Tdf Stage 19 *** Spoilers*** Bourg - Le Grand Bornand

Lichtblick

We want something EXCITINGLY UNEXPECTED on the last day!

A bus load of little old ladies from Minehead takes a wrong turn and blocks the road......
A swarm of bees.........
50 riders go the wrong way and no one stops them.......
50 riders don't start because they're too goddammed tired......

RichN95.

oneof1982 wrote:

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

2nd-5th separated by 47 seconds - something will happen.

hammerite

oneof1982 wrote:

Right. Off to Paris. Long drive this evening. Sandwiches to make.

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

J-Rod and Quintana to light it up in an attempt to get on the podium (or move up a rung).

oneof1982

Hope you chaps are right. I will be in a bar, enjoying a Jenlain......

napoleond

Sure this has been mentioned before but Rui Costa was 2012 portugal sports fella of the year ahead of Ronaldo.

http://www.selleitalia.com/se_it3/rui-c ... -the-year/

emadden

oneof1982 wrote:

Right. Off to Paris. Long drive this evening. Sandwiches to make.

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

Elaborate please... tomorrows parcours not that difficult?

emadden

Kelly looks like he took an E tab :-)

goonz

oneof1982 wrote:

Right. Off to Paris. Long drive this evening. Sandwiches to make.

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

I actually think Quintana will try for second place tomorrow...might see a wave of attacks.

oneof1982

emadden wrote:

oneof1982 wrote:

Right. Off to Paris. Long drive this evening. Sandwiches to make.

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

Elaborate please... tomorrows parcours not that difficult?

Really fast times reported for Etappers, compared to previous editions. Hope I'm wrong and someone lights it up, but don't see it. You can call me out if I'm wrong

Anyway got to go. Wife back soon, sandwiches not made.!

rickyrider

Today quite predictable I think after yesterday's epic. But tomorrow should be v exciting. Calling it now: Contador to fall off podium - Rodriguez will put on the after-burners at stage end and Quintana to move to 2nd

emadden

oneof1982 wrote:

Really fast times reported for Etappers, compared to previous editions. Hope I'm wrong and someone lights it up, but don't see it. You can call me out if I'm wrong

Anyway got to go. Wife back soon, sandwiches not made.!

Cheers! Happy sandwich making :-)

My initial thoughts on that stage when I saw it were that it would be a dud... all small climbs and a very short stage. Even the final climb is short with only 900m of gradient gain. I cant see how that is an HC for such a short albeit steepish climb. The main GC contenders were very boring today. I cant figure out why Saxo were driving it - maybe to prevent others attacking Bertie?

Pross

oneof1982 wrote:

emadden wrote:

oneof1982 wrote:

Right. Off to Paris. Long drive this evening. Sandwiches to make.

For what it's worth, based on people's experience of the Etape,I epxect tomorrow to be not much more than a parade, before Sunday evening's Cavendishfest.

Elaborate please... tomorrows parcours not that difficult?

Really fast times reported for Etappers, compared to previous editions. Hope I'm wrong and someone lights it up, but don't see it. You can call me out if I'm wrong

Anyway got to go. Wife back soon, sandwiches not made.!

Sure sign that doping has taken hold on the Sportive scene.

Pross

MrTapir wrote:

On the Champs Elysees a break goes before they start doing the laps - its Ned Veelers who, having been beaten to the Lanterne Rouge by Svein Tuft, tries to salvage his tour. Suddenly, a large group of French Farmers form a protest in front of the peloton and causes a massive scene. The peloton are delayed so long that Veelers wins on the Champs, and everyone else is disqualified for finishing outside the cutoff time. This means Ned 'Tom' Veelers is the winner of the 100th Tour de France.

You're going to have to work out a way for Veelers to have been reinstated to the race after abandoning on today's stage first though.

RichN95.

emadden wrote:

I cant figure out why Saxo were driving it - maybe to prevent others attacking Bertie?

They may have been defending the team classification lead.

MrTapir

Pross wrote:

MrTapir wrote:

On the Champs Elysees a break goes before they start doing the laps - its Ned Veelers who, having been beaten to the Lanterne Rouge by Svein Tuft, tries to salvage his tour. Suddenly, a large group of French Farmers form a protest in front of the peloton and causes a massive scene. The peloton are delayed so long that Veelers wins on the Champs, and everyone else is disqualified for finishing outside the cutoff time. This means Ned 'Tom' Veelers is the winner of the 100th Tour de France.

You're going to have to work out a way for Veelers to have been reinstated to the race after abandoning on today's stage first though.

Can i just change 'Veelers' to 'Tuft'?

MrTapir

NapoleonD wrote:

Navarro is a cracking guitar player and has just cropped up with a reasonable stage position for Cofidis. Now 8th on GC!!

He always wears such stupid trousers though.

mididoctors

I didn't think it was that boring... not action packed but not boring. quite interesting from a total race contextual view

movistar got the guys in the break... the option to leap frog was there but was nullified in the mid section of the race by saxo taking it up to nullify any attempt to get out the group and the interplay with the team competition [for the shack/ag2r/movistar/saxo]. it was a win-win-win thing for movistar. get the guys up the road for a long range attack if the opportunity arose. get time on team gc. go for the stage. Costa got a very easy ride there

its not impossible that the team prize will be the only thing saxo get out of this tour and even thats not certain. Fvck knows what the state of that is overnight


I reckon froome is near the raggedy edge with a decent time gap...what do reckon? he may let the wheels go knowing he has the time. but he seems determined to demonstrate he will not let time go.

quintana for the stage I guess.

If porte gets a carry into the climb and gets the nod he could see where he really is at I guess. unlikely?


there is an argument that a lot of the other classifications block the gc fight.

emadden

http://www.cycling-challenge.com/le-sem ... est-climb/

There is no way that the final climb tomorrow is "HC"

Pross

emadden wrote:

http://www.cycling-challenge.com/le-semnoz-annecys-biggest-climb/

There is no way that the final climb tomorrow is "HC"

18km with the last 10km being generally 8 - 10%. Sounds like an HC climb to me :?

thomthom

It's a proper climb.

frenchfighter

General Classification after Stage 19
GBR 1 FROOME, Christopher (SKY PROCYCLING) 77:10:00
ESP 2 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (SAXO-TINKOFF) + 5:11
COL 3 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 5:32
CZE 4 KREUZIGER, Roman (SAXO-TINKOFF) + 5:44
ESP 5 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, Joaquin (KATUSHA) + 5:58
NED 6 MOLLEMA, Bauke (BELKIN PRO CYCLING) + 8:58
DEN 7 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA PRO TEAM) + 9:33
ESP 8 NAVARRO GARCIA, Daniel (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) + 12:33
ESP 9 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 14:56
POL 10 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP) + 16:08

HUGE WINNER ON THE DAY

mididoctors wrote:

If porte gets a carry into the climb and gets the nod he could see where he really is at I guess. unlikely?

I doubt he will go more than 2m from Froome all day unless he slips back and then manages to close the gap every time.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

Really very surprised that Contador didnt try and attack and lose Quintana for a handful of seconds. I wouldnt be comfortable of my 2nd spot if I was him and that climb tomorrow. He stopped any loss of time today with his team riding hard in the finale but he should have at least tried or even Kreuziger go on the attack to try and gain back the podium.

mike6

Quintana and Rodriguez will nail it tomorrow to try and take 2nd and 3d. Bertie will probably finish off the podium. Lots of things still to fight for.

I saw nothing wrong with the stage today. Lots of tired riders trying to get to Paris, but after almost three weeks, and a day like yesterday, what do you expect? If they had still been sprightly it would suggest all was not well in the war on doping.

mfin

Once the rain came down and they knew the descent was gonna be dangerous it sort of stopped the potential fun at the end.

Cleat Eastwood

Snore de France

dang100

Just watching the highlights now and today's stage had just the right amount of action for highlights. You always feel like you're missing something watching the highlights of the punchier stages

Pross

frenchfighter wrote:

Really very surprised that Contador didnt try and attack and lose Quintana for a handful of seconds. I wouldnt be comfortable of my 2nd spot if I was him and that climb tomorrow. He stopped any loss of time today with his team riding hard in the finale but he should have at least tried or even Kreuziger go on the attack to try and gain back the podium.

I genuinely don't think he has the legs to do much more than hang in the yellow jersey group and hope others don't attack too hard. He may have tried again to gain a few seconds on the descent but in those conditions the risk - reward ratio just didn't make it worthwhile. I think tomorrow could be a cracking race but battling for second. It really is a shame Froome is there as it is so close in the 5 or 6 places behind.

RichN95.

The odds on coming second (assuming Froome wins) - from Bet 365

Quintana 5/6
Contador 5/4
Rodriguez 6/1
Kreuziger 22/1

tailwindhome

Apparently the Green jersey isn't mathematically over...