: 2013 Tour de France, stage 19: Bourg-d'Oisans / Le Grand-Bornand, 203.5km

[Pippo_San]

Froomey will be angry (or hungry?) as hell.

He's gonna put in so much power that his SRM will go nuts.

 

[dgodave]

Froome will eat Richie Porte's arm up Croix Fry.

Not much meat on a cyclists arm though.

Of all the athletes I'd eat, first on the list would be the curlers.

 

[slosada]

what would you people do if you were movistar DS tomorrow?

Go crazy on Glandon to try and isolate and crack Froome or play it safe and wait for Semnoz?

It depends on the ambitions: If Unzue settles for 2nd, Quintana to follow Froome's wheel until last Climb then, Contador's in the last descent. Because it seems a given that Contador cannot follow Naironman in a MTF (Annecy).

But if they dream big, they should leave every once of energy tomorrow to isolate and scare Froome, and work with Saxo and Katusha to set multiple attacks in the first 2 HCs, a fast but irregular pace. Quintana to stretch legs near the top, nothing serious but to make Froome work (and panic), and maybe collecting a few KOM points. Then they will need to prevent skyborgs to return to the group in the descent and 25 flat Kms...
At this point they can take a little break... and make the last 50Km all or nothing attempt, leaving all the responsibility to Froome to follow each attack (unlike stage 9) he cannot mark 4 guys.

OTOH, it would be interesting that someone carry a freq blocker (jammer) to just to see how Froome reacts

 

[ThirdWorld]

The glandon is very hard.. I almost cry climbing it last july.... they will climb it like they did in the last tdf? last year, it was first madelaine than glandon...

 

[ThirdWorld]

It depends on the ambitions: If Unzue settles for 2nd, Quintana to follow Froome's wheel until last Climb then, Contador's in the last descent. Because it seems a given that Contador cannot follow Naironman in a MTF (Annecy).

But if they dream big, they should leave every once of energy tomorrow to isolate and scare Froome, and work with Saxo and Katusha to set multiple attacks in the first 2 HCs, a fast but irregular pace. Quintana to stretch legs near the top, nothing serious but to make Froome work (and panic), and maybe collecting a few KOM points. Then they will need to prevent skyborgs to return to the group in the descent and 25 flat Kms...
At this point they can take a little break... and make the last 50Km all or nothing attempt, leaving all the responsibility to Froome to follow each attack (unlike stage 9) he cannot mark 4 guys.

OTOH, it would be interesting that someone carry a freq blocker (jammer) to just to see how Froome reacts

it will be great, but movistar entered in this tdf thiking only about a podium position... they only think about getting time on contador-romain...

 

[Rajna31]

Agree. Ever since he came back from his suspension, he's (generally) lacked the power to sustain his attacks.

At least he had an attack at the Vuelta right after his suspension that he was able to sustain. That wasn't a tough mountain though.

 

[Duke_S]

Froome is showing cracks. Time for Quintana to repeat his Tourmalet-Spandelles performance and completely destroy the field

 

[skidmark]

Tricky to predict what'll happen. I like the 'send some help up the road on Glandon and then try to attack on Madeline' idea, but that's counter to the 'make the stage effing hard from the start' idea, which I also like. Froome does seem weirdly vulnerable for such an invincible guy... maybe the sharks in the water sense that, but probably not. At least we could depend on Contador to attack early, but his attack will probably lack punch and not really get anywhere, so that won't do anything either. I'd say it's a 60% chance nothing at all goddamn happens. But I'm still setting the early alarm to see it right from the start.

 

[DirtyWorks]

..But if they dream big, they should leave every once of energy tomorrow to isolate and scare Froome,

Unfortunately, it appears Froome has enough power to address all of your tactics. Froome's team have reappeared and all appear set to do tempo.

I don't know what happened with Froome today, but he ended up taking more time from his GC rivals. Hardly pressure.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Tricky to predict what'll happen. I like the 'send some help up the road on Glandon and then try to attack on Madeline' idea,

Someone please explain how riding the two HC climbs hard will matter when the finish line is some 100K AFTER the second HC climb.

 

[dgodave]

Someone please explain how riding the two HC climbs hard will matter when the finish line is some 100K AFTER the second HC climb.

Better chance of exposing weakness or bad-day than a bunch of flat?

 

[wwabbit]

Someone please explain how riding the two HC climbs hard will matter when the finish line is some 100K AFTER the second HC climb.

It's possible if you can get a very strong front group that can ride away from the second group (where presumably Froome will be left in) for the entire 100km after. Sort of like what Cannondale did with OPQS and Lotto.

 

[Sasquatch]

Someone please explain how riding the two HC climbs hard will matter when the finish line is some 100K AFTER the second HC climb.

Sky have shown weakness when there are climbs at the start of the stage with all their riders dropping off. If teams put the hammer down early, they can drop Porte and everyone else and isolate Froome. Keep the pace on to make sure Porte doesn't get back. This has the potential to be similar to Stage 9.

Will it be? Most likely not. No one will make 5 minutes up on Froome and everyone is riding for/defending their podium place. But a lot of people here want to believe!

 

[airstream]

Someone please explain how riding the two HC climbs hard will matter when the finish line is some 100K AFTER the second HC climb.

Eternal illusion of Contador's or someone's else early attack.

 

[Alphabet]

Does anybody know how early TV coverage starts? I have a feeling that SBS won't start coverage until after both HC climbs .

 

[Oliver]

I hope De Gendt can show something today, looks like a good stage for him.

 

[tomorrow]

well, spanish colombian alliance could come to reality, at least, they should agree on not chasing themselves in the first two climbs. They need to isolate froome and then tire him and eventually break him on the last hill.

If by any miracle, the HC climbs are not raced hard by the peloton, then someone like Gilbert, Sagan, average climblers might succeed to get in the break and get the win too. Something similar like last year stage 14.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Breakaway - Kloden!

 

[movingtarget]

Now this is a brutal stage. Expecting Quintana and Rodriguez to come out to play again. Time gaps should be huge. Can Saxo hang on or will Quintana and Rodriguez continue to make time ? Froome won't want to show any weakness on this stage.

 

[sulgpallur]

Does anybody know how early TV coverage starts? I have a feeling that SBS won't start coverage until after both HC climbs .

Eurosport should start in 2hours time

 

[movingtarget]

Does anybody know how early TV coverage starts? I have a feeling that SBS won't start coverage until after both HC climbs .

SBS is starting their TV coverage at 9.30 instead of 10 but it should be on the website earlier. Cycling Central. It was on earlier last night.

 

[wwabbit]

well, spanish colombian alliance could come to reality, at least, they should agree on not chasing themselves in the first two climbs. They need to isolate froome and then tire him and eventually break him on the last hill.

I don't know man... lots of people have been predicting Spanish alliance against Sky, but I think I see a lot more of Movistar and Sky working together against Saxo Bank. Fortunately for Saxo Bank they seem to have Belkin on their side.

 

[tomorrow]

I don't know man... lots of people have been predicting Spanish alliance against Sky, but I think I see a lot more of Movistar and Sky working together against Saxo Bank. Fortunately for Saxo Bank they seem to have Belkin on their side.

i know, that was more prediction what they should do if they want to break Froome, but unfortunately, vomistar will probably be more interested in getting quintana to second overall than attacking the yellow. But attacking the yellow would be so much more fun for us to watch.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

where did you see this? He doesn't seem afraid to me? the only indication is only from his whining about alberto recklessness. If he is worry about quintana, i think, so far he got quintana in his back pocket. He always initiated the attack so he can draw quintana out and then told him to work together to distant contador. Pretty nifty tactic i might say. Even contador today's said, he didn't understand why froome attack with 12km to go. Well, my guess is that. Take quintana with froome and have him work for froome. It's a common goal at the end.

that's why quintana attacked froome hard when he saw he was blowing

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Froome is showing cracks. Time for Quintana to repeat his Tourmalet-Spandelles performance and completely destroy the field

quintana it's time to unlkeash your route dus sud attackm in the storming weather. that was beyond epic.