2012 Tour de France: Stage 11: Albertville → La Toussuire - Les Sybelles (148km)

[Geraint Too Fast]

The 2nd summit finish of this years race.

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Climbs
Km 40.0 - Col de la Madeleine (2,000m) > 25.3km @ 6.2% - HC
Km 93.0 - Col de la Croix de Fer (2,067m) > 22.4km @ 6.9% - HC
Km 113.0 - Col du Mollard (1,638m) > 5.7km @ 6.8% - Category 2
Km 148.0 - La Toussuire (1,705m) > 18km @ 6.1% - Category 1

GC Top 20
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 43:59:02
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:53
3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:02:07
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:02:23
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:03:02
6 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan 0:03:19
7 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan 0:04:23
8 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team 0:04:48
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:29
10 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:05:31
11 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team 0:05:46
12 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:05:56
13 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana Pro Team 0:06:29
14 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan 0:06:33
15 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:07:14
16 Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan 0:08:19
17 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:08:31
18 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat 0:08:53
19 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0:08:58
20 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 0:09:28

Will anybody manage to derail the Sky train?

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Profiles

 

[Gloin22]

Last climb suits Wiggo to perfection. Evans, Nibs and JVB will have to try something before or it's another easy day for Wiggo.

 

[jens_attacks]

the rise of the bionic man reach its peak

1.wiggo
2. froomy +1;15
3.zubeldia + 1;50
4.jurgen + 2;10
5.nibali,cadel +2;15

this or extremely boring stage controlled by sky and won by pierre rolland from a breakaway.gotta hope the first scenario

i just hope there will be already attack on croix de fer otherwise no chance of getting away on toussuire from sky

hopefully no one will have the faith of poor floyd again here.

 

[Walkman]

Seriously Cadel, man up and make an alliance with Nibail and JVDB and make a vicious attack á la Andy Schleck hafway up Croix de Fer and bring back the 70's for us! Just make BMC, Lotto and Liquigas work hard to drop as many of the SKY boys on the Madeleine.

Or you could just give Yellow to Wiggins...

 

[SafeBet]

Seriously Cadel, man up and make an alliance with Nibail and JVDB and make a vicious attack á la Andy Schleck hafway up Croix de Fer and bring back the 70's for us!

I believe there is zero chance of this happening.

 

[Kragbaek]

I expect Wiggins and Evans to finish together. Neither of the two has the explosive speed to kill the other one off.

Hoping to see Van Den Broeck and Rolland attacking again, they looked really strong today!

But really, I think it's a stage for the dark horses. Team Sky aren't going to let Evans, Nibali or Menchov ride. We might see guys like Schleck, Brajkovic and Valverde attacking on the last climb - and hopefully, strong riders like Daniel Martin, Moncoutie and Mollema in the break.

Also, in the break, Vino

 

[roundabout]

Somebody top 30ish in climbing form in this Tour should go for it. They can get a good gap while Knees and Eddy are on the front.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

Hagen on the first climb, Porte on the second, Rogers and Froome on the third. Nobody gets away. Froome wins another few seconds on the rest. Wiggins finishes just behind Evans.

 

[SafeBet]

Sandy Casar from the break if he's healthy (I dunno).

 

[Warhawk]

Hagen on the first climb, Porte on the second, Rogers and Froome on the third. Nobody gets away. Froome wins another few seconds on the rest. Wiggins finishes just behind Evans.

Christ, kill me now...

I shoulda just taped stage 7 and watched that for the subsequent 2 weeks.

 

[roundabout]

Casar was in the break today. Who knows if he has anything left.

 

[iZnoGouD]

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

Sandy Casar from the break if he's healthy (I dunno).

Sky will let somone who is about 10minutes down go in the break so RSNT help chase them down to protect 7th place. Any GC contender who can be bothered to try will have to do it on the last climb.

 

[Walkman]

Please!! I mean, come on Basso. Few years ago you were destroying everybody with ten minutes in the Giro and now you can't even ride tempo and drop EBH?!

Robobasso to return tomorrow?

 

[SafeBet]

Casar was in the break today. Who knows if he has anything left.

Didn't notice.
So I need to rule him out.

Then I hope Dan Martin can do something after giong unnoticed pretty much the whole Tour.

As for the GC, I predict snoozefest.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Moncoutie will be in the break tomorrow for sure. Anyone with an interest in the KOM needs to be in the move. I'd love to see strong climbers out of GC contention such as Valverde, Cobo, or Rolland have a go.

 

[airstream]

I expect to see Landis' ghost over Toussuire. Hopefully someone will really crack.

VdB ftw

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Would be awesome. Liquigas used the wrong tactics today. They needed to up the tempo earlier in the day or on the Colombier to knock off Porte and Rogers. Hopefully they do that tomorrow. Lotto could as well. BMC is useless.

 

[Magnus]

The descent from Mollard should be quite technical. Hopefully Nibali will strike again.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Wiggins will love that final climb. Final 8 km are a walk in the park compared to what they would have been trough.

 

[Arnout]

Wiggins will love that final climb. Final 8 km are a walk in the park compared to what they would have been trough.

Yes. This stage is badly designed I'm afraid. Descents are too easy and descending in big group will be advantageous, final ascent is not hard enough. Stage is too short too.

Worst stage of the Tour this year in my honest opinion.

 

[DominicDecoco]

I believe I've read that the Mollard-descent is quite a job. Nibali and Evans should be in lead of the Sky show when they hit the foot of La Toussuire. Can't see him break on that final climb.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Yes. This stage is badly designed I'm afraid. Descents are too easy and descending in big group will be advantageous, final ascent is not hard enough. Stage is too short too.

Worst stage of the Tour this year in my honest opinion.

Nah, a better mtf would have been preffered but let's wait for the stage to actually develop before calling it bad and 'the worst' of the Tour... On paper the profile is just fine. Up the riders now.

 

[SafeBet]

They can't go on the Mollard descent. La Toussure is the perfect climb for high tempo collective riding. Sky would catch them in 3kms at most. Unless of course Sky is just Froome and Wiggo at that point, which seems unlikely to me.