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Schleck in yellow tonight? or will Contador/Astana take control. Must say I'm looking forward to today.
IMO Can't see owt happening today apart from maybe Wiggins / another fringe GC contender losing time if they majorly blow up.
The last climb is about 30km from the finish, so too far out to attack from (unless you're just after a stage victory rather than GC) - maybe Cunego / Vino might try something.
The main GC contenders will finish together - even if one or two lose a bit of time on the last climb, chances are they'll catch up again on the descent.
today will be good... cant believe contador was bluffing all the way up to morz'. My money is on andy... dont think cadel has the legs to podium, i want to see how sky / wiggo will do.
Armstrong for the stage win today. He has absolutely nothing to lose and wants to show that he still has it.
[i]He has absolutely nothing to lose and wants to show that he still has it. [/i]
But unfortunately he doesn't.
Would be good to see sky team try to help brad pull back some time.
Would love to see a Wiggo offensive today. Contador looked weak the other day but Andy Schleck looked full of awesome. Could be interesting.
it depends on how much anyone who attacks can get on the other contenders. its 30k downhill to the finish, if someone loses 5 mins on the climb they won't make that up in the 30 mins of descending.
Armstrong for the stage win today. He has absolutely nothing to lose and wants to show that he still has it.
A Landis style comeback for sure
Van den Broeck - austublieft
Just wishful thinking. I hope he does nothing other than stick to the wheel of whoever is first to the top(s).
Schleck looked best on Sunday but then again Evans never looks comfortable. (face like licking p1ss off a thistle)
I want one of the following (in order of probability):
Andy Schleck to school everyone... again...
Wiggins to launch an attack and close the gap he lost on Sunday.
G to launch a solo attack and reclaim his white top?!
Sky to try and get wiggo back into it with armstrong tagging on teh back. Schleck and contador having a sunday club run out together with a cruise down the last descent to finish in the same time
No change until Sunday unless someone makes a suicide bid or blows up.
It would be nice to see Lance go for one last hoorah, but I can't see it.
Hope Evans doesn't win. He's too grumpy.
Wiggins will not attack. Next week _possibly_.
From the coverage on sunday it looked like Sky tried to stretch the peleton on the 2nd to last climb. But this left Wiggo with nobody on the last climb when he was looking dodgy. A tactical mistake? Someone explain their thinking please. Did they think Wiggo had more than he did?
llama, totally agree, I think they've made two big mistakes this tour. Sending wiggo out early on the prologue and forcing the pace on sunday. surely they should of sat up and let Astana push it?
Anyone know where i can catch a live stream from?
(I watched it all last year but can't remember the sites i used)
I wonder if Sammy Sanchez might fancy another go, he looked good on Sun. He might save himself for the Pyrenees tho'.
Armstong is spent, the old Lance would not have capitulated like that, crash or no crash.
trickydisco: depends on your location but don't ITV stream it live each day on their website (ITV4 - may be UK only though).
If not http://myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=80357&part=sports
pyrenees could be more decisive for the gc riders i guess. hope someone goes for glory tho. schleck was looking good on sunday.
Tricky call today, I think Wiggo will need to wait until the Pyrenees and hope he finds his form there (and also claw back some of the loss in the TT). I can't see him being recovered enough and finding his form after just one rest day and Sky isn't strong enough in the mountains to try and force anything anyway.
Think Contador and Evans are just trying to survive until the Pyrenees/TTs to so can't see them doing much unless one of them is suddenly feeling really strong.
Schleck will just sit in unless attacked - he can't descend very well so can't see him trying to launch another attack on the final climb.
I reckon Vino might give it a go, let Saxo Bank do all the work until the final climb then attack on the climb, he's a mental descender so would be hard to catch. Unlikely he'll get/stat away alone though so maybe Sanchez to go with him.
trickydisco,
itv.com/sport/tourdefrance/live/
from 14:30 everyday.
I paid £7.50 one-off for a month of the Eurosport player - it's really good. Worth it imo.
Contador was out of sorts on Sunday because of hayfever - it's not the first time he's had that problem and IIRC someone said that that summit is know for being bad for pollen.
I'm still in shock though that Schleck out sprinted someone, anyone, let alone Sanchez who has a passable kick!
It wasn't really a sprint though. Sanchez towed Schleck to the line and so should have been given the stage. Sanchez was angry afterwards, bit of bar thumping going on!
Even so... It's Schleck! He couldn't outsprint an asthmathic geriatric!
Sanchez towed Schleck to the line
Yeah, cos Schleck didn't tow him up the previous 20km of the climb or anything....
Yeah, cos Schleck didn't tow him up with other 20 km of the climb or anything....
what race were you watching? sky and then astana were on the front all day.
They'll let a breakaway go, even to the extent of letting yellow slip. Then Evans will have to watch the gap to keep the overall gc gap manageable, and everyone else will follow him. I think there will be sustained pressure in the yellow jersey group, but not outright attacking.
Unfortunately (I hope I'm wrong) I can see the pressure being enough to drop a few second-tier gc riders out of contention, including Wiggins. Hope I'm wrong.
what race were you watching? sky and then astana were on the front all day.
Sky went up the first big climb like a team possessed - think that was a mistake for them and Wiggins. Didn't see them at all on the last climb and I watched it all.
My point was more Sanchez was nowhere to be seen in the climb, Schleck was always in top couple of riders (normally behind Contador), it's a bit silly for people to complain that Sanchez towed Schleck the last 250 metres and therefore deserved the win himself. He wouldn't have even been in that position if Schleck hadn't made the break with 750m to go.
I'll be looking out for my man Kreuziger.
I mentioned him before the Tour started, he is very young and making the right moves. It could all go very wrong, in which case feel free to point and laugh.
At just 22 he is certainly slipping under the radar.
Edit, 24.
Yeah, good call but I'm not sure about him. I get the impression that he could be another Basso (hopefully without the cheating...) - eg a good rider but not quite at the level of Contador or Armstong (pre-retirement) that's needed to win the TdF - in the same way that I don't think Evans could ever win even though he's a very talented rider.
You mention Basso, Basso and Kreuziger isn't too shabby a pair to have on a team.
But like you say, possibly only nearly men. And Evans somehow reminds me of Roche in his Tour days.
clubber - those are exactly the qualities to win today's stage! Good rider, but not a gc threat. If anyone truly top drawer breaks away they will get chased down, but a deserving talent stands a chance of being let go.
Anyone know what the thinking behind today's stage is? Why have all the climbs, then neutralise the stage by having a descent to the finish?
Wiggins cannot react to the rapid accelerations of riders, so my guess is SKY set a high pace to prevent any attacks. It also wiped away Armstrong. He was also probably feeling pretty good at that point. I think the temperature played a big part in that stage. I saw even Contador was complaining of the heat and was apparently struggling to breath, and he's from Madrid!
Apparently the descent is so fast that a breakaway has a good chance of staying away.
The thinking is that it will even things out, mountains go down as well as up, so if you're good you'll get down as well as you got up. And downhill finishes are far from new.
They've done a good job so far this year, I like it that everyone has had to work.
I know it's not new, it just seems to me that today's stage could have been really good, but might end up a bit dull because no one of note is going to attack on the climbs.
That's what they want this year, when you think about it what youre saying is you want predictability in a way i.e the usual suspect battling it out. What you might get is top twenty riders having a go that can't be ignored.
No, I don't think I want predictability, the opposite in fact. It's predictable that none of the big guns are going to do anything today, but what I want is the best riders racing each other. Seems to me today was a good opportunity for that, but it's been negated, and I'm not really sure who benefits from that?
I'm not being deliberately obtuse, I don't know how these things are put together, what objectives they have etc. Do they aim to have a certain number of stages that let the minor teams/riders achieve something, for the good of the race as a whole? I guess if every stage was either the sprinters winning, or the GC contenders knocking seven bells out of each other, there might be less incentive for the sponsors of the other teams.
There'll be loads of reasons why stages are 'designed' like they are. Even down to the finishing town putting a good 'bid' in for the finish I imagine.
Don't want it too unfair - can't have every stage being either a bunch sprint or a beast of a climb - would always imply a climber would win the tour. They always like to mix it up - team time trials, longer time trials (not many this year).
Unless you descend like me, then getting over the top of the last mountain first is gonna give you a good chance.
Not Evans!
OK, I've missed it all so far today. Just got home and switched on to see Evans ride into "a big French brick wall" and disappear backwards.
Can anyone give me a potted summary?
who said it was going to be uneventful today then?
Higgo - Astana just put in a big team effort, Vino blasted off the front of peleton looking to catch the leading group of 3 (and then promptly came back). Just think the sustained pace dropped Evans off the back.
Ohhh who just saw Jens Voigt die there. That looked painful.
Yep, I have every sympathy with Voight. Been there, got the t-shirt on that one!!!
Schlecks gonna have to start practicing his time trialing for next year i think....
Wiggos nowhere again. I remember his comments before the tour "I still get paid if I don't win, so I'm just going to see how it goes"
Nice attitude. still as long as you've a nice scooter on your saddle who cares eh? prick.
Nice attitude. still as long as you've a nice scooter on your saddle who cares eh? prick.
I feel your disappointment but thats a bit harsh.
The breakaways have done well in the mountain stages so far, I am surprised the pelaton let them get away.
sorry llama but his attitude stinks. remember when Milar said wiggo joined sky so he could hang around with rock stars? I don't think he was far off the mark. his attitude is "see what happens, don't really care" compare that to Voight who has just buried himself for a teammate. know who I'd rather have in my team!
I lost a bit of respect for Wiggins when he jumped ship from previous team after they'd taken a risk on him. Think he's playing it a bit too "kool for skool" at moment, he's getting into Cadel territory....
How is Lance doing today? He just looked fedup yesterday on that small/idiot crash infront of him.
"see what happens, don't really care"
I doubt that's what he really thinks.
Remember, Sky is being run by someone Wiggo knows well and has worked with very closely before.
warton - nobody goes into the TDF saying they are confident and are going to do well, they all say 'take one day at a time' and 'see what happens'.
He's in the main GC group hora, couple of minutes back from alberto and andy
Whats the gap in the overall standings at this stage? 2mins?
Hora - Lance doing okay today. Thinks he's in group four on road. Don't think he's crashed today 🙄
llama, but do they say "I still get paid, so I'm not going to worry to much about it" No they don't.
Ew, that chap in orange, you can see his shoulder blades through his jersey.
Hora - Lance doing okay today. Thinks he's in group four on road. Don't think he's crashed today
Phew
Just been reading some of the background stuff on Pantani (tragic) and Armstrong (shall we say, interesting)...
What a mental finish!!!!
quality finish!
I thought Shleck got a bit excited about catching the leaders, and just started sprinting without really thinking about how far from the line they were. Fantastic day though.
Where wigo
10 minutes ??
More ??
wiggins 5 minutes back.
too much expresso, the jam and zoot suits in the close season. not enough EPO 😉
now that was more like it.
Just been reading some of the background stuff on Pantani (tragic) and Armstrong (shall we say, interesting)...
hit us up some links I'm intrigued/can't be bothered to work for the next 30min!
[url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/mar/07/cycling.features ]Gaurdian[/url]
Armstrong stuff on Wiki - nothing new, but I find it difficult to get the measure of Armstong's rebuttals. American I guess.
Wiggins came in 4'55 down today
WIGGINS Bradley 31 SKY PRO CYCLING 5h 43' 05" + 04' 55"
So I reckon that'll put him about 7'30 down overall as he was 2'25 down on Andy S before today
- SPOILER -
This was a predictions thread!
Oh well my missus can watch Emmerdale now.
So how far back was Wiggo as he wasn't mentioned on the cyclingnews coverage
Tough stage..
Lets hope wigo has some better days.
52km time trial at the end aswell.
podium out of question ??
16th place, WIGGINS Bradley, + 07' 18"
Really does depend on how he gets on with the rest of the mountains.
Poor old bumface. That's going to take some recovering from.
Wiggo? Podium? He's not even going to be on the same page of the results if he keeps losing 5-10 minutes on every mountain stage. Just remember that Contador is one of the world's best GC time trialists.
Just remember that Contador is one of the world's best [s]GC[/s] time trialists.
Better.
Yes well saying 'I still get paid...' is not good I admit.
Evans has dropped to 18th at 7:47
31st, ARMSTRONG Lance, + 15' 54"
Geraint Thomas is now looking at over 50 minutes behind Andy. He was so close as well.
Wiggins knew his result last year was a fortunate one, helped by a decent team who could help him when he appeared to be better than VandeVelde.
His signing up with Sky for a long contract spoke volumes; if you are really good you opt for a shorter contract then re-negotiate, rather than opting for safety with your Uncle Dave Brailsford...