TDF 2020 - Stage 12: Chauvigny - Sarran Corrèze 218 km *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

Stage 12: Chauvigny - Sarran Corrèze 218 km

The Tour de France ventures deep into the heart of France.
The longest stage of the 2020 Tour will first take the riders on the roads of the Vienne and Haute-Vienne areas. But it’ll be in Corrèze that the most ambitious could give it a go on the final difficulty, the Suc au May that shows up on the course when the legs will be heavy. CP

Chauvigny is as French as it gets. Beautifully situated on a river – the Vienne – with a castle and ancient church towering high above the houses. The peloton leaves this highly picturesque scene behind to head southeast.



Rolling hills make way for the more demanding climbs of the Massif Central, a highland region in the heart of Southern France. The toughest uphill en route is the Suc au May. The first three riders atop this 3.8 kilometres climb at 7.7% gain time bonuses of 8, 5 and 2 seconds.





The Suc au May is expected to play a crucial role. It precedes a 6 kilometres descent into Chaumeil before the last 13 kilometres to the line are played out on narrow and undulating roads.





Not a sprint or GC day, but on paper a prime day to get into the break, as it should stick.

Favourites 12th stage 2020 Tour de France

*** Greg Van Avermaet, Matej Mohoric, Julian Alaphilippe, Marc Hirschi
** Kasper Asgreen, Matteo Trentin, Tiesj Benoot, Rémi Cavagna, Thomas De Gendt
* Alessandro De Marchi, Søren Kragh Andersen, Oliver Naesen, Jérôme Cousin

Chauvigny

No previous stage

Population: 7,250

Chauvigny held in 2005 a Tour de l’Avenir stage won by Dutchman Koen de Kort. It was the last pro victory by the former Paris-Roubaix espoirs winner, one of the nicest riders in the peloton, now a respected team-mate for Trek Segafredo. De Kort took part in eight Tours de France.



Specialties: joue de bœuf à la chauvinoise (beef), trout farm, sorrel soup, Turban squash soup, black pudding of Poitou, green garlic goat, broyé of Poitou, dame blanche of Poitou, Pouligny Saint-Pierre (cheese).





Sarran Corrèze

One previous stage

Population: 275

The Tour de France returns to Sarran, 19 years after the 16th stage of the 2001 edition, when Jens Voigt (1971) clinched his first stage win. Gone with Australian Bradley McGee, the indestructible German rider dropped him in the finale to cross the line with a slight lead. The victory completed a superb Tour de France for Voigt, who had also held the yellow jersey for one day.

Specialities: Fario trouts, Maugein accordions, knives of Corrèze, slates of Travassac, Le Tanneur leather, Sothys cosmetics, Salers liquour, Denoix distillery, straw wine “Le Miel des Muses”, chestnut, strawberries of Beaulieu, mushroom and truffles, walnuts, Limousin AOP apples, veal, beef…

No_Ta_Doctor

Chuck Valgren into the mix today. NTT have lost key riders and he'll be targeting this stage. Not sure what his form is like but the stage suits him.

Pretty much every team wants a piece of this stage, so could be a huge fight to get a break away. Early start as well btw

blazing_saddles

Today's weather, mid course.



At the finish.

rick_chasey

Longest stage doesn't make 220km SMH.

rick_chasey

Also, as someone who grew up in Cambridgeshire, these French strawberries can do one - round here they are *much* nicer.

jimmyjams

blazing_saddles said:

bobmcstuff said:

Those official ratings quoted in OP - what has Cees Bol done to deserve equal star ranking with the other two?? Or was it done before the race...

Since the race hasn't been raced yet, it was done before the race.

Allegedly he much prefers an uphill sprint and given Sunweb have been producing by far the best lead out, but not necessarily at the right time.....

It would be nice if somebody posted their alternative list occasionally, if they have any particular thoughts.
Especially in the stages to follow, which are much more open.
I'm only guessing here.

I thought I'd give this a go, and yesterday evening came up with 9 names.
This morning, seeing Blazing had provided 13 names, I upgraded some of my original selections and added 4 names, so I too provide 13 names. We have 5 in common.

*** Greg van Avermaet, Marc Hirschi, Thomas de Gendt, Alexey Lutsenko
** Sergio Higuita, Alberto Bettiol, Jasper Stuyven, Søren Kragh Andersen, Julian Alaphilippe
* Damiano Caruso, David Gaudu, Daniel Martinez, Jesus Herrada

(That part of Correze, from Sarran east, is one of my favourite, simpler, areas of France)

bobmcstuff

I see the intermediate sprint is 50km in on the flat.

Is there any chance DQS will control it till then so Bennett can win the sprint? Or is that implausible because a big break will be too keen to go (thus sweeping up all the points anyway)

bobmcstuff

INRNG star rankings:

*** Julian Alaphilippe, Greg Van Avermaet, Thomas De Gendt
** Daryl Impey, Matteo Trentin, Marc Hirschi, Oliver Naesen
* De Marchi, Madouas, Peters, Cavagna, Benoot, SKA, Jungels

Bookie's odds (taken from the sorting Oddschecker applies to average across betting sites)

*** Alaphilippe, GVA (less than 10/1)
** Hirschi, Trentin, Schachmann, WVA (between 10 and 20/1)
* Sagan, Lutsenko, Benoot, Bettiol, Impey, Asgreen, De Gendt, SKA (20/1 - 30/1)

Comes to 14 names, worked out quite neatly in terms of the odds split this time. Fair bit of variance there but they do have some in common. Wout van Aert (and Sagan) seem to be an outlier on the bookies odds compared to pundits, presumably because their odds have been shortened by the money.

RichN95.

bobmcstuff said:

I see the intermediate sprint is 50km in on the flat.

Is there any chance DQS will control it till then so Bennett can win the sprint? Or is that implausible because a big break will be too keen to go (thus sweeping up all the points anyway)

I would have thought that they would want the break to go (assuming no GJ rivals). Every opportunity that passes with his lead intact is an opportunity lost for Sagan.

bobmcstuff

Yeah, I agree. Plus a lot of people will be very keen to get into the break today.

Expect DQS to be policing the break then.

Early start today, coverage from 10:45. Could be interesting to watch the break go.

DeadCalm

So, will DQS rein in their stage winning ambitions and be all in to support Bennett in his quest for the Green Jersey?

red.rider

rick_chasey said:

Longest stage doesn't make 220km SMH.

The shortest longest stage in Tour history

dish_dash

Zakarin has a cracked rib after yesterday crash. Carrying on racing for now...

inseine

bobmcstuff said:

Early start today, coverage from 10:45. Could be interesting to watch the break go.

Thanks for the heads up, thought I'd missed it but of course that's UK time. 2km more of neutralized before we're off.

inseine

Alaphilippe sitting last man so he obviously has no confidence in the break suceeding

bobmcstuff

Aggressive start - lots trying to get away but not allowed to stick yet.

bobmcstuff

GCN app is being weird - I can't get the "Playing on" casting logo to stop showing on the middle of the screen even though I am not casting. Couldn't get the play/pause button and timer to go away either till I restarted the app 3 or 4 times.

Lanterne_Rogue

Ladagnous presumably wondering why the heck none of these riders fancied joining him yesterday...

Ridiculous pace at the moment as attacks start and then get closed down.

inseine

This is going to take a while to form. Everyone is frisky

inseine

inseine said:

This is going to take a while to form. Everyone is frisky

Well that didn't last long................................

bobmcstuff

Looks like it might be allowed to go now. GC teams fanning across the road.

Only 4 off the front, Erviti, LL Sanchez, Politt and Walscheild.

Crash in the bunch - Lutsenko again

blazing_saddles

I thought Guillame Martin went down in that crash.
Eurosport have now figured it out.

bobmcstuff

Aaaaaaaand now it's stretched back out in the bunch, gap coming down again...

Lanterne_Rogue

Surprised some of the non-GC teams didn't keep agitating to get across to that, given the way things had been going until that point.

And with that, it starts pulling apart again at the front of the peloton...

inseine

Thought it calmed down too early, all kicking off again

bobmcstuff

3 pinged off the front, followed by another 2.

Not much reaction from the peloton initially, but then another 5 riders tried to go which seems to have potentially drawn more of a reaction

No_Ta_Doctor

Bora the party poopers today

bobmcstuff

Heheh, Bora trying to get Sagan gone, that's not going to be allowed... Green jersey sitting on his wheel.

blazing_saddles

DQS definitely marking out Sagan.

Lanterne_Rogue

Sagan's face when he rolls across the road to see if he's driven a split, only to see Bennett still happily sitting there is brilliant...

inseine

Bora only managed to shed Bennet the other day because of the hills rather than the wind. it's flat until the sprint isn't it?