TdF Stage 9 – A Clearer Picture [Spoilers]

Sporting heroes sport ‘burns!

Stoner, two very good questions;
1 – Dunno, the UCI regs are so labyrinthine that it’s verging on impossible to know! I’d imagine that on what looked like a bit of a twisty one, that sort of rim depth was about right.
2 – No idea! I’d wager it was Merckx or Anquetil or someone from that era, however.

who has the record for the yellow days to the finish?

Not certain that it’s the record, but Merckx managed 21 days (19 of which were consecutive) in 1970. He passed the jersey to a teammate for safe keeping for a few days…

Lance held it for the final 13 days in both 1999 and 2003.

you could run a full disk according to the UCI rules

I was wondering that as well. I saw a bit of one stage and all the team cars came by and when you saw the Sky cars they looked a step up – very nice indeed

New Jag estates.

RealMan – Member

yeah unfortunately he’s not that much of a climber though, he only managed 2 mins on Cav on the first mountain stage.

Or so he’s led the majority of people to believe. He’s the very definition of an outside favourite for yellow in my eyes.

The mind boggles… Realman, have you been watchin Le Tour/Sagan.

who has the record for the yellow days to the finish?

It turns out that three riders have worn it from start to finish, but none in the modern era.

The first rider to wear the yellow jersey from start to finish was Ottavio Bottecchia of Italy in 1924. Nicolas Frantz (1928) and Romain Maes (1935) are the only two other riders who have done the same.

From here. I’ll stop geeking out now, sorry…

They were alluding to Wiggins holding the shirt from day 7 to Paris being “unprecedented”

Well usually it’s the mountains that decide the MJ and they don’t start til the middle, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case since this tour might be decided on the TTs which are earlier. And more numerous than is typical too afaik.

The mind boggles… Realman, have you been watchin Le Tour/Sagan.

You’ve got to read between the pedal strokes.

thanks to minty goodness.

Cripes, I don’t watch ITT’s, can’t get my head around solo “me against the clock” mentality..

But ..

Blinkin ek, what a performance by Wiggo and Froomie.. Basso’s 10 mins down on GC.. Thats 10 mins..

“strokes chin at possible TDF winner in Wiggo, pending crashes”

Wow, what a performance from Wiggins and Froome

Putting a min into Cancellara in a TT is utterly bonkers for someone so skinny.
Is it only me who finds Wiggins eyebrows unsettling.

anagallis_arvensis – Member

Putting a min into Cancellara in a TT is utterly bonkers for someone so skinny.

I agree. Fair to say that King Fabu had a bad day and frankly, if he or Martin are on top of their game they are untouchable.

Wiggins skinniness looks worse by his height. Think I am more excited by Froome at the moment as he looks v comfortable on the ‘hills’.

Twiggo looks awesome on a TT bike.

I know it’s a rest day tomorrow but a individual TT performance like Wiggo’s is going to have an impact when they hit the hills from Wednesday.

It will definitely be a tag team attack, just like they used to on Armstrong. Can’t wait as it should make for really good racing.

great result but still a long way to Paris. Don’t count anything yet….

Cancellara prefers flat tts this one rolled a bit and didnt suit him as much

Does anyone have a view on how long Cav will stay in the race? I think he’ll probably quit within the week. Wednesday’s stage is flat for most of the first half, so he will probably stay to make a hole in the air for Wiggins on that stage. It seems pointless him risking everything to spoil Team GB’s chances in the ‘lympics, though. We saw what happened to one of Spain’s Olympic team yesterday – carted off in an ambulance after a low speed crash.

Thing is on the tag team idea, Sky can still tag team the others back – if they feel it makes sense. Remember Sastre, Schleck and Schleck* taking Evans apart a couple of years ago?

How about Froome to attack as early as possible as we go into the mountains? Force Cuddles and Nibbly to chase and let Wiggins slipstream with the rest of the Sky boys?

By the way did anyone else think as EB-H, Rogers and Porte all slowed after the second time check that they’d been told to conserve their energy? Or were they just knackered?

*think it was them anyway

They were alluding to Wiggins holding the shirt from day 7 to Paris being “unprecedented”. Is it? If so (or if not) who has the record for the yellow days to the finish?

Slight hyperbole if there is such a thing.

Armstrong won twice when he had the MJ from stage 8 onwards, and in one year he had it from stage 4 onwards except for one day when Voight had it.

In 1961 Anquetil held it at the end of every day of the tour, although not at the end of the first stage as there were two stages on the first day and his performance in the second of them resulted in the MJ.

I expect that EBH, Richards and Porte all backed off a bit – Rogers was apparently told to take it easy.
The Eurosport commentators were also supposing, given Wiggo’s first split, that he backed off a bit to save himself and to avoid too much of a mad 2nd week (I didn’t really get their explanation for this).

The Eurosport commentators were also supposing, given Wiggo’s first split, that he backed off a bit to save himself and to avoid too much of a mad 2nd week (I didn’t really get their explanation for this).

Or maybe he just went off a bit quick – even more the case for Froome. As opposed to Evans who appeared to save a bit until the end, pretty much matching Froome and Evans for the last 10km. Though I suppose those differences could be down to how different parts of the course favoured different riders.

The question is, given only 41km of riding and a rest day tomorrow (on which they’ll doubtless ride further if not so hard) what the big advantage of saving energy today was.

Here’s my thinking. With Evans being bookended by Froome and Wiggins, he’d have known what Froome had done (splits) and also what Wiggins was doing by then. Everyone know since the start of the track supremacy that Sky / BC has left nothing unturned when it comes to technology to shave seconds off. I think Sky sent Froome and Wiggo off fast so that BMC would get the fear of christ in them over the times they would potentially post, and risk overcooking Evans in trying to keep up or close. They didn’t bite, Evans rode to the pace he could sustain, and Sky saw that and also decided that if that wasn’t going to work they’d also maximise their gains without risking cooking Froome and Wiggins.

2 mins cushion at this stage with another TT to come – barring mishaps (please no) I reckon Cadel needs to turn 3.5-4 mins over Bradley before the TT if he wants to put pressure on now. Not saying it can’t be done, but I know who I’d rather be right now.

I was surprised by them taking gels to, wonder if more psychological than anything on a sub-hour TT?
I also don’t understand why commentators were saying the first part should have favoured Evans, it was either neutral or biased towards Wiggo/Froome IMO. If was after the first checkpoint that Evans had some favourable sections as it was fairly technical in places.
And wtf was Kelly on about speculating Wiggo might have been told to slow down by Sky, lol. Whether he has 1 minute or 5 minutes they still have the same problem defending and what if he’d come off or had a mechanical later in the TT. What a muppet, I wish Hutch would have told him he was an idiot (glad I watched the ITV4 live coverage then the Eurosport highlights later else I’d have been screaming at my TV :p ).

FuzzyWuzzy – Member

I was surprised by them taking gels to, wonder if more psychological than anything on a sub-hour TT?

And wtf was Kelly on about speculating Wiggo might have been told to slow down by Sky, lol. Whether he has 1 minute or 5 minutes they still have the same problem defending and what if he’d come off or had a mechanical later in the TT. What a muppet, I wish Hutch would have told him he was an idiot

Gels ? They will have been warming up for prob an hour before (at least). You dont know what the gels were, could have been caffeine gels taken at 15 mins to ensure they felt good for last 20 mins of ride. I think the sky nutritionists will have worked on that in training (marginal gains and all that). The fact that all sky riders seemed to take them makes me think it wa something they’d worked on.

As for Kelly being a muppett. Ha ha ha. FFS!!! The guy has forgotten more than most will ever know.Why bury yourself and win by 5 mins when there are 2 weeks left. would look stupid if wiggo gets dropped on Weds because he left it all on the TT course yesterday. Its all about recovery and managing your energy reserves.

ITV coverage is embarrassing. Watched other day at a friends house and had to put up with cliches from Sherwin, incorrect rider names from Liggett (who is the new Hugh Porter, murray Walker), an explanation (on bikes) from Boardman and Boulting. Think in an hour show there was about 20 mins of cycling.

Classic Daily Telegraph front page misprint headline (catch it while you can..)

Linky[/url]

‘Wiggins takes Strangehold in Race to Paris’ – especially fitting given the Vulcan death grip the podium lady is applying in the picture.

Why stroke at weekend is more likely to kill.
[/url]
stroke[/url] por kala y simon[/url], en Flickr
Do we need another reference to masturbation?

I would guess that the gels weren’t for energy but for comfort. They don’t carry bottles and 52minutes of flat out effort is a long time in the sun. Probably carrying the isotonic ones just so they could have some liquid.

They don’t carry bottles and 52minutes of flat out effort is a long time in the sun.

They do carry bottles. I can’t be bothered to watch the coverage to see him start but I know Cancellara and Evans had bottles and at the end of the stage Wiggins had an empty cage so it’s safe to assume he started with one and had disposed of it already.

It takes many precious seconds to get a gel out and down it though, hardly something a pro team in such an important TT would want to give up just for ‘comfort’?
Fair point about them possibly being a caffiene gel taken early, although from all the photos I’ve seen it’s still stuck up Wiggos leg well into the TT, but you could be right.
Evans had an aero bottle on, while Wiggins was rocking a normal bottle. Interesting, thought Sky would be going for every advantage available!

but a individual TT performance like Wiggo’s is going to have an impact when they hit the hills from Wednesday.

You say that as if no one else tried their best on the day either.
If only wiggos had done it then yes but if the others tried then they will be just as drained

Froome is a future winner of the TdF IMHO

Not over at the minute but Wiggo will need to crack a couple of times to be beaten and I cant see it happeneing….he even has th eluxury iof having a bad day and still being favourite.

Next TT is longer so I reckon he has an effective 4 minute cushion

Frankly, given it is only 11 days we hav had a UK yellow Jersey awesome performance and awesome future with Froome – shame about the puncture – who may even be in witha shout next year

It’s unusual that Wiggo finished without a bottle. Most TT frames are more aero with an aero bottle in the cage rather than an empty cage.

Whilst on the subject of bottles, Evans reached down for a drink after only 3km of the TT, and sweat was pouring from him after a very short time. Yes they’ve done a few hours of hard riding prior to the actual TT, and yes they’re giving it the beans, but reaching for a drink after such as short time shows that he wasn’t feeling great from the off.

The final TT should be interesting…..doing a big TT after 3 weeks of hard GT racing is a very different thing to riding a normal TT, and I’d say that an on form Evans is about the best in the business at it.

This article on power output in the mountains is worth a read from the very excellent Science of Sport blog.

Goes into a lot of detail about power output in the mountains, how its sustained and compares them with previous tours.

Froome is a future winner of the TdF IMHO

Froome could and indeed should have won the Vuelta last year but they wouldn’t let him run, he had to hold back to support Brad. As it was, he actually completed the course in less time than Cobo but due to the time bonuses on offer at the finishes, Cobo got the win.

Shame that Froome had that puncture so close to the stage finish last week, he lost 90 seconds there. He’d be well ahead of Evans and only a few seconds behind Wiggins if that hadn’t happened.

Froome and an on-form Geraint Thomas (ie, when he’s been specifically training for Grand Tours rather than track) will be one of the best double acts in cycling.

Froome def downed a gel shortly after the first checkpoint, my point was more it goes against the standard thinking that you have 1.5 hours glycogen stores. A caffeine boost is a possibility I guess as there’s some debate over how long the effect lasts.

Brad got handed a bottle mid-course to by a soigneur so obviously planned, I guess more to do with cotton-mouth feeling than dehydration.

I still call BS on their being any legitimate reason to deliberately slow down mid-TT the day before a rest day when you’re already in the yellow jersey. Kelly is a legend and one of my cycling hero’s but it was pure muppetry to suggest it. then again it must be hard coming out with sensible stuff for hours on end commentating on a live stage, especially a TT one.

Froome and an on-form Geraint Thomas (ie, when he’s been specifically training for Grand Tours rather than track) will be one of the best double acts in cycling.

Better than 1-2 in the first TT to lie 1-3 on GC (after a 1-3 finish on the first hill top)?

Evans had an aero bottle on, while Wiggins was rocking a normal bottle. Interesting, thought Sky would be going for every advantage available!

Wiggins wasn’t wearing a visor (or even glasses) either, I would have thought that that would make an aero difference.

Cofidis hotel has been raided by police today and Remi de Gregorio has been arrested.

Noticed Wiggins had lost the visor he was wearing on the prologue TT also. Definitely at an aerodynamic disadvantage, but I imagine on that length of a TT on a hot day, it would be much nicer to get a bit of wind in round your face rather than a big visor over it. Not as important in the 7k prologue TT. Although almost everyone else had a visor or glasses!

Wiggins had a visor on the start ramp, I assume it ended up by the roadside somewhere 🙂