2011 Tour de France Stage 18 - Pinerolo - Galibier Serre-Chevalier 200.5km

[RedZone]

I don’t understand why some people were ****ed off at Basso and TV because they didn’t pull. There is a reason why they were not pulling. They were hanging on for dear life. I like Cadel, but fans need to be more objective. Sometimes I wonder if some of the forumites don’t ride their bikes. Otherwise they would not be saying that. Especially about TV who is performing above his level. I am sure that Basso would have cooperated if he had the strength, because he has done it in the past, but he didn’t.

The main thing for me was Europcar, Cadel asked them to go to the front since Voeckler is there, in yellow and still with a team mate. Voeckler shakes his head, then Cadel proceeds to pull his *** 15k up the mountain and keep him in yellow. Then Voeckler celebrates when he sees he kept yellow. Dunno why Rolland etc couldnt have pulled on the false flat before the steep stuff started.

 

[Escarabajo]

So? May the strongest rider win. Voeckler clearly isn't it. Sure he's overachieving and that's commendable, but I'd still much rather see the best rider win yellow.

+1. I agree with this, but that was not what you were saying before.

You were criticizing him for not pulling with Cadel.

 

[Ramira]

Dunno why Rolland etc couldnt have pulled on the false flat before the steep stuff started.

Voeckler was never going to sacrifice Rolland to take back a bit of time. Without him he was almost certainly going to crack in the end. In my mind that's why Rolland never took the lead he would fall back and leave his leader alone.

 

[Escarabajo]

The main thing for me was Europcar, Cadel asked them to go to the front since Voeckler is there, in yellow and still with a team mate. Voeckler shakes his head, then Cadel proceeds to pull his *** 15k up the mountain and keep him in yellow. Then Voeckler celebrates when he sees he kept yellow. Dunno why Rolland etc couldnt have pulled on the false flat before the steep stuff started.

You have a good point, but the problem is that I would not want Pierre Rolland pulling the peloton against the wind on the false flat.

 

[No_Balls]

I think like others have said, it was Montfort/Leopard-bound Devynens riding hard against Euskaltel/Sorensen and two knackered BMC riders. That's hardly a raging peloton charging in for a sprint finish at the end!

Still by the look of it they´ve (Euskatel/Sörensen/whats left of BMC) set up a decent effort, given how the remaining peloton was stretched out. And versus Andy? Come on, the clock went up to almost a minute when he did the pull in the headwind.

Yes it was a masterstroke from Andy. Foxing on the smaller climbs on previous days losing small amounts of time knowing he was going to gain 4 minutes today. Apparently he had been reconning todays stage and undertaking a 60km solo attack into a raging headwind. He even practised looking tired for the last 2km&#8217]

When he attacked i laughed thinking the guy was nuts (or out of form). Then i kind of liked it especially coming from Andy. But since gaining two minutes after 5 km climb and transformed himself into Indurain/Cancellara on the flat, i was thinking a bit more in this way.

Monfort was at the back of the breakaway group the whole day, obviously he had something in the tank and he was brilliant.

Yes, he indeed was brilliant, and so was all the Leopard-Treks today, but at times the gap between them was stabilising when Montfort was in the front. It was when Andy did the pull the time went up dramatically.

Re Prudhomme-agreed,very disgusting. I wonder what Phil said today about the performance of the "people's champion".

I dont wanna know. But the peoples champion has indeed delivered as seen in Prudhommes eyes when staring at Eddy the eagle.

I was also rooting for AC today but we just have to accept defeat. It is just impossible to do a Giro-Tour these days,it seems.

I accept defeat, no problem. I dont like the circumstances though.

 

[RedZone]

You have a good point, but the problem is that I would not want Pierre Rolland pulling the peloton against the wind on the false flat.

Yeh, I probably meant more on the intermediate stuff, where it was 4-5%. I dont think Voeckler would have been in any more or less trouble whether Rolland was there with him all the way to the top. Either way Voeckler did well to hang on, I just thought that when Andy is 4 minutes up the road and you have ~2:45 on him its time to do some damage control.

 

[Tank Engine]

Awesome ride from Andy. As for Voeckler, he rightly felt that the pressure was on Evans to chase and in all likelihood, he wasn't in any shape to help as Evans did a lot of work at the end and still dropped TV. Thomas must have done a great ride, as he seems to have dragged Uran up to the top of the Galibier (still lost white though). Hope he got a good deal from Sky.

 

[El Pistolero]

He's owes half of that to Monfort (and Devenyns), and the other half to the indecisiveness of the peloton. It was CAS and Izagirre having to do all the work!!

And I wonder if Devenyns has an upcoming contract offer with Leopard after today!

Devenys is a crap cyclist. I really hope QS fails and no big name signs for that team. He had no reason to pull what so ever. I wish him and QS all the worst. I can understand if he had worked together with common interest or to his benefit, but this was purely for money. Can't see no other reason why he pulled.

As for Monfort, he did a very good job yes. Wasted at HTC, good domestique. If Andy wins now he'll have deserved it although I'm a little fishy about this performance. And I'll be even more fishy if he does the same tomorrow and rides a good TT.

 

[kurtinsc]

Still not sure how much Evans needs to chase Frank.

At the beginning of Cadel's pull today, he was down over 4 minutes to Andy, and ended up finishing at 2:15.

Tomorrow, we assuming Frank's attack will be at the bottom of the climb. And Evans needs to make sure he doesn't get too far away... but he doesn't actually need to pull him back.

If Frank gains 1:30, but Cadel loses nothing to Andy, I don't think it impacts his chances of winning at all. Frank can occasionally ride a decent ITT, but in general he's going to be at least a minute slower then Andy. If Evans finishes with Andy, Frank would have to gain 2+ minutes for it to make things any different for Cadel in terms of difficulty on the ITT.

 

[Tuarts]

Some epic Tomalaris & Tan at the moment.

I missed this part, what happened?

 

[Gingerale]

fantastic ride by andy schleck!

must admit my frustration with some GC contenders with what seemed predictability in the 2nd week. since the rest day - not the case!

cadel evans right at the front when no one else appeared able gets huge respect from me and so does voeckler for hanging on. i don't get why some posters criticize tommy V. though. anyone left by the last climb gets kudos - just to hold a wheel had me applauding. i may have been mad at leipheimer beating cunego in the TdS ITT but a 3 week tour has me feeling different: whoever wins this race after grenoble earned it, whether they have the leaders jersey on or not. and it is exciting that the result is still unkown.

temporarily a little heartbreak atm that samu and bertie lost so much time. especially for samu. i had my hopes up.

frank schleck looked the strongest at the finish. i don't know how andy schleck will find the energy for anything other than defense on the next stage.

i think it's a race between cadel and the schlecks but not counting out voeckler!

great intro for this stage from tuarts!

 

[No_Balls]

Yeh, I probably meant more on the intermediate stuff, where it was 4-5%. I dont think Voeckler would have been in any more or less trouble whether Rolland was there with him all the way to the top. Either way Voeckler did well to hang on, I just thought that when Andy is 4 minutes up the road and you have ~2:45 on him its time to do some damage control.

What Europcar and Voeckler did at this stage was pathetic. Still trying to be the hero who just hanging on? Clearly he has done a dramatically improvement and it wouldnt have hurt sending up Rolland at one point. Obviously since the chase from the Peloton did not lead to anything despite time-losses.

 

[luckyboy]

How the **** did they let the gap ever get that big. That was unbelievable. They just sat there and watched him ride off.

The chase was pathetic until Cadel took it up, he rode heroically.

Hope Cadel pulls out a good TT.

 

[Anonymous]

Btw what was Ryo prediction for stage 18?

 

[Escarabajo]

FWIW that was a pretty selective final climb. A lot more difficult than the profile suggested. Shows what happened when stages are raced hard.

Sometimes the length of the climb, and not the steepness, creates bigger gaps because of the time to exhaustion of each rider is limited.

 

[frenchfry]

Kudos to Radioshack for keeping 12 seconds ahead of FDJ in the overall team competition.

 

[jilbiker]

The main thing for me was Europcar, Cadel asked them to go to the front since Voeckler is there, in yellow and still with a team mate. Voeckler shakes his head, then Cadel proceeds to pull his *** 15k up the mountain and keep him in yellow. Then Voeckler celebrates when he sees he kept yellow. Dunno why Rolland etc couldnt have pulled on the false flat before the steep stuff started.

When i saw Cadel argueing for folks to come forward and pull and I had a dejavu moment. He did the same thing in Giro 2010 when folks backed away, there was a heated arguement in the front of the peloton and of course the breakaway gained 5+ minutes that day. Cadel has always wanted folks to tow him. Complained for years that his team-mates were not supporting him blah-blah, etc. You have your goals, go for it, why should other teams help you??? TV thought he had lost the yellow and he was already at the limit and beyond so he said to his team forget it. AC i think was mentally tired and did not have the strength for 2 days of real hard racing. Clearly Frank was coasting which means reserving energy for something...tomorrow.

What will be the undoing for the Schleck plan tomorrow is that AS is at limit and beyond and will slow down Frank, the deal is that AS should be the winner, you are only as strong as your weakest link. Unless the plan is that Frank should take the gold....?? that will be funny. Means today was a false positive...chuckle

 

[Dead Star]

Still not sure how much Evans needs to chase Frank.

At the beginning of Cadel's pull today, he was down over 4 minutes to Andy, and ended up finishing at 2:15.

Tomorrow, we assuming Frank's attack will be at the bottom of the climb. And Evans needs to make sure he doesn't get too far away... but he doesn't actually need to pull him back.

If Frank gains 1:30, but Cadel loses nothing to Andy, I don't think it impacts his chances of winning at all. Frank can occasionally ride a decent ITT, but in general he's going to be at least a minute slower then Andy. If Evans finishes with Andy, Frank would have to gain 2+ minutes for it to make things any different for Cadel in terms of difficulty on the ITT.

This might've been in Dries' mind when he was pulling:

 

[frenchfry]

The main thing for me was Europcar, Cadel asked them to go to the front since Voeckler is there, in yellow and still with a team mate. Voeckler shakes his head, then Cadel proceeds to pull his *** 15k up the mountain and keep him in yellow. Then Voeckler celebrates when he sees he kept yellow. Dunno why Rolland etc couldnt have pulled on the false flat before the steep stuff started.

Cadel has spent a lot of time in the past in the same position as Voeckler/Rolland in the past, so I don't think he can complain now about others doing the same.

 

[hrotha]

Devenys is a crap cyclist. I really hope QS fails and no big name signs for that team. He had no reason to pull what so ever. I wish him and QS all the worst. I can understand if he had worked together with common interest or to his benefit, but this was purely for money. Can't see no other reason why he pulled.

Dude, Contador gets help from Movistar all the time.

 

[LaFleur]

Is there actually any video or even a photo of Rein Taaramäe in the white jersey? No photos on cyclingnews page (were of all the previous white jersey podiums), didn't show on eurosport, searched all the freaking google and even the France TV didn't do an interview with him (does interviews with every shirt wearer every single day..)

 

[El Pistolero]

Dude, Contador gets help from Movistar all the time.

When have I ever said good words about Movistar? I can't stand that team. Will be about time for them that Valverde returns, so they can work for them self again.

Ps: Movistar is helping because they want to sign Contador in the future. No way will the Schlecks ever go to QS. It was just really pathetic. If QS signs the Schlecks I'll stand corrected

 

[Dead Star]

s there actually any video or even a photo of Rein Taaramäe in the white jersey? No photos on cyclingnews page (were of all the previous white jersey podiums), didn't show on eurosport, searched all the freaking google and even the France TV didn't do an interview with him (does interviews with every shirt wearer every single day..)

He obviously doesn't exist. Seen The Sixth Sense?

 

[Angliru]

exactly



if contador can't do it. nobody can imo. its impossible in modern day cycling

Don't forget that he lost that minute and a half on the crash that separated the peloton, otherwise he likely wouldn't have had to expend the energy that he's had to in the past couple of stages in trying to lessen that time gap. Certainly he would've attacked at some points but not with sense of urgency like the past stages. Still it's obvious the Giro took its toll.

 

[El Pistolero]

I do hope Contador can do something in Alpe Dhuez though(though not à la Landis). Yellow jersey is lost though