2011 Tour de France Stage 16 (18/7/2011): Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - Gap, 162.5km

[Fatclimber]

I must say, I felt a little empty inside when Conta's first attack was chased down by... Fabian. It's nice to see a contender crack and something happen. Although there is only 1 rider initiating anything. Maybe Samu too, but he's lost so much time it's hard to say if his aggressiveness is due to his own tenacity or just being let go due to lack of being a real threat anymore.

Funny how the Schlecks can be left in the dust on the short nasties, but won't happen on the long tuffies. (we'll see!). I think franks been the chosen one from the start, they've just been trying to play it off like it's Andy.

I agree with Andy: they've all got families to go home to at the end of the day. It's just that most riders will get to see them sooner.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

One thing maybe lost in the talk about this stage, with all the concentration on GC, is how awesome the world champion is riding this Tour. I think Thor looked at the course, and subtle rule changes for the maillot vert and decided he wouldn't bother with that, but instead concentrate on key stages. Plus having a strong team put him in the maillot jaune early on. Now two stages wins, on days not expected, and just an awesome performance.

+1

not lost on me. this photo is classic. nothing better than seeing the world champ raising his arms in a tough fought gt stage win!

 

[spanky wanderlust]

One thing maybe lost in the talk about this stage, with all the concentration on GC, is how awesome the world champion is riding this Tour. I think Thor looked at the course, and subtle rule changes for the maillot vert and decided he wouldn't bother with that, but instead concentrate on key stages. Plus having a strong team put him in the maillot jaune early on. Now two stages wins, on days not expected, and just an awesome performance.

and a fantastic day to be norwegian, too!

 

[Dedelou]

Well, this is an Internet forum so things will tend to be faceless - it kind of goes without saying. I'd be happy to say it to his face though - 'stop whining and concentrate on beating your opponents'. Unless he does that he is beaten before he gets on the road.

As for risking his life - out training maybe when he will be just like the rest of us and fighting for road space with cars - but thankfully deaths are rare during races.

it's the Helicopter ride.. those dam$%^d things are so dangerous.. that's why 167 riders did not use them to get off the Plateau.. If i were Andy i would stop taking risks like that again

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

and a fantastic day to be norwegian, too!

The blood runs through my veins!

just watched the stage on ES - fantastic last 30kms of action! couple of quick points/questions:
2) Cav was simply awesome today - ... Pity we didn't get any footgae of him going up or down on his own - have a feeling his descent must have been something else!

A lot of people are under the impression that some GC riders are the best descenders. For example, Paolo Savoldelli earned the nickname "Falcon" because of his descending prowess. But most pros will freely tell you the actual best descenders are sprinters, and I'm sure Cav is no exception. They tend to have slightly more mass, fearless at high speed, great bike handling reflexes, etc.

 

[woodie]

The blood runs through my veins!


A lot of people are under the impression that some GC riders are the best descenders. For example, Paolo Savoldelli earned the nickname "Falcon" because of his descending prowess. But most pros will freely tell you the actual best descenders are sprinters, and I'm sure Cav is no exception. They tend to have slightly more mass, fearless at high speed, great bike handling reflexes, etc.

Plus they have to make up time somewhere in the mountains

 

[bridgeman]

The blood runs through my veins!


A lot of people are under the impression that some GC riders are the best descenders. For example, Paolo Savoldelli earned the nickname "Falcon" because of his descending prowess. But most pros will freely tell you the actual best descenders are sprinters, and I'm sure Cav is no exception. They tend to have slightly more mass, fearless at high speed, great bike handling reflexes, etc.

I can tell you from experience that mass does help with downhill speed!

 

[Steel4Ever]

Just watched the last 10km of the race...yeah I know I'm a few hours late getting in on this...

Gotta say that I'm not a big fan of what Thor did.
He's already won one stage, why not let his breakaway teammate Ryder H. take this one? Thor was obviously strong enough to mark Hagen, or to let a gap open off the front, in order for Ryder to go for the win. Thor has great palmares already. Yes, I understand he is the WC and champs win races, but come on...

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Just watched the last 10km of the race...yeah I know I'm a few hours late getting in on this...

Gotta say that I'm not a big fan of what Thor did.
He's already won one stage, why not let his breakaway teammate Ryder H. take this one? Thor was obviously strong enough to mark Hagen, or to let a gap open off the front, in order for Ryder to go for the win. Thor has great palmares already. Yes, I understand he is the WC and champs win races, but come on...

wait what?

it isn't like thor chased, what he did was perfectly fine.

Ryder attacked, thor sat on ebh's wheel.
Once they bridged, what was he meant to do, lead out ryder? he wouldn't have beaten ebh no way.

I'm sorry but you critiscm of him is unjust.

 

[AussieGoddess]

I have to say ONE thing. You keep putting Andy as Leopard leader, but I believe that it is Franck. And if he had bad day on Plateau, then their tactics is working just fine. He has 2 minutes over Contador, he couldn t have asked for more coming into the Alps.

if Frank was the leader, he would have followed Conti ... he didnt. He sat up and waited for Andy to try and drag him over the hill.

I am bloody ****eed off, I decided at 12:15am that I was too tired to actually get up from bed and watch the stage and went back to sleep and then I find a great, dominationg peformance by the almighty Cadel Evans in the morning that I have missed!!!!

There are now talks of a Cadel Evans Day which I would be all for! It would be a national holiday!

me too I went to bed with 35km to go ... thinking Thor will win the stage and nothing else will happen. I was astounded to watch the rest of the stage this morning

I am soooo happy Thor won. He deserves an awesome Tour!!! And Cadel and Conti - I am big fans of both

The only think that could have made this stage better is if Phil Gilbert was up there as well.

 

[Bennyl]

I am bloody ****eed off, I decided at 12:15am that I was too tired to actually get up from bed and watch the stage and went back to sleep and then I find a great, dominationg peformance by the almighty Cadel Evans in the morning that I have missed!!!!

There are now talks of a Cadel Evans Day which I would be all for! It would be a national holiday!

what were you thinking going to bed in the first place... big mistake. once the head hits the pillow during the tour, especially the during the 3rd week, it is all over.

 

[Bennyl]

You mean dominating Contador. As long as it went uphill.

Alberto couldn't have dominated that much.. couldn't even drop Evans who apparently is an average climber.. And then in a time trial situation, of which he is also better than evans he couldn't hold on then and needed another spaniard to pull him back.

 

[auscyclefan94]

what were you thinking going to bed in the first place... big mistake. once the head hits the pillow during the tour, especially the during the 3rd week, it is all over.

I am not sure, I was totally ******ed so needed the sleep. I'll watch it on the highlights but would of rather watched it live.

 

[just some guy]

I am not sure, I was totally ******ed so needed the sleep. I'll watch it on the highlights but would of rather watched it live.

Told not to didn´t I did you listen nooooooooooooooooooooo

Tonight will probably be a bore fest and you will be awake.

 

[woodie]

Just watched the last 10km of the race...yeah I know I'm a few hours late getting in on this...

Gotta say that I'm not a big fan of what Thor did.
He's already won one stage, why not let his breakaway teammate Ryder H. take this one? Thor was obviously strong enough to mark Hagen, or to let a gap open off the front, in order for Ryder to go for the win. Thor has great palmares already. Yes, I understand he is the WC and champs win races, but come on...

um, did you watch it? Thor forced EBH to close the gap to Ryder, he sat on him for the climb and decent, like he should have, and then again forced him to close the gap again to Ryder in the finish straight. He marked EBH and let the gap open but EBH closed the gap so naturally Thor sprinted.

What else should he have done?

 

[Polka Dot Punter]

Hushovd didn't chase Hesjedal so that criticism is unjustified.

However, I can't help but think he should not have even been in the break. Today was just the fourth opportunity for the majority of the peleton. And by the majority I mean those who are not elite sprinters/classics riders/climbers/time trialists. He'd already worn the Yellow Jersey for 7 days and won a stage -- to basically rain on the parade of those riders whose only chance of getting something from this tour was in that stage, well, it just doesn't sit right with me.

For me, these stages are for the lesser riders to have their shot at glory, and if you start having Thor take those chances away from them by being in every break, then you are basically marginalizing every rider from every French team. Yes, Thor was faster, but you know, Thor is faster than every tour break winner we've had in the last 5 years (with perhaps the exception of Benatti).

Given Lotto/Leopard/HTC chase down the break on virtually all their relevant stages, if you start having Thor in every break that succeeds, well you might as well only have 40 riders start the race and have them only race the last 20km of each stage, because if you did that this tour very little would be different.

 

[Steel4Ever]

Will have to watch again.

Hesj admitted that both Nors were faster than him....BUT also that he did a ton of work to keep the pace high in the last 3km.

Hey, I'm not the guy out there racing...so if Ryder is happy with how it played out then I can't argue with that. Just wrenched on the ol' nationalistic heartstrings, ya know? Eh.


p.s. -- I didn't say Thor chased down Hesj.

 

[woodie]

Hushovd didn't chase Hesjedal so that criticism is unjustified.

However, I can't help but think he should not have even been in the break. Today was just the fourth opportunity for the majority of the peleton. And by the majority I mean those who are not elite sprinters/classics riders/climbers/time trialists. He'd already worn the Yellow Jersey for 7 days and won a stage -- to basically rain on the parade of those riders whose only chance of getting something from this tour was in that stage, well, it just doesn't sit right with me.

For me, these stages are for the lesser riders to have their shot at glory, and if you start having Thor take those chances away from them by being in every break, then you are basically marginalizing every rider from every French team. Yes, Thor was faster, but you know, Thor is faster than every tour break winner we've had in the last 5 years (with perhaps the exception of Benatti).

Given Lotto/Leopard/HTC chase down the break on virtually all their relevant stages, if you start having Thor in every break that succeeds, well you might as well only have 40 riders start the race and have them only race the last 20km of each stage, because if you did that this tour very little would be different.

No offence but...... it's a bike race, if he was strong enough to get in the break good on him, if the other riders couldn't drop him that's their own problem.

I understand what your saying and it's a fair point but as I said, it's a bike race

 

[El Pistolero]

Alberto couldn't have dominated that much.. couldn't even drop Evans who apparently is an average climber.. And then in a time trial situation, of which he is also better than evans he couldn't hold on then and needed another spaniard to pull him back.

This climb was cat2. Evans pulled away at a descend, not on a flat part.

 

[AussieGoddess]

Hushovd didn't chase Hesjedal so that criticism is unjustified.

However, I can't help but think he should not have even been in the break. Today was just the fourth opportunity for the majority of the peleton. And by the majority I mean those who are not elite sprinters/classics riders/climbers/time trialists. He'd already worn the Yellow Jersey for 7 days and won a stage -- to basically rain on the parade of those riders whose only chance of getting something from this tour was in that stage, well, it just doesn't sit right with me.

For me, these stages are for the lesser riders to have their shot at glory, and if you start having Thor take those chances away from them by being in every break, then you are basically marginalizing every rider from every French team. Yes, Thor was faster, but you know, Thor is faster than every tour break winner we've had in the last 5 years (with perhaps the exception of Benatti).

Given Lotto/Leopard/HTC chase down the break on virtually all their relevant stages, if you start having Thor in every break that succeeds, well you might as well only have 40 riders start the race and have them only race the last 20km of each stage, because if you did that this tour very little would be different.

umm - so Thor shouldnt race because he's too good and he can beat them?

You get that this is a race right? that the best rider wins?

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Hushovd didn't chase Hesjedal so that criticism is unjustified.

However, I can't help but think he should not have even been in the break. Today was just the fourth opportunity for the majority of the peleton. And by the majority I mean those who are not elite sprinters/classics riders/climbers/time trialists. He'd already worn the Yellow Jersey for 7 days and won a stage -- to basically rain on the parade of those riders whose only chance of getting something from this tour was in that stage, well, it just doesn't sit right with me.

For me, these stages are for the lesser riders to have their shot at glory, and if you start having Thor take those chances away from them by being in every break, then you are basically marginalizing every rider from every French team. Yes, Thor was faster, but you know, Thor is faster than every tour break winner we've had in the last 5 years (with perhaps the exception of Benatti).

Given Lotto/Leopard/HTC chase down the break on virtually all their relevant stages, if you start having Thor in every break that succeeds, well you might as well only have 40 riders start the race and have them only race the last 20km of each stage, because if you did that this tour very little would be different.

Thor should obviously know better than to race for the win. The same goes for Cavendish - he has obviously won enough now, why not let some second-tier french sprinter win in Paris?

Or maybe not.

 

[dlwssonic]

Just watched the highlights. man it was awesome to see spartacus pace up schlecks and evans to contador on the climb.

 

[greenedge]

This stage was Great. Poor Ignatiev, ad surprising to see Tony in the break Hard luck for EBH and nice sprint by Thor. Great work by Cadel.

 

[Polka Dot Punter]

umm - so Thor shouldnt race because he's too good and he can beat them?

You get that this is a race right? that the best rider wins?

Thor can race if he really wants to, but at least kick out FDJ, Cofidis and the like first.

These are the types of stages where normally the lesser riders who spend all tour (and in many cases, all year) working their asses off for the elite riders like Hushovd get their chance to have a crack in a big race for once. And now that's being taken away from them by a clearly superior rider who has already had a lot of glory this tour.

You may call it racing, and it is, but it's also the death of the opportunists in the tour, and it's something that I find quite regrettable. It used to be that the Tour offered up chances for all types of riders, but this year, unless you are a top 5 sprinter, one day rider or climber than you basically have no chance, and I think that's a crying shame.

Thor is going to be stronger than virtually every breakaway rider that gets into a break. If you want to say let him win them all, fine, but then really, what's the point of having the like of FDJ around. They wont be able to get a stage win and the extra riders just add to the potential for crashes.

 

[Cimber]

Bertie and told Sanchez that he would try something, so he was ready to follow. Contador states that he hopes they can cooperate again today:

http://politiken.dk/sport/cykling/t...r-satser-paa-tour-alliance-med-ol-guldvinder/
(in Danish)