Viva Le Tour - Tour de France 2011

[pels]

Should be a cracker of a stage tonight, there is going to be carnage.
All the action will be on the final climb. Enjoy

[mickey]

JEAN-FRANÇOIS PESCHEUX’S ANALYSIS : Will the champion emerge?

“This is the last of the big Pyrenean stages. There are six tough tests: the Col de Portet-d’Aspet, the Col de la Core, the Col de Latrape, the Col d’Agnes, the Port de Lers and the finish at the Plateau de Beille. These climbs don’t have the same notoriety as the Aubisque and Tourmalet, but the cumulative amount of climbing will make for a great stage. At 168km, it’s short, but there will be attacks right from the start. It is no secret that the big guns will show what they are made of on a stage like this. Note also, that every rider who has previously won at Plateau de Beille has gone on to the win the Tour that same year…”

AND THE LAST KM's OF TONIGHTS STAGE...

[brod]

O'Grady on the front of the peleton for a long time.

[brod]

Laueance Ten Dam had a terrible crash, overshot the curve, hit grass and somersaulted the handle bars

[NFC]

HERE WE GO!

It's on!

[Cambridge Clarrie]

Go Evans!!!

Don't let him get away...

[Cambridge Clarrie]

This is what the TDF is all about!

[NFC]

Slightly anticlimactic. Evans still in a strong position.

[mickey]

Fantastic finish for mine, cat and mouse over the last 5km, Evans not losing time, but not gaining any either.

Contador not showing anything to be impressed with really, just sat on wheels all the way up the mountain. In past tours he would have been the 1 attacking over and over again..... maybe he needs that special beef again

[Grahaml]

Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)?

No. Lol.

Another brilliant stage for Cadel. Another ticked off. On previous time trial ability, unless someone has a particularly good or bad day Cadel effectively leads the tour. And Voeckler himself will almost certainly surrender yellow before that. If Cadel can keep neutralising these mountain stages or limit the losses to a handful of seconds, he'll take it in the time trial.

Contador is in trouble. Perhaps the words of Armstrong pointing out without his team he is nothing are beginning to ring in his ears. Only way Contador wins from here is to jump the whole group, but I can't see him doing that.

[mickey]

Nice stage to let the legs recover and have a leisurely ride throught the French countryside..
Another day for the sprinters and will be decided by who ever got over the mountains with out hurting too much..

JEAN-FRANÇOIS PESCHEUX’S ANALYSIS : The race within the race

“We needed to get to the Alps as quickly as possible, but without making the transfers too long. Finishing in Montpellier enables us to achieve this objective. On stages of this type, the heat can be punishing. If the sun is beating down, it’s going to cause some real damage because the riders will already have expended a huge amount of energy. If some riders decide to make the going tough today, it could really have an impact on some of the team-mates of key riders. Let’s not forget that all of the favourites depend on those team-mates… Every day, there’s a real race within a race! This stage should go the way of the sprinters, whose only chance of victory after this will come on the Champs-Élysées.”

[pels]

Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)?

No. Lol.

Another brilliant stage for Cadel. Another ticked off. On previous time trial ability, unless someone has a particularly good or bad day Cadel effectively leads the tour. And Voeckler himself will almost certainly surrender yellow before that. If Cadel can keep neutralising these mountain stages or limit the losses to a handful of seconds, he'll take it in the time trial.

Contador is in trouble. Perhaps the words of Armstrong pointing out without his team he is nothing are beginning to ring in his ears. Only way Contador wins from here is to jump the whole group, but I can't see him doing that.

He was supposed to lose it 3 days ago, to be honest it looked like he wanted to attack today.
He looked very comfortable,I wouldn't want Evans chasing down a frenchmen in the final TT wearing the yellow. Good luck
The damage needs to be done before the TT, Wearing yellow in the final TT will make the rider do special things.Don't leave to the end

Well that stage was an anti climax they followed each other like sheep.
More questions than answers after lasts night stage.
The rider who has the balls to attack and risk blowing up in the Alps will win this

[Grahaml]

Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)?

No. Lol.

Another brilliant stage for Cadel. Another ticked off. On previous time trial ability, unless someone has a particularly good or bad day Cadel effectively leads the tour. And Voeckler himself will almost certainly surrender yellow before that. If Cadel can keep neutralising these mountain stages or limit the losses to a handful of seconds, he'll take it in the time trial.

Contador is in trouble. Perhaps the words of Armstrong pointing out without his team he is nothing are beginning to ring in his ears. Only way Contador wins from here is to jump the whole group, but I can't see him doing that.

He was supposed to lose it 3 days ago, to be honest it looked like he wanted to attack today.
He looked very comfortable,I wouldn't want Evans chasing down a frenchmen in the final TT wearing the yellow. Good luck
The damage needs to be done before the TT, Wearing yellow in the final TT will make the rider do special things.Don't leave to the end

Well that stage was an anti climax they followed each other like sheep.
More questions than answers after lasts night stage.
The rider who has the balls to attack and risk blowing up in the Alps will win this

Voeckler is putting everything into keeping the jersey each day. One day, he'll not be able to follow. Especially when the real attacks come. Watching the racing unfold, I'm not at all surprised he's kept it since there have only been tests and nothing sustained. No doubt everyone would rather ride the ITT in yellow, especially a good time trial rider, but the colour of the jersey doesn't give you more strength as such. It might make you more willing to not save something for tomorrow, but when all contenders aren't willing to leave anything in the tank you'll see who really has the legs and who doesn't.

As for attacking, it would be nice no doubt, but more tours have been lost by riders attacking too soon than have been won. Armstrong mastered the tactic of eliminating them one by one with a strong support then taking the 1 or 2 left up the toughest parts of the final climbs.

[Grahaml]

Vinokourov announced his retirement.

I wish him well as he recovers from those injuries, but personally I feel he should never have been allowed back into the fold. Anyone proven to have taken something to improve their performance should get a life ban. Pure and simple. Life bans for anyone deliberately avoiding tests too. 2 years for not being where you said you be (as in Rasmussen), where there's a decent possibility it wasn't to improve performance (Shane Warne) or if it's not so clear but they're satisfied there was a breach. 1 year for cases they think are accidents (Contador, Riley).

There's talk he'll stay involved in the sport, but like Riise I'd be massively uneasy about him running a team. Perhaps as an assistant on a team or something I'd be happy, but no team managers/owners should have a drugs history.

[The Sleeping Giant]

Would love to see Evans attack the other contenders in the alps, but I cant see it. Very risky just following the others through the mountains and relying on the Tt. Cadel has flopped in the Tt before.

[Jim05]

Great result for Cadel again and I believe he will go on and win now.
Have to say that was the most boring stage of the tour so far to watch. With the rest day i thought a few more guys would have had more of a crack.

[Grahaml]

Would love to see Evans attack the other contenders in the alps, but I cant see it. Very risky just following the others through the mountains and relying on the Tt. Cadel has flopped in the Tt before.

Following is a risk, attacking is a risk. Each rider needs to assess the risks and determine how to best maximise their chances. Some also need to look at what they're willing to risk to win. Some might be happy to finish on the podium, others might be happy to risk missing the top 10 to win. Contador and the Schlecks need to get time in the alps, because Cadel and Voeckler would finish top 2 in a close run thing if the TT happened as it stands. I think Cadel will just try to hold the other major contenders until the last part of the slopes of the last climb. If Voeckler is still there he'll want time, so might attack 5km out. If it's down to the 5 best climbers this year (Schleck, Schleck, Evans, Contador and Basso) he'll delay it more to the last 1-2km to try to prise out 20-30 seconds but more importantly stop anyone being able to attack him and get 20-30 seconds.

Cadel's flops in the TT have come when it's not mattered, like last year. No doubt this year, if he's around the mark and fit, he'll be a huge chance to win the time trial stage because most of the other good time triallers are doing a lot of work (Martin, Cancellara) are looking less than 100% (Contador, Leipheimer) or have withdrawn (Wiggins, Kloden, Vinokourov).

[The Sleeping Giant]

Sorry Graham. I was thinking Cadel wanted to win.

[Swamp Donkey]

Cadel's flops in the TT have come when it's not mattered, like last year. No doubt this year, if he's around the mark and fit, he'll be a huge chance to win the time trial stage because most of the other good time triallers are doing a lot of work (Martin, Cancellara) are looking less than 100% (Contador, Leipheimer) or have withdrawn (Wiggins, Kloden, Vinokourov).

i think it mattered in 2008 when he just needed to beat the Carlos Sastre whom was not renoun for his ttrialling ability by ~ 1m30s and he couldn't get near it. My fear is that Evans is a dominant time trialler on the shorter courses by these longer TDF tt courses are a bit much for him. Yes he'll finish in the top 10 but I really think Andy Schleck can match Cadel Evans this year. It will be an absolute cracking tt all the same, I can't wait. I'm tipping Contador to win it, Evans and Schleck in the top 5 and Cadel to take yellow by <10 secs.

[The Sleeping Giant]

If Cadel isn't in yellow, or within 30 secs of the leader, he won't win it on the tt stage. He can be a good tt rider, but the other contenders aren't as bad as everyone thinks. Plus if Schlek x2 or Contador are in yellow, expect them to grow an extra leg.