Tour build up

disgruntledgoat

Rick Chasey wrote:

patchy wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ringo 68 wrote:

Just realised that I am away in the States from the 6th July for 2 weeks so basically missing out on the best of the racing.
Anyone know if the TDF gets shown in the US?

Certainly does, with Liggett and Sherwin.

Dang. You poor sod.

Same in Australia. I've woken up my other half late at night several times shouting at the TV because of my frustration with the Voice of Cycling's increasing confusion. Quite tempted to route a Eurosport audio feed through the computer this year - or even just pay for Foxtel so I can get ES.

Do what I do if all else fails. Mute and commentate to your gf/wife yourself.

If you haven't already printed off all the detailed stage information and bound it into a rudimentary "road book", purchased guide books on every region visited by the race and brushed up on at least 5 interesting facts about every rider on every team's shortlist then you're basically dead to me.

ddraver

patchy wrote:

Quite tempted to route a Eurosport audio feed through the computer this year.

That's the euro expat way!

rick_chasey

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

patchy wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ringo 68 wrote:

Just realised that I am away in the States from the 6th July for 2 weeks so basically missing out on the best of the racing.
Anyone know if the TDF gets shown in the US?

Certainly does, with Liggett and Sherwin.

Dang. You poor sod.

Same in Australia. I've woken up my other half late at night several times shouting at the TV because of my frustration with the Voice of Cycling's increasing confusion. Quite tempted to route a Eurosport audio feed through the computer this year - or even just pay for Foxtel so I can get ES.

Do what I do if all else fails. Mute and commentate to your gf/wife yourself.

If you haven't already printed off all the detailed stage information and bound it into a rudimentary "road book", purchased guide books on every region visited by the race and brushed up on at least 5 interesting facts about every rider on every team's shortlist then you're basically dead to me.

disgruntledgoat

I should go... I have to pretend to interview Marc Madiot in 20 minutes.

ocdupalais

Ringo 68 wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ringo 68 wrote:

Just realised that I am away in the States from the 6th July for 2 weeks so basically missing out on the best of the racing.
Anyone know if the TDF gets shown in the US?

Certainly does, with Liggett and Sherwin.

Excellent.

New plan for the holiday...

Drop wife, daughter and daughters best mate off at Disney. Return to Villa with a crate of Bud and sit by the pool watching the cycling.

Result.

If you've got to sit and listen to the non-funny cycling version of Stadler and Waldorf from The Muppets, then at least get yourself something nice to drink.
Unless you mean Budvar (seem to remember them having to call it Czechvar in the States), rather than that other stuff?

knedlicky

aspender wrote:

A friend and I are heading out to catch stages 6, 7 and 8.
I've found this supposed route for stage 6:
http://www.bikemap.net/route/1296452#la ... aptype=osm
Does anybody know how realistic it would be to see both the start in Epernay and get to Metz for the sprint finish? Looks like the A4 should be doable in about two hours, but what would traffic be like?

All sorted for getting onto La Planche des Belle Filles for stage 7 (taking the bikes with us) but any pointers for the best place to head for stage 8?

I’d go to one of the last cols of the day. That’s also my intention (I’m following the Tour from Metz at the end of stage 6 to the Col du Granier during stage 12.

Prudhomme suggested the last col of stage 8 is ideal for someone to have a go at breaking away and keeping clear until the finish, but I don’t think the col is long or hard enough for anyone to get sufficiently clear and then ride 16 km without being caught. I expect instead to see a small breakaway group go over both cols and clear enough of the peloton to decide the stage winner between themselves as they reach Porrentruy.

I’m hoping for an eventful end of stage 7 – although short, the Planche des Belles Filles ascent is pretty tough (I’ve ridden it in the Trois Ballons) and it would be a good opportunity for the climbers to get a bit of a cushion before the TT a couple of days later. I’ll probably be about 1 km + up the climb, i.e. where it’s steepest and an attack should happen.

josame

sorry lazy post but... Can Nibs TT?

frenchfighter

Any small but hard bump with a handful of km to the finish can create a very exciting finale





Alberto and Alexandre


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWQMBxY5 ... r_embedded

afx237vi

josame wrote:

sorry lazy post but... Can Nibs TT?

Not as well as Wiggins, but better than the Schlecks.

patchy

ddraver wrote:

patchy wrote:

Quite tempted to route a Eurosport audio feed through the computer this year.

That's the euro expat way!

If only I could get audio, video and Twitter to sync seamlessly, my life would be complete,

frenchfighter

Team Sky - Tour De France 2012 - Teaser Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... lCzT24rUH8

rick_chasey

Let's have a look at the stage profiles:



Prologue:


1:


2:


3:


4:


5:


6:


7:


8:


9 ITT:



REST DAY

10:


11:


12:


13:


14:


15:


REST DAY

16:


17:


18:


19: ITT:


20:

rick_chasey

So for me, stages of interest:

First ITT after 9 days of racing.

S'a lot of stress and faffing before then for the GC riders.

For me - the circle of death (stage 16) after a rest day. I've ridden that exact stage already. More relevant to the race, we know riders react differently to rest days - some better - some worse. Be interesting to see how that plays out.

17: Col de Mente, actually a bit of a nasty one - Not sure which way they're going up & down, but I believe Ocana crashed and got ran into on the decent in an epicly rainy stage a while back. Way too early to matter though. That final climb up after the Peyresourde, if we reckon it's an Evans Wiggo duel will favour Evan's punchier finish.


Does anyone know much about La Planche Des Belles Filles (stage 7)? Steep?

Turfle

rick_chasey

Pretty steep then.

We know Wiggins loses small amounts of time on shorter / steeper finishes.

LeicesterLad

Thinking some of the early stages could turn up a few suprises. Especially stage 7.

greasedscotsman

Rick Chasey wrote:

Does anyone know much about La Planche Des Belles Filles (stage 7)? Steep?

I'm going to see it!

rick_chasey

greasedscotsman wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Does anyone know much about La Planche Des Belles Filles (stage 7)? Steep?

I'm going to see it!

Why am I not surprised? :P

Should be one of the more interesting finishes!

greasedscotsman

Rick Chasey wrote:

Why am I not surprised? :P

Should be one of the more interesting finishes!

Yeah, hope so. Think we should see some gaps, but nothing huge. Maybe this year's race will be a bit like the Giro, raced very hard, full gas alot of the time with 3 or 4 riders very close to each other towards the end of the race.

How about the top 5 finishing within 3 minutes of each other? Where is that prediction thread again?

Pross

16 and 17 look like the biggest threats for Wiggins. 16 straight down to the finish, he lost time on the descents to Evans in the Dauphine but if there's a yellow jersey resting on it I'm sure he would take more risks. 17 appears to have a short descent then a final 1km steep kick to the finish. However, it's always hard to determine what will happen just from the profiles. There's no bonus seconds on the hilly stages anymore is there?

FoldingJoe

I'll be there, on La Planche Des Belles Filles.

Staying in Belfort that night and hopefully a friend who has contacts at OPQS will be able to get me some sort of VIP passes for that morning.

rick_chasey

FoldingJoe wrote:

Staying in Belfort that night and hopefully a friend who has contacts at OPQS will be able to get me some sort of VIP passes for that morning.

Hi, I'm Rick.

Have we met?

FoldingJoe

Thought that might get your attention!!

I'll grab you an autograph if I see Him!!

rick_chasey

Ah Boonen's not riding the Tour.

Terpstra might be though. That'd be shweet. Heard he's a good bloke too.

Anyway, if you and your mate happen to be having beers in London, hit me up.....

inseine

[quote
:sorry lazy post but... Can Nibs TT?


Not as well as Wiggins, but better than the Schlecks.
][/quote]



That kinda covers the spectrum..........

FoldingJoe

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ah Boonen's not riding the Tour.

Terpstra might be though. That'd be shweet. Heard he's a good bloke too.

Anyway, if you and your mate happen to be having beers in London, hit me up.....

Course, he's doing Poland, sorry.

Anyway, just found out from said friend that Quick Step don't get the same sort of privileges in the TdF as they do at other races, so VIP passes would cost me 550EUR.

Guess you won't be wanting that drink now, Rick!

Abdoujaparov

inseine wrote:

[quote
:sorry lazy post but... Can Nibs TT?


Not as well as Wiggins, but better than the Schlecks.
]

That kinda covers the spectrum.......... [/quote]

Difficult to predict how Nibs will TT in the Tour. Generally, I'd say he's over-rated, but did a good job in Tirreno this year (9th) before losing a lot of time in the Dauphine TT (31st). In the latter he was still building form for the Tour so I guess you can say he's generally improving against the clock, but you'd have to expect Wiggins to put a minute or two into him a long Tour TT.

frenchfighter

Dario Cataldo, Sylvain Chavanel, Gerald Ciolek, Dries Devenyns, Kevin De Weert, Bert Grabsch, Levi Leipheimer, Tony Martin, Jerome Pineau, Gert Steegmans, Matteo Trentin, Stijn Vandenbergh, Peter Velits

D.S.: Davide Bramati, Brian Holm, Wilfried Peeters

rick_chasey

Merged

RichN95.

Argos longlist:
Barbecue, toaster, set of towels, swingball, humidifier, shower curtain....

Sorry, wrong Argos:

Marcel Kittel (Ger), Simon Geschke (Ger), Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger), Patrick Gretsch (Ger), Tom Veelers (Ned), Koen de Kort (Ned), Albert Timmer (Ned), Roy Curvers (Ned), Tom Stamsnijder (Ned), Alexandre Geniez (Fra), Yann Huguet (Fra), Thierry Hupond (Fra), Mathieu Sprick (Fra) and Bert De Backer (Bel).