Up the Alpe Twice!!!!

sonny73
sonny73 Posts: 2,203
edited October 2010 in Pro race
Could he, would he? Be something to see that's for certain!!!!
http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/10/news/inside-cycling-with-john-wilcockson-two-times-up-the-alpe-in-the-2011-tour-de-france_146182
This brings us to the last mountain stage, which seems likely to start in Modane (probably accessed by team buses through the Fréjus tunnel) and will climb up the more difficult side of the Galibier via the Col du Télégraphe, a total ascent of some 30km; don’t expect heroics on Galibier II because the field has to negotiate a mostly downhill run of more than 40km (via the Col du Lautaret) before starting the 13km climb to L’Alpe d’Huez.

And this is where Prudhomme could make the dramatic gesture of sending the riders on a 48km loop over the Col du Sarenne, down to the end of the Lautaret descent and back up the Alpe. The hundreds of thousands of fans would love it!

Comments

  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,908
    good idea

    do it
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Télégraphe, Contador's favourite climb I think
    Contador is the Greatest
  • calvjones
    calvjones Posts: 3,850
    frenchfighter wrote:
    Télégraphe, Contador's favourite climb I think

    Oh the irony!
    ___________________

    Strava is not Zen.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    frenchfighter wrote:
    Télégraphe, Contador's favourite climb I think

    Maybe he'll turn up to watch then.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • fleshtuxedo
    fleshtuxedo Posts: 1,858
    calvjones wrote:
    frenchfighter wrote:
    Télégraphe, Contador's favourite climb I think

    Oh the irony!

    Did FF wake up this morning thinking he'd had a bad dream last night? :lol:
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    The descent from the Sarenne is fearsome, it'd seperate the men from the boys.
  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    andyp wrote:
    The descent from the Sarenne is fearsome, it'd seperate the men from the boys.
    and the fillings from their teeth.

    They'd have to resurface all of it, I'd have thought. Those storm drain things would be fun...
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Even with those cobbled culverts removed, it'd still be a "turn your granny to the wall" job...
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    DaveyL wrote:
    Even with those cobbled culverts removed, it'd still be a "turn your granny to the wall" job...
    Yes, it's very narrow at the top and even further down there are some abrupt bends in the woodland. It's one of those descents where your hands begin to ache from the combination of being pitched forward by the slope and by pulling on the brakes. It's hard in the dry, I wouldn't want to do it in the wet.
  • TheStone
    TheStone Posts: 2,291
    I'm thinking one of those Alp stages has to be the Etape. The other two cross borders, so this would be logical choice.

    If that's the case, I can't see how they can repeat d'huez. Galibier from both sides maybe?
    exercise.png
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    TheStone wrote:
    If that's the case, I can't see how they can repeat d'huez. Galibier from both sides maybe?
    The lead riders would pass others but there's plenty of room to overtake on the road up. Timing is by chip so it could all work. Not ideal but ok.
  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    Kléber wrote:
    TheStone wrote:
    If that's the case, I can't see how they can repeat d'huez. Galibier from both sides maybe?
    The lead riders would pass others but there's plenty of room to overtake on the road up. Timing is by chip so it could all work. Not ideal but ok.

    Sounds bloody brilliant to me, mayhem on the road. What's not to like :)
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    Kléber wrote:
    TheStone wrote:
    If that's the case, I can't see how they can repeat d'huez. Galibier from both sides maybe?
    The lead riders would pass others but there's plenty of room to overtake on the road up. Timing is by chip so it could all work. Not ideal but ok.

    Sounds good to me. Ride up the Alpe, cross the line for the first time, ride round the corner, sit about in the sun for an hour or so, maybe have something to eat and then ride across the line again :D
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    greasedscotsman wrote:
    Sounds good to me. Ride up the Alpe, cross the line for the first time, ride round the corner, sit about in the sun for an hour or so, maybe have something to eat and then ride across the line again :D
    Except they'd put a checkpoint in somewhere like La Grave... :wink:

    If it happened. Someone said the Etape could be in the Massif Central, a hilly stage for the Tour but not the killer stage of the race.
  • luckao
    luckao Posts: 632
    As long as there isn't a repeat of some of the premature celebrations that were witnessed earlier on in the season. Recovering from the embarrassment is a different matter.
    From above, it looks very much like the closing kilometres of any typical race: the peloton is beginning to jostle for positions as the 148km second stage of the Tour of Oman approaches its culmination in the town of Samail.

    Then outshoots a single rider with a burst of pace not seen since someone told Tom Boonen back in spring 2009 that the toilet cubical at Roubaix's premium nightspot was free.

    The rider in question is Vacansoleil's Lieuwe Westra, eyeing a second career stage scalp after breaking his duck last year in Picardie.

    Such an explosive turn of pace seems to confuse everyone, and the Dutchman must think it's his lucky day as he powers clear of the peloton towards the red beacon at the finish line while, no doubt, his directeur sportif shouts encouragement though his earpiece: "Go Lieuwe, go! You're out ahead - not long to go now, then you can do a lap of honour!"

    With clapping sheiks lining the road, 'The Beast of Friesland' roars and holds his arms aloft as he crosses the line - only for his face to become a sudden picture of gutted embarrassment when he realises his ghastly mistake.

    For the stage is very much still unfinished - the riders have just completed two of three closing laps around the town and there still remains seven kilometres in the fierce heat before the sprinters battle it out, with Italian Daniele Bennati eventually taking the spoils.

    As for Westra, he's left to do cycling's equivalent of the walk of shame as he sits up and waits to be swallowed up by the peloton, whose muffled laughter he will not forget in a long time.

    But while most riders refuse to kick a man while he's down, Italy's Filippo Pozzato can't resist saddling up to Westra, patting him on the back and clenching his fist in mock adulation. The shame of it, Pipo: God will judge you, as you know only too well.
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    Read a rumour somewhere that there are gonna be two Etapes on the same day - one in the Massif and one in the Alps. I guess given how heavily subscribed it is, they could easily sell out both and make even more money.
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • suspectdevice
    suspectdevice Posts: 263
    I hope this is true, just booked accomodation to go watch it next year, please, please, please be true.......
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    suspectdevice wrote:
    I hope this is true, just booked accomodation to go watch it next year, please, please, please be true.......

    If you managed to book accomodation within 30 miles, then they're not going there.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • suspectdevice
    suspectdevice Posts: 263
    RichN95 wrote:
    suspectdevice wrote:
    I hope this is true, just booked accomodation to go watch it next year, please, please, please be true.......

    If you managed to book accomodation within 30 miles, then they're not going there.

    When i say accomodation, it's a camp site, no hotel accomodation is availalbe anywhere, even in Grenoble.
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    As far as I can read from the article, and what I've seen in other route rumour websites, this twice Alpe d'Huez idea is pure speculation from the author; an idea for a solution for what would otherwise be a very short stage between Modane en Alpe d'Huez over the Galibier.. Would be nice though...
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    RichN95 wrote:
    suspectdevice wrote:
    I hope this is true, just booked accomodation to go watch it next year, please, please, please be true.......

    If you managed to book accomodation within 30 miles, then they're not going there.

    Unfact. There's always some available.
  • avoidingmyphd
    avoidingmyphd Posts: 1,154
    "other websites" blah blah. why is everyone so coy about where else they read stuff? all the rumours are (come from?) here:

    http://paris.thover.com/article/341/en/ ... ages-.html

    2x Alpe would be great, but it would be a surprise if John Wilcockson had to glean most of his stuff from that website (which it seems he does) but then picked up one, independent, killer bit of info elsewhere. Also, the descent does seem a trifle unlikely to me.

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