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Le Tour 2012

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Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
Of those in the break away I'm tipping Vinokurov or Voeckler to win today. Both have had relatively quiet Tours so far and are due a big day.
I picked it yesterday so I will put it out there again for today - Menchov ! We haven't seen the best of him this year yet so today could be the day. I reckon guys like Van den Broeck, Sorensen, Van Garderen, Valverde will all be up there and cementing their places for future Grand Tour team captaincies, plus of course team Sky (yawn), but I think it will be the wily Russians day.
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
Forgot about that!

They also have an iPad app (SBS tour tracker) which I watched it on last night. The app itself isn't too bad, it also shows the position of the break and peloton in the stage.
They've got tour tracker for Android also, pretty cool app

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
 

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Last real mountain stage in the Pyrenees, and it's not a bad one at all. Perhaps the last climb could be a bit more demanding, but otherwise it's a nice little leg burner.

PROFIL.jpg


It is a short stage at just 143.5km, so hopefully the attackers won't hold back. We saw Contador attacking after something like just 70km into a 140km-odd stage last year, before getting caught in the flat run up to the Alp d'Huez. If someone is bold enough to get away on the Port de Bales, there will be no flat to be brough back. Attacking 50km is feasible, if they are brave and have the legs.

The Col De Mente is a nasty climb of 9.3 km at a harsh gradient of 9.1%. Unfortunately, it's too early to be raced hard.

The back end profile of the stage (sorry for the lack of detail, the Le Tour website is sadly lacking):

PROFILCOLSCOTES_2.jpg


Apart from a brief flattish part on the Port de Bailes descent, there's not a huge advantage to chasers. I hope a top 10 guy has the courage and legs to animate the race on the Port de Bailes, but I won't hold my breah.

As for Cadel, hopefully he has recovered a little and can hold onto his top 10 placing. Cadel is a (significantly, normally) better time trialist then the riders under him, so unless he has a real jour sans, he should hold on for a top 10 spot, but anything more is out the window at this stage. It was a little sad and touching to see Hincapie and Cadel shaking hands as they crossed the finish line in last night's stage, with Cadel apologising that he couldn't give Big George one last retirement gift of another TdF win.

We're unlikely to see any fireworks from the top GC contenders, as the top places have mostly been finalised. Zubeldia is the only one at threat of dropping out of the top 5 as TJVG could put 40 seconds into him in the TT, so Zubeldia may look for some time, but otherwise, it's unlikely that the top 4 will change into Paris.

The winner of the stage?

Likely to be from a breakaway, especially if Team Sky do their usual tactic of soft pedaling as long as possible.
 
G

G&GR News Bot

Guest
Firstly I’m stealing this idea from Cat over at www.greenandgoldrugby.com.
The quality of social interactions by Professional cyclists is (lets say) different to rugby players.
Lets look at some of the highlights of what happens off the road from the Cyclists – especially the Aussies – and a few of the funnier maybe wtf moments highlighted on social media over the past couple sets of seven.

Firstly, many people have been asking on twitter “Where is the Devil guy – Is he dead?” Firstly El Diablo can’t die and secondly Didi Senft is a dude from Germany who’d become a bit of a institution on most of the big Col’s in le tour and the Giro.
The big fella is injured and has had to skip this years tour due to recovering from SURGERY TO HIS BRAIN (for real).
How about stage 14? Everyone was talking about the ‘Tacky’ stage and how BMC got dogged by public enemy #2 – Rolland (Team SKY will always be Public Enemy #1 – except the aussies Richie Porte and Mick Rogers – they are awesome).

Personal highlight of stage 14 was this scene. Plenty of happy faces in the peloton – 180+ blokes sitting on their balls were greeted with this.




I think Peter Sagan would have copped a few winks along the way from the ladies (massive man-crush developing – studying his kilowatt output is like porn for middle age men in lycra) ……Here he is giving his optic nerve a work out at the back of the bunch….LEGEND atta-boy.


Sagan – jive talkin’

This bloke has inherited the title of “Velvet Samurai”. Somewhat fitting. Cat might have David Pocock over at @GAGR – we’ll take Peter. When he walks off the team bus this is his theme song:
Well you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman’s man​

On the rest day he again proved he is a PLAYA – bringing the Rock star to cycling. At 23 this bloke is going to win some one day classics. All he wanted to do after signing away was make sure the dude filming emailed him the clip.
Did I mention he did 1000+ watts for the last 10seconds of a stage after averaging 400+ for 30 minutes?

Maybe Peter stopped for a Nature break after dropping the sprinters. As Matt Goss rode past this was what he saw yesteday.
Site of the day was a couple “making love” to put it nicely on the side of the road in plain view. #noshame#dontseethateveryday
— Matt Goss (@mattgoss1986) July 18, 2012
Here are a couple of WTF pics from the side of the Road this week….

Another bogan on the roadside…in France


No That isn’t a photoshop Job….Not an Aussie though thats a good thing.




Mankini – up there with the vuvuzela as an idea
It isn’t just the Australian’s dressed like idiots. The Saffas show it can be done too.​
Some SA fans at #TDF12 This is just wrong…. so wrong! twitter.com/michellecound/…
— Michelle Cound (@michellecound) July 18, 2012
“Bowl of Milk To Table 2 please”……
Typical! RT @Cathwiggins1981: See Mick Rogers and Richie Porte for examples of genuine, selfless effort and true professionalism.
— Michelle Cound (@michellecound) July 12, 2012
Here’s some niceness from Miss Cound….
@RahnaGerrans don’t know if you saw this? Cute pic
icon_smile.gif
twitter.com/michellecound/…
— Michelle Cound (@michellecound) July 13, 2012

Let’s finish on this one shall we!!! The @TweeterSagan account is brilliant.
In Team Sky Mr Froome have nickname ‘Froome-dog’. This why Mr Twiglet take him everywhere on leash.
— Tweeter Sagan (@TweeterSagan) July 15, 2012
OUCH!!! BRUTAL
The post Le Tour Social Pages (idea stolen from Cat @GAGR) appeared first on Green and Gold Cycling.

Continue reading...
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
I'm not really serious, but most other times in recent memory someone's dominated with NO ONE able to meaningfully compete it hasn't turned out well


(Haha Cutter - your post was only as stupid as mine.)
 

tigerland12

John Thornett (49)
Froome blew it last night, he would have easily caught Valverde (who probably deserved to win, what a massive effort). I don't know if it was the team manager, Wiggins or even Froome himself who made that call, but it was utter bullshit. How would of Wiggins been affected in any way? The third group of van den Broeck was never going to catch him, and even if they did it would of not affected the overall standings. They basically just threw out a stage win.

The Team Sky dominance and boring (yet effective) tactics are making this one boring tour. Next year will be alot better with the return of Contador and A.Schleck.
 

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
Team manager / Wiggins from what I gather. It wasn't Froome who blew it, he simply wasn't allowed to go.

Team Sky are repeating the same thing they did in the Vuelta to Froome. I would imagine he wouldn't be too happy, I suspect the reason he kept dropping Wiggins was to show he was the stronger of the two.

Agree about Contador and Schleck. Can't wait till they return. This year's TdF hasn't been too exciting, and it really missed a Contador and Schleck to tear up the mountains. Hell, even an Evans or Samu on last year's form would've been great.

Also, next year will be a lot more mountainous with less TTs. Can't see Wiggins winning that one. Finally, Sky's mountain domestiques weren't really that impressive once Leakygas finally put the hammer down. The other teams just let them dictate a slow pace, and the stages fell like a slow Sky progression as a result.

The whole tour basically played right into Sky's hands, if I was DS for them then I bet I couldn't believe my luck.
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
Agree on the boring - it needed Cadel and Nibbles to working together to take something to Sky

Interesting we're saying we need a doper back in there to shake things up
 

Cutter

Nicholas Shehadie (39)
The answer is a second Australian team next year with Evans, Rogers, Porte and other non-OGE riders who are aiming for GC. OGE goes for points through Goss, Renshaw et al.

We don't have any real mountain goats though.
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
Also, next year will be a lot more mountainous with less TTs. Can't see Wiggins winning that one.
Have they already launched the whole of next years route? I can only find official reference to the first 3 days on Corsica then the following 2 days in Nice including a team TT (of which Sky would kill it with Wiggins, Fromme, Rogers, et al).
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Quite apart from the fact that Evans won last year, it was by far the better spectacle. You had four or five really top class riders going toe to toe in the mountains, generally without the help of their teams. It was some of the best pure riding I've ever seen in the 20 years I've been watching Le Tour.
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
Finally, Sky's mountain domestiques weren't really that impressive once Leakygas finally put the hammer down. The other teams just let them dictate a slow pace, and the stages fell like a slow Sky progression as a result. The whole tour basically played right into Sky's hands, if I was DS for them then I bet I couldn't believe my luck.
I actually thought the Sky domestiques and goat herders were quite impressive, without them Wiggins would have been cactus. You would think that if the Leakygas team, or any of the others for that matter, considered themselves any better they would have pushed Sky a lot earlier in the race but instead they were relying more on the individual abilities of their respective team leaders.

If all teams stay the same and all are fit and ban free, and as Ash suggested there are more hills next year, I reckon Andy and the Radioshack team will win the 100th TDF in 2013. They have 4 in the top 20 this year and are winning the overall team race, and all without the Schlecks. Contador will threaten but I can't see any real depth in team Saxo.
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
I agree with the above re a less interesting race this year. For mine, the highlight this year has been the exploits of Voeckler and Sagan. Sure Wiggins killed the TT but the race against the clock lacks the excitement of man against man against mountain.
 

tigerland12

John Thornett (49)
Devastated to see Gossy and Hansen fall short, but what a finish to that stage. Mark Cavendish is an absolute freak, he came from so far back then. As much as I love the mountain stages nothing beats a sprint finish.
 
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