Grupetto

ddraver

Just in case none of you have heard of this guy yet.. http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/inner-ring/inner-ring-spare-a-thought-for-the-gruppetto

Nice article on the grupetto, the Stat about the riders on the etape is really interesting...

Tusher

...........wow. Only 4 of them? I would never have guessed that.
Thanks for the link. Just wish I could guess who Inner ring was.

RichN95.

Tusher wrote:

...........wow. Only 4 of them? I would never have guessed that.
Thanks for the link. Just wish I could guess who Inner ring was.

4 is a lot though. The 'winner' of last year's Etape (up to Hautacam) did the route 30 minutes slower than Cavendish.

skylla

RichN95 wrote:

Tusher wrote:

...........wow. Only 4 of them? I would never have guessed that.
Thanks for the link. Just wish I could guess who Inner ring was.

4 is a lot though. The 'winner' of last year's Etape (up to Hautacam) did the route 30 minutes slower than Cavendish.

incredible, would have never guessed...

pottssteve

I rode 105km yesterday around the modest hills of the Ardennes and was quite knackered when I got home. Anyone who doubts the ability of the pros is deluded.


Steve

clanton

RichN95 wrote:

Tusher wrote:

...........wow. Only 4 of them? I would never have guessed that.
Thanks for the link. Just wish I could guess who Inner ring was.

4 is a lot though. The 'winner' of last year's Etape (up to Hautacam) did the route 30 minutes slower than Cavendish.

2010's Etape finished on top of the Tourmalet. But you are correct, the fastest finisher of the Etape would have missed the cutoff time for the pros. Even those who "can't climb at all" still climb MUCH faster than mere mortals.

derbygrimpeur

it's also worth considering that on the Etape riders are probably stopping at feed stations or whatever whereas the pros eat on the go. Plus, riding in a peloton on the bits between mountains is easier for the pros than a few solo etape riders.

alan_a

derbygrimpeur wrote:

it's also worth considering that on the Etape riders are probably stopping at feed stations or whatever whereas the pros eat on the go. Plus, riding in a peloton on the bits between mountains is easier for the pros than a few solo etape riders.

I did last year's Etape and although I was never anywhere near the front, with 10,000 people riding I'm sure there were no solo riders at the front. I'd assume that there would have been a fairly large pack of competitive amatuers and ex pros at the head of the race. Many of whom would have eaten on the bike rather than stop for long at feed stations. Along the valley floors the most mortal of the mere mortals were cycling in fast packs of 50+

Gingerflash

He says the weather was "fine". It was 37c. I'm pretty sure that would have slowed me down when climbing Alp d'Huez.

The fact that there are 10,000 people will slow many down. How long to get into clear space?

As Alan A says, many of the leading riders will be recently retired pros and very top level amateurs, at least some of whom I am pretty sure will be faster climbers than the slowest pro sprinters.

knedlicky

The winner at the Etape du Tour took 44-06 for the Alpe d’Huez ascent which if he were a Pro and taking part in the Tour would put him 27th in the best ever list. There were 7 others who did the ascent in under 50 mins.
Although I’m not surprised that few amateurs are as fast as the slowest pros, I’m surprised that the first 7-8 in the Etape managed to climb the Alpe that well and still took, for the whole stage, almost as long as the likely cut-off time on this coming Friday; they must have called in the cafe near the top of Galibier on the way.

I did hear there was a big accident along the route during the Etape, and many riders were halted for quite a while (they then had 20 mins knocked off the time which their chips registered), but the front runners were already ahead of where the accident happened, when it did.

RichN95.

knedlicky wrote:

The winner at the Etape du Tour took 44-06 for the Alpe d’Huez ascent which if he were a Pro and taking part in the Tour would put him 27th in the best ever list.

The winner of the Alpe d'Huez Etape (in 2006) was a pro. He was Christophe Rinero who was riding for Saunier Duval at the time and was King of the Mountains in 1998.

Edit: No I'm wrong. Rinero won in 2005. L'Etape 2006 was won by Blaise Sonnery of Ag2R (he rode the Giro twice, but never the Tour).

In 2009 it was won by Dimitri Champion who was the French chamipon at the time

hammerite

knedlicky wrote:

The winner at the Etape du Tour took 44-06 for the Alpe d’Huez ascent which if he were a Pro and taking part in the Tour would put him 27th in the best ever list. There were 7 others who did the ascent in under 50 mins.

Which list is this? Does it show every pro who has climbed the Alpe as part of a stage in whatever race, or does it just include the winners/top few riders in each stage?

luckao

Wikipedia has a list of the fastest ascents.

RichN95.

Luckao wrote:

Wikipedia has a list of the fastest ascents.

They're only selected times. Look at Azevedo in 2004 (when it was a time trial). Then look down the list and see if you can see 2004 again. It's not there. I really don't think that the 5th placed man that day was over eight minutes behind him. (It was actually only 16secs, but you don't see Santos Gonzalez on that list).

luckao

Very odd decision. What about the rest? I'm assuming they aren't selective, otherwise I'll feel inclined to jump in and edit out 'rank'.

I'd take a truly comprehensive list with a pinch of salt anyway, what with all of the variables.

knedlicky

hammerite wrote:

knedlicky wrote:

The winner at the Etape du Tour took 44-06 for the Alpe d’Huez ascent which if he were a Pro and taking part in the Tour would put him 27th in the best ever list. There were 7 others who did the ascent in under 50 mins.

Which list is this? Does it show every pro who has climbed the Alpe as part of a stage in whatever race, or does it just include the winners/top few riders in each stage?

The list I looked at was the one Luckao linked, the one Rich has pointed out has deficiencies.

As far as I know, the only other top pro race to ever use the ascent in a stage was the Criterium du Dauphine in 2010 (when Contador won the stage).

knedlicky

RichN95 wrote:

knedlicky wrote:

The winner at the Etape du Tour took 44-06 for the Alpe d’Huez ascent which if he were a Pro and taking part in the Tour would put him 27th in the best ever list.

The winner of the Alpe d'Huez Etape (in 2006) was a pro. He was Christophe Rinero who was riding for Saunier Duval at the time and was King of the Mountains in 1998.

Edit: No I'm wrong. Rinero won in 2005. L'Etape 2006 was won by Blaise Sonnery of Ag2R (he rode the Giro twice, but never the Tour).

In 2009 it was won by Dimitri Champion who was the French chamipon at the time

The winner of this year’s Etape (i.e. the Alpe finish one, because there were two Etapes this year) was Jean-Christophe Currit, 42 years old, a former small-time Pro (for the Gan team), and a friend of Pascal Herve. He also won the Etape du Tour in 2010 and this year finished 2nd in the Marmotte too.

In 1999 Currit admitted he took amphetamines in the mid-90s, during his Pro days. He also claimed that one time when he was caught out, the French Federation helped the samples disappear, as a favour to team manager Roger Legeay. This was before the Festina scandal, since which, things have been different in France.

Currit also said in 1999, that when he and other members of the Gan team learnt in the mid-90s that the Italian Gewiss team were using Epo, Legeay advised them against it on the basis that improper dosage would eventually kill someone.

Gan later became Credit Agricole and Legeay was manager till it folded in 2008. He is nowadays president of the Movement for Credible Cycling, other members being managers of the main French teams and Vaughters.