Viva Le Tour - Tour de France 2011

[mickey]

1 upside for the riders in this years tour is that they only have to go up and over Col du Tourmalet once, last year they did it stages 16 & 17.

[redandblack]

Can't wait

[redandblack]

A breakaway of 6 riders, including Thomas and Guitterez have a 9 minute break at the halfway mark.

The tough stuff still ahead.

[mickey]

Can't blame Thomas if he needs some new knicks after locking up the back wheel twice...

[NFC]

Wow, Europcar guys crashed just as we went to ads!

[Jim05]

Wow, Europcar guys crashed just as we went to ads!

Big smash, Voeckler hit a car but is ok and kept going, 5 other riders hit the bitumen

[mickey]

Has there been a tour recently that has had numerous stacks on just about every stage??

[pels]

Its mayhem out there, I reckon the breakaway might get home today.
The Peloton has slowed heaps

I can't remember a tour in the last 10 years with so many crashes

[pels]

Leopard Trek are handing out the punishment at the front of the peloton now.

[cripple]

good night for evans. puts time into contador and doesn't let the schleks get to far in front. looked very comfortable all night.

[Grahaml]

Long term both Schlecks need time on Cadel before the ITT. I think Cadel needs to do more of what he did in the last kilometres and lead the Schlecks more and form an alliance with the likes of Contador and Basso to respond to them, because they'll go one after another until one gets a break. But Contador losing more time is huge. When he really needed to make time up on the other leaders. It's only 13 seconds but not a good sign dropping back on any stage. Over the final time trial, it's very possibly for Cadel to take minutes out of both Schlecks. If only one makes 20 seconds at a time on these big mountain stages, it may not be enough.

Another excellent day for Cadel. His team were around him until only the last part of the climb when few teams had more than 1 rider. I wrote of Contador a few days ago, but the race between A. Schleck, F. Schleck and Evans is tightening up if anything. Basso looks dangerous but has already lost over a minute, Cunego the same but dropped off himself near the end. Cunego is a good rider, but I feel his class just isn't up there with these lads.

And hats off to Richie Porte on his first TDF mountain stage. Handled himself well and did his job. Will be a #1 rider himself one day you feel.

[Jase]

Felt a bit sorry for G Thomas last night, really brave effort after nearly disappearing off a cliff twice to then charge on up the next couple of climbs... I don't know how he managed to fly down both recents after his near misses, hello nearly sh@t myself and I was lying on the couch, not staring at the abyss...

[redandblack]

It's just wonderful TV, which I've been watching for many years.

graham (and others), I enjoy your knowledgable insights and commentary, thanks.

[pels]

Very good stage to open up the mountain battles ahead,nice win by sanchez
Evans did everything he had to yesterday and looked comfortable.

The Schleck brothers are going to be dangerous and I agree with graham that Cadel and Basso will have to cover the brothers 1-2 punches - an alliance will\might be needed,as they can not do it alone if Andy & Frank continue to ride like yesterday.

The only problem is that Basso looked very good as well and with his teammate Szmyd who when on form is the best mountain domestique and can set a very high tempo that destroys the peloton.
Saturday is going to be a very key stage and will answer a lot of questions, the big one will be is how is Contador travelling.
You reckon the Schlecks, Evans & Basso will wanna bury him and get rid of him for good in this tour.

Saturday night is going to be awesome

Tonight I reckon a breadaway will make it home as the mountain top is too far away from the finish and there is 40km of Flat after going over top.Should be no change to the GC today

[mickey]

JEAN-FRANÇOIS PESCHEUX’S ANALYSIS : A chance for glory

“This is a stage that will suit the breakaway specialists, the baroudeurs, who can take some big climbs in their stride, because the Aubisque features about halfway through. Last year, one of the most memorable stages was the one over the Madeleine, with the finish about 30km on from that summit. Once again, if there are plenty of attacks, it will only need one of the favourites to get caught out and his rivals will all react, and we will see a significant change in the overall order. On the other hand, a team leader who has already been struggling could try to go for glory on the Aubisque, because from there the road is all downhill. As there is no summit finish today, the best climbers won’t go all out today. They will just stay in the wheels. Other riders, those likely to finish between 15th and 30th in Paris, will contest the victory once the sprinters have been eliminated from today’s equation.”

[The Sleeping Giant]

Tonight I reckon a breadaway will make it home as the mountain top is too far away from the finish and there is 40km of Flat after going over top.Should be no change to the GC today

Good. I can go to bed as soon as they get over the peak.

[brod]

Anyone else thinking it might be Schleck x 2 and Evans on the podium (with Frank up top)

Tony Martin just looked in a world of pain last night (drool coming down from his chin...he looked like he was liquifying)

[Grahaml]

Anyone else thinking it might be Schleck x 2 and Evans on the podium (with Frank up top)

Tony Martin just looked in a world of pain last night (drool coming down from his chin...he looked like he was liquifying)

It's looking more and more likely. Barring a meltdown somewhere, only Basso looks likely to get past any of those 3. I still think Andy Schleck is the favourite. He's classier than Frank which is another reason I think they let Frank go yesterday. Once they went one after each other I think they decided to pick the less dangerous one to get a few seconds.

Martin always looks like that. He's got this habit of splashing water all over his face and in his mouth when he drops off the back like that. Looks ugly, but it's just a thing he does when he gives up. Watching Velits and Martin sacrifice top 10 chances, Goss and Renshaw sacrificing sprint wins and Eisel not going on breakaways makes me wonder whether Cavendish really does appreciate what his team does. I know he's always quick to thank them, but there's a lot of posturing about being the greatest as well. The whole team works their backsides off for 99.9% of the tour for him and all he really needs to do is race hard for maybe 3ks all up. Is cycling the ultimate team sport? Most sports you don't get asked to go through prolonged agony for someone else to get the glory with no hope of it getting returned one day.

[Grahaml]

Another ripper of a stage where we'll no doubt see something happen on the last climb. I suspect we'll see either the demise or the return of Alberto Contador. They won't want to let him recover to climb up Huez with strong legs if he's not up to scratch right now, while he'll not want to leave it so late because there are only 2 more really tough stages after this for him to make time on.

For Cadel, it's key he again loses only seconds to the Schlecks if anything at all. Tonight I can't quite see Voeckler hanging on while I doubt the other top GC riders want him sticking around much longer. Perhaps today they might let Andy go near the end to gain 20 seconds like they let Frank get 20 seconds the other day.

[brod]

Could be the best/most interesting stage so far tonight. All the big names had a bit of a recharge yesterday, Im waiting to see if the Trek guys try and drop off a MAJOR contendor (Bert) and get some time on the other two (Cadel and Basso).

Im tipping this will be a race in four after tonight.

Interesting fact-----The Tour has climbed Plateau de Beille three times and on each occasion, the stage winner has gone on to claim the yellow jersey in Paris. Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)?