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Morning all.
After a stage yesterday that promised so much, but actually delivered very little, we have high hopes for something more today. And with rumours of cross winds, we may well get it.
Let's see what's in store.
A likely sprint stage but watch out for the wind, the forecast says a breeze for the course but they’ll be stronger gusts not far away from the route so if things change just a touch it might be worth tuning in for the final 90 minutes rather than just the sprint at the end.
The stage from Millau to Lavau precedes a weekend of climbing in the Pyrenees. Which does not necessarily mean that this will be an easy day, as racing in the Garonne region is never easy.
The areas of Aveyron and Tarn are far from flat, while another factor that could thwart the sprinter’s plans are strong winds. The region is renowned for it.
The riders start near the Millau Viaduct, which is the tallest cable-stayed road bridge in the world, and set off for a lumpy stage with a number of climbs standing out. The longest ascent is situated halfway. The Col de Peyronnenc adds up 13.5 kilometres, but the average gradient is doable: 3.9%.
Right after a prolonged downhill the riders tackle the second categorised climb of the day. The Côte de Paulhe is just 1.1 kilometres long and slopes at 7% before a last bumpy phase leads onto 40 kilometres on the flat.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Stage 7 of Le Tour starts at 13.25 and the race is expected to finish around 17.30 – both are local times (CEST).
Who's in the mix? Well, the usual contenders.
The Contenders: a likely sprint finish and the names get sprinkled into the same box below. Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) was off the pace in Privas the other day but still looks like the safest pick. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) is close each time too while Cees Bol (Sunweb) would have won a stage were it not for Wout van Aert being allowed to race for himself. Even if Wout van Aert is on team duty today he might still have a chance if things split up in the crosswinds and he’s towed his Jumbo-Visma team mates to the first group
And so, as ever, back to yesterday.
Textbook Tour pic.
Clearly a sprint stage, and one I'm not too bothered to be missing as I'll be at the pool. It would be amusing to see Sunweb do their sprint train thing again and get pipped at the post by another rider 🙂
And of course, thanks again @lunge for your daily thread!
In an effort to maintain my 100% effort of being totally and utterly wrong, I would like to call massive time gaps today thanks to a cross wind, as per twitter - but I don't actually think that will happen. I don't think we'll get the winds at all and it will be a bunch sprint won by Cees Bol from Caleb Ewen, with Sagan well down the pecking order
Watching solely for the Millau Viaduct - those TV helicopters can earn their money by getting some good video of that!
Whilst i remember, expect tomorrows post to be delayed. It’ll be up by lunch, but not much before.
it might be worth tuning in for the final 90 minutes rather than just the sprint at the end
I’m guessing it won’t. My guess is you might see some poor sod being paced at 2-3 mins for most of the stage. Also they will have one eye on tomorrow’s much tougher stage
Watching solely for the Millau Viaduct – those TV helicopters can earn their money by getting some good video of that!
Drove over that a couple of years ago, before stopping for lunch in Millau itself. Very impressive. And a short drive from the Roquefort caves, cheesetastic.
Cees Bol from Ewan,Nizzolo and Bennett. I'll try and catch the last 3 minutes of excitement.
Going across the Millau bridge on a motorbike is fun 👍
Kwiato and Luke Rowe smashing it up in the cross winds, and Luke soloing away to win by 4 minutes.
Is it an open secret that Prudhomme plots the route out each year to take maximum advantage of scenery porn for the sake of la touriste board francais and /or fat brown envelopes from mayors of start / finish towns ?
(If so the mayor of Gap must have all kinds of funding deficit)
Is it an open secret that Prudhomme plots the route out each year to take maximum advantage of scenery porn for the sake of la touriste board francais and /or fat brown envelopes from mayors of start / finish towns ?(If so the mayor of Gap must have all kinds of funding deficit)
Regions/towns/cities bid to host it, either as a stage start, a stage finish or both. You then need to come up with a route between those start/finish towns, hotels etc for all the riders, crew and media and weave all that into a "story" for the race as well as thinking about the logistics or travel between stages, rest days, the overall [i]parcours[/i] - it's no secret that they've changed the route to try to favour / impede certain riders over the years.
Some towns (like Gap) end up featuring loads just because they're really convenient.
Sorry mate I was being facetious. I know Gap is the perfect staging post for the Pyrenees
We can't expect a stage 21 thru the impoverished Paris suburbs
I get off on the scenery porn! The massif central looked amazing yesterday, you forget how many mountain ranges the French are blessed with.
Gap?! I meant Pau, sorry
Further to what crazy-legs says. I'm sure when Cav won the green jersey there was discussion about the route and how much it suited him.?
Further to what crazy-legs says. I’m sure when Cav won the green jersey there was discussion about the route and how much it suited him.?
Same discussion happened the year Wiggo won.
Peleton has split. Bora have driven it on and Sam Bennett is in the second echelon
All the sprinters are in 3rd group. 1 min 46 down already. Bennett is 30 secs back from first group
this is going to break again at this rate, teams trying to stay at the front will drive it on.
Well my record holds. If anyone has team contacts, I will make predictions for cash to spoil other teams' chances
that looked like the white flag from group 2
Yates is a bit isolated.
Yates will be fine, this is more his style of racing than following a train of his team. With what Bora are doing he won't be expected to work so can just make sure he stays up front. He's got one teammate there to help a bit if needed
Actually Yates has three teammates, they just weren't together before
looks like g2 hit the climb too hard!
When Yates was awarded the Yellow Jersey, the ITV4 commentators noted taht he had previously suffered from a commisaires decision. Does anybody know what incident they were referring to???
Tactical masterclass from Bora-Hansgrohe.
I'd love to know what Sagan and Trentin were saying to each other at the end of that intermediate sprint. It didn't look like they were chatting about the weather...
Matt Rendell and Chris Boardman doing some calculations about the cutoff time - if the current speeds (44kph) are maintained, the cutoff time will be 16m37secs after the winner finishes. IF the group who would be excluded are so large as to make the commissaires decide to waive the rule, then anyone within the re-instated group will LOSE all the points in the various sub-coipas (KOM, green jersey). Gets interesting, doesn't it...
I was at the start this morning. In the official village.
They said the wind will be a big factor today.
natrix
When Yates was awarded the Yellow Jersey, the ITV4 commentators noted taht he had previously suffered from a commisaires decision. Does anybody know what incident they were referring to???
He was first on the Ventoux stage where Froome hit the motorbike. He'd been awarded yellow as winner, then the decision was reversed after an appeal from Sky. And, of course, the collapsing flamme rouge stopped him a few years ago when he was clear in the lead
Lead group now have 4 minutes on the second group with Sam Bennet and over 7 on the group with Ewan et al, so Bora have taken a break from pushing the pace. Thomas de Gendt has taken advantage of this to ride off the front and curently has 8 seconds. Can't see Bora letting him go as Sagan will want as many points as possible so will be contesting the finish, I bet
Loving that Thomas De Gendt has done a Thomas De Gendt, pulled his radio out and buggered off on a full blown solo attack 😅😅
de gendts' folly ?
comentators have it ...."the last 40k will be fast for a solo break because of the tail wint ....and of course because its Thomas DE gendt. "
Im rooting for him simply because i called him as road captain in my TDF fantasy team for today .....
gc teams are turning up the gas
Cross winds coming up? Rowe in particular has a nose for these things and keeping his leader out of trouble.
rowe is in group 2(once de ghent is gobbled up)
odious full gas
Boom, and the whole thing is blown apart
Ooh, this has suddenly got very frantic! Good to see Yates still up there in the front.
don't want a mechanical! (end of any gc hopes at this pace)
the unpredictability of the wind makes it more exciting than the (predictable) climbs nowadays
NBT, thanks for that
Rowe did enough to set it up. Landa still doesn't understand cross winds does he? Flattering to deceive as a team leader again.
Love a cross wind stage!
Rowe did enough to set it up
Rowe is minutes back, it was DvB and Kwiato for Ineos.