2011 Tour de France Stage 11: Blaye-les-Mines Lavaur 167.5 km

[Libertine Seguros]

There are some great downhill finishes in this tour, hopefully Sammy makes them memorable.

I hope so too, but I don't think the stages up until that point are challenging enough. The Pinerolo one might be (remembering stage 10 of the '09 Giro), but not convinced by the one to Gap.

And after making us wait this long for a mountain stage, I am apoplectic at the placing of the only remaining flat stage other than the Champs-Elysées on a weekend. What a waste.

The route in terms of the stages at this Tour isn't too bad. The pacing of it is abysmal.

 

[sublimit]

I hope so too, but I don't think the stages up until that point are challenging enough. The Pinerolo one might be (remembering stage 10 of the '09 Giro), but not convinced by the one to Gap.

And after making us wait this long for a mountain stage, I am apoplectic at the placing of the only remaining flat stage other than the Champs-Elysées on a weekend. What a waste.

The route in terms of the stages at this Tour isn't too bad. The pacing of it is abysmal.

I must admit a flat stage on a weekend is a blunder by the organizers. Baffled by that one. Maybe I'll watch some banger racing or womens tennis or something and then tune in for Greiple v Cav again in the last 5 k.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

I hope so too, but I don't think the stages up until that point are challenging enough. The Pinerolo one might be (remembering stage 10 of the '09 Giro), but not convinced by the one to Gap.

And after making us wait this long for a mountain stage, I am apoplectic at the placing of the only remaining flat stage other than the Champs-Elysées on a weekend. What a waste.

The route in terms of the stages at this Tour isn't too bad. The pacing of it is abysmal.

I think Gap looks pretty fun, even if it's not greatly selective - it allows the puncheurs to have a play with the decent climbs and push the descent much harder than Andy or Bertie will be strictly comfortable with.

Don't moan about the pacing, you've got the supposedly dull half out of the way now so you can be a bit more cheerful. Perhaps?

Well, it was worth a try.

 

[Mambo95]

I must admit a flat stage on a weekend is a blunder by the organizers. Baffled by that one. Maybe I'll watch some banger racing or womens tennis or something and then tune in for Greiple v Cav again in the last 5 k.

Absolutely! Just one weekend mountain stage all Tour is crazy. I'm taking tomorrow off to compensate

 

[Poursuivant]

Why was Mollema 5mins down? Saving himself for tomorrow?

 

[Bala Verde]

Why was Mollema 5mins down? Saving himself for tomorrow?

sick, flu. Worst was yesterday though, but he is not in good shape.

Feillu decided to quit the tour after today's stage.

 

[lwrncc]

Could someone tell me what Paul Sherwen said about the Michael Smith incident? Just curious as I missed it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Don't moan about the pacing, you've got the supposedly dull half out of the way now so you can be a bit more cheerful. Perhaps?

Well, it was worth a try.

We've got this far into the race, and we're left with hardly anybody left standing. The race has ground me down to the point where I just want it to be over, and only several days of Rifugio Gardeccia-level action can salvage the festival of dross that this race has been.

The only thing other than the TTT that has opened up gaps of more than 5 seconds has been crashes, which have removed half the contenders. How much of the first 11 stages are you going to remember fondly?

For me, maybe Thor's climbing to Super-Besse, Greipel's celebration yesterday and Rui Costa's win, but that is literally everything that I will remember fondly about the race. And for the sport's flagship event, that's pathetic.

 

[spalco]

Rules are rules but I'm wondering what could happen if these mid-race sprints would have their own classification as the Intergiro few years ago?

Sounds like a pretty pointless classification unless you attach a significant cash prize imo.

 

[cineteq]

We've got this far into the race, and we're left with hardly anybody left standing.

The big favorites are still there. Only potential top ten guys have withdrawn: Jani, Horner, Wiggins and VDB2...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

The big favorites are still there. Only potential top ten guys have withdrawn: Jani, Horner, Wiggins and VDB2...

Plus Klöden, Gesink injured and some others I'm forgetting that lost time or are injured.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vino?

Or the two biggest losses of the Tour so far: Amets Txurruka and Beñat Intxausti.

 

[The Hitch]

The big favorites are still there. Only potential top ten guys have withdrawn: Jani, Horner, Wiggins and VDB2...

Vino, Gesink Kloeden and Contador are injured, Garmin, Contador and especially Samu have lost time in crashes.

 

[peloton]

Vino, Gesink Kloeden and Contador are injured, Garmin, Contador and especially Samu have lost time in crashes.

Vino is injured for sure, he is out of the race!

 

[cineteq]

Vino is injured for sure, he is out of the race!

LOL!
Actually today Manolo Saiz tweeted this:
"En mi opinión AC esperará a los últimos Km de Luz, el sabe que el ganador de una gran Vuelta ataca el primer día de montaña, lo mismo Cadel Y Kloden y Frank, Turmalet es para Horner, VdB, Gesink y Andy(que en mi opinión está más débil que Frank) y digo esto por el día d lluvia"

He still thinks Horner and VDB are in the race!!

 

[The Hitch]

LOL!
Actually today Manolo Saiz tweeted this:
"En mi opinión AC esperará a los últimos Km de Luz, el sabe que el ganador de una gran Vuelta ataca el primer día de montaña, lo mismo Cadel Y Kloden y Frank, Turmalet es para Horner, VdB, Gesink y Andy(que en mi opinión está más débil que Frank) y digo esto por el día d lluvia"

He still thinks Horner and VDB are in the race!!

Interesting theory. On the other hand, I dont remember Nibali attacking on any day yet alone the first in the Vuelta.

Probably a good thing that Manolo doesnt mention Samu though. Means he is clean

Vino is injured for sure, he is out of the race!

Thats why I put the , between Vino and the other names

 

[Parrulo]

Interesting theory. On the other hand, I dont remember Nibali attacking on any day yet alone the first in the Vuelta.

actually nibali attacked a few times. like on the stage where anton fell.

inb4 some1 says pics or it didn't happen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRq9_fB88TM

 

[Mambo95]

He still thinks Horner and VDB are in the race!!

Last time I saw Horner, he wasn't sure himself.

 

[cineteq]

Last time I saw Horner, he wasn't sure himself.

Actually, the last time I saw him he was eating a Big Mac

 

[Winterfold]

Didn't take long for Cav to work out how to deal with Greipel's tactic...

He was full of praise for 'Andre' in his post race interview on ITV and now Greipel is moaning about Feillu.

Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

We've got this far into the race, and we're left with hardly anybody left standing. The race has ground me down to the point where I just want it to be over, and only several days of Rifugio Gardeccia-level action can salvage the festival of dross that this race has been.

The only thing other than the TTT that has opened up gaps of more than 5 seconds has been crashes, which have removed half the contenders. How much of the first 11 stages are you going to remember fondly?

For me, maybe Thor's climbing to Super-Besse, Greipel's celebration yesterday and Rui Costa's win, but that is literally everything that I will remember fondly about the race. And for the sport's flagship event, that's pathetic.

Trust you to find the cloud.

I've found the racing generally entertaining. The crashes have been very sad and very annoying - Bertie is probably right about the lack of a prologue contributing, and Cadel's silly fashion for ostentatious front riding in the last 10km. I'd probably be in favour of extending the 3km rule to 30km if not more on stages where a sufficient percentage of riders all finish on the same time, just to calm everyone down.

 

[El Pistolero]

We've got this far into the race, and we're left with hardly anybody left standing. The race has ground me down to the point where I just want it to be over, and only several days of Rifugio Gardeccia-level action can salvage the festival of dross that this race has been.

The only thing other than the TTT that has opened up gaps of more than 5 seconds has been crashes, which have removed half the contenders. How much of the first 11 stages are you going to remember fondly?

For me, maybe Thor's climbing to Super-Besse, Greipel's celebration yesterday and Rui Costa's win, but that is literally everything that I will remember fondly about the race. And for the sport's flagship event, that's pathetic.

This race has been extremely good actually... The only stupid stages for me where stage 3, stage 9 and stage 11.

Superbesse was epic. As was Greipel's victory. And not just for the last km, but for 20-30km in both stages.

Was the Giro any better at this point?(not taking into account WW tragic death) No, it wasn't. Now we have 4 MTF and 2 mountain stages that finish on a descend.

 

[Jamsque]

For someone who likes cycling, Libertine sure does hate cycling.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I'd just be in favour of opening up larger gaps earlier on, whether it be in the form of a 25-30km ITT like 2008 or an early mountaintop finish, so that the natural order is established. For too long in this year's race you've had all of the GC men and their teams, the sprinters and their teams, the peripheral GC men who might do a good race if things go their way and the guys in a good position thanks to the TTT preserving their high GC, all squabbling over who's at the front and, especially after what happened on stage 1, getting really nervy about making sure they're at the front in case there's a crash. And with too many riders fighting over too little space, those crashes are inevitable.

If you put in a proper challenge early that sorts the GC contenders from the secondary guys, then those secondary guys no longer have a high GC to protect; losing time ceases to matter so much, and so being at the front isn't so important to them, and so you get fewer crashes.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This race has been extremely good actually... The only stupid stages for me where stage 3, stage 9 and stage 11.

Superbesse was epic. As was Greipel's victory. And not just for the last km, but for 20-30km in both stages.

Was the Giro any better at this point?(not taking into account WW tragic death) No, it wasn't. Now we have 4 MTF and 2 mountain stages that finish on a descend.

I think it's extremely charitable to call the Gap stage a mountain stage. Greipel's win was hardly 'epic'. A sprint, by definition, is not 'epic'.