Morning all, I'm back and so are the mountains.
The 9th stage of the Tour de France takes in five climbs. The race finishes uphill in ski resort Tignes after a 21 kilometres climb. The route amounts to 145 kilometres.
The caravan sets off from Cluses. The first kilometres run upstream through the Arve valley before the punchy Côte de Domancy is likely to see a lot of attacks to form the breakaway. The short – 2.5 kilometres – but steep ascent – 9.4% – appears after 17.5 kilometres.
The climbing continues after the top of the Domancy for 6 more kilometres, although the gradients are friendlier – around 5%. The route then moves through the Arly valley to enter the Col des Saisies after 40 kilometres. The 9.4 kilometres climb averages 6.2%. The Saisies also featured in 2020, but it was tackled on another side, while Marc Hirschi was the first rider at the summit.
A 17.5 kilometres downhill leads into Beaufort and the road goes straight back up again. The Col du Pré climbs for 12.6 kilometres and the average gradient sits at 7.7%. From kilometre 7 onward the inclination is hovering around 10% before it flattens out to 4.5% just before the summit. The Pré was included for the first time in 2018, when Warren Barguil pocketed most KOM points at the peak.
A short descent and a section on the flat lead onto the next obstacle. The Cormet de Roselend is a 5.7 kilometres climb at 6.5%. Warren Barguil (2018) and Marc Hirschi (2020) were the last Tour de France contenders to reach the summit in first position.
The riders fly down another long descent to reach Bourg-Saint-Maurice-les-Arcs before a virtually flat section leads onto the finish climb. The Montée de Tignes is 21 kilometres long, while the average gradient sits at 5.6%. Halfway up the climb the route flattens out for 2.5 kilometres before continuing with a slightly steeper second half.
The riders reach Tignes with 2 kilometres remaining. The run-in to the line is flat.
The 2019 Tour de France would have seen a Tignes finish, but snow and ice on the road and landslides in the Val d’Isère decided otherwise. ASO decided to stop the stage before the riders could enter the finale.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
Lumpy then. WHo to look out for? Well, not Roglic as he abandoned today.
The Contenders: the breakaway has a good chance again and there are mountain points on offer, especially with the HC rating for the Col du Pré, a virtual finish line for anyone wanting the polka dot jersey. Dylan Teuns won yesterday but today is that much more mountainous so both he and Matej Mohorič will have a hard time delivering a third win for their team. Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) is perfect for the long drag to the finish but his form post-Giro is questionable. Esteban Chaves (Bike Exchange) is suited too while colleague Simon Yates has gone in the break two days in a row now and come up short so risk being even more tired today, even if the course is ideal. Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) has had a rotten Tour so far but the course suits him today too. Jakob Fuglsang has lost time on GC now so has the space needed to attack. Ineos can still get Carapaz on the podium but can probably spare riders for attacks and today is ideal for Richie Porte. Michael Woods went yesterday so does Dan Martin go today? Neilson Powless (EF-Nippo) was tipped yesterday… and finished second last. Perhaps he’ll go again today?
Otherwise who’d bet against Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) ? He can take minutes out of the breakaway with an attack on the final climb. But he doesn’t need to, perhaps he’ll only go if provoked by others or if his team mates dwindle again. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) can try and see if it’s third time lucky and the final climb is perfect for him, not too steep and at altitude.
Yesterday?
Gonna be a tough day out !!! I’m praying pogacar’s form is natural ?
Roglic is out. Unsurprising really - he looked in a LOT of pain yesterday..
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/primoz-roglic-abandons-tour-de-france/
MvdP also stopping according to some reports. Wants to be fresh for the Olympics.
Wonder if Ineos will try something with Carapaz again or if he's too tired after the previous couple of days.
Pogacar doesn't need to do anything, he can sit and follow wheels. UAE could probably do with the break too. He can literally just watch the fight for the top ten from where he is with very little to worry about.
Not a fan of people starting races they have no intention of finishing, even if it is a big name. MvdP - kind of disrespectful to the race I think. 🤷🏻♂️
cagey start, no one wanting to go up the road and made to look like an amateur?
Not a fan of people starting races they have no intention of finishing, even if it is a big name. MvdP – kind of disrespectful to the race I think. 🤷🏻♂️
Kind of with you on that..
I'm sure the race would rather have MvdP in and winning a stage, than not starting.
cagey start, no one wanting to go up the road and made to look like an amateur?
I'd go with most people being wrecked and trying to keep things under control until at least the first slopes.
I see Alaphilippe is on a good day again. I do like an Alaphilippe day out.
Not a fan of people starting races they have no intention of finishing, even if it is a big name. MvdP – kind of disrespectful to the race I think.
I see where you are coming from but Fenix needed him at le tour more than he needed to be there. I expect given the choice he would have skipped it and been happy doing the classics and the olympics.
that's a terrible KOM..... it's only half the climb 😀
Colbrelli desperate to put up a fight for the green jersey.
Ineos' bad tour continues, Richie Porte is out the back. Another shit choice on my fantasy team. ☹️
Colbrelli desperate to put up a fight for the green jersey.
going by the interview this morning Jumbo Visma definitely not happy with Colbrelli and blame him for the Roglic crash.
it's absolutely lashing it down! rest day tomorrow... can see some pretty ill riders tuesday.
quite odd to see Oily Gulf Greenwash on the front as opposed to Oily Jims Greenwash.
Ritchie Gate out of the back of yellow jersey group.
Unusual to see Quintana doing something proactive. For the last few years he's always been one of those riders who has been talked up a lot but then never really delivered.
He should be in polka dot by end of today.
hard mans day!
Just for the record, I went out for 3 hours this morning and got very wet standing outside at the coffee stop.
Merlier has climbed off
Riders starting races with no intention of finishing is all good. Pro riders have a very long hard season and it’s good the teams accommodate riders. Vdp will never be tour contender so why destroy form for races that will suit him ?
ooofff! wet grassy landing we hope!
Millar just used the word souplesse 8)
Brandon McNulty
"Hey fellas, watch this!"
Clearly not a MTBer.
IIRC Mario Cipollini never finished the TdF, don't think he ever lasted much more than a week, nothing new with riders pulling out with no intention of ever finishing the tour.
MvdP must have discussed this with his team weeks ago and he's in his best-ever chance to win Olympic gold.
Has Quintana just cracked completely or did he have some sort of mechanical?
ITV4 not helping by going straight to adverts. 🙄
cracked, I think; 25s lost already on GCN-Eurosport
Pog getting ready for action, 3 team mates on the front..... push push push ?
Pog getting ready for action, 3 team mates on the front….. push push push ?
Is it worth it to retain yellow? Looks like they're keeping things in check and little else. Great ride from O'Connor though!
Turns out that Pogacar and UAE didn't need to ride, Ineos have done the work for them in a relatively forlorn attempt to move Carapaz back up.
And that's backfired dramatically. Muppets.
Well it is less like a floyd landis one off now.
Shades of lance?
Shades of lance?
If he is on the juice, you'd think he'd tell his team mates his dealer.
INEOS had to try to set up Carapaz, no shame in giving it a lash.
INEOS had to try to set up Carapaz, no shame in giving it a lash.
No it was stupid, they needed to test Pogacar and how much he wanted to keep yellow and instead they towed him up the hill to then launch an attack they couldn't follow because they were goosed after the towing
Yeah, that was a massive tactical mistake. They won't have made any friends within AG2R either.
Took over from a relatively weak UAE team, cost AG2R the chance to get yellow, towed Pogacar right back into it and then the "attack" when it came, was so poor that he simply rode over the top of them and buggered off.
Carapaz has shown he can't go with him, Pogacar has just stamped Ineos into little pieces and it was all for nothing. If Ben O'Connor had got into yellow, even by just a few seconds, it would have forced Pogacar and UAE into chasing again and they could have profited off that, sitting in the wheels and following the moves. Would also have meant that AG2R were in the game a bit more.
At least G seems to have recovered a bit, he was able to sit in that front group for most of it.
Did Cav make the cut off?
I just saw him come in with two team mates but they were behind the Grupetto.
Did Cav make the cut off?
Yes, the rankings have updated online. 🙂
Yes, the rankings have updated online. 🙂
Thanks,when the Grupetto went through & there was no sign of him I thought his tour might be over..
There's a short vid clip on the DQS twitter feed of Cav crossing the line about 90 seconds inside the cut-off.
Fair to say he looks totally knackered.
https://twitter.com/deceuninck_qst/status/1411723540668338176?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Carapaz has shown he can’t go with him, Pogacar has just stamped Ineos into little pieces and it was all for nothing.
Don't think they were attacking Pogacar, I think they were hoping he'd sit on and let the ones they are racing for second chase.
7 riders including Demare finished outside the time limit.... wonder if they'll <cough> over look it </cough> this time 😉
Cav won that green jersey today. Shed a couple of rivals - who may be allowed back. Weather. Maybe.
Imagine riding for second after the FIRST rest day. TP is looking imperious.
Would be disappointing- but not surprising - if those who missed the cut-off were allowed to continue.
Judging by his appearance, Cav turned himself inside out to beat the
cut-off.
If Demare and the others are allowed back it makes a mockery of DQS and Cav's efforts.
There was a section in the commentary about it yesterday. I think ned pointed the following out.
If they are let back in then they lose all points in any Jersey accumulated to that point.
Ineos have now annoyed both Movistar and AG2R Citroen. That's going to make things uncomfortable for the next few years.
If a large enough group of riders finish outside the cutoff time then the race commissioners have the option to allow them to continue but they lose all of their accrued points.
"Large enough" is vague but from memory I've heard 25% of the field as being the sort of figure. There have been instances of domestiques being instructed to drop back to boost the grupetto's numbers to ensure this is the case. Yesterday's grupetto was something like 50% of the field but they were a couple of minutes inside the cutoff. Not sure how big today's was.
G doing his best Dick Dastardly impersonation 😉
Whereas I keep expecting Pog to shout 'bus w@nkers!'
I’m not ready for a rest day. I’ll miss the daily excitement… I’ve come to expect it now. Great racing every single day. Best first week of a Tour for a long time.
Great effort by DQS to get Cav in under the time limit.
Sonny Colbrelli was very impressive today going for points, but most of the genuinely fast men seem to be dropping, Demare, Merlier, Coquard all dropping out today (assuming the cutoff isn't ignored)
Be great to see him make it to Paris and win green, but I think there's a few stages to be had now.
Looks like Demare is properly out, he's not listed in the main rankings on the tour website. Confirmed on cyclingstage.com
https://www.cyclingstage.com/tour-de-france-2021/withdrawals-tdf-2021/
DNS in stage 9
11 Primoz Roglic (slo – Jumbo-Visma)
101 Mathieu van der Poel (nld – Alpecin-Fenix)DNF in stage 9
103 Tim Merlier (bel – Alpecin-Fenix)
126 Nans Peters (fra – AG2R Citroën)
152 Jasper De Buyst (bel – Lotto Soudal)OTL in stage 9
83 Arnaud Démare (fra – Groupama-FDJ)
84 Jacopo Guarnieri (ita – Groupama-FDJ)
133 Anthony Delaplace (fra – Arkéa Samsic)
183 Stefan De Bod (rsa – Astana – Premier Tech)
196 Nic Dlamini (rsa – Team Qhubeka NextHash)
217 Loïc Vliegen (bel – Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert)
221 Bryan Coquard (fra – B&B Hotels p/b KTM)
Merlier, Coquard and Demare all out in one day. The Green Jersey field is thinning right down and we still have the pyrenees to come
INdeed, if Cav can make it through the mountains though as someone else said, it's not just the green jersey that's opening up but also stage wins for both him and DQS.
Sonny Colbrelli was very impressive today going for points, but most of the genuinely fast men seem to be dropping, Demare, Merlier, Coquard all dropping out today (assuming the cutoff isn’t ignored)
Yeah, nothing suspicious about that at all.