Surely it's time for the TDF Final Stage Thread! (Spoilers within!)

Have got cold beer, an awesome view across a stunning skyline and now I’ve found a live feed on the interwebz to watch the stage today!

Predictions?

Well, Cav FTW, I think. As to the other issues? First man on to the Champs? Millar, Spartacus or Tommy V, IMO. Would love to see the latter do it, he really set the race alight and wore that jersey with such pride!

Allez, c’est parti! 😉

What spoilers, evans wins?

For those not watching live, old chap. They may not want to know the stage result until they watch the highlights.

I may not want to know as I might well fall asleep before the end…! Very, very long night last night. 8)

spoilers? you mean Cav might not win?

Oh good man Captain, was just about to start this thread myself! Flipping between EuroSport HD and ITV4 HD depending on ad breaks at the moment.

Green jersey will go down to the wire, there’s an intermediate sprint after 3 laps on the Champs Elysee as well. 60km to go at the moment so about another 10 km until they’re on the CE…

Woooo! Paris!

Finally my internet returns, it was out all day yesterday as well.

So will Cav win in a sprint or another break away?

Hincapie leads the whole BMC team onto the circuit.

CFH didn’t you know that the road captain of the leader’s team brings the peloton onto the Champs?

Ben Swift going off the front, he’s got one hell of a margin!
Just formed into a small break of 5.

Not always, aP, shirley. Am sure that there have been a few breaks to get on there first in the past.

I’m watching on French tv, can’t understand most of the commentary, how many times do they cross the line before the finish?

Fingers crossed for Cav, for the win and the green. Chapeau to Evans, a worthy tour winner.

8 laps I think.

Renshaw was awesome there.

Intermediate sprint, Cav gets the bunch points, first 6 places swept up by that breakaway.

Cavs bike’s broke

He’s got to work really hard now.

Cavs bike’s broke

Cav’s awesome power has broken his bike

He’s back in the bunch, all OK. That break is still away, got nearly 40 seconds! I’m torn now between wanting a 3rd win in a row from Cav and wanting the break to stay out there and for Ben Swift to get the win…

No panic, plenty of time to get back up the front

Been a lot of potentially significant mechanical failures this year – Cadel in the Alps, EBH in the TT and now Cav’s – surely, with the best mechanics in the business, top-of-the-range kit and the highest of stakes, a bike should be expected to finish a stage. Seems odd that there have been so many bike changes.

I sometimes wonder how the bikes break so much, but then most of it is super light weight aero kit, and it’s being absolutely thrashed every day.

Also, 200 riders, all doing ~3000km, things are going to go wrong just from bad luck.

A lot of Tour kit is prototype gear or special edition stuff completely unavailable to the general public.

The riders are putting out more power than you’d believe possible, riding 200+km a day for 3 weeks – there’s a lot of cars wouldn’t cope with that. Factor in crashes etc and you can see why stuff breaks. I’m sure if you took 190 club roadies out on a normal ride, there’d be even more faffage as stuff broke – in comparison I think Tour riders probably have it easier but you just see every single failure cos it’s on TV.

*struggling to stay awake…*

I wonder if it’s down to the huge output these riders manage. Cav’s acceleration just now was spectacular. As if he could rip the spokes out of the hub!

It’s not the lightest possible kit though is it? I don’t think it’s the flimsiness of the kit, which must be precisely engineered from the best possible materials surely (I’ve not used Dura Ace or SRAM Red). And although they do a lot of miles, the bikes must get a full service at the end of every day, which is more than mine do. I guess if you consider the numbers (200 x 3500km) then there will be failures but it’s still mindblowing that on a career defining event a rider’s TT bars can be loose, or his wheel rubbing against his frame.

See, Buzz, that’s the point – if you’re building or preparing a bike for the world’s no.1 sprinter, surely you’d take into account the forces produced and prepare accordingly? I believe the frames are beefed up, but I’m just surprising that on a machine that is relatively simple (compared to a F1 car for example) so many things have gone wrong this tour.

Gap’s coming down now….

And all hell will break loose when it does!

Before the race started Ned from ITV4 spoke to Peta Todd (Cav’s partner – lovely lady judging from the interview, and if you’re that way inclined do an image search for her) and they mentioned a special plan HTC had. I wonder if the change of bikes was deliberate to make other teams do the work to catch the break away..?

2+2= 7 ?

20 secs gap, but not long to go!

Bell lap!

Do you reckon the “special plan” for HTC is just to make sure that Cav finishes in front of Rojas to secure the green jersey…?

Ding dong!

I think that HTC have played a blinder with their tactics today. Getting a man in the break forced all the other teams to try and close it and hopefully leaves HTC train fresh to deliver Cav.

Go on Swifty!

Swifty goes again, rest of the break gets caught.

HTC on the front now

Lars Bak – quality tactic.

Jees how did they manage that!

Here we go, the HTC Leadout Train has just arrived!