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TDF 2022:- Stage 15: Rodez - Carcassonne 202.5km. ***Spoilers***

blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,663
in Pro race
Stage 15: Rodez - Carcassonne 202.5km.

Start Time: 13-05CET.

The road to Carcassonne is often hilly and the ups and downs that lead to it can favour breakaways. A long and tricky stage awaits the peloton, with the relatively long Côte des Cammazes (actually it’s 10,6 at 4% ) that could be too hard for some of the fast men. Nevertheless, the organizers have tried to make sure that this day smiles on at least the sprinters. That’s provided that their team's work hard to control the day’s attackers, who still might manage to produce a surprise.



This time Rodez serves as the start hub of a transition stage to Carcassonne, a place in the foothills of the Pyrenees. The riders traverse undulating terrain. In the second hour of racing, the peloton will flow through the spectacular Tarn Gorge; the course then avoids the climbs over the Black Mountains; and the last 10 kilometers, on a descending false flat, have been designed to encourage the formation of echelons if there are crosswinds present.



Final Kms.

The finish will be in the same place as last year, quite technical and slightly uphill, where Mark Cavendish equaled Eddy Merckx’s record for the number of Tour stage wins.







What to Expect.
The balance of probability suggests that the stage will end in a bunch sprint, as it did, last year. However, that route being slightly flatter, it was the first ever Tour de France bunch sprint in Carcassonne.
Historically, the breakaway has always done extremely well when visiting the city.

Rodez

Population: 26,400
Specialities: aligot, tripous, Aubrac meats, cheeses (Laguiole, Roquefort, old Rodez), Marcillac wines, farçous (chard and sausage meat patties), old Rodez (cheese), Mandarelle (cake).

RODEZ AND CYCLING

Greg Van Avermaet's blossoming

For Greg Van Avermaet, one of the best finishers of his generation, everything started to click in 2015 in Rodez with a first stage win in the Tour de France that put an end to his reputation as a brilliant but unlucky rider. That day, the Belgian rider outwitted Peter Sagan in one of those battles that made their rivalry one of the most exciting in the peloton. Since then, Van Avermaet wore the Yellow Jersey for three days in 2016 and became Olympic champion in Rio before winning Paris-Roubaix in 2017 and wearing the Yellow Jersey again for eight days in 2018. In 2017, it was Michael Matthews who took his second stage victory in the Tour in the Aveyron prefecture. In 1984, a similar stage saw the only stage victory in the Grande Boucle of the late Pierre-Henri Menthéour. That year, nothing could stop the Renault-Gitanes team run by Cyrille Guimard. The day before Menthéour's victory, Pascal Poisson had won in Blagnac. Pascal Jules had already won a stage and the Renault team logically won the team time-trial in this edition. As for the Yellow Jersey, it was on the shoulders of another of their team-mates, Vincent Barteau. Soon he handed it over to team leader Laurent Fignon, who masterfully clinched his second Tour de France. Bernard Hinault finished ten minutes adrift.



Farçous.

Old Rodez

Marcillac wines


Along the Route.
Km 64

AMBIALET (Pop: 440)

The site is the result of the whims of the Tarn. The river meanders for 3 kilometres. On the isthmus thus created, probably the narrowest in Europe, it separates the village in two. This peninsula is attached to the valley by a thin string of rocks.



Carcassonne

Population: 48,200
Specialities: cassoulet (a universal cassoulet academy), petit carcassonnais (madeleine), Micheline, Or Kina (herbal liqueur). Wines of the Aude: Minervois, Cabardes, Corbières, Malepère, Limoux...

CARCASSONNE AND CYCLING

The burning of the Cité, a grandiose pyrotechnic show, attracts more than 500,000 people every year on the evening of Bastille Day. Among the riders who set Carcassonne ablaze, Jean Stablinski won a stage in 1962 in the middle of one of his best seasons, between a stage victory in the Tour of Spain, which he finished in sixth place, a new French champion title and above all his world championship title.



Cassoulet


Blanquette de Limoux














"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
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Posts

  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,730
    I was in Carcassonne last month.

    It was very hot
    It was very windy
    Cassoulet is good, but it's not all that
    There was no sign that the Tour was coming in a month
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • bianchi_davebianchi_dave Posts: 744
    Little chance of echelons unfortunately. Just 3 to 6 mph wind forecast, from the south
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  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    Caleb and Jakob are not getting over that climb so won't aide the chase is my guess.. break may well make it .
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • ddraverddraver Posts: 25,575
    Cassoulet is just beans and mini sausages with a lot more lard and you can't change my mind...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,663
    bianchi_dave said:

    Little chance of echelons unfortunately. Just 3 to 6 mph wind forecast, from the south

    Metro France reckon 20-30kph wind is on the cards for Carcassone. Trouble is it’s an Eastly, so tailwind.
    38C too.
    Going to remain very hot for all the remaining road stages.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,207
    mididoctors said:

    Caleb and Jakob are not getting over that climb so won't aide the chase is my guess.. break may well make it .

    That still leaves Alpecin, Trek and Bike Exchange to pull, potentially with a little help from Jumbo-Visma
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    OTOH a light headwind may be in the sprinters favour
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,730
    edited July 2022
    ddraver said:

    Cassoulet is just beans and mini sausages with a lot more lard and you can't change my mind...

    To be fair there’s duck. And the sausages I had were standard size. But grainy. I can make it myself just as well though, with better sausages. I expected better as Lionel Bernie used to eulogise about it on the Cycling Podcast
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,730
    I’m now a little annoyed that I didn’t get some duck legs when I did my shop earlier so I could make a tribute cassoulet. I could nip up there in morning perhaps
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,207
    Roglic abandons to recuperate. That's a big blow for Vingegaard
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • gsk82gsk82 Posts: 3,296
    Seems a bit selfish on the face of it.
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • thejimmymethodthejimmymethod Posts: 458
    I think he might be dead weight at this point. Spent a lot of yesterday seemingly chasing or hanging on, and they only got one short turn out of him
  • andypandyp Posts: 9,434
    gsk82 said:

    Seems a bit selfish on the face of it.

    He's been injured since his crash on stage 5. That he's stayed in and contributed so much to the team effort shows that he's not selfish.
  • thejimmymethodthejimmymethod Posts: 458
    Pog said it was WvA who caused the split that isolated Jonas yesterday - wonder if he'll be a bit more circumspect going forward. Green is as good as wrapped up now
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,730
    edited July 2022
    Magnus Cort is another DNS. The Danish downfall starts here.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • tailwindhometailwindhome Posts: 18,369
    Time cut extended and feeding rules relaxed due to heat
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,730
    Simon Clarke is out with Covid
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Lanterne_RogueLanterne_Rogue Posts: 3,762
    RichN95. said:

    Magnus Cort is another DNS. The Danish downfall starts here.

    He's not abandoned, he's just decided to break away.
    Twitter: @canocola @thedreadships
  • blazing_saddlesblazing_saddles Posts: 20,663
    RichN95. said:

    Magnus Cort is another DNS. The Danish downfall starts here.

    Also Covid apparently.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • thejimmymethodthejimmymethod Posts: 458
    thejimmymethod said:

    Pog said it was WvA who caused the split that isolated Jonas yesterday - wonder if he'll be a bit more circumspect going forward. Green is as good as wrapped up now

    Nope! 😂
  • thejimmymethodthejimmymethod Posts: 458
    Splits on this first climb. Jonas very attentive today, Pogi having to chase
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,207
    Race in pieces again
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    What's happening... Why is WvA up the road?
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,207
    Mørkøv off the back alone, he's been a bit unwell last couple of days, was worried about getting past the time cut yesterday
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 12,207
    Honoré taking his turns, either because Fabio Jakobsen and Mørkøv are out of sorts or to make sure the break stays small and catchable
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    I suppose making the break of the day quickly will calm things down and give jumbo the day off
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • thejimmymethodthejimmymethod Posts: 458
    mididoctors said:

    What's happening... Why is WvA up the road?

    Cos he can I guess? Probably expected more people to make the break but BEX have policed the front hard
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    Riders make the race.

    If the sprinters let the gap grow they may never get them back given who they are

    If they chase to close they get counter attacked.. especially on that last climb.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    Sprinters Got to chase leaving the break uncatchable without the sprinter teams help over that last climb making counters unlikely
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • mididoctorsmididoctors Posts: 14,644
    Roglic packed .... DNS?
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
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