2013 Tour de France, Stage 13: Tours - Saint-Amand-Montrond (173 km)

[theovaf]

Is there any video at all of the situation just before 1.55 on that video? I think it was shown live at the time and it seemed to show it breaking fairly quickly, with Froome several cyclists behind. I remember thinking he wasnt in a bad position and then he was when it split a few guys in front.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720...&id=decisive-break-happened-154211820&yr=2013

 

[Hawkwood]

A few pointers for todays stage:

* Great work by OPQs.
How they killed of Kittel, o la la, incredible. Cannondale style.

* Mark Cavendish
I dont like the little troll but hell, he was there when the Saxo Bullet was fired. Incredible.

Just seen a clip where the first echelon was formed and Kittel had been left behind, Cav was pulling on the front with the rest of OPQS. So not just there for the Saxo Bullet, he was actually setting up the ambush from the start.

 

[theovaf]

lol you guys have no idfea about how it works. team directors aren't phoning each other during the race. froome in fact asked every team in his group to pls help him. that;'s how it really goes. people here overrate radios and tv's and directors influences so much. the whole saxo coupe was planned by rogers on the fly, riis just sat and watched, yet everywhere I hear riis' masterplan blabla

ok, so what were they pulling for? i thought that sky was the team loosing under the circumstances. so sky had to pull to bring the break back. the other teams could have waited for sky and Froome to die first. that would create a more open field for the stages to come.

well this i find hard to believe:
froome to bmc/ag2r- could you pls bury yourselves dor me?
answer- sure why not

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

lol you guys have no idfea about how it works. team directors aren't phoning each other during the race. froome in fact asked every team in his group to pls help him. that;'s how it really goes. people here overrate radios and tv's and directors influences so much. the whole saxo coupe was planned by rogers on the fly, riis just sat and watched, yet everywhere I hear riis' masterplan blabla

You are so funny. BMC took the lead immediately with the Katusha's, no time negotiate at all. And really, do you think Peraud would ride for Froome after that BS on L'Ospedale?

Go play Cycling Manager.

Just seen a clip where the first echelon was formed and Kittel had been left behind, Cav was pulling on the front with the rest of OPQS. So not just there for the Saxo Bullet, he was actually setting up the ambush from the start.

It was all planned. QS and Belkin were in the same hotel last night.

And indeed, Cavendish was great today, hats of for him. Kittel came back to 20 seconds and then QS stepped on the gas. Classic stuff today.

I only have a dirty taste in my mouth with Belkin/Valverde.

 

[Frosty]

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720...&id=decisive-break-happened-154211820&yr=2013

Hm, difficult to see exactly what the order was - doesnt help that the rider on the front obscures the view! Looks like a Cannondale rider might have be unable to hold the wheels, along with Kwiatowski. There was a Sky rider with Froome at the time but he seemed to slip back down the group at the time. Stannard said they were trying to regroup so maybe he was looking to bring the others up.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

You are so funny. BMC took the lead immediately with the Katusha's, no time negotiate at all. And really, do you think Peraud would ride for Froome after that BS on L'Ospedale?

Go play Cycling Manager.

then nico verhoeven (and tankink) must be a liars when he said froome asked every team to pls him him in the chase

 

[DirtyWorks]

lol you guys have no idfea about how it works. team directors aren't phoning each other during the race.

Evidence please. I'm not saying it isn't true. It's one of the less documented aspects of elite racing.

 

[The Sheep]

Evidence please. I'm not saying it isn't true. It's one of the less documented aspects of elite racing.

Letting the riders do it is a lot faster.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Evidence please. I'm not saying it isn't true. It's one of the less documented aspects of elite racing.

if you've ever been in a cycling race asa rider with earpieces. you'd know you hear almost nothing through them. 90% of teh time it's blabla bs anyway and directors often don't even have working tv's on board or a clue about the race. it's mostly chaos. this isn't a videogame and today prooved that. absolutel;y NOTHING was made a deal on during the day. omega and belkin were in the same hotels and simply named the 3 points where they would attack and that was it, they don't talk during the race. saxo's attack wasn;t even planned, but made up 3 seconds before they went, by the RIDERS. another good example is bmc. as auto panick mode evans puts his whole team chasing,. but much later like what 20 minutes. finally the message gets through to not chase

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

then nico verhoeven (and tankink) must be a liars when he said froome asked every team to pls him him in the chase

Am I dismissing Frommel asked Tankink? I saw Brammetje too today, on NOS and Sporza.

I am talking of BMC and Katusha coming up the front immediately after Saxo gassed up. No time for lobbying there. That was my point.

The only teams who should have been interested in getting the break back should have been Sky an Lotto. Or do Katusha really think Rodriguez in this form has a chance of a podium? BMC and Cadel? Ag2R and Peraud? Garmin and Martin?

Some real dumb riders/directeurs sportifs there.

 

[DirtyWorks]

It was all planned. QS and Belkin were in the same hotel last night.

The race has to put everyone up in these towns and so teams will end up in the same hotels.

It doesn't mean teams don't talk to each other. I believe they do. I just don't think accommodations is the cause of coordination.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Am I dismissing Frommel asked Tankink? I saw Brammetje too today, on NOS and Sporza.

I am talking of BMC and Katusha coming up the front immediately after Saxo gassed up. No time for lobbying there. That was my point.

The only teams who should have been interested in getting the break back should have been Sky an Lotto. Or do Katusha really think Rodriguez in this form has a chance of a podium? BMC and Cadel? Ag2R and Peraud? Garmin and Martin?

Some real dumb riders/directeurs sportifs there.

bmc went immediately to teh front as evans always auto panicks and lets his whole team work. katusha were working for kristoff and not purito, until they realised he couldn';t get back either and they stopped like lotto

 

[theovaf]

question remains
why didn;t they make froome work?

 

[DirtyWorks]

if you've ever been in a cycling race asa rider with earpieces. you'd know you hear almost nothing through them....

Again, not saying your claims aren't true. I certainly don't know. But, maybe there's some corroboration for your claims somewhere?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

question remains
why didn;t they make froome work?

There can only be two reasons imo:

They didn't think it was needed or

Froome didn't have a good day.

 

[DirtyWorks]

question remains
why didn;t they make froome work?

Because it wasn't that big a deal to lose some time with Ventoux a day away.

Let's take today to an extreme for a minute. Imagine Froome somehow lost the GC lead by 30 seconds-2 minutes to someone. He's got Ventoux, a TT, and some mountains to reclaim the imagined lost lead.

He can lose some time on stages like this. Now, if he loses time on Ventoux or other mountainous stages, that's different.

Maybe another way to say it, the winner is the GC leader on the last day.

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

bmc went immediately to teh front as evans always auto panicks and lets his whole team work. katusha were working for kristoff and not purito, until they realised he couldn';t get back either and they stopped like lotto

We have a somehow different interpretation but it basicly come down to the same.

question remains
why didn;t they make froome work?

Good question indeed. Sky doms were dead meat. We can only conclude cyclists and their DS's are dumb f@cks with absolutely no tactical sense. Peter Post would say ''you with your big mouth and your science want to win the Tour? Get them back yourself! Learn to ride an echolon you morons!''

 

[Kokoso]

If Porte doesn't have the legs, what the hell was he doing in the TT on Wednesday?
Those who wrote Michael Rogers off (including many regular posters here) should be eating humble pie: he was awesome today.
Sky really missing him, especially given Froome's tactical ineptness

But it was Nico's idea.

 

[mc_mountain]

Couldn't make head nor tail of Stannard's interview

He was a long way behind Froome when Saxo attacked. Looked like bad positioning on Stannard's part to me

So either Froome was unable to follow Stannard after this

Or Stannard is being a tad disingenuous

Both options are really, really bad news for Sky

Unless I've misunderstood both the interview and race situation?

Take another look - as Saxo put their foot on the gas, Stannard is driving in front of Froome - if he could have ridden hard for another 100 metres that might have done the trick. Maybe he thought he'd got Froome close enough. By the time Cav makes his effort to join the lead group Stannard is well out of the picture giving the impression Froome was isolated.

 

[skidmark]

Because it wasn't that big a deal to lose some time with Ventoux a day away.

Let's take today to an extreme for a minute. Imagine Froome somehow lost the GC lead by 30 seconds-2 minutes to someone. He's got Ventoux, a TT, and some mountains to reclaim the imagined lost lead.

He can lose some time on stages like this. Now, if he loses time on Ventoux or other mountainous stages, that's different.

Maybe another way to say it, the winner is the GC leader on the last day.

Yeah the only way this stage would have been better is if Froome had broken a wheel instead of Valverde. A Froome ten minutes down (okay, six and a half with the lead he had) would have been much more fun to watch in the stages coming up. Either way, even though he hasn't shown personal weakness, I think the sharks smell blood and I hope the frenzy is starting.

 

[theovaf]

Because it wasn't that big a deal to lose some time with Ventoux a day away.

Let's take today to an extreme for a minute. Imagine Froome somehow lost the GC lead by 30 seconds-2 minutes to someone. He's got Ventoux, a TT, and some mountains to reclaim the imagined lost lead.

He can lose some time on stages like this. Now, if he loses time on Ventoux or other mountainous stages, that's different.

Maybe another way to say it, the winner is the GC leader on the last day.

not extreme at all.
i say make him work his *** off to loose the time he lost today (he explodes and the other teams take over to defend their positions). Then imagine froome's condition tomorrow, the day after that, and the week to come. Then the mj is 2.5min closer...

 

[Frosty]

Take another look - as Saxo put their foot on the gas, Stannard is driving in front of Froome - if he could have ridden hard for another 100 metres that might have done the trick. Maybe he thought he'd got Froome close enough. By the time Cav makes his effort to join the lead group Stannard is well out of the picture giving the impression Froome was isolated.

Yeah, i noticed that too. He did mention they were trying to regroup. He could just have been saying that but i think he might have got Froome out and then gone looking for the others to help bring them back up. Easy to say he should have stayed with Froome in a dangerous situation but maybe he was thinking about making sure the others were close to the front too and didnt realise quite how hard they were driving at the front. Froome was pretty much on Cav's wheel and maybe he thought that would be ok, if Cav got dropped then they would have OPL helping close things down.

As to other teams driving on the front i would have thought that part of this was to make sure they were on the front in case it broke up further. A few kms earlier echelons had formed but it came back together again. On that occasion it looked like BMC were badly caught out and pretty much had their own echelon at the back.

 

[akrogirl]

A few pointers for todays stage:

* Great work by OPQs.
How they killed of Kittel, o la la, incredible. Cannondale style.

I still haven't been able to find any independent confirmation that Kittel had a mechanical - just de Kort's Tweet. Does anyone have any details?

 

[the sceptic]

Saxo about to put the hammer down now (on eurosport 2)

 

[Carols]

I expect Movistar to be fired up in the mountains and put the hammer down just in spite (they kinda indicated that after the stage too)

Great News Setting up Quintana to win stages and keep his GC top 10 I guess. Was thinking maybe Valverde would back off and save something for the Vuelta now.