless 🙂
His interview needs quoting on http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/what-is-cav-20-for - was going to post on the end of that, but realised it would be a spoiler. Anybody from that thread saying he's too slow been watching today's finish?
Ah bollocks. Was outside fiddling with my bike so missed everything (including the dodgy Sagan and me fan fiction). Wasn't expecting the stage to end this early, will have to catch the highlights. Fantastic result though.
Holy sheet! What a finish.
get the president of france out of Sagan's way! important handshakes to be done.
keep politicians the **** out the way of sport!
Manx Missile? more like Manx Monster 😆
Do you think Cav will go for a win at the Champs Elysees pmsl.
Yeah that was awesome.
Was shouting Roche and hoping they would stay away. Cav was impressive though. Made Sagan look perdestrian.
Given his winning margin that should be classified as a solo break, rather than a sprint.
20 years following the tour, I've never seen anything like that 😯
Yeah I loved the interview, he said that on the bus they were discussing taking it easy, and he asked if he could be led out and all the team mates immediately said yes. Great team spirit, no wonder he was choked up. I would have been 🙂 Wiggo was properly chuffed for him too!
I can see the sprint on Sunday being uncontested.
Will we be able to tell?
Given his winning margin that should be classified as a solo break, rather than a sprint.
Or at least give him a different time to the rest - surely that had to be a 1s gap?
600 metres out, that's 3 times more distance than he normally sprints for so 3 times as fast!!!
I can see the sprint on Sunday being uncontested.
not likely. it will be a fist fight between the teams I reckon - heads and shoulders everywhere.
if Cav does win, he'll surpass Armstrong's stage wins and take 4th place...
not likely. it will be a fist fight between the teams I reckon - heads and shoulders everywhere.
Yep up to around 300m when the others will look at cav's arse and think 'sod this'. 🙂
Sagan putting on the green jersey,you could see what he was thinking through his eyes....WTF has just happened ?
Need to find a link to watch it. In France so ITV not working.




