The Tour - stage 13 *spoiler*

slim_boy_fat

oneof1982 wrote:

But to more important matters:

Managed to bag:
1 mickey mouse comic,
4 packets of madeleine cakes
3 packets of ariel
1 Carrefour KoM hat
2 fridge magnets
1 pop up sun hat - sponsor uknown
2 key rings
1 packet Haribos
and all following a 4 course Menu du Tour lunch (10euros) in the wonderful hamlet of Bruere-Allichamps, on the 10k to go. 8) 8) 8)

lol, very similar haul to my 7 yr old. I was amazed what useless tat grown men and women will fight over!

TimB34

moonshine wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

So what's the Spanish for "They’re dropped, they’re dropped, all of them"?

VAMOS!!! VAMOS!!!

I'm pretty sure I heard Bertie shouting "Venga! venga!" when they were at about 10 seconds.

Really impressed with how all the Saxos "happened" to be wearing aero helmets, "happened" to all be on the front with 30km to go (apart from sacrifical decoy Velits) and "happened" to give it everything just when Froome was on his own in the peloton.

Also impressed with LTD and BM - they could have just been smugly rolling along after dumping Valverde, but they went with Saxo to gain on Froome. Alpe d'huez is going to be mental.

However, I'm offline for a week now, so will miss Ventoux and the rest of the Alps! At least you'll all be spared the Reblochon and Tartiflette posts.

above_the_cows

TailWindHome wrote:

So...just watching this now...we're at 90km to go and the breaks just been caught.

I can understand what OPQS are at (getting rid of Argos/Kittel)....but why were Belkin helping?

Just softening things up for a GC dig?

Is that before or after Valverde's puncture? If after then they were racing to get Mollema into second on GC.

Anyway that stage was SO epic I had dreams about it last night!

lloyd_bower

frenchfighter wrote:

Valverde fated to never win the Tour.

Errh? before this year, he's not ever been close.

He can he have few complaints, he owes his one GT win, the Vuelta pre a ban, a few years ago to taking advantage of the then golden fleece holder Cadel Evan's puncture.

iainf72

Roche's SRM

http://www.srm.de/news/road-cycling/le- ... -stage-13/

tailwindhome

Above The Cows wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

So...just watching this now...we're at 90km to go and the breaks just been caught.

I can understand what OPQS are at (getting rid of Argos/Kittel)....but why were Belkin helping?

Just softening things up for a GC dig?

Is that before or after Valverde's puncture? If after then they were racing to get Mollema into second on GC.

Anyway that stage was SO epic I had dreams about it last night!

It was before (and again after).

tailwindhome

above_the_cows

TailWindHome wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

So...just watching this now...we're at 90km to go and the breaks just been caught.

I can understand what OPQS are at (getting rid of Argos/Kittel)....but why were Belkin helping?

Just softening things up for a GC dig?

Is that before or after Valverde's puncture? If after then they were racing to get Mollema into second on GC.

Anyway that stage was SO epic I had dreams about it last night!

It was before (and again after).

No idea then, maybe they just wanted to push on for GC anyway or maybe they knew Argos were off the back and were enjoying putting one over on the other Dutch team. 8)

If it is true that OPQS and Belkin hatched a plan to cause and maintain the splits and Daniel Friebe for example seemed quite sure that it was discussed in the hotel then they were taking up their side of the deal they'd hatched with OPQS after OPQS caused the first split.

Macaloon

OnYourRight wrote:

Yesterday I saw an online video, maybe from a Dutch source, of Cavendish giddily talking about the stage in an interview. Can’t find it today. Anyone have a link to an interview?

If you have unrestricted ITV access the ebullient one: http://www.itv.com/tourdefrance/stages/stage13/#336061

timoid.

Wow, just watched the highlights and then (and it actually took longer) read through this thread. What a day of cycling!

My take home:

- Kudos to OPQS, Belkin and Saxon Bank for lighting it up. Putting aside my personal distaste, you have to admit Bertie's a real racer
- as The Goat said, Karma's a beach Alejandro. Evans must be having a good old *chuckle*
- sprint of the season? Cav bridging the gap to get on Chavanel's wheel
- I'm actually warming to Froome, he was very gracious after the stage, no finger pointing or blaming his team, who clearly let him down
- loved ITV's fade final credits track. Using eighties fromage to great effect. I actually went out and downloaded the tune :oops:

In fact the stage was so good, I watched the Eurosport highlights straight after finishing the ITV ones.

Pross

Was an absolutely fantastic stage. Too many people expecting a standard transition stage, getting lazy and getting caught out. Big fail by Sky to leave Froome unprotected having already seen one split, he looked like he could have made it across but hesitated in deciding whether to wait for team mates and then it was too late. Great work by OPQS and Belkin as you would expect from low country based squads but I would never have anticipated Saxo making such good use of the situation.

The race is back on and whilst Froome is still clear favourite and the strongest rider the lack of team support will leave him open to attack for the rest of the race.

dolan_driver

Mark Cavendish's description of how the front group formed is very interesting. He described how he had to put in a massive sprint just to get on the tail of the group and he reckoned that the window to jump across was open for about 5 seconds! If you didn't get on as quick as that, you weren't getting on. As good and all as Chris Froome is, maybe he simply didn't have the sprint speed to jump across the gap or to hold the wheel of Cav when the group split. A sustainable loss for Froome and I think he will open a can of whoop on the Ventoux to reassert his dominance for the last week in the Alps.

DD.

frenchfighter

Argos getting the echelons training in early doors:

moray_gub

The Mad Rapper wrote:

Moray Gub wrote:

So you think if Froome had ridden off on his own against team orders and against what he was primarily there to do he would have won the TDF last year instead of Wiggins ?..........

Obviously that's precisely what I'm saying and what I have been saying for a year - where the f*ck have you been?

It's exactly the same scenario as LA and AC when they were both on Astana.

Sounds like a good plan on paper but races aren't run on paper anyway he lost a fair amount in the TTs and he would have no team to work for him if he worked solo. On another note its nothing like AC and Lance as when Lance was with Astana there is no way he could have won the Tour irrespective of the shenanigans going on within the team.

frenchfighter

Race face locked and loaded. Just what we want to see.



Big LOL at this. Yeah boys, that's what racers do.


David Walsh ‏@DavidWalshST 12 Jul
@KoosvdL Koos, couldn't agree more. Saxos, especially, pulled off daring and brilliant exploit. Perhaps the stage of the Tour so far.

frenchfighter

"At first we didn't work because Alejandro Valverde had a mechanical, so we decided not to cooperate," said Contador

"We saw that the most important teams were weakening and we decided to go forward," Contador said. "Bennati rode like a motorcycle for a kilometre and that broke the peloton into a thousand pieces."

Nicolas Roche explained that the move had not been pre-planned, but instead dreamt-up and executed on the hoof. "We were all together and we saw the opportunity," he said. "I was eager to do something, I was a bit over-excited and I said, 'Michael, Michael, come on.' He looked around and saw Alberto, Alberto gave the nod, and we shouted at Bennati to go.

"It was something that was just decided in three seconds, we didn't sit down and plan it. If you start talking about it all of the teams see it and then it's no surprise at all."#

What a beautiful sport. It still exists even if the scientific and staid teams don't know how to create it.

tailwindhome

frenchfighter wrote:

What a beautiful sport. It still exists even if the scientific and staid teams don't know how to create it.

Tried explaining that to Mrs TWH.

Even with the benefit of pausing Sky plus and pointing out where Cav was, Froome talking in the radio, the speed with which the gap opened up.....nothing...not a flicker of interest.



Actually a bit disappointed in you Frenchie. I was sure you would have unearthed a close up of Froome on the radio as the gap grows.

alihisgreat

frenchfighter wrote:

Argos getting the echelons training in early doors:

love this pic - I assume its from after the event?

inseine

frenchfighter wrote:

"At first we didn't work because Alejandro Valverde had a mechanical, so we decided not to cooperate," said Contador

"We saw that the most important teams were weakening and we decided to go forward," Contador said. "Bennati rode like a motorcycle for a kilometre and that broke the peloton into a thousand pieces."

Nicolas Roche explained that the move had not been pre-planned, but instead dreamt-up and executed on the hoof. "We were all together and we saw the opportunity," he said. "I was eager to do something, I was a bit over-excited and I said, 'Michael, Michael, come on.' He looked around and saw Alberto, Alberto gave the nod, and we shouted at Bennati to go.

"It was something that was just decided in three seconds, we didn't sit down and plan it. If you start talking about it all of the teams see it and then it's no surprise at all."#

What a beautiful sport. It still exists even if the scientific and staid teams don't know how to create it.

For someone who professes to love the sport, why, when everyone else is just loving the great racing, do all your post have to end with a dig at someone? Take a chill pill man

above_the_cows

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Argos getting the echelons training in early doors:

love this pic - I assume its from after the event?

I would say it is from before. Those hills don't look very much like the geography of where the teams would have been staying last night. Sorry, I'm a geography nerd.

frenchfighter

inseine wrote:

For someone who professes to love the sport, why, when everyone else is just loving the great racing, do all your post have to end with a dig at someone? Take a chill pill man

What is the point of this post. Was it really necessary. I haven't said anything wrong.

People should read what they write before they hit post.

Just enjoy all the photos I have posted in my posts today and stop trying to cause an argument.

inseine

frenchfighter wrote:

inseine wrote:

For someone who professes to love the sport, why, when everyone else is just loving the great racing, do all your post have to end with a dig at someone? Take a chill pill man

What is the point of this post. Was it really necessary. I haven't said anything wrong.

People should read what they write before they hit post.

Just enjoy all the photos I have posted in my posts today and stop trying to cause an argument.

I don't want an arguement, you just need to agree with me and i do love your photos

alihisgreat

Above The Cows wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Argos getting the echelons training in early doors:

love this pic - I assume its from after the event?

I would say it is from before. Those hills don't look very much like the geography of where the teams would have been staying last night. Sorry, I'm a geography nerd.

Must be from a while ago and unrelated to stage 13 then?

thejimmymethod

frenchfighter wrote:

Race face locked and loaded. Just what we want to see.

This photo is brilliant to not only illustrate the a hurt Saxo were putting in but also the transition down the line as faces go from balls out effort at the front to gasping in air to recover before the next turn at the back.

inseine

thejimmymethod wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Race face locked and loaded. Just what we want to see.

This photo is brilliant to not only illustrate the a hurt Saxo were putting in but also the transition down the line as faces go from balls out effort at the front to gasping in air to recover before the next turn at the back.

Mega photo. they look especially well drilled with their matching shoes etc. Thanks FF

Macaloon

I thought they looked good in the yellow helmets today. Just another yellow strip in the kit.