[Closed] Tour de France 2019 stage 14 Tarbes->Col du Tormalet

Thanks for the write up. Can’t wait. Just cooling off after riding up the Tourmalet this morning. 19km up and is only up. It’s absolutely heaving with people and should be an amazing finish. Will be watching from the road side in Luz.

Well, we have a well worn stage to look forward to. Plenty of the current peloton have been bouncing this bump for years. I suspect some have it ingrained in their memories for mostly failed attacks and gear failure.

It will be a nice ride out for sure.

My predictions (mostly, as always) center around riders who have no duties to perform for their “leader” which means we could see a break and some toe tapping from the guys who’ve been waiting for a stage like this since the tour started.

Astana have been quiet, so could be either ... Izagirre, Lutsenko, Sánchez, who all have been rattling this bump since they started racing.

Slightly more left field.. Kangert, Langeveld who are mainly flatlanders, but hard nuts to crack.

Since it looks like Katusha will fold, this is the time for some brilliant riders to show their potential and solidify their place in the peloton.. Wurtz, Zakarin

Some more flatlanders with great palmares...Arndt, Kelderman

And Henao, because he chose to leave Skineos and think he should have been given free rein in that team to shine..

Please let it be either Pierre-Luc Périchon or Simon... Simon was once a stellar domi, getting slightly outshined by the new crop so think there’s still a lot left in him to make a go of it.

And finally Sicard or Taaramae.. my last prediction and a total outsiders.... quite why Sicard hasn’t shone is frustrating, so I think he’s putting on a canny mind game.. sandbagging perhaps..

Either way, no change in GC purely because Skineos will block the road and not let anyone past.. the virtual rolling roadblock will be out in force today. And that’s sad.

Should see some nice photos though..

Thanks for the stepping in, been Run Directing at parkrun and had a few challenges to deal with!

INRNG.com have the contenders.

The Contenders: there should be a fight to get in the breakaway but they’ll find it hard to stay clear, there’s not much time to build up a lead and surely Ineos are going to deploy their mountain train today on the approach to the Tourmalet and its early slopes. Still, George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Soler (Movistar) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) fit the bill as strong riders who are down on GC and so have space but take your pick from others too.

Among the GC contenders Thibaut Pinot is great form and finally reaches the mountains he likes, he has a strong, cohesive team with David Gaudu an outsider for the stage win too.

Ineos need to put the pressure on today. Maybe they don’t take the race lead, maybe they do. They need to wear down Alaphilippe and one way to do this is to make the Soulor hard and then ensure the Tourmalet is a full 50-60 minute effort. Geraint Thomas is in good condition and even if Egan Bernal had a relatively poor day yesterday now he is on terrain to suit.

Several big names have now lost time on GC so if they move it’s not a priority to shut them down immediately. Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) come to mind, the same for Jacob Fuglsang (Astana), Dan Martin (UAE Emirates) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) while Emanuel Buchmann is sixth overall but probably not a priority to close down either.

Who’d bet against Julian Alaphilippe? Deceuninck-Quickstep aren’t set up to help him too far and Enric Mas must be itching to ride for himself. Alaphilippe’s having an extravagant Tour but today’s a completely new test with two long climbs, normally his weakness. Still he was first over the Tourmalet a year ago (from the breakaway) and he’s apparently lighter now but he’ll be on his limit. He can hold on and as said before here, if someone wants to take the jersey from him they’ll have to rip it off his shoulders, and the more he can hold on during the climb, the more he could even contend for the stage win given his punch. But this is “only” Stage 14 and there’s a lot more to come, he’s popular partly because he poses for so many photos, emerges early from the team bus to sign autographs and more and the long spell en jaune could add up and that’s before he starts trying to defend his jersey on long mountain passes.

Looking forward today, it could be a huge day out.

Just having a coffee with one hour of 4 turbo ride avoiding thunderstorms left then it’s on the couch to recover and watch the climbing.  I cannot wait, excitement at last I hope.

DQS plan, on paper is a simple one, Alaphilippe sits on Thomas and Maas sits on Bernal. Whether they can is another matter...

Ooh Nibbles trying to get into the break, he's basically the only rider I could see getting a win from the break today....such a short stage so hard to see a break getting much room.

Time cut could be pretty tough for any sprinters that are struggling today.

Vicious pace by Movistar here! Only about 20 left in the peloton, no where near the start of the Tourmalet either!

Vicious pace by Movistar here!

Such a short stage, it was always going to be brutal. The break was allowed about 3 min max before the pressure got piled on and people started going out the back door.

I'm predicting a classic Movistar successfully dropping themselves situation after a few Kms of the Tourmalet! They do it every year!

Hopefully the weather isn't moving in, starting to look very cloudy.....the Tourmalet can get some awful weather.

Descent looks gnar! Nibali going for it.....as is Sagan 😮

Quintana has to be one of the best in the peleton for putting himself in the wrong position, why is his team working so hard while he just chats away at the back

Nibali is just cruising away from them. He's not attacking, it's just phenomenal descending.

Living up to expectations this, lots of punching up front..   WTF is Wiggins wearing, lol.

a classic Movistar successfully dropping themselves situation after a few Kms of the Tourmalet! They do it every year!

Seems that way! Well, as far as Quintana is concerned.

Quintana gone, what is going on

I hate to say I told you so.....🤣

Every year!

Hold tight, here we go

Crucial moment here.....those close to him reckon Alaphillipe will sttuggle past 40 minutes.

Bardet at 11 minutes!

And here it goes!

Not sure the front group can manage anything, they're all at max but equally all marking each other. Everyone is on the limit, it's just who cracks first.

Another tactical cock-up from Movistar who've nicely managed to completely remove Qunitana from any GC contention. Maybe Landa can pull a stage win out of the bag?

I think G is really suffering too, he looks right on the absolute last legs!

Alaphillipe is going to take this 😳

Thomas looks in trouble

G’s yellow jersey chances are over?

G’s yellow jersey chances are over?

They've taken a significant hit but there's still a couple of tough stages. Another summit finish tomorrow.

Hmmmmm

Philippe on the juice

What an exciting tour.
Still plenty of time to make up time if he’s able!

Hmmmmm

Pretty much this...

I wonder if the French press will be as suspicious as they usually are.

I reckon Movistar were riding to crack thomas, he did a short interview before the race and he looked tired, very drawn and dark around the eyes. If he is struggling it was a gutsy ride to hang in as long as he did.

Does seem like a remarkable transformation by alaphillipe. Beating everyone in the tt and now being second fastest up the tourmalet.

Movistar look like they have cooked themselves, tomorrow could have some massive time gaps after the last 2 days

I reckon Movistar were riding to crack thomas, he did a short interview before the race and he looked tired, very drawn and dark around the eyes. If he is struggling it was a gutsy ride to hang in as long as he did.

Na, they were riding to drop Quintana. Landa gave everyone extra syrup on their pancakes at breakfast. Most likely they were riding for a Landa stage win, but basically ballsed it up.

2 mins is a lot to chip bits off; on the other hand it's nothing if you can crack your opponent and there's plenty of road left.

But at the point of writing, one rider looked closer to that point than the other.

Enjoyed that.

Not all my predictions came to roost, but lovely to see Barguil up there and to see Thomas being pushed to the limit.

Don't get the cynicism over Alaphillipe, he’s riding well and clearly coming into form.

It happens, they train for it.

Remember Froomy last year (and years before) did bugger all until he rode himself into form. Well, just because a few French riders are finally (after about 15years) at the forefront of the peloton some detractors feel the need to have some wild suspect accusations to throw at them.

Vive La France 👍🥳

And he is number one in the world, great form this year.

He has won the Tour of California,small in comparison of course, but shows he knows how to win stage races.

Don’t get the cynicism over Alaphillipe, he’s riding well and clearly coming into form.

Well, maybe. Probably.

Being number one in the world usually isn’t something that puts you in line for a grand tour.

But most (non-French) riders doing what he’s doing against expectations would be getting aspersions cast in the (mostly French) press. Not to say bottles of liquid thrown at them.

It’s a fascinating race, and compelling viewing. Without wanting to bring the Texan into things, part of the legacy is that every successful rider will be viewed with suspicions from some quarters, forever more I suspect.

I saw Alaphilippe in the TOB last year and thought at the time he looked like future TDF winner, nearly put money on him to win this year, at the time I could get 150/1 on him...

Being number one in the world usually isn’t something that puts you in line for a grand tour.

Seemed to work for Mercx, Hianult, Roche, Le Mond, Kelly, etc

Aye but they were juiced to the max ^

About 25 years ago wasn't there a classics specialist with a good kick that had never finished in the top 30 of a GT before that went on to dominate the TdF..... did particularly well in TT's and mtf's all of a sudden as I recall.

Philippe on the juice

I really hope not. The last thing the sport needs is some revelatory doping scandal in six months time.

Seemed to work for Mercx, Hianult, Roche, Le Mond, Kelly, etc

And that was over a million* years ago. Things seem different now with how the calendar is structured, and how grand tours are ridden.

*nearly

Part of me says that it is pointless following cycling if every time someone does really well you end up assuming they are doping.
I really like Alaphilipe & I really hope he's clean
But....
What is getting my spidey senses tingling is quite how fresh he looked after the TT, together with the fact that he has played such an active role in the race. While the GC contenders were conserving energy he was going involved in breaks, acting as lead out man to Viviani etc and generally using up energy in a way the others weren't. You'd have to be pretty optimistic not to have at least some shadow of doubt. Here's hoping.

Thought it would be a neutral stage. But not. GT appears to have fulfilled my prediction and Bernal looks the contender (once he can TT). Is it wrong to want a Frenchman to win. Expect The Clinic forum to be going into meltdown on Cycling News website.