TDF Stage 8 *Spoiler* Castres - AX 3 Domaines

petemadoc

Flat flat flat and then Boom!

Col de Pailhères 15.3km at 8% – category HC



Then a cat 1 up to the ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines 7.8km at 8.2%



It appears that the final 1.5Km run into the finish is flat

Time for he GC contenders to get involved in this years Tour me thinks. Or they might just watch each other all day. Froome seems a bit frisky so he'll probably attack at some point.

Any local knowledge anyone?.....

above_the_cows

Goddam it, you beat me to it.

I added on my Spoiler thread that coverage kicks off at 11.35 CET. The whole stage is being broadcast.

I'll be back later with some local knowledge, general waffle, my new I Spy game and a picture of a horse for Frenchie.

LutherB

I'm guessing your mother in laws loss is our gain AtC

tailwindhome

Avatar changed.

Let's do this.

mechanism

British Eurosport coverage starts at 12:45 and ITV4 at 13:30 unless that's changed

t5nel

Really hoping that we finally have a big day for GC - all be pretty neutralized so far. This stage has great potential - just hoping for some killer attacks.

Who will be in yellow tonight?

petemadoc

Above The Cows wrote:

Goddam it, you beat me to it.

Is this going to happen every day lol

The plan for today's stage seems too easy to predict.

The Sky train demolishes everything. The break gets swallowed up pretty early on. Froome attacks with 3K to go with Porte not far behind.

Let's hope things don't go to plan ey

petemadoc

An in case anyone missed it and you have a spare 8 minutes, here's the GCN preview of the stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOZajUtimJ4

Vino'sGhost

Above The Cows wrote:

Goddam it, you beat me to it.

I added on my Spoiler thread that coverage kicks off at 11.35 CET. The whole stage is being broadcast.

I'll be back later with some local knowledge, general waffle, my new I Spy game and a picture of a horse for Frenchie.

You should have just carried on bumping yours to the top and gazzumped him

Lightning

TailWindHome wrote:

Avatar changed.

Let's do this.

Lol good luck with that.

Turfle

Time to see what tactics teams have come up with to counter the Sky train then. Will we see Valverde again ride 50m up the road on the wheel of a teammate, only to immediately sit up when the teammates tires? Will Contador and JRod wait until the final kilometre to try anything? Will Quintana, Rui Costa, TJVG, Porte be thrown up the road? Will Froome and Porte trackstand their way up Ax 3 Domaines? Will Little Pete have his own thread in the clinic tonight? Or will nothing much happen at all?

blazing_saddles

Just to confirm. France 3 will be the first to receive live pictures of the race.
Their schedules states 12-50BST. Don't expect live race coverage from Eurosport before 1pm.

Tomorrow's French coverage, on the other hand, does start at 11-15CET. (10-15BST)
Eurosport on a half an hour earlier than this for the usual pre stage waffle and repeats.

Very hot in the valley, while at the summit, the wind appears to be having a hard time making it's mind up:

LutherB

4 riders in an early break, 4 mins gap

Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun), Christophe Riblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Rudy Molard (Cofidis)

Eurosport live page here:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/l ... 70462.html

nweststeyn

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to when (in GMT/BST) they will likely be reaching the foot of the Col de Pailhères? I'm going to a BBQ at a non-cycling mates house and ideally would like to time my rude request to go inside and watch the telly perfectly.

RichN95.

nweststeyn wrote:

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to when (in GMT/BST) they will likely be reaching the foot of the Col de Pailhères? I'm going to a BBQ at a non-cycling mates house and ideally would like to time my rude request to go inside and watch the telly perfectly.

It's about 65km away so about an hour and a half - around 1.30, maybe a bit later. Let's say 1.45. 2 o'clock and you won't miss anything.

above_the_cows

I don't know what happened to the live coverage. I don't know where I heard that it was going to be live from 11.35 CET. I might have wanted it to be true in order to get my mother-in-law out the house. Or I might have thought avondetappe was talking about today instead of tomorrow. This is what happens when the mother-in-law comes to stay.

I am happy to gift Pete the thread win on this stage. I'm going for the GC and will claw back some time with a daring girl descent down the Col de Sarenne on stage 18.

Some local knowledge: today the race passes through the Aude Department where ATC likes to go on holiday. It is very windy (not Netherlands windy but still windy), as evidenced by lots of wind turbines on the top of the hills. There are some amazing caves just to the south of the start town of Castres (which is in the Tarn Department) known in French as grottes as cave means something else entirely.

Talking of caves. The Corbières wines from just to the east of the race route are predominantly red but very varied due to the diversity of the terroir.

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

alihisgreat

Hoogerland in the break He's in my fantasy team

ddraver

Tony Martin's back - https://twitter.com/grahamjonesy/status ... 41/photo/1

(deliberately not shown the picture)

alihisgreat

ddraver wrote:

Tony Martin's back - https://twitter.com/grahamjonesy/status ... 41/photo/1

(deliberately not shown the picture)

You should probably mention that its NSFW...

RichN95.

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Tony Martin's back - https://twitter.com/grahamjonesy/status ... 41/photo/1

(deliberately not shown the picture)

You should probably mention that its NSFW...

Not safe for work? Who do you work for? The Taliban?

above_the_cows

There is a Cofidis rider in the break! :shock:

Damn this makes my I Spy list a little easy today. Oh well.

Le Commentateur

OK, it's on TV now!


Hoogerland is having a go today.

above_the_cows

ATC's Tour de France I Spy 2013

To keep your attention during proceedings see if you can spot the following. You can spot these things as many times as you like, there are no points on offer and no winners, you are a domestique for the Cofidis team and it is the taking part that counts.

1. A person dressed in an animal costume
2. A Cofidis rider
3. Cows
4. The elusive lesser-spotted suitcase of courage
5. Mad Basques
6. A pretty horse for Frenchie
7. The magic spanner
8. The magic spanner being used to adjust the magic breaks on the Smurf bikes
9. A smurf
10. Chris Froome's white jawbones
11. A mankini
12. A bicycle made out of something other than a bicycle
13. Variations on the theme of 100
14. A Manx flag
15. Haimar Zubeldia

Le Commentateur

30°C, riders seen wearing ice packs on back of jersey collars at the start.

Le Commentateur

They just showed a bit of film of a marmotte scurrying about in the grass.

Wonder why....

alihisgreat

They're just showing a Froome interview on ES... He's got a "I'm smashing the race to pieces" look on his face

emadden

My good god... those Sky jerseys with the mesh front look horrific...The backs are ok, but the front is totally see-through. I hope we dont have a sky stage victory or the victory salute may make many sick


BTW... Virenque is on Eurosport... He is such a complete tosser,

above_the_cows

Le Commentateur wrote:

They just showed a bit of film of a marmotte scurrying about in the grass. Wonder why....

I should have added a marmotte to my I Spy list.

We had Richard Virenque on Dutch Eurosport. Frenchie might have something to say about his tattoos. :shock:

I should have added, 'drug addled French twunt' to my list.

FransJacques

Yes, the Sky jerseys are basically mesh.

Poor Sean, he's not doing well is he? Speech slurred, searching for words, long pauses. Hope his health is ok...

Virenque isn't a tosser, he was a good rider in a dirty era. So a bit like Miller and Yates then.

emadden

Above The Cows wrote:

I should have added, 'drug addled French twunt' to my list.

Bingo!

above_the_cows

First spot of Froome's white jawbones.