2012 Tour de France: Stage 16: Pau → Bagnères-de-Luchon, 197 km

[DominicDecoco]

2012 Tour de France: Stage 16: Pau → Bagnères-de-Luchon, 197 km

What a great profile that is..! Not often I prefer a descent to a mtf but the way this race has evolved that descent could be rather interesting. Much better race than if they were climbing to the finish. This stage will include the 81st appearance of Col du Tourmalet - that'll be the most-used mountain of the history of the race. Last winner in Luchon was Thomas Voeckler.

Col d'Aubisque (1 709 m) 16.4 km 7.1 %
http://www.letour.fr/PHOTOS/TDF/2012/1600/PROFILCOLSCOTES_1.jpg

Col du Tourmalet (2 115 m) 19 km 7.4 %

Col d'Aspin (1 489 m) 12.4 km 4.8 %

Col de Peyresourde (1 569 m) 9.5 km 6.7 %

Final descent down to Bagneres de Luchon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7xnmalQqSk

Also, we all remember this fight up Col de Peyresourde from 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHeAJj7O-QM

GC:
GBR 1 WIGGINS, Bradley (SKY PROCYCLING) 64:41:16
GBR 2 FROOME, Christopher (SKY PROCYCLING) + 2:05
ITA 3 NIBALI, Vincenzo (LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE) + 2:23
AUS 4 EVANS, Cadel (BMC RACING) + 3:19
BEL 5 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen (LOTTO BELISOL) + 4:48

 

[Froome19]

Chris Froome is given the chance, it all matters when the challengers will attack and not many can guess that. lets hope the Tourmalet...

This was supposed to be Hitch's saving grace but you werent to know that.

 

[Gloin22]

This stage remind me bit of Route de Sud one - where havoc can be caused.

Sky will really want to drop Nibali on last MTF to be sure of no big time looses.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Hopefully Liquigas will bump up the pace on the Tourmalet. They need to drop Rogers and Porte before Nibali can go. There's a ton of good climbers I could see going for the stage: Cobo, Valverde, Rolland, Martin, Costa, Scarponi, etc. Should be an exciting day.

 

[Eshnar]

Epic waste of Tourmalet. (And Aubisque, for that matter)

 

[thehog]

Epic waste of Tourmalet. (And Aubisque, for that matter)

Yep can see plenty of soft pedaling on this stage.

 

[SetonHallPirate]

Epic waste of Tourmalet. (And Aubisque, for that matter)

I don't know about that, as it will soften up some legs, however, I would have preferred to see this stage run in reverse.

 

[Eshnar]

it will soften up some legs,

Yes, just like every other nameless climb.

 

[Magnus]

Epic waste of Tourmalet. (And Aubisque, for that matter)

I'm sure everybody would have been thrilled if they had cut out Aubisque and Tourmalet of this stage and just taken the direct route of 70 km @ 1% from Pau to Campan.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

I don't mind them using new climbs or relatively unknown climbs while putting famous climbs in a place that get's softpedaled.

These climb's that will be raced seem difficult enough.

The first favourite attacked 60km out last mountain stage, so I'm hoping (somewhhat naively) for the same in this one.

 

[DominicDecoco]

What a tragic and depressive forum this has become.

 

[jobiwan]

Something seems familiar to me, these climbs, these cities, what is it?
Oh, yeah...

Prudhomme is an expert when it comes to wasting the tough climbs, that's for sure.

Hopefully going in reverse will be more selective, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 10 guys together at the finish, and they certainly won't be bothered to go for the stage win. We wouldn't want that now, would we?

 

[will10]

Quick prediction:

 

[burning]

Quick prediction:

I'm laughing so hard right now

 

[TourOfTexas]

Hopefully the GC 3-9 will be desperate on this stage and start attacking on the decent from the Aubisque.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Quick prediction:

I disagree, I think Cav will lead them up the Tourmalet.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

You forgot Cavendish until the top of the Aubisque.

On a more serious note, I doubt anything will happen until the Aspin. But more realistically I don't expect anything until 2km before the top of the Peyressourde.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

What a tragic and depressive forum this has become.

Completely agree. It's infuriating.

 

[Fight.The.Power]

What a tragic and depressive forum this has become.

I agree mate. I wish thehog would feck off somewhere else. All he ever posts is how crap everything is.

Anyway, thanks for the thread, I think there will be more attacks than we may think!

 

[Eshnar]

I'm sure everybody would have been thrilled if they had cut out Aubisque and Tourmalet of this stage and just taken the direct route of 70 km @ 1% from Pau to Campan.

You have to go from Pau to Bagneres De Luchon? Fine.
Just use Col D'Azet after Aspin. So you drop the useless valley before Peyresourde and one can attack from Azet. No one will ever attack on Tourmalet with Aspin being there. So yes, it's completely useless. Tourmalet has been climbed a zillion times... I wonder how many times it was meaningful.

 

[Magnus]

Hopefully going in reverse will be more selective

Surely it will. Just look at the 1912 and 1913 TdF. In 1912 they did these passes going west and the first two riders finished together where as in 1913 they went from west to east and the time difference between the first two riders was 18 min!

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Someone will go away De Gendt-style over the top of the Tourmalet. I'm hoping a Brajkovic or Rolland will go, given a long leash from sky, and ride their way into the top 5. Similarly, while everyone is looking to Nibali for the descent finish, JVDB has also been very aggressive, and could be a powerful instigator on the penultimate or final climb. Lets hope Cadel has the legs like he did in the final week of last years tour, and not the ones from a week ago.

This is going to be a big one. Shame on those who not only choose pessimism, but then wave it in the face of those who genuinely want to enjoy the spectacle. And it is a choice...

 

[jobiwan]

Surely it will. Just look at the 1912 and 1913 TdF. In 1912 they did these passes going west and the first two riders finished together where as in 1913 they went from west to east and the time difference between the first two riders was 18 min!

I think it's safe to say times have changed.
That stage was also 326 kilometers long, which, as you'll note, this is not.

Expect 1 minute between the first GC guy and the tenth, unless Nibbles goes on the Peyresourde, then maybe 1:30.

Of course, I would love to be proven wrong. I just don't have much to base my hope on.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

This is the descent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7xnmalQqSk

 

[jobiwan]

This is going to be a big one. Shame on those who not only choose pessimism, but then wave it in the face of those who genuinely want to enjoy the spectacle. And it is a choice...

It's a forum. People disagree. It happens.