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

[Winterfold]

Personally I am finding this years TDF very exciting, if a bit in the way trying a DH mountain bike track that is beyond your skill level exciting

But... Things seem more open

Gilbert can be beaten

So can Cav - and by Andre

Contador looks human

That all looks good and fun to me.

Too bad lots of riders I likexhave crashed out

Thomas is a beast - Sky must do

 

[Winterfold]

Meh poxy iPhone

Sky must help G win Paris Roubaix is what I wanted to say...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It isn't either-or, in fact it has to be both, and you know this. The Tour de France is more than just a bike race, and so the route has to do more than just provide (your definition of) exciting racing.

It's a tourism advert, so it has to visit as many different areas of France as is feasible. It's an advert for cycling, so it has to allow as many fans as possible the chance to see their heroes go by. It's the biggest event in the sport, so it has to attract the biggest names in the sport, be they climbers, puncheurs, time trial-ists or sprinters.

The Tour always has to strike a balance between these competing influences, and I think it does very well. A Tour de France with two 80km flat stages, as much as it might please you, would not be the Tour de France, and multiple 250km+ stages are just not realistic in a three week race.

The problem is, because it's an advert for cycling, too many people are too afraid of losing to try to win, which results in either defensive, spoiling riding, or nervy, edgy riding (which is what we've had so far). And if it has to visit as many different areas of France, then why the hell can't it visit the Jura? It often doesn't make the best racing use of the areas it uses (2009 in particular was woeful in that respect).

 

[mewmewmew13]

OK, apart from the crashes, what has been continual surprise?
Cavendish has won 3 sprints, but stuffed up the first sprint of the race as per usual. Gilbert won a Gilbert stage like everyone said he would. The break went on the intermediate stage.

I guess Greipel outsprinting Cavendish, Thor defending on Super-Besse and HTC not winning the TTT have to count as surprises, but I wouldn't call that 'continual'.

Thor has turned himself inside out in the first few days...
Yes, Greipel won. A class act.
Maybe Gilbert has been a dominating presence, but could hardly call the stages where he has flexed to have been completely his personal display, as many riders have shown heroics and interesting moves.

With the unexpected losses of some big GC guys there have been other performances that have emerged, and some teams that have also surprised...(think GarminC in the first two stages)

Each stage has progressed with intermediate action that could not have been predicted as per your personal encyclopeadiac knowledge of the outcomes in the last few k's.

 

[mewmewmew13]

As far as the crashes that happen when everyone is in a frenzy to move to the front, maybe if the DS's would stop yammering at the riders to move up...

 

[Jamsque]

Now you are arguing two completely different points. The number of flat finishes or the length of the stages that precede them has little bearing on how aggressive or nervous the GC race is, and as for why the Tour hasn't visited your particular favourite part of France, you'll have to take that up with Prudhomme.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I had to look up who won stage 6. That's how much of an impression it made on me, one week on. Sticking the biggest remaining snoozer on at a weekend is a terrible decision, but at this point I don't know if I care enough about the race to interrupt my daily diet of spreadsheets and databases to find out what's going on.

All I'll say is, the mountain stages had better deliver more than they have done for the last 2 years (Le-Grand-Bornand excepted) otherwise I'm going to be relying on the Vuelta for even a half-decent Grand Tour this year.

 

[The Hitch]

Only in my most combative moments have I called for the complete eradication of sprint stages. The sprint itself may give 15-20 minutes of excitement (I think more 15-20 seconds, mind), but the time before that is just dead air. Hence I call to make that shorter (after all, the same thing will happen after 100km as after 160km, so save the riders' legs) or much longer (so as to make the sprint less predictable and turn the smallest of obstacles into a challenge à la Milan-San Remo).

Once again, why make the stage shorter when in longer stages only the last 120 k (tour) and last 40-80k (any other race) are even shown on tv.

A longer stage allows more towns to be passed, more people to see the race and also the race to live up to its name as a Tour of something.

Should we really take that out because you dont like watching 40k extra of a TDF sprint stage (option to turn on towards the end is always open for you anyway).

 

[Parrulo]

hey hitch scrool up for my reply to your previous post

me being picky again

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, at least Christian Prudhomme can be happy. He's got his week 3 showdown (mainly because he removed anything resembling an obstacle from the first 2 weeks), and he's got Mark Cavendish in the green jersey. As long as the Chosen One Andy Schleck wins, Prudhomme can consider it a great success, pat himself on the back and copy this template for the next few years.

 

[The Hitch]

hey hitch scrool up for my reply to your previous post

me being picky again

I already read it mate. My posting frequency does make it look like i respond to every post i read but that is not the case.

I agree with what you said. We both love Nibali on a forum which claims he cant even beat Jurgen Vandenbrouke. He is a legend who loves cycling, does the Giro and Vuelta doesnt care if he misses the Tour, works for his team when asked to do so, has the balls to attack anywhere and everywhere and bases his season around races which dont suit him, and smiles about it.

Any chance to bring this up, show videos of him attacking and tell the world about his greatness is one worth taking.

 

[mewmewmew13]

I really don't think that Andy is actually going to win. He just seems bland to me so far, and if he's hiding his cards he's doing an excellent job.
Frank impresses me more.

I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to some other rider who will race his heart out.

 

[hrotha]

I really don't think that Andy is actually going to win. He just seems bland to me so far, and if he's hiding his cards he's doing an excellent job.
Frank impresses me more.

I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to some other rider who will race his heart out.

Andy's palmares could rival Eddy Merckx and he would still be bland.

 

[greenedge]

Congrats to Cav. Impressed with Boom who is a real workhorse. Cav was just angry after yesterday. I think that's the jersey wrapped up for him.

 

[Parrulo]

I already read it mate. My posting frequency does make it look like i respond to every post i read but that is not the case.

I agree with what you said. We both love Nibali on a forum which claims he cant even beat Jurgen Vandenbrouke. He is a legend who loves cycling, does the Giro and Vuelta doesnt care if he misses the Tour, works for his team when asked to do so, has the balls to attack anywhere and everywhere and bases his season around races which dont suit him, and smiles about it.

Any chance to bring this up, show videos of him attacking and tell the world about his greatness is one worth taking.

i didn't know you liked nibali that much good to see that i am not the only 1 noticing those details about him.

anyway i have to agree with libertine on the route design part. not particularly the flat stages but about the lack of GC decisive stages early in the race being a factor on how nervous the peloton is atm. and i am not even asking for a mountain stage on the first few days, a long ITT, or a paris roubaix stage like last year or a proper very long hilly stage with parcours somewhere in btw L-B-L and GdL that would cause a real selection in the peloton leaving all the pretenders behind. the top hilly classics guys would be there as well fighting for the win and could make for a great stage.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

as for why the Tour hasn't visited your particular favourite part of France, you'll have to take that up with Prudhomme.

Well, we know why it is.

Prudhomme has a hard-on for trying to create a final epic showdown, preferably on a famous climb (Ventoux, Tourmalet, now Alpe d'Huez). And hence he can't possibly have anybody out of contention before the final week, so he tries to engineer no GC action in 2 weeks (which results in the consequence of a nervy péloton leading to half of them crashing out).

Prudhomme doesn't want to find new climbs or utilise underused ones. Why use the Col du Grand-Colombier or Mont du Chat? The man in the street hasn't heard of them. So we always use the same climbs - it's just easier to sell the race that way.

 

[The Hitch]

As for why the Tour hasn't visited your particular favourite part of France, you'll have to take that up with Prudhomme.

Well it is getting pretty pathetic that they havent visited Corsica and when they do in 2013 it will be crappy flat stages through the middle of knowhere (ruining the prologue) rather than the mountains that would make Corsica great.

 

[Parrulo]

Well, we know why it is.

Prudhomme has a hard-on for trying to create a final epic showdown, preferably on a famous climb (Ventoux, Tourmalet, now Alpe d'Huez). And hence he can't possibly have anybody out of contention before the final week, so he tries to engineer no GC action in 2 weeks (which results in the consequence of a nervy péloton leading to half of them crashing out).

Prudhomme doesn't want to find new climbs or utilise underused ones. Why use the Col du Grand-Colombier or Mont du Chat? The man in the street hasn't heard of them. So we always use the same climbs - it's just easier to sell the race that way.

he may think that but i actually think he is wrong. using 1 or 2 new/underused climbs every year creates a lot expectation and curiosity in btw the fans. in the giro even tho we ended up not seeing him the crostis was taking the spotlight from the zoncolan when people were talking about that stage, and when the return of finestre was announced a lot of people creamed themselves. creating this kind of reactions among fans is imo much better then showing them more of the same. even a friend of mine watching his second tour this year told me a couple days ago "how many times do they climb the tourmalet every year?"

 

[El Pistolero]

I would send them to the woodlands and shrubs of Corsica. Ok, off to read some more Asterix and Obelix

 

[Bala Verde]

Was basso tweeting his race stats daily?

ivanbasso Tdf Stage 11: Total Distance: 170.4km Elevation Gained: 1410m Average Speed: 42.7km/h Average Power: 245 watts #goldencheetah

(ivanbasso TdF Stage 10: Total Distance: 160.5km Elevation Gained: 1418m Average Speed: 43.1km/h Average Power: 228 watts #goldencheetah)

 

[Mambo95]

Sprints last 15 seconds and are quite chaotic(which I don't really like)

They only last 15 seconds if you don't know what you're looking at. It's a team effort, for sure, but those teams are all playing their cards in the last 10km.

 

[El Pistolero]

They only last 15 seconds if you don't know what you're looking at. It's a team effort, for sure, but those teams are all playing their cards in the last 10km.

It still doesn't excite me as I know what will happen. Since Cav sprints have been really boring. He ruined that part of cycling for me. I still remember the Boonen days where there were like 5 equal sprinters.

 

[hrotha]

It still doesn't excite me as I know what will happen. Since Cav sprints have been really boring. He ruined that part of cycling for me. I still remember the Boonen days where there were like 5 equal sprinters.

Surely it didn't have anything to do with the fact that a Belgian was winning?

 

[El Pistolero]

Surely it didn't have anything to do with the fact that a Belgian was winning?

That as well, but I also liked Robbie Mcewen

 

[hrotha]

That as well, but I also liked Robbie Mcewen

Because he rode for this Belgian team, right?