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

[RedZone]

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.

So he is the only one in the chase group who cares if Andy wins the tour And honestly, if Voeckler was at the limit with 15 clicks to go how the hell did he hag on to Cadels wheel when Sanchez, Contador Danielson etc couldnt?

 

[benpounder]

good news for Andy is that there is no really strong pace-setting team in this race, except for Leopard, therefore we can expect relatively slow race from the peloton until the Alpe-d´Huez, he will be able to recover a little

At just over 100km, I suspect the pace will be very high - if Rojas can get over the climb, he could take out the intermediate sprint to take green - Jelle Vanendert only leads Samuel Sanchez by two points in the climbers competition, and there is the potential glory of a break winning atop l'Alpe.

No, I think we wont see the efforts of today show up tomorrow, they will be revealed in Saturdays 42km ITT.

 

[H2OUUP2]

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.


I kept thinking the same thing as the gap grew while they were in the valley. You would have thought they could have pulled a minute back before the climb to make it under 3 minutes.

Not exactly the same, but today reminded me a lot of Stage 17 in 2006.

 

[Escarabajo]

Port at 33' 44" ... ready to catch contador if he fell off one of the cliffs I guess.

Post of the day!

Clever.

 

[hrotha]

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

What if Devenyns signs for Leopard?
In fact, that's exactly what happened. Through a temp agency

 

[benpounder]

Remember, Frank is actually in great position. He is very likely to attack tomorrow and try to force Evans to chase him. Can he do it?

Frank and Andy will mark and wait for the final climb. I think Contador/Sanchez (if able) or someone else, Basso or Cunego perhaps, will attack at Plan Lachat (a perfect place to launch due to not only the pitch of the road, but the topography - an escape can get out of sight after several switchbacks.)

Let's hope Friday is as animated as today.

 

[Escarabajo]

Since AC is no longer a GC contender, he can attack in the early climbs tomorrow so that we can enjoy another show for free . . .

I don't think so. They won't let anyone back into contention.

 

[benpounder]

...
[/quote]By the way, Tuarts, nice preview. Did the stage justice!

Where did you find those large profiles of Agnel and Izoard?

 

[Escarabajo]

Or just thought "let's just ride all together at a comfortable pace, since we're so many they won't kick us out".

Time limit rules are a joke.

Actually that's what they do. They know it. They have done it in the past.

 

[Mellow Velo]

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.

Err, I know Frank has a lousy ITT reputation, but seriously, do you think Cadel would want to start a 42km lumpy ITT, at 1'-35" down, on a rider who clearly has good form?
Factor in what happened when everyone said he would overtake Sastre in the 2008 ITT and you have an extremely precarious scenario.

I'm afraid Cadel will have the deja vu sweats, tonight.

He has to chase them both and he knows nobody is either prepared, or able to help neutralize either bro.

Plus, It's now almost certain things will boil over towards the summit of the Galibier, if not before.

They want first and second and Cadel is their only obstacle.
As a result, he's stuck between a rock and a turd place, as Sean Kelly might say.

 

[El Pistolero]

What if Devenyns signs for Leopard?
In fact, that's exactly what happened. Through a temp agency

Then QS shouldn't let him start in any race anymore this season and throw him in the gutter. You just don't do something like that. If that's the case, then that's even worse.

But right now, I think Leosmart offered some money to QS. Besides Boonen and Bettini I never liked anyone of that team anyway

 

[luckyboy]

He won't be chasing Andy, he'll be chasing Frank.

I was going to say that I would be that surprised if Andy can attack, but I probably wouldn't. This is cycling after all.

Frank will be fresher than Andy anyway, and will probably ride away.

 

[therhodeo]

I look for Andy to lose some time tomorrow. Maybe not alot but I can't see him being very fresh after today. I'm hoping he tries to dig deep and increases his fatigue for the ITT.

 

[jobiwan]

By the way, THIS thread now has the most posts for a racing thread!!

 

[ManInFull]

Err, I know Frank has a lousy ITT reputation, but seriously, do you think Cadel would want to start a 42km lumpy ITT, at 1'-35" down, on a rider who clearly has good form?
Factor in what happened when everyone said he would overtake Sastre in the 2008 ITT and you have an extremely precarious scenario.

Agreed. I thought that he was OK when he was with in seconds of the Schlecks. But to expect him to pull back that much time....

It's effing hilarious that we are even having this conversation. It wasn't the climbs that won it for Schleck--it was this effort in the valley!

 

[benpounder]

Can someone with a practical knowledge of cycling can explain me, how in the name of God, Schleck gained so much time on descent and flat(minor ascent) against 40 guys, including some top domestiques?

If you have ridden the route, you'd better understand. There is only one or two sections coming off of Izoard through Briancon that pacelines can setup and be beneficial. The 'climb' up Lautaret is a big chain ring climb with lots of round-abouts and places where one can hide from the wind. It also helped that Monfort and Devenyns were working as well.

Ultimately though, it was Andy himself that provided the strength. Heck of a ride!

 

[Escarabajo]

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.

Puff! for a moment I thought there was a more important reason.

 

[Tuarts]

Wow, we have that race and stage and people bicker for 5-6 pages about riders finishing outside the limit?

There needs to be a time limit, its not practical otherwise. They have lots of different scenarios for this as well. They can't plan for everything, which is why they are allowed to review it if necessary, which in this case it is.

As for punishment, they need a slap on the wrist, to discourage this happening frequently and what is the Gruppetto mostly made up of? Sprinters. So makes sense to knock off a certain amount of points.

Saying this only penalises Cavendish is rubbish. Organisers cant change the rules on a whim because only one person will be affected by it. They would have had this decided at the start of the tour. It tells those riders, especially the sprinters, if you want to go for this jersey you will have to prepare to ride within the limit and it the rider and their teams responsibility to do so. Is it 100% fair? Of course not but it best fits the scenario without being unfair or unbalanced. Maybe something like penalising team classification as well per rider could work in this case but still needs to be a punishment to discourage this.

Now some more comments about the actual race:

Cadel rode all but 1 rider from a group of around 30 on the hardest part of the Galibier, off his wheel.

Basso, who has a similar climbing style to Cadel rode well.

It shows that dancing away on pedals isn't the only way to climb succesfully.

Cadel just did what he never has done before: rode his own pace and within his limits, and he's been doing it all tour. He used to go into the red trying to follow wheels, and now he reversed roles with Contador.

If Cadel didn't ride into the red and rode an excellantly measured climb, then he should recover better than Andy.

Leopard have just found a super domestique and 2IC for Cancellara in next season's Classics.

If a Schleck wins the tour...they just double-bluffed Bjarne.

Agnel, Iziord, Galibier have spoken and have offered up their 2 candidates. Now Galibier will team up with Alpe d'Huez tomorrow and give their verdict...

***

Lastly I wish to announce that I am the founding member of the CN Forum Pierre Roland Appreciation Club.

That guy is awesome!

 

[No_Balls]

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.

This isnt about Cadel. Voeckler had obviously the legs (he did even marked out Gilbert at one occassion) and it wouldnt have hurt if his equal strong right-hand man doing a little pulls in front cutting the deficit.

 

[Jamsque]

At the start today Geraint Thomas was talking about helping Rigo for a while and finishing in the grupetto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5b-8JpT6uc&feature=feedu

He ended up towing Uran up Galibier and finishing in the top 30.

 

[benpounder]

Domestique of the tour by a wide margin

And Rolland is only behind Rein Taaramae by 0:33 for the white. Europcar has been the most impressive team to me this year.

 

[sulgpallur]

This isnt about Cadel. Voeckler had obviously the legs (he did even marked out Gilbert at one occassion) and it wouldnt have hurt if his equal strong right-hand man doing a little pulls in front cutting the deficit.

didnt seem he had much legs in the end. i think he rode well as he didn't lose much time to evans

 

[hrotha]

This isnt about Cadel. Voeckler had obviously the legs (he did even marked out Gilbert at one occassion) and it wouldnt have hurt if his equal strong right-hand man doing a little pulls in front cutting the deficit.

Voeckler didn't have the legs where it counted, in the final climb. Actually, towards the end he asked Rolland to increase the speed in an attempt to keep the yellow jersey, and he almost blew up from the effort.

 

[No_Balls]

Voeckler didn't have the legs where it counted, in the final climb. Actually, towards the end he asked Rolland to increase the speed in an attempt to keep the yellow jersey, and he almost blew up from the effort.

At which point? I just saw him making gestures for others to chase (which say a peloton in disarray). Then he gleefully jumped at Cadels wheel and sticking with him until the last 500 meters. This at the hardest mountain stage in this Tour

 

[BYOP88]

Rolland did go to the front towards the end of the climb, but Tommy V called him off or it looked like he called him off, I think at that time Thomas was cooked.