2011 Tour de France Stage 13: Pau - Lourdes 156km

[spalco]

Great ride by the fourth "most wheelsucker in the peloton", eh? And in the World Champs jersey, wow, beautiful win! Gutsy ride by Roy. Again. Moncoutie did what he had to do.

Now the French have three of 4 jerseys... but no stage wins.

I like Cancellara and was rooting for him this spring, but I don't really understand where this "Hushovd is a wheelsucker" meme is coming from. I mean, of course sometimes team tactics or just plain lack of strength on a specific day dictates riding defensively for a cyclist, but I've never seen Hushovd as someone who routinely rides that way unless he has to. I'm a bit confused by that actually.

 

[Damiano Machiavelli]

Thor open a can of whoopass.

 

[Mellow Velo]

wasn't pointless for Thor , Roy, Gilbert, and Rojas. And totally relevant for Voekler and for his jersey

I think you have covered all the interested parties. Maybe I would add Boasson Hagen to the list.

As to the booing. Perhaps it places the Contador sledging into perspective, in that it was over blown.
I also wonder what will happen to the next recipient of the maillot juane?

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Many of Cav's fans are thoroughly reasonable people. Some of them are classless ******s.

Same as fans of pretty much any sport or sportsman then, I guess. Or are you suggesting that he somehow attracts a lower class of fan to all other riders in the peloton?

As for the stage, I didn't see it, but followed a lot of it on this thread and in the official ticker thing. Sounded great - a battle royal to get in the break, yet more green action at both lines and a tense and stirring fight for the stage win. And yet still we have howls of dissatisfaction - boring, pointless, waste of time. Please, it's a Grand Tour. We're supposed to have variety. Not every stage has to be a series of HC climbs with MTFs where the favourites repeatedly attack the s*** out of each other. If you're that desperate for your pound of flesh and you need instant gratification, you're probably better off going to watch UFC or something.

One last thing, re: Bak. The guy has just spent the best part of 2 weeks working his *** off. You think he still had the energy to do big pulls up Aubisque? And besides, he did his job for the team perfectly - finished above Gilbert AND saved a bit for helping Cav on Sunday. Baffling.

 

[hrotha]

They tried that yesterday and they just isolated the brothers, who only had Voigt left while Contador had 4 in the bottom of Luz (CAS, DAniel, Jesus and Richie). So unless Monfort and Fuglsang pick up their game I dont think they will be able to isolate Contador early.

Completely different situation. They didn't need to have any teammates with them, they just needed to blow up the race completely so that Contador's domestiques were too far behind for it to be a good idea to wait for them and regroup. It wouldn't matter where their own domestiques would be at that point: with Contador dropped and isolated, it'd be all other GC contenders against him.

More importantly, if you don't manage to drop Contador or if his team is perfectly organized, you stop after the mountain top. It's a low risk manoeuvre, with potentially a huge return.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Same as fans of pretty much any sport or sportsman then, I guess. Or are you suggesting that he somehow attracts a lower class of fan to all other riders in the peloton?

Yes, same as pretty much everybody else.

But the statement was running counter to a statement that Cav fans wouldn't have booed Thor because, and I quote, "Cav fans aren't like that". You and I both know that some Cav fans ARE like that, they would boo Thor and more.

That doesn't make Cavendish any worse, or the type of fans he attracts any different from anybody else - but if his fans are going to be praised up for their good behaviour they should be slapped down for their bad behaviour too.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Yes, same as pretty much everybody else.

But the statement was running counter to a statement that Cav fans wouldn't have booed Thor because, and I quote, "Cav fans aren't like that". You and I both know that some Cav fans ARE like that, they would boo Thor and more.

That doesn't make Cavendish any worse, or the type of fans he attracts any different from anybody else - but if his fans are going to be praised up for their good behaviour they should be slapped down for their bad behaviour too.

Fair enough.

 

[Kopuliak]

there is no reaction in the bunch at all on this climb, which means that its more less sprinters day, although we should be by now deep in GC racing, 13 stages gone and only 1 mountainous stage so far, in Giro or Veulta we would have at least 2 or 3 mountain top finishes by now. So so boring racing, the deciding moments come from bad fortunes on crashes - Brajkovic,Leipheimer,Horner, Vandenbroeck,Velits, I dont like to Tour so far, does any one else agree with my statement?

Exactly... I do agree.

 

[Tuarts]

Speaking of PETA's Missile, he's been accused by Movistars other sprinter this time of getting a lift up the Aubisque

 

[frenchfry]

The French sure do suck with their boo'ing. I dont care for them at all.

Not a great moment, though I can understand the disappointment that Roy didn't hang on for the win. Not Thor's fault though.

 

[roundabout]

Speaking of PETA's Missile, he's been accused by Movistars other sprinter this time of getting a lift up the Aubisque

Since Amador is struggling Movistar should give him an iPhone and tell him to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

 

[hrotha]

Not a great moment, though I can understand the disappointment that Roy didn't hang on for the win. Not Thor's fault though.

I understand the disappointment too, but it was ridiculous. The Spanish commentators were all "How unfair cycling can be sometimes!" and I was like "Dude, Hushovd's doing one hell of a ride". Totally deserved.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Speaking of PETA's Missile, he's been accused by Movistars other sprinter this time of getting a lift up the Aubisque

To be fair, Ventoso's already got on the wrong side of Cavendish and been challenged to ride in the autobus so that Cav's teammates can give him a bit of abuse, sorry, he can see what Cavendish has to go through in the mountains. What's calling for round 2 gonna do?

 

[Tuarts]

To be fair, Ventoso's already got on the wrong side of Cavendish and been challenged to ride in the autobus so that Cav's teammates can give him a bit of abuse, sorry, he can see what Cavendish has to go through in the mountains. What's calling for round 2 gonna do?

Get FranceTV to send a camera to the Autobus and then we can watch when said fisticuffs or joy rides happen - whichever comes first

 

[velosiped]

what about the competiton for stage victories in the tour? think it is for the mediocre ones? there are always one or two stages where an opportunist are allowed to win from a break; I put Costa in this cathegory.
but look at the rest of the list:
Gilbert
Farrar
Evans
Cavendish
Hagen
Luis Leon
Greipel
Sammy
Thor

One or both Schlecks will win in the mountains. Cancellara the tempo.
Cav a couple more. Gilbert maybe another one.

This is the playground of the big boys.

 

[AussieGoddess]

Exactly. Give it a go and see what happens. If they can't gap Contador or Evans, they can always lay off, but if they can get a significant gap before the summit. they can fly down the mountain and across the last 15km flat forcing whoever's gapped to work hard to catch up.

Of course they didn't bother. I guess that's regarded as too risky these days.

and thats what Gilbert did ...

I think from here on in though - Phil should give up the chase for green and go for a GC top 10. He is 9th currently, with 4.35 minutes back on Voekler but only 2 and a half minutes on Evans. Some of the other top tenners will probably drop out as well, so if he rides conservatively he can definitely make it.

OPL have 2 stage wins, worn yellow and green ... having a top 10 finish as well would make it an incredibly successful TdF for a team who have had their team leader and several team members abandon.

 

[Wergeland]

He's saying that after the race, yes, but I think in a couple weeks/months/years he'll feel differently.

I'm not so sure. This is the biggest win for him after changing his training after Cavendish and Farrar's arrival at the scene. He realized he couldn't sprint with the best anymore and needed to change as a rider if he wanted to continue winning races. He rode solo up a HC climb today and won the stage! Big big win for Thor.

I feel for Roy. At least he got the KOM jersey to show for his efforts so far in this tour. Should get a much better contract next year as well.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Gotta feel for Roy...tough luck.

What I find stupid is that the intermediate sprint gives the same amount of points as a finish of a mountain stage. I personallly think that is stupid.

 

[Boardslide]

Speaking of PETA's Missile, he's been accused by Movistars other sprinter this time of getting a lift up the Aubisque

Apparently Moviestar have been told to stop making excuses as Cav with all other leaders are watched and race officals have no problem with him.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/259108/Tour-de-France-2011-Mark-Cavendish-caught-up-in-tow-row

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Apparently Moviestar have been told to stop making excuses as Cav with all other leaders are watched and race officals have no problem with him.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/259108/Tour-de-France-2011-Mark-Cavendish-caught-up-in-tow-row

It's all off-camera, so you don't know what's going on really, unless people have got photos like of the laughing group and the Quick Step car in the Giro.

Rojas could be playing mind games with Cavendish knowing that he's a divisive personality, or the race directors could be simply lying on the basis that Cavendish is much, much more marketable to have IN the race than out of it (even notwithstanding that he is of course holding a jersey right now).

 

[William H]

The French seem to like booing - a day at Roland Garros doesn't seem complete without someone getting booed.

 

[Nederick]

Mixed emotions today. So torn for Roy, but at the same time how could you not be happy for Thor winning in such a manner? With the rainbow hoops and all. These two in today's stage a microcosm of everything that can be so good with this beautiful sport.

 

[Kopuliak]

Shame Peter Sagan isn't in the tour.

He could give EBH a run for his money on sprints like these.

He will be racing on Vuelta a Espana 2011.