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2012 Tour de France: Stage 5: Rouen → Saint-Quentin (196.5km)

The only road stage of this years Tour with no categorized climbs.

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Finale
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A couple of corners in the penultimate kilometre and an uphill sprint (1km @ 2.8%) for the sprinters to tackle.

Contenders - Greipel, Cavendish, Sagan, Goss, Farrar, Renshaw, Veelers/Kittel, Petacchi, Friere, Van Hummel, Hutarovich, Haedo.
(The sprinters in italics were involved in today's crash, so may not be 100% for this stage)
 
Jul 4, 2011
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Great Job

Thanks for the new thread Geraint
I find it very useful throughout the race
A great job.

On another note, will the fact that Cav has lost weight help him out today ?
 
Fight.The.Power said:
Thanks for the new thread Geraint
I find it very useful throughout the race
A great job.

On another note, will the fact that Cav has lost weight help him out today ?

+1
Given the material G had to work with!

Near 5 hours of total procession, followed by a massed pile up.
Winner is the last sprinter standing.
 
Dec 30, 2011
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markov111 said:
Does Veelers have a chance with this hill or would EBH be a better bet?

Or will EBH just be a work horse for cav?

EbH seems to working on and off for Cav... on Stage 2 he was apparently told to go for the sprint if he could but he didnt have the positioning.

Tomorow Cav might try jumping again like on Monday so EbH may have a free reign or he may require EBH to shepherd him. Though he does have Eisel as well for that.
 
Dec 30, 2011
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Lance Armstrong said:
Uphill finish makes it more interesting. Goss can win here, maybe even Sagan. Greipel and Cav are still favorites though.

Going at the speed they will be going, I doubt they will even notice the gradient.
 
Dec 30, 2011
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cycladianpirate said:
In this tour? Crashes are the new black in the Tour these days. Hadn't you noticed? ;)

In the Tour these days? Crashes are the new black in all GT's nowadays or did you not watch the Giro? ;)
 
Froome19 said:
In the Tour these days? Crashes are the new black in all GT's nowadays or did you not watch the Giro? ;)

It's the product of UCI rankings, more conservative racing and backloaded routes. Everybody's still got a chance to be up there because the route hasn't weeded out any contenders (hey, it's still halfway through week 1, but when this phase of the race continues to the halfway point like in the 2011 Tour, you're asking for trouble), being up there in an anonymous lower-end-of-top-10 GC position is more important because of the UCI points, and the riders are scared to break out and scared to lose time.

So, as a result, you get a week of every team trying to keep their contenders up in the mix, usually with at least one or two domestiques, and it's just too crowded at the front for everybody to fit in, and it pushes the tempo up as everybody's constantly jostling for positions near the front, especially once you start adding sprinters and their trains to the mix late on.

A couple of days of this isn't too much of a problem, but when you start throwing tight corners and road furniture in the closing stages into the pot for good measure like that mad Giro stage with the hairpin bend at the end, crashes are an inevitable consequence.
 
Oct 16, 2009
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Froome19 said:
Going at the speed they will be going, I doubt they will even notice the gradient.
There's a >90 degree (going into a roundabout?) turn just before the flamme rouge though. Everyone will lose speed there, some more than others. My prediction: Fabu to attack out of the corner and win in the maillout jaune in front of Cav.
 
Jun 22, 2011
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When will Kittel be up & running to contend in again - I'm guessing tomorrow & Friday are too early for him?

Is there any stage in this race Friere will be eyeing up for a win?
 

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