Judging from the topography maps Stages 10 and 11 are "borderline" mountain stages. Stage 10 has a couple of category 1 and 2 climbs and STage 11 has at least a category 2 climb. These stages are the ones were people will be feeling each other out, to see how strong they are. The climbers that aren't a threat in the GC could break away for King of the Mountains points, and the top contenders would likely let them go, while eyeing each other warily.
The climbs are ranked. 4 being the easiest but still giving out King of the Mountain points (in other words a normal person would take all day to ride up it) 3 being tougher, 2 and 1 being brutally tough and HC the "Hors" category being certifiably insane.
Stage 12 has two Category 1 climbs and ends at the Top of one of those climbs. Definitely a mountain stage and the real beginning of the pain.
Stage 13 has two Category 1 climbs two Category 2 climbs (and a couple of assorted 3s and 4s tossed in for good measure) AND it ends on an Hors category. If there aren't GC moves here I would be surprised.
Stage 14 is a well needed flat stage, a respite before the true agony. They get a rest day the following day too.
Stage 15 has two Category 2s and 1 category 1. This again expect the mountain-only guys to go out. The GC guys will be probably conserving energy for Stage 16 but wanting to warm their legs up after the rest day. Surprises could happen this day but I doubt it.
Stage 16 the individual mountain time trial. It is them against the Hors category mountain. And they'd better have something in their tanks afterwards because the of the following stage. The advantage is that it isn't as long so they do have more time to rest and recuperate after the effort.
Stage 17 is I think the single cruelest day in terms of mountains. Three Category 1 mts, One Category 1 and 1 Hors category climb smack dab in the middle. Now if anyone has lost time in the time trial they will be desperate to make it up. I'd expect all hell to break loose at some point. It doesn't end on a peak but slightly down from it. Downhill descents are treacherous and people will be trying to make time on the way.
Stage 18 is still hilly but only one Category 2 climb. I wouldn't expect much to happen except with the sprinters because of the Stage 19 time trial on the flat. And the last Stage Stage 20 heading into Paris is flat too.
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I'm sure that Hobes who is doing a great job will cover the stages in more detail but now you know what to expect.
All of the rest of the next week or so after the team time trial yesterday are for entertainment and the sprinters points and to make sure everyone is thoroughly worn down by the time they hit the moutains.
Description:The weather just hasn’t been playing nice this tour, and for most riders, it means crashes, delays, nervousness, and general, all-around unfuness. For five riders today it meant their dreams could be fulfilled.
At 12 kilometers out (the website says 16 km, the coverage says 12, I have no way of knowing which is right, nor does it matter that much) a break-away went. 5 men jumped in on it and start building up their gap. This is no surprise, this happens just about every stage of the Tour, but there were two very significant differences about this break-away, neither of which had to do with the men in the break at all.
The first was that it got rainy, and very windy. This caused a number of crashes (some very big ones, all along the stage, though luckily the biggest leader to go down was Mario Cipollini, who is in no way worried about overall time). These crashes slowed down the peleton significantly, to the tune of several minutes combined. But the wind may have been a bigger factor.
A pure head wind will destroy a beak-away, because the peleton will have more men to take turns at the front, so each has to do less work, and the whole peleton can benefit immensely from that breaking of the draft. However a cross-wind, will break the peleton, force many riders into the gutter, and allow for the smaller groups to succeed.
This is, of course, what happened today, the winds, while occasionally being pure head-winds, were for the most part cross-winds. The break-away worked very, very well together, and formed an efficient echelon to effectively deal with the wind. The peleton did what peleton due, some riders worked well, and many got stuck in the gutter. The result was a slow peleton and a very fast break-away.
The second thing that made this break unique (forget there was two ) was the leading team. Since Lance was in Yellow, USPS was supposed to be in charge of keeping the pace at the front, and so they did. But they don’t like doing it, it saps the energy from the team, and they know that they’ll have to be strong later on in the Tour, in the mountains. So they had no interest in reeling in the break-away, since a 3 minute break or more would mean the Yellow jersey passes on to Voeckler, one of the men in the break, and they can stop this work. The wind made for a large time gap between the break and the peleton, but there was still a chance to chase them down. But USPS, not surprisingly, never stepped up. The sprinter’s teams tried to chase down, but the continual crashes took the spunk out of them and they gave up and let USPS regulate the pace, the very slow pace.
The break won by 12 minutes and 33 seconds, not unheard of for a flat break-away, but it is a surprise for a break coming before the mountains. Now Voeckler has yellow, and his team is in charge of leading out the group. McEwen snagged the 6th place points bonus (Petacchi seems to have disappeared, and McEwen taken his spot as sprinter to beat) and is still in green.
I can not explain how perfect a Tour Lance is currently riding. Of course the big deficits and most important occurrences haven’t yet begun, but at this point Lance’s Tour is absolutely astoundingly perfect. He put in a fabulous prologue to both gain him small, but quite possibly meaningful, time gaps on his main competitors. He stayed clear of damaging crashes, and when the peleton broke up he managed to put very big time before the mountains between him and Mayo. Then in the Team Time Trial USPS rode strong enough to take just about the maximum allowed gaps on all of his rivals. Then, he got rid of the yellow jersey so he didn’t have to get USPS worn out the day after he obtained it, and did so without loosing so much as a second to his rivals. Maybe it’s luck, but right now Armstrong has not done a single thing wrong.
Km 113.5 - Côte de Dinan - 1.1 km climb at 4.3 % - 4e Cat
Km 149.0 - Côte de Saint-Aide - 1.0 km climb at 6.0 % - 3e Cat
Notes about the stage:A mostly flat and rolling stage, this is another day out on the plains. Two short and easy climbs make up the entirety of the mountains in this stage, both about one kilometer in length, no one should have too much trouble on these.
What to Watch For: Now that USPS has handed over the Yellow jersey, they’ll just try and stick at the front to protect Lance. However, the team now in charge is Brioches la Boulangere, since their man is in yellow, it’s their responsibility to lead the peleton and chase down any break-aways. It’s quite possible they wont be up to the task of defending yellow all the way to the Pyrenees, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing about that; however, this French team will give their all to make sure that their leader is in yellow as long as the can possibly keep him their. I don’t expect break-aways to succeed tomorrow because this team will be motivated and driven to make sure no one gets off the front. I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes in a few days, when they’re exhausted from the constant work they’ll be forced to do, but tomorrow, they’ll be putting in their all.
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I feel sorry for Brad McGee. Having to drop out of the race this early has got to be heartbreaking. Posts: 4569 | Registered: Dec 2003
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To clarify: the jerseys Hobbes posted today were what the riders were wearing today, not what they earned by the end of the stage. Lance will not be in yellow tomorrow because of the breakaway mentioned above.
What the standings were after the stage: Yellow: Thomas VOECKLER Green: Robbie MC EWEN Polka Dot: Paolo BETTINI White: Thomas VOECKLER but worn by Sandy CASAR the runner up, since Voeckler will be wearing Yellow
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Yeah but I know I'd blame myself even if it was a mostly normal harmless activity. This way he can prepare more adequately for the Olympics though.
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Wow today is exciting, the breakaway nearly survived. Got caught in the last kilometer. Giant crash in the peloton at the 1km banner. They can't find Lance.
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Hmm due to the chaos of the crash Lance has crossed the line 15 seconds behind Ulrich. Now they aren't yet sure how the times are going to be assigned because of the crash, since almost the entire peleton was held up. But it is possible that Ulrich will gain 15 seconds, although the anouncers suspect that due to the crash every one will be given the winners time.
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This raises the following question for me -- it's probably a dumb question, but...
What keeps riders from using crashes strategically?
Obviously no rider wants to crash, but what keeps a team from having one of their lesser members (literally) take a dive in an attempt to knock out or slow down the favorite?
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
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(pay no attention to the Annie behind the curtain. I am Hobbes, the great and terrible.)
Summary: Stage 6
Jerseys:
Yellow: Thomas Voeckler
Green: Stuart O'Grady
Polka-Dot: Paolo Bettini
White: Thomas Voeckler
Stage Top Ten:
1 .
BOONEN Tom
2 .
O'GRADY Stuart
3 .
ZABEL Erik
4 .
HONDO Danilo
5 .
COOKE Baden
6 .
MARINANGELI Sergio
7 .
PINEAU Jérôme
8 .
DEAN Julian
9 .
TOMBAK Janeck
10 .
DUMOULIN Samuel
General Classification
1
VOECKLER Thomas
2
O'GRADY Stuart
3
CASAR Sandy
4
BACKSTEDT Magnus
5
PIIL Jakob
6 .
ARMSTRONG Lance
7 .
HINCAPIE George
8 .
LANDIS Floyd
9 .
AZEVEDO José
10 .
RUBIERA José Luis
Description: This is what everyone expected from a flat stage. A few early attempted break-aways until finally one gets off the front a little after 10 kilometers into the race. Unfortunately, in that time, 4 USPS riders crash, including Armstrong, but they all got back up right away and everyone appears to be fine.
The break motored up to a 4.5 minute lead over the peleton, but the team of the yellow jersey was paying attention, and got some help from the sprinter's team's so it didn't get out of control. Then towards the end the yellow team had done their work, they'd controlled the break, and the highest person in it was 11 minutes away from taking yellow. The sprinter's teams began to take the front and work to bring back the break before the end.
The time came down just as normal, at the last mid-sprint the group broke up and 2 riders fell off. Now with only 4 riders left in the break the time was to come down rapidly, and then the sprinter's teams would reorganize to lead-out the sprinters themselves.
Except the time didn't come down as they'd planned. It was coming down of course, but very, very slowly. The peleton stepped up the pace and more riders got sent to the front to do the work. Less than 10 kilometers to the end and they were still off the front, though now they were very close to being reeled in. So with about 5 kilometers to go, and just a few seconds ahead of the peleton the Spanish rider Flecha sprinted ahead. He developed a lead on the break-away, which was then caught by the peleton, but his speed was holding off the close to 200 riders chasing behind him.
He worked up his break to 20 seconds, but then the pace caught up to him, and he was caught right at the 1 kilometer mark, just before the final sprint. The result of this was two fold, he didn't win the race (obviously) and the sprinter's teams didn't have time to reorganize and lead-out their guys, the sprint became a more tactical maneuver than usual, and with a hard kick up to the finish it was already going to be a technical finishing.
In the end Tom Boonen, a very successful, very young sprinter, had the legs to the line. A surprising O'Grady came in second, surprising because he was supposed to be wiped after his break-away yesterday.
Now something else that happened in the last kilometer there was a crash, a big crash. It actually happened right under the 1 kilometer mark, a rider in the bunch went down and took much of the peleton with him, and the rest couldn't pass by. McEwen fell as well, and as a result, the green jersey passed from him to O'Grady.
A rule was developed a for situations just like this. Because so many risks are taken in the last dash to the line, and since the road is fenced in and the riders can't get by, anyone who makes it to the 1 kilometer line with the bunch will get the same time as the finisher if there is a crash in that last kilometer. The race organizers ruled that this crash counted in that assessment, and so the time gaps between the riders disappeared and all the riders received the same time.
As a note, for some weird reason I previewed tomorrow's stage yesterday (stage 7), my brain hasn't been firing on all cylinders this week I think. Anyways, for the preview of tomorrow's stage, check yesterday.
Besides a short bike ride and (obviously) watching the Tour, I’ve spent all day (and night) at a wedding, so I don’t really have the time or energy to do all of the grunt work like lists of standings and jerseys, I’m just giving descriptions. Sorry .
Description: We saw a very fast stage today, speeds averaged above 30 mph for much of the course, and as a result, the breaks at the beginning (the fast part) didn’t survive. A two man group broke off mid way into the race, they built up an advantage as the peleton slowed down, but when the wind hit them as the course turned it was wiped out fairly quickly.
Then a six man group made a jump off the front as the finishing line was approaching. They were caught without building up more than 30 seconds of a lead. Finally, with about 3 miles to go to the finish, another group made a huge effort and came off the front.
Normally you can’t do this because the sprinters teams are trying to set themselves up for the win and the pace is remarkably high. Well today the pace was high, but only T-Mobile (trying to get Zable the win) was doing work at the front, so the break went and that’s where the win came from by just a few seconds.
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Notes about the stage: This is a windy stage, up down and all around. There’s more climbing in here than is typical for a flat stage, but it’s still a flat stage, and certainly something that even the sprinters shouldn’t get dropped at.
What to Watch For: Due to the winding road, this is an ideal stage for break-away. They’ll come fast and furious at the beginning, and they just might make it. The peleton can’t chase down as fast when the road is windy, and when the whole peleton breaks up during the climbs that litter the course.
If the breaks are caught, it’s a short finishing run in, and the more technical sprinters (the only ones left in the race really, with the departure of Petacchi and Cippolini) should be the ones to look for.
By the way, if you want to see stage leaders, go here and click around.
With Annie gone I guess it’s now up to me to post . Anyways, today is a rest stage, which is why nothing got posted yesterday. Today I hope to post the summary, a look back at the first week, and, if I have time, a look forward (but don’t count on that one). Hope you’re all enjoying the Tour baby, yah!
Jerseys:
Yellow: Thomas Voeckler
Green: Robbie McEwen
Polka-Dot: Paolo Bettini
White: Thomas Voeckler
Stage Top Ten:
1 . HUSHOVD Thor
2 . KIRCHEN Kim
3 . ZABEL Erik
4 . MC EWEN Robbie
5 . KLÖDEN Andréas
6 . BOONEN Tom
7 . BROCHARD Laurent
8 . O'GRADY Stuart
9 . PEREIRO SIO Oscar
10 . HONDO Danilo
General Classification
1 . VOECKLER Thomas
2 . O'GRADY Stuart
3 . CASAR Sandy
4 . BACKSTEDT Magnus
5 . PIIL Jakob
6 . ARMSTRONG Lance
7 . HINCAPIE George
8 . AZEVEDO José
9 . GUTIERREZ José Enrique
10 . ZABEL Erik
Description:This was good, typical flat stage. A breakaway went, but was caught before the end (as all but one have been so far this tour). CSC took the opportunity of a change in wind direction (or rather change in road direction) to put the hammer down and break up the pack. But with no one CSC really cared about getting caught in the back-pack (pun intended) they let up the pressure and the second group managed to catch up.
Some very astute riding by the Tour favorites, never getting caught out, always up at the front, exactly what you have to do if you’re going to win the Tour, and they all seem to be doing it. This should be an exciting race.
It was a great finish for this stage. There was kick up before the line, and Paolo Bettini tried to make his move there. It would’ve worked too, except that McEwen, possibly the fastest, and certainly the canniest sprinter in the bunch read the move and managed to get on his tail; and you don’t win stages by dragging a sprinter like Robbie McEwen to the finishing line. So before the final turn to the finish (at just a few hundred meters) Bettini backed off and fell back to the pack, the thing is, this also killed McEwen’s chances, which isn’t going to make him happy.
Then a young rider bolted off the front just before the turn and took a big gap, seemingly an beatable one. He put 50 meters between himself and the group with 300 meters to go, and he was going to win. Except for Thor. Thor Hushovd broke for the line right in the middle of the turn and pushed hard and fast. Not only did he make up the 50 meters, but he had time to sit up and celebrate before the finishing line, an incredible sprint from the champion of Norway.
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I would just like to say that I loathe the Al Trautwig announcer guy.
He reminds me of the funnily annoying announcer in Best in Show except he isn't funny. He keeps trying to make all of these stupid stupid analogies to other sports that fall flat and Bob Roll is left trying to cope.
All of the other commentators were originally cyclists. Phil, Paul and Bob pull trivia from obscure recesses of their brain at the drop of a hat. Al is clueless. At least if you know you are commentating the premier event for the sport read up on it first! Or if reading was to difficult he could have at least spent time watching the OLN archives from the the years Lance has been competeing!
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Al Trautwig is a general sports announcer, years ago he used to do hockey. OLN decided they needed someone "proffesional" for this years tour, since they expect so many people to be tunning in. Every once in a while I do feel uncomfortably restricted by my moral and ethical desicion not to use profanity.
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So they got a HOCKEY announcer??! Well maybe they were trying to appeal to the Canadian audience (no offense BtL et. al.) It was an awful idea. Phil, Paul and Bob should be allowed to make the race exciting, much like baseball announcers do with all of their random trivia. Not have some guy bemoaning about how boring the race is. Of course Hockey people don't have to worry about short attention spans. The Tour is an Endurance Race. They would have been better getting a distance speed skater like Bonnie Blair!
The whole thing where they were doing some sort of weird stuff with the "Cutters" who I thought were some sort of Beverly Hillbillies in France before realizing they might mean the film cutters. I'm still unclear if they really were the actually film cutting crew. But was totally bizzare either way.
And "The Cyclysm" is officialy the worst name ever. They should have stuck with Tour de Lance VI. The cyclysm commercial with the guy in the sweater talking would be cool, except for the whole "cyclysm" punchline at the end.
Argh. They were doing so well last year. Why didn't they stick to what worked, and not try to gimmick it up?
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The Bob Roll ads last year were the best. Ever.
He's not really a hockey announcer, he's a proffesional sports announcer, only most American sports are similar, as opposed to cycling, which is very little like football, so this guy can't just drop in and be a good commentator.
They cyclism isn't the worst name, it's the funniest name ever! I mean the hack is "cyclism"? It's a joke, and I enjoy those sweater guy's commercials as a result, and have repeatedly asked my Mom as she leaves for a walk in the middle of the Tour where she's going to be durring the cyclism.
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Announcing hockey is actually a very tricky thing to do and I'm still mourning the retirement of Bob Cole and Harry Neil -- The voices of hockey when I was growing up. The new CBC guys are Ok, TSN is still dreadful and I still watch hockey on American channels on mute because I can't stand the idiots.
So, if he's a professional "sports" announcer, my guess is that he's loud and articulate (as in, doesn't mumble) and probably likes sports. But those are probably his only qualifications.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Really I think a baseball announcer would have been the best choice. The announcing styles are the most similar. Golf or Tennis could have worked well too.
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Yah, he's probably good at what he does in general, but you can't just be dropped into the Tour, it takes a long time to learn what it's even about, much less be able to explain it and add detail for the public. Phil and Paul are extrodinarly good at what they do (talk constantly for 2.5 hours about cycling everyday) and Bob Roll is great (though not as good a commentator, he's still got a lot of insight since he's ridden the Tour recently for an announcer) but Al, well basically he sits there and asks question of Bob the entire time, and then dramatizies the whole thing past bearing.
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Brief recap of each stage, one sentence each.
Stage 1: 23 year old, with no long-term GC threat take the prologue 2 seconds ahead of Armstrong who decimates his big opponents.
Stage 2: Break-away early on gets pulled back in with time for a final sprint, taken out by one of the oldest sprinters in the race.
Stage 3: A break-away goes but doesn’t make it, the yellow moves on and Mayo is caught out.
Stage 4: USPS dominates in the team-time trial, with Hamilton’s Phonak putting in a good time, though Armstrong takes yellow.
Stage 5: A break-away goes and gets big time gains, ends up finishing 10 minutes (about) in front of the pack and the yellow moves on.
Stage 6: The break-aways are controlled and the finishing sprint is won by another youngster.
Stage 7: A break –away makes a move but is controlled by the peleton, a very small break makes the finish after leaving with under 5 miles to go.
Stage 8: A long break-away tries to make it but the teams are too organized, a brilliant finishing sprint is put in and McEwen snags green.
The big contenders:
Armstrong: he’s riding brilliantly so far. Ahead of all of his rivals, he’s put time gaps in, not to mention what have to some significant psychological blows in the prologue and the team time-trial. He’s also orchestrated every event perfectly, from the passing of the yellow jersey on without loosing a second to anyone that counts, to staying at the front and alert at all times. You can’t really tell this early on in the Tour, but from the little we’ve seen, Armstrong looks dominate.
Hamilton: He’s been doing well, staying with Ulrich in the prologue, and despite the mechanical and other problems in the team-time trial he’s made up plenty of time there. Riding strong and attentive off the front, I see no reason now we he wont be a huge threat as the Tour goes on.
Ulrich: The non-story that is thus, a story. For someone who is touted as the biggest threat to Armstrong this year he’s done a remarkably good job staying off of everyone’s radar screens. He’s ridden well, and been staying very attentive at the front. T-Mobile feels the two, pre-tour losses but they’re still strong. No one knows how well he’s doing right not, could be hiding something awful, could be hiding incredible strength; we’ll find out in the mountains.
Mayo: The dark-horse rider, the big threat to come out of the early season, a serious challenger. Mayo has been called all these things, and perhaps he would’ve been, but the team-time trial loss added onto the almost 4 minute time deficit in stage 3 means he’s pretty much out of the running. Don’t be surprised by some big attacks he’ll no doubt put in when we reach the mountains, but it’s almost impossible to make up this kind of time on a guy like Armstrong, not to mention Ulrich and Hamilton.
Heras: Nothing spectacular, but then we didn’t except anything from him in the flat stages. He’s shown us a very strong team, who rode well in the TTT, and kept him always in the front of the group, never getting caught out. We’ll see what he can do in the mountains.
And now I’m completely exhausted, so even if I manage to stay up a little more, I don’t have the concentration to preview the next stage, much less the next week. I’ll just say tomorrow is a mostly flat stage in terms of climbing, but rolling hills and curves through-out the course means that a break-away could have a chance.
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9 minutes behind Ulrich would be a death blow to any major competitor. If Hamilton had a 9 minute lead, that would wrap up the tour. The 5 men in front of Armstrong however, can not climb. The major leaders will wipe out far more than 9 minutes on these guys in one mountain stage alone, they are of no worry to win the Tour.
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Not to de-rail the thread, and I hope this hasn't been discussed already, but I have a few questions: isn't the USPS disbanding its cycling team in the next year or so? How will this effect Armstrong's career? Is there any word on another, very American company that's going to take up the torch?
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Absolutley, a few months ago USPS announced that their desire to court international buisness has decreased, and thus they feel that renewing their contract with the team (which expires at the end of this year) wouldn't be a wise idea. Everyone got worried about what they'd do, and it did look like it might cost Armtstrong some night laying awake, but they found someone. Discovery Communications (parent corporation of Discovery Channel) has signed on as the title sponser of the team. They also wrote in a little contract that Lance would do some narrating for some of their shows.
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Actually, he is pretty good at public speaking. Of course most of what I've heard is interviews, which are exclusivley about cycling, so I don't know if he's not good at other types of discussions, but there you are.
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Well IMO today had the most exciting finish of the Tour so far. I was actually out of my chair hollering at the TV even though I knew the results had already been decided.
You see the breakaway which had lasted for most of the day only got caught by the sprinters in the peleton in the last 150meters. I so wanted the breakaway to hang strong and win.
As it was one of the Aussies took the day in a photo finish.
Description:An amazing stage finish, very exciting and incredibly fast. Before we get into it, let’s clear up the fact that all the big contenders finished in the main bunch, as did the Yellow jersey, no change at the top of the classification.
A few kilometers into the stage, 2 men left the peleton to pursue a break-away. The windy stage and constant up and downs made for a good break stage, as did the fact that it is the shortest road stage in this year’s tour. For a while the peleton tried to keep the break away in check, and succeeded, keeping them in at under 2 minutes for a long while.
Then they let up on the pace making and the break-away pushed out to 10 minutes right at their peak. It was as if all of a sudden the sprinters realized that they were in serious trouble, many men from different teams got sent to the front to turn the pace way up. It would be a hard to ride, and possibly and impossible one, to get back to the break.
The team in yellow didn’t need to worry, the closest rider to yellow in the break was 20 minutes away, no threat, even with that big, 10 minute gap. So the sprinter’s teams did all of the work, and the pace jumped many mph.
Time began coming down, very quickly, but there was 10 minutes to make up. At first it was assumed they couldn’t do it, but the teams kept the pace incredibly high and people began to realize that it was possible for them to overtake the break.
Minutes ticked by and the end began to approach, it was going to be desperately close. Finally they reached 2 kilometers to go, 20 second gap. 1 kilometer to go and about 15 second gap. The break was going to make it, it was incredible.
Then the two men at the front made a mistake, they thought they had it one, they hesitated, just a fraction of second, they slowed down just a bit. For someone not accustomed to bike racing you might not notice it, but they did it, and in so doing, they lost the whole race. The peleton exploded at them, the sprinters jumped out of the pack and started their huge run at the line. One of the two breakers got caught 50 meters from the finishing line after being out for over 100 kilometers, the other tried to sprint but was overtaken and finished tenth. It’s no exaggeration to say that these two will re-live in constant pain those few seconds were they tried to play tactical instead of just winning the stage.
McEwen showed us he’s still the best in the bunch by betting out Thor and O’Grady by a couple of microns, nothing seems to be able to stop this Aussie as he becomes the first man in this year’s Tour to win more than one stage.
Km 39.5 - Le Mont Gargan - 3.3 km climb at 3.5 % - 4e Cat
Km 67.0 - Col de Lestards - 7.0 km climb at 4.7 % - 3e Cat
Km 79.0 - Côte de Saint-Yrieix-le-Déjalat - 2.7 km climb at 6.1 % - 3e Cat
Km 114.5 - Côte de Soursac - 4.4 km climb at 4.9 % - 3e Cat
Km 126.5 - Côte de Chalvignac - 3.5 km climb at 6.9 % - 3e Cat
Km 162.0 - Col de Neronne - 8.3 km climb at 3.3 % - 2e Cat
Km 173.5 - Col du Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary) - 5.5 km climb at 8.0 % - 1e Cat
Km 189.0 - Col d'Entremont - 2.9 km climb at 5.4 % - 3e Cat
Km 205.5 - Col de Prat de Bouc (Plomb du Cantal) - 8.2 km climb at 6.0 % - 2e Cat
Notes about the stage:This is the Tour’s longest stage at 237 kilometers, almost 150 miles. It’s also the first stage in the mountains, incredibly hard, incredibly long, lots of people will drop tomorrow, and the peleton will split up. It’s always fun to go into the mountains! What to Watch For: It’s a mountainous stage, but with 30 kilometers of downhill/flat to finish it off, any time gained in the stage will be wiped out, or at least seriously decremented, in that final descent. So don’t expect the big men of the tour to go out and try to make up time, it’s very long so they’d loose lots of energy, and probably not gain a whole lot.
Do watch for climbers trying to make breaks, this is their time to shine, and since many don’t have to worry about overall finish, they can afford to loose lots of energy on one stage.
Description:The longest stage in this year’s Tour, as well as the first stage in the mountains, is now over. It was 237 kilometers long with 9 mountain passes including one category one climb. The stage was finished in just a hair over 6 hours, and it was a regular barn-burner!
Attacks rolled off the peleton constantly during the first few kilometers, one right after the other. The pace kept very high, and then finally what was to be deciding the break established its self. Richard Virenque and Axel Merckx (son of the infamous Eddie Merckx) broke off from another break they were in, 35 kilometers into the stage.
We know now what they decided, Merckx promised to let Virenque win all of the mountains passes (he’s after a record breaking 7th KotM Jersey) and Virenque was to let him win the stage.
It was no surprise to see the Frenchman go (Virenque), this has been his style in the previous tours, go on a very long break early on to collect all the mountain points possible on the stage, and then defend the big leading margin that gives him. Not to mention that on Bastille day, all those French riders wanted some of the lime-light.
Well everything was going to plan, the peleton didn’t mind letting him go, so long as he didn’t get too far ahead, and he and Merckx became the only two men out of the field. And then, on the category 1 climb, Virenque dropped Merckx and finished the rest of the stage by himself. Merckx claimed Virenque broke their promise and accelerated, Virenque claims that he was just going his pace and Merckx was unable to keep up. Whoever was right, there’s a lot of bad blood now.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Virenque had a magnificent stage today, a break of over 200 kilometers and he’s now leading by a good margin, the KotM jersey competition.
The rest of the big riders stayed in the main field, finishing together. One thing to note, Armstrong and Ulrich gained 7 seconds on Hamilton (and Mayo I think) because the pack split up just a bit a few meters before the end, and so the judges gave a different time to those finishing just outside. 7 seconds shouldn’t matter, but you never know, Hamilton wont be too happy about loosing any time at all.
Km 6.5 - Côte des Ternes - 1.4 km climb at 7.1 % - 4e Cat
Km 48.5 - Côte de Thérondels - 3.8 km climb at 5.1 % - 3e Cat
Km 62.0 - Côte de Mur-de-Barrez (D.900-D.904) - 2.3 km climb at 5.4 % - 4e Cat
Km 99.5 - Côte de Montsalvy - 8.0 km climb at 6.0 % - 2e Cat
Km 148.0 - Côte de Bagnac - 1.2 km climb at 7.8 % - 4e Cat
Notes about the stage:As a respite from the today’s incredibly long, and mountainous stage this is a shorter one, much shorter. 164 kilometers make up the entirety of the stage, and the climbs are less numerous as well as a bit easier (no cat 1 climbs for instance). However, it’s still full of significant ups and downs, no easy course to control on.
What to Watch For: Breaks, breaks, breaks. This stage is short, and has a down-hill finish, the big time contenders will know that attacking here would be dangerous, waste a lot of energy, and at best get them only minimal time gains. So you wont be seeing any of the big boys out in front of the peleton, but these concerns wont stop the riders trying to get a bit of glory and maybe a stage win.
The rolling hills should give everyone who wants one a chance to jump of the peleton and attack, and the controlling team (Voeckler’s squad) will have their work cut out for them tomorrow trying to keep the race together, or at least keeping Yellow.
Description:It was an incredibly fast stage, faster than was predicted, and since it there was a lot of downhill involved, it was predicted to be very fast. It followed what one would expect from a half mountain, half flat stage.
Breakaways abounded in the first part of the course (part of the cause of the incredible pace), and finally three men got away. Now the reason a break-away can succeed is that the people in it are willing to work together, good riders for the current stage, and not overall threats. If they were capable of talking the yellow jersey today (they weren’t, the closest was 20 minutes behind) then Voeckler’s team would’ve kept the pace up until they were caught, if they were GC threats than USPS, Phonak and T-Mobile would’ve hunted them down, but they weren’t. So we saw these three men break off and stay off with no one interested in getting them back.
They survived right to the line, where, a couple miles to go, David Mancoutie (the one Frenchman in the break, the other two were Spaniards) broke off from the triumvirate of today’s stage and made a go. Flecha had just tried to attack and failed, and neither of the other two could do anything like match David’s speed. So he powered onto the finish a minute and change ahead of them, who were in turn, about 6 minutes ahead of the group, which all finished in a bunch today.
A good stage for the GC contenders, no one was dropped, no one had to work extra hard to keep up. Tomorrow we go into the first of the really big, really important stages and it was nice for them to not have to worry quite as much today.
Km 172.0 - Col d'Aspin - 12.3 km climb at 6.5 % - 1e Cat
Km 197.5 - LA MONGIE - 12.8 km climb at 6.8 % - 1e Cat
Notes about the stage:The first big mountain stage, the first one to end on the uphill, and probably the most grueling stage so far. It’s a long, flat (slightly uphill, but no serious climbing) run into the mountains where the race will meet up with the climbs themselves. Two very difficult passes, and ones that will provide greater viewer excitement.
What to Watch For: This is where the GC contenders start coming out of the pack and making their move. This is where we get to see what these men are made of. I grantee that one of the overall contenders will attack tomorrow, and not only will be treated to a spectacle of great racing, we’ll finally get to see how all the big guys are doing, how in shape they are.
I would bet on Mayo attacking tomorrow, but it could be anyone (Heras is another likely). Most likely someone will try to go on the first climb, if not, the second climb will be sure to launch someone up there. I would guess Armstrong will wait a bit before he attacks and tries to get the big time gaps, but you never know. If he keeps the race under control on this stage there’s a good chance he’ll wind up in Yellow at the end, since he’s the highest placed contender. If not this stage, then he should certainly be in Yellow on the next or there’s a problem.
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I'm leaving at dawn for the Alpe de Huez. We will take the train from here to Basel and then cycle from there to Alpe de Huez. I will make a full report on my return.
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will cover the stages in more detail but now you know what to expect.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
) was the leading team. Since Lance was in Yellow, USPS was supposed to be in charge of keeping the pace at the front, and so they did. But they don’t like doing it, it saps the energy from the team, and they know that they’ll have to be strong later on in the Tour, in the mountains. So they had no interest in reeling in the break-away, since a 3 minute break or more would mean the Yellow jersey passes on to Voeckler, one of the men in the break, and they can stop this work. The wind made for a large time gap between the break and the peleton, but there was still a chance to chase them down. But USPS, not surprisingly, never stepped up. The sprinter’s teams tried to chase down, but the continual crashes took the spunk out of them and they gave up and let USPS regulate the pace, the very slow pace.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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