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

[Bala Verde]

Basso needs to up the pace a bit...

Too bad Basso and Szmyd haven't been on form this TdF so far.

 

[Christomir]

So Feillu should be able to climb and/or descend better than Voeckler and win the stage, shouldn't he?

 

[its like that]

Is Feillu expecting Vockler to give him the stage by allowing him to take max KOM points?

 

[DominicDecoco]

Voigt helping his old pal.

 

[goggalor]

Liquigas may be dropping some of the lesser Sky mountain doms, but it's kind of pointless when the Tenerife quartet is sitting on, getting the same ride they'd be getting behind Hagen and Knees.

 

[T-Nielsen]

Go on Ivan. Show them who you really are.

 

[will10]

Cadel dropped!

 

[Bala Verde]

KoM
Kessiakoff 103, Voeckler 97.

And kessiakiof is not going to get any points anymore today

Evans dropped

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Evans dropped!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dutchsmurf]

Evans dropped...

 

[DominicDecoco]

Evans cooked.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Evans in big trouble!

 

[vcampbell]

Evans Now I can understand everything!

 

[will10]

He is gone.

 

[Panda Claws]

No...

 

[goggalor]

Evans dropped. That's why Liquigas are riding. ****, I was just about to say he was gonna be dropped when Liqui upped the pace.

 

[Carl0880]

Pardon my complete ignorance, but what is the allure of the World Tour points? Do teams get paid bonuses in terms of points and where they finish the season compared to other teams?

The points must be a massive incentive to make teams exclude top riders who are going to another team (Hushovd, Fuglsang) and to happily nullify the last two weeks of a GT. As a layman, I couldn't give the slightest care about Team points classifications.

EDIT: At last.

THe allure is the guarantee invite to all the major races. As we saw this year, the wild cards will sometimes go to unexpecting teams (IE Team NetApp getting a GIro invite instead of Garzellli's team) If a top team relegated, the sponsor will be unhappy, i.e. Geox who spent all the money on Sastre, Cobo and Menchov last year, and not receiving a Tour invite as a wildcard meant the sponsor didn't get a return on their investment. THus, Geox pulled the sponsorship at the end of the year.

 

[Bala Verde]

Evans will drop out of the top 5 like this...

and he and BMC know it. Only Moinard with him (no TJVG) He has given up I think

 

[Apollonius]

It always makes me smile when I see Cadel struggling

Basso and Nibali have to go out and make this work now.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Evans is simply not in good shape this year

 

[will10]

Evans is simply not in good shape this year

You can't play catchup at this level. Unless you are Froome.

 

[bubblegum]

aussies still on adds!!

 

[roundabout]

He is really struggling. Poor Cadel

 

[its like that]

Evans will comeback on the descent anyway

 

[will10]

Evans will comeback on the descent anyway

Doubt it, he is toast.