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

[Panda Claws]

Gilbert with his new tactic of fetching bottles again.

 

[the asian]

that will be five great seconds!

10 seconds. 5 at the top of the Tourmalet and 5 near the finish line.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Eisel showing his true self. After all these years of calculating time limits for Cav, he finally can show what a fantastic climber he really is! Froome to work for Eisel in the Vuelta!

 

[neineinei]

Fire in the building the Swedish Eurosport commentators was working from (Kupolen in Borlänge). They had to evacuate, and subject those used to Vacchi/Adamsson to the British commentators. Not an upgrade. Now they are back, commentating by phone. It was already a very exciting day for the Swedes with Kessiakoff defending the polkadot jersey, they didn't need any fire to keep them on their toes.

 

[Hawkwood]

All good training for the Col de Box Hill at the end of the month

Yeah but pointless if Cav's lost his sprinting legs!

 

[Bala Verde]

What's the temperature today? (In c?)

 

[Panda Claws]

What's the temperature today? (In c?)

38 according to Sporza.


De thermometer op onze motor geeft 38 graden aan. Dat neigt naar een hittegolf. Carl Berteele

He is basically saying that it is 38 degrees according to the Thermometer on his motor.

 

[vcampbell]

I remember Hesjedal's attacks much better...

His attacks was at least real attacks. He has done, what he was able to do.

 

[cineteq]

He is basically saying that it is 38 degrees according to the Thermometer on his motor.

I like it = not good for Sky

 

[maltiv]

Quick prediction:

Looks like you forgot Eisel, who has done the entire stage on the front so far...

 

[Kazistuta]

ASO needs to rethink the mountain competition (again), because it seems that every year only 1-2 people are interested in the bloody jersey.

And the difference from the sprint competition is?

Right now everyone bar Sagan has given up it seems. From the start I guess at least Greipel, Goss, Sagan and perhaps Cavendish had it in sight, but that's just four guys. Hoogerland, CAS and Moncoutie all were pretty obvious in their KoM goals.

At least we have three riders going for KoM points in the breakaway today (Although CAS couldn't accelerate quickly if his life depended on it), and Voeckler has the best kick and might challenge Kessiakoff.

 

[cineteq]

anyone knows the average speed for the first 2 hours?

 

[vcampbell]

Hondo: Cav in front on a moutain? Then I will attack on Tourmalet!

 

[Bala Verde]

It's not ASO, but UCI and it's rubbish ranking.

If KoM was worth as much points as e.g. as much as 4th place at the Tour - then lots of riders would go for it instead of defending places from 4-10 in GC. Give KoM more UCI points and lot of riders will go for it.

Now, it's almost worthless in the ranking and the points it gives.

I thought WT points for yellow are:
200
150
120
110
100

And the Polka/Green gets
100
70
40
30
25

So the Polka = 5th place in the TdF. If you can do 5th and get the Polka you win as much as the yellow jersey winner.

In this year's tour, wouldn't you expect perhaps that more people tried to go for 5-10 and get the Mountain jersey, because their time trial is not good enough to be competitive for 1-4? They seem like easy points if you have a team that already focuses on top 10.

We now have Voeckler, Kessiakoff and Rolland...

 

[Panda Claws]

They have been riding for about 2h40 minutes now, and they have done 103 km.

So that is an average of about 38-39 km/h.

 

[sultanofhyd]

anyone knows the average speed for the first 2 hours?

My crude calculation from the Tour live widget gives me 37 km/h but I'm not sure.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

38 degree celsius. That's...very hot

 

[sultanofhyd]

I just saw 4 Liquigas coming to the front, I hope they are planning something.

 

[El Pistolero]

It's not ASO, but UCI and it's rubbish ranking.

If KoM was worth as much points as e.g. as much as 4th place at the Tour - then lots of riders would go for it instead of defending places from 4-10 in GC. Give KoM more UCI points and lot of riders will go for it.

Now, it's almost worthless in the ranking and the points it gives.

No, it's ASO. They made a ranking that gives a lot of points for winning on Mountain finishes, but THEY HAVE ALMOST NO MOUNTAIN FINISHES THIS TOUR. Obviously no real climber is going to attack early to rack up all those points because they wouldn't be allowed to do that unless they lost a lot of time already. That's how you get a jersey that no one gives a **** about and quite frankly shouldn't even be considered a victory this year.

 

[roundabout]

I thought WT points for yellow are:
200
150
120
110
100

And the Polka/Green gets
100
70
40
30
25

So the Polka = 5th place in the TdF. If you can do 5th and get the Polka you win as much as the yellow jersey winner.

In this year's tour, wouldn't you expect perhaps that more people tried to go for 5-10 and get the Mountain jersey, because their time trial is not good enough to be competitive for 1-4? They seem like easy points if you have a team that already focuses on top 10.

We now have Voeckler, Kessiakoff and Rolland...

They give WT points for KoM and points? First time I've heard of this. KoM and Green do give points to the team value ranking IIRC, but not to riders directly.

 

[greenedge better then some]

I just saw 4 Liquigas coming to the front, I hope they are planning something.

yup,whchc tree to weee on

 

[vcampbell]

Cavendish decided not to win this Tour.

 

[fluffkitten]

And they've finally dropped Cav.

 

[Amused]

This stage needs a major (unexpected) Wiggins-breakdown...

 

[sultanofhyd]

Martin ripping the break to pieces.