The Tour - stage 13 *spoiler*

rick_chasey

Ok.

Please refrain from dope chat.

Best way to police this is for all contributors to not rise to the bait. Don't reply to it.


If you want to discuss it, find a relevant thread and add to it or start a new one.

Some off topic fun is always welcome but it should not derail the thread.

I'll be asleep or working so behave!.








Tours

A gallo-roman city and then capital of the Kingdom of France, today a town of Art and History, Tours, lapped by the Loire, has, for all time, been the preferred residence for characters of renown : from Saint-Martin to Honoré de Balzac via Louis XI, Pierre de Ronsard, François Villon, François Rabelais, Léonard de Vinci and René Descartes. The Loire has shaped the history, culture, landscapes and heritage of the regions through which it passes. To visit these slate and limestone towns, cycling enthusiasts can follow the length of the river using the Loire bike route, 600 kms of secure, mapped out bicycle routes. And, to try some vin de terroir, there is no better place to visit than Tours sur Loire, a popular and festive tavern, that for the whole of the summer takes residence on the banks of the Loire under the pont Wilson. Attached to its history but looking to the future, Tours is currently in an important period of change, with the notable arrival next September of the first 15km tramline that will redefine the urban landscape.

Saint-Amand-Montrond

In the heart of France, on the banks of the Berry canal, the Cher and the Marmande rivers, near to the Meillant and Tronçais forests, Saint-Amand-Montrond marries together its roots and its land with new technologies for a constantly changing quality of life. If its history has largely been linked to that of its fortress dating from the 13th century, the town is also famous for its ‘City of Gold'. This glass and steel pyramid is testament to the fact that for more than a century this was an area that specialised in jewellery and that today has 9 companies specialising in gold work as well as a professional school dedicated to jewellery. Furthermore, with two museums, a theatre, a cinema and an art and music school the artistic scene is of a very high quality whilst the architectural heritage is further embellished with nighttime lighting. Saint-Amand-Montrond is equally dynamic in the field of sport with almost 3,500 licences distributed in more than 30 associations that have specialist facilities at their disposal including an aqualudique centre.

2 previous stages
Population: 11,400
Sub-prefecture of Cher (18)
Signature: a town in action
Specialities: sucrine du Berry, pâté berrichon (pie), poirat (pastry), truffiat ou tourte berrichonne.
Economy: goldsmithery, printing, aeronautics.
Sport: AS Saint-Amand (football), Etoile Saint-Amand (gymnastics), Cycling under-23 training centre. Trophee d'or (women's cycling)
Celebrities: Sully, le Grand Condé, Louis Lecoin (pacifist), Alain Mimoun (athlete), Herve Vilard (singer).
Festivals: Journées du livre (book fair, May), « les Affouages » (folk dancing, August), les Voix d'Or (sacred singing, September), Magic Festival (October)
Labels: ville fleurie (4), ville des metiers d'art.

tailwindhome

Frenchie says the first post must have profiles etc. So. Fail.


We're cool with geology and goats cheese yeah?

rick_chasey

You try doing it on your phone. :-p

iainf72

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ok.

Please refrain from dope chat.
.

All the chat on the forum is dope chat homie.

:P

Mad_Malx

smithy21

Cheers MM. Got all the geology we need now too.

ddraver

Did you get molested by a geologist when you were a child smithy? Seriously man you need to get closure on your issues!

Anyway, unfortunately much of what I said yesterday applies equally today. The Tour site for the 2011 tour has this to say:-

The long ride across the Paris Basin (which was then St 8 - LeMans to Chateuroux) takes the riders on chalky soil which earned the area the nickname of Chalk Sea. The crumbly stone which used to squeak on blackboards appeared 100 million years ago from the accumulation of shells at the bottom of a warm sea which covered most of the centre of France as far as England. Halfway down the stage in Pontlevoy, the peloton rides on younger terrain, dating from 15 million to 20 million years - the Touraine shelly sands. They were formed by fossil shells among which more than 1,000 different species were identified.

To back up a bit - the Amorican Massif of Brittany is contemperaneous and geologically very similar to the Massif Central. This might help you to visualise Brittany a bit better...

RichN95.

ddraver wrote:

Did you get molested by a geologist when you were a child smithy? Seriously man you need to get closure on your issues!

The thing with geology for the layman is things like Mont St Michel, Ventoux and other curios are interesting. What's under some field near Tours is not.

Crankbrother

Ddraver is just looking for his next shallow grave ...

ddraver

It is challenging for these two days....

Edit - might have missed this as i was following the cricket but ITV highlights have just "confirmed" that Mark Renshaw is going to OPQS...

I have to say wathing their review of yesterday that almost all of the final leadout men appear to "coincidently" peel off right into the path of their rivals. I'm wondering if it might be better to have a rule where they pull off to the same side (probably the right) each time..? I suppose the problem with this is that the team in front could effectively close the road then...

alan_a

RichN95 wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Did you get molested by a geologist when you were a child smithy? Seriously man you need to get closure on your issues!

The thing with geology for the layman is things like Mont St Michel, Ventoux and other curios are interesting. What's under some field near Tours is not.

^this

ddraver

Well I ve given them a conversation topic to talk about all day tomorrow. Cos lets be honest It's going to be as dull as dishwater again isnt it! I find that when the cricketers go to Tea, that's about the 10km point and it's then worth switching on. If you don't like to talk about interesting stuff I suggest you join me...

thomthom

What were they actually thinking when making this 2nd week?..

ddraver

How to get from Corsica to the north of France and then back to the alps....

Today (Friday) could have done with being in the Massif Central for a bit of a hilly classics stage but it would be a bit close to Mt Ventoux. Certainly tomorrow could have had an uphill finish for at least a different type of sprint....

hammerite

ThomThom wrote:

What were they actually thinking when making this 2nd week?..

I think they thought "sh!t, we seem to have missed out the north of the country, let's just fly them up there after the first week and make them ride back down South again. Just stick St Malo to Mt Ventoux shortest route in to Google Maps, that'll do".

Nickoo

Cav to bounce back and win this stage if he has a good lead out

thomthom

ddraver wrote:

How to get from Corsica to the north of France and then back to the alps....

Today (Friday) could have done with being in the Massif Central for a bit of a hilly classics stage but it would be a bit close to Mt Ventoux. Certainly tomorrow could have had an uphill finish for at least a different type of sprint....

I got to say - I could live without the Ventoux stage. I really could. Completely flat for the whole day ending on a mountain that is famous for leaving very little to work with for the few brave ones with difficult headwinds, crazy temperatures in the beginning of the climb (the difficult part) and making them short of breath on the top of it.

goonz

Nickoo wrote:

Cav to bounce back and win this stage if he has a good lead out

He had a good leadout today, got beaten for pace.

goonz

ddraver wrote:

It is challenging for these two days....

Edit - might have missed this as i was following the cricket but ITV highlights have just "confirmed" that Mark Renshaw is going to OPQS...

I have to say wathing their review of yesterday that almost all of the final leadout men appear to "coincidently" peel off right into the path of their rivals. I'm wondering if it might be better to have a rule where they pull off to the same side (probably the right) each time..? I suppose the problem with this is that the team in front could effectively close the road then...

Surely this would simply not be possible? At the speed they all travel I don't think the lead out guys could all move one direction and make this safe. To be honest its not a regular occurrence is it?

Nickoo

goonz wrote:

Nickoo wrote:

Cav to bounce back and win this stage if he has a good lead out

He had a good leadout today, got beaten for pace.

yea that's why I put bounce back

goonz

Apols. I read it as he lost due to his lead out being poor.

Nickoo

no problem

rick_chasey

TailWindHome wrote:

Frenchie says the first post must have profiles etc. So. Fail.

Better now?

rick_chasey

Imagine it's reasonably unique to France to have a celebrity pacifist.

*ahem*

goonz

So another pan flat stage today. Will Cav kick into gear or is Kittel/Dolph the new star of the sprints?

Better make it a belter before the sprinters fall back to the rear end from tomorrow.

Think Cav will take todays stage.

Lightning

Rick Chasey wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Frenchie says the first post must have profiles etc. So. Fail.

Better now?

Much better. I was about to report this to the mods :!:

disgruntledgoat

goonz wrote:

So another pan flat stage today. Will Cav kick into gear or is Kittel/Dolph the new star of the sprints?

Better make it a belter before the sprinters fall back to the rear end from tomorrow.

Think Cav will take todays stage.

Booo! Keep it on topic man, that goes in PTP! I can't believe you want to derail this thread with your banal waffle!

TMR

The odds on Kittel are now utter crap - what a surprise. The odds on Cav are still crap despite massively underperforming so far. I've got money on Greipel at 4/1 and Sagan at 5/1. Hopefully one of them will do the business.

goonz

disgruntledgoat wrote:

goonz wrote:

So another pan flat stage today. Will Cav kick into gear or is Kittel/Dolph the new star of the sprints?

Better make it a belter before the sprinters fall back to the rear end from tomorrow.

Think Cav will take todays stage.

Booo! Keep it on topic man, that goes in PTP! I can't believe you want to derail this thread with your banal waffle!

In that case I think I will have to reappear when the stage begins in fear of straying off topic!

ddraver

goonz wrote:

ddraver wrote:

leadout stuff

Surely this would simply not be possible? At the speed they all travel I don't think the lead out guys could all move one direction and make this safe. To be honest its not a regular occurrence is it?

Well I kind of think you re right..

The trouble is that for the first time (I think) this year:-

1)
we have whole teams now trying to win bike races. Before it was HTC, then some other teams tried it with maybe 2 or 3 guys but now we haev 3 or 4, * man teams contesting sprints (sprints are the biggest example, But Garmin and Dan Martin is another). This means that there is barely enough room for the people who are contesting the sprint and the lead out men dropping back. The way I rememebr it is that even in the chaos, the lead out men would all pull well over to one side and the bunch could pass them fairly easily....which leads me to

2)
Certain leadout men are indulging in a bit of gamesmanship and not dong their best to get out of the way when their turn is finished. The instigator, and probably still the best man at this, was Mark Renshaw. This leads to situations like we saw in St Malo. I reckon last year, Toim Veelers would be so tucked into the left of the road you'd have barely been able to distinguish him from the crowd.

2A)
Part of this is that the German Model (originally HTC, but now taken and improved upon by LBE and ASh) is to have a massive hunk of man who can outpower everyone else. The place for a Robbie McEwan or a sprinter with a massive 3/4 pedal stroke kick is being squeezed - which is not a complaint. just an observation. THese guys, like a Track Sprint in a V'drome require a perfect lead out as their acceleration is lower just becasue it takes that much to get that much man moving!

The sprints have certainly been more fun this year as a result, but they re in danger of becoming more like British Bulldog than a test of tactics and speed

No_Ta_Doctor

Lightning wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Frenchie says the first post must have profiles etc. So. Fail.

Better now?

Much better. I was about to report this to the mods :!:

I wouldn't bother, they're bloody useless. :!: