TdF Stage 19 [Possible Spoiler Content]

20 points.

1. CAVENDISH Mark 280 pts
2. ROJAS Jose Joaquin 265 pts
3. GILBERT Philippe 230 pts

Doesn’t really change much.

So Cadel needs to blitz it, all to win for him tomorrow… c’mon Aussie, c’mon!! 😀

20 points, Rojas will also take the penalty.

if the gc result is close,why not race on the final stage?have they always let the rider in yellow automatically win (even if the time gap isn’t that big).i know that lemond v’s fignon (r.i.p) was 7 seconds (admittedly the final stage was a tt/but what a final stage 😀

Rolland needs 41:52 – 2011, F. Schleck 40:46 – 2006, Landis 38:34 – 2006, Armstrong 37:36 – 2004, Ullrich 38:37 – 2004 #TdF

Slightly misleading as the 2004 results are from the individual TT they had up the Alpe that year i.e. they started from “relatively” fresh at the bottom and were pacing for ideal power output rather working around the actions of others.

I thought Frank was better then Andy.

Nope. Neither is brilliant, but Frank the worst of the two.

For example: Annecy TT in 2009, Andy beat Frank by 49 seconds (FWIW, Evans beat Andy by 31 seconds in Annecy TT)

There is no way anyone can ever get away on the final stage as teams pull it back together because it has always been seen as “the sprinters” race like their biggest won to win, like say AdH was for the climbers. Cav won on the champs elysees the last 2 years and he’s phenomenal, look how much he won by in 2009!!!

But can you explain this?

looked at the profile of the annecy tt and it nothing like the grenoble course so i wouldn’t use it to make predictions

looked at the profile of the annecy tt and it nothing like the grenoble course so i wouldn’t use it to make predictions

I’m not, but I couldn’t be bothered trawling the archives for more examples. I just used it as an illustration that Andy is a better TTer than his brother, which he is generally accepted to be.

Cadel 1/2 with the bookies, Andy 1.7/1. Don’t understand that mesel – CE odds on to take a minute off AS? Seems a wide disparity (between the two odds), maybe the money reckons AS is hammered from the last two stages.

Fantastic interview with Rolland, along the lines of ‘I’ve been Voeckler’s lieutenant for 10 days now, and today he said ‘I’m done for, you go for yourself’ so I new it was my time and I had to win’ 8)

Felt like standing up and saluting, certainly impressed my non-cycling flat mate who was watching with me.

Unlike f*****g Schleck who still looked like he was sucking a lemon even though he’d won the stage.

As usual Evans was the best interview, I do love an odd ball. Going to be very close, I reckon before hand Andy S would have wanted 2mins going into the tt to be sure whilst cadel would have wanted it to be not much more than 30 seconds

if the gc result is close,why not race on the final stage?

it is seen as a celebration tbh as everyone has completed the race . Champagne drunk whilst riding ,video camera passed around, chattig and relaxing that sort of thing.
It is flat so the teams can chase anyone down and no one wants to crash on one of the laps of Paris so they dont complete the tour.
Cav will win it and some on the day IMHO as it will just be left to the sprinters. ice

i saw that interview, am sad for voeckler, but telling his team mate to go for it is amazing, how many of the others would have done that if they were in yellow.

How is tommy at tt? How amazing would it be if he could take some time back and make it onto the podium

stands a chance but I suspect his legs are shot.

For you Tommy, the tour is over…

As usual Evans was the best interview, I do love an odd ball.

That wasn’t an interview, that was Matt Rendell chasing after him while he rode off and whined!

I’m still amazed at the amount of Schleck haters there is. Yesterady he rode near 60km by himself on what was one of the best moves of the tour, yet that wasn’t enough. Today he could have told Contador to stuff himself but he chose to ride with him, up and down the other side when he prob knew he could of stayed in the leading peleton and get an easy ride to AdH. Then on Alps when it is in fact Evans who needs to be doing the attacking he rode most of the pacesetting, knowing those in front weren’t much of an issue, and then when Evans gunned it he tracked him.
Personally he’s ridden a terrific tour, he’s yellow on penultimate day, and o.k. he did do 1 bad interview but rest he’s been pretty open about, pretty cheerful and honest.
Look at other contendors
Contador – very poor tour, makes you wonder if now he has to be clean that before he wasn’t. He made the hills look tough

Evans – Think he’s ridden fantastically well but he’s always been reactive instead of proactive. Always had to chase down instead of doing the breakaway. A good positive is though he can climb and chase down, just needs the acceleration of AS and AC

TV – Will go down as his tour and i doubt he will ever better this TDF but 2 weeks of yellow finally caught up with him. Think he rode an amazing tour but was never gonna win it

Basso – been very disappointing really, never did anything that stood out

F Schleck – Think he has had a good tour, was never really a contendor but lies 2nd with TT to go, you cant knock a rider for that. Never been in the headlines but mainly cos of his brother. Never looked like he had the power on the climbs to get away substantially

Wiggins – Actually think he will be kicking himself knowing what he could of done. Cav said he’s been in the best form he’s ever seen him, i can only imagine what the mountains would of been like if he was still involved giving the strength of the Sky team

Evans – Think he’s ridden fantastically well but he’s always been reactive instead of proactive. Always had to chase down instead of doing the breakaway. A good positive is though he can climb and chase down, just needs the acceleration of AS and AC

Cadel is more of a rounded rider. Why does he have to beat AS/AC on the climbs when he can gain the time on the TT, he ‘only’ has to match them which he hasnt quite done this year. Will he have enough to peg back the jersey?

I think FS’s TT will be interesting. He looks to have a little more weight than his brother so although his power/weight may be down can he do something on a ‘undulating’ TT.

Raddogair, sure he’s good, but knowing you’re good, being good, but then complaining at the end anyway doesn’t really endear you to anyone.

Its definitely been more than one bad interview, today he managed the double of whiney AND smug, which deserves some recognition at least, whereas the other day he was complaining about the precise shape of the stages not suiting him, as if the ability to handle a bike downhill was somehow of no importance in a bike race.

Bit harsh to judge the man on a combined total of 90 seconds of interview but hey, thats what being an armchair sportsperson is all about! 8)

I think Armstrong will win it. 😀

I think Armstrong will win it.

He’ll probably find a way of doing it without getting caught.

thanks crikey! big laugh!

Contador – very poor tour, makes you wonder if now he has to be clean that before he wasn’t. He made the hills look tough

You didn’t watch the Giro then? It takes a very special talent at the peak of his talents to do a tour/ Giro double, Contador took too much out of himself in the giro.

AS did sound like a **** today, although it can be hard to get the nuances with Germanic accented English. Maybe he was trying to be funny. Ironically, I find Cadel’s Aspergers approach to interviewing comes across more warmly.
Want to see Cadel gut it out, but can’t complain if AS wins – he’s ridden a great race.

Only points for the first 6, and it’s kind of hard to see Vanendert or Sanchez making it into first 6 on either of the next couple of hills

Well that shows just how much I know 🙄

Another brilliant ride from Andy Schleck, just need a good day tomorrow, was hoping more funny interviews from Cadel Evans, here some from the past 😆

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FikzgWE3t0A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fe79ZuDKfk&NR=1

Ooh, Betty!

Speaking of interviews, this made me laugh a lot (though it is a bit cruel).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubEfM5npOvo

Been away for 2 days so just caught up on Sky+(having avoided this site, twitter etc!)

Brilliant riding and racing. Voeckler’s done a cracking job, but even more pleased to see Rolland getting the win after his work over the last week.

I’ve gone off FrAndy (picking up on the “schleck haters” comment) after Andy’s moaning about the descents and weather. That’s racing,get over it. Everyone has the same challenge.

This has been one of the best Tours I’ve seen in the 28 years I’ve been watching it. Loving it.

Speaking of interviews, this made me laugh a lot (though it is a bit cruel).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubEfM5npOvo

PMSL “Where is Frank?…”

1:52 – brilliant, so true

13thFM – Think Schleck has proved in past 2 stages that he can handle a bike downhill, he wont be as good as contador or Evans but then AS is 10 feet tall so doesn’t help his Centre of gravity.
As for his interviews, i think his accent as well as finding the right words to say in english dont help, christ if i was asked to answer in German i’d sound like a right ****, probably say something which i didn’t know i was saying and be scowled on every single forum ( christ, i have a bad enough reputation as it is about having a huge ego without being aired on tv). To be fair to him tho, his interview at beginning of todays stage was fine and came across pretty positive

P.s. may see you at some point tomorrow, we’ll prob be whinging about the climbs or lack of feed stations or more likely ‘ the bloody wind’ 🙂

13thFM – Think Schleck has proved in past 2 stages that he can handle a bike downhill

I never doubted it, it was him complaining that bike races shouldn’t be decided on downhills.

I am of course being a massive hypocrite as I was praising Cavendish for giving interviews completely free of platudinous sportsperson-isms, which I loved, so shouldn’t hold it against Schleck just because he’s speaking his mind as well, just a shame it comes across badly.

I’ll be lurking somewhere in the field tomorrow sporting my new Liquigas team kit, not feeling too positive about it but will probably feel great as soon as I’m in the saddle, have about 10 laps of Arthur’s seat to my name in the last month as training, and of course many evenings on the sofa watching le tour with a beer… 😳

AS should have tried a bit harder in the sprint at the end. Had he won the sprint out of his little group he’d have a jersey to pull on in Paris. As it is, I’ve checked out the most recent available evidence on TT form, by looking at the TTs in the Dauphine (Evans and Voeckler), the Tour de Suisse (Frandy), and given nobody near the top of the results sheet rode both of those, the Tour of California which had both Leipheimer (also TdS) and Zabriskie (Dauphine).

Based on ToC result Leipheimer is very slightly slower than Zabriskie – just about the same amount Evans was slower than him in the Dauphine. Not unreasonable then to suggest Evans TTs about the same as Leipheimer. Now compared with Leipheimer in TdS, AS lost 2:19, FS lost 2:53, over a course only 3/4 as long as the one tomorrow. Not looking good for Andy on that basis. Meanwhile TV lost 1:58 to Evans over the same course as they’re riding tomorrow, suggesting he TTs rather better than Frank – on the basis of those figures, TV should take more than the 1:17 he needs to get on the podium. Go Tommy.

(take that with a huge handful of salt – but it’s the best guide to recent TT form I could find, and it does appear that all relevant people were trying in those stages which isn’t always the case)

Oh yeah, almost forgot – Wiggins whupped Evans in the Dauphine.

It’s raining in Grenoble too. That’s going to help Cadel

Evans winning friends

I think Wiggins would have had an outside chance of a podium, but if he’s able to peak again for the Vuelta crashing in the Tour could be seen as a blessing.

centre pages of Guardian sports section today, good picture of contador landing a right jab in the face of a spectator 😀

Is Evans like Stoner in MotoGP?

Good but nobody likes him?

Interesting theory – I like Stoner and Evans, Aussie bleeders and all that. Strewth and crikey.

Evans for the win, got to back the ex mountain bikers people !!