2014 Paris - Nice, Stage 6: Saint-Saturnin-lès-Avignon - Fayence (221.5 km)

[Ryo Hazuki]

A Frenchie rode the spokes out of Kelderman's wheel at 2 k to go, and Wilco still managed to finish at 40 secs... chances are he did the fastest climb of them all. Add a lilttle anger and frustration, and I think we can expect a big attack from him in the final weekend.

and you call me a colombian chauvinist

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I'm still watching the stage but I'm quite surprised that Rui managed to stay with Betancourt in such a finish. It would be a decent result if he can hang on to the podium. Anyway maybe the jersey has a curse considering that Rui is starting to compete with Colbrelli in the "placing-but-no-wins-throphy"

Also good to see one of my favourite riders, Frank Schleck, back with a good performance. Andy should look up to him in terms of professionalism.


He may loose some more time on the Col d'Eze depending on how it's raced.

if youe evn saw the race you'd know costa couldn't hold betancurts whele at all. would teh finish have been 500 metres fruther betancurt would've solo'd with ease. costa just found himself in front rigth before the finish when betancurt made an enormous jump almost from the back of the group

 

[roundabout]

How fast were they compared to the grande JTL to the hairpins?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Yes, there's most likely other factors. We know that the parcours were the deciding factor for Porte at least.

Also I struggle to see why classic riders would chose T-A this year. Clearly the decision have very little to do with the parcours unless most are just interested in training miles.

 

[roundabout]

He couldn't. Costa was suddenly in front when the guy who was leading crashed and the people behind him were held up by that, but Costa steered clear of it and attacked and had a decent gap. Betancur came from waaaaay back to beat him just in team for the finish. Certainly Costa was very good btw, but Betancur was even better.

Not really, he was 4th or 5th when they caught Vuillermoz.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's no coincidence that the big guns prefer Tirreno more and more. ASO really has to think about their parours. It seems to get worse every year.

They produced a good Dauphiné route this year, so in order to preserve their reputation they had to produce a dreadfully uninspiring P-N route. Again, it's not about mountaintop finishes or 90km attacks... it's about misuse of potential. The last two stages could both have been so much more than they are, that would have made the racing much more selective and given us much more scope for excitement. Bearing in mind unless somebody crashes out big-style early on in the stage Sophia Antipolis will be a break-with-a-few-seconds or a sprint from a reduced bunch, this stage is intended as the equivalent to the 2009 Fayence stage or the 2010 Tourettes-sur-Loup stage, which both gave us real excitement in two totally different ways.

On the other hand, a Nice-Nice short loop stage is a huge, huge improvement over the last two years, where we've had an utterly pointless Biot-like stage finishing on the Promenade des Anglais with 50km+ from the final climb then a Col d'Èze ITT which, though traditional, has failed to ignite racing as people have been happy to wait for it and thus taken no risks in the Nice stage, although I would have preferred the La Turbie-Èze directly backing onto each other combination even though that only uses the last 3/4 of Èze, just for the connectivity of the climbs. The descent finish into Nice from the East is also highly traditional and appealing, and I'm glad to see it back.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Not really, he was 4th or 5th when they caught Vuillermoz.

yes but just bwefore that he was way back. he alreayd started to make his jump with 1 k to go when he was in the back of the group. an incredible performance and sign of strenght

 

[trevim]

if youe evn saw the race you'd know costa couldn't hold betancurts whele at all. would teh finish have been 500 metres fruther betancurt would've solo'd with ease. costa just found himself in front rigth before the finish when betancurt made an enormous jump almost from the back of the group

As I said in the comment, I was still watching the race. I was surprised when I looked at the results.

 

[roundabout]

I could be wrong, as I have only seen the replay which just ended and I was watching with 1 eye open, but to me it seemed that he was near the front when the climb started.

 

[BigMac]

I could be wrong, as I have only seen the replay which just ended and I was watching with 1 eye open, but to me it seemed that he was near the front when the climb started.

Yes, he was near the front when the climb started with 3 of his team mates. He just spent the entire stage in the very back of the peloton, like he has been doing since the beginning of the race.

And once again, what the actual Lampre, why is Rui always alone. Not a single team mate with him, its truly pathetic. Those guys at Lampre have 0 tactical sence.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

serpa has been riding very well thoiugh., he attacked today and still finished in front and is still good in gc as well. I just don';t think serpa helps out costa a lot.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

snipped..

And once again, what the actual Lampre, why is Rui always alone. Not a single team mate with him, its truly pathetic. Those guys at Lampre have 0 tactical sence.

Not disagreeing (broadly), but they did send Niemec up the road with Schleck. Of course it would have been much better if it was somebody who could actually descend but sometimes you can't chose these things.

Serpa went earlier or later? Can't remember.

 

[Anderis]

What an incredible misfortune for Slagter.

 

[BigMac]

Not disagreeing (broadly), but they did send Niemec up the road with Schleck. Of course it would have been much better if it was somebody who could actually descend but sometimes you can't chose these things.

Serpa went earlier or later? Can't remember.

He went first, near the foot of the climb iirc. My problem with them is they don't position themselves where they should. Astana, Ag2r, Sky, they're always well positioned and always have someone near their leaders. I'm starting to think it is free-for-all in Lampre.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

He went first, near the foot of the climb iirc. My problem with them is they don't position themselves where they should. Astana, Ag2r, Sky, they're always well positioned and always have someone near their leaders. I'm starting to think it is free-for-all in Lampre.

yea, possible. I wonder if the void left by Scarponi has created a bit of anarchy.

 

[Parrulo]

He couldn't. Costa was suddenly in front when the guy who was leading crashed and the people behind him were held up by that, but Costa steered clear of it and attacked and had a decent gap. Betancur came from waaaaay back to beat him just in team for the finish. Certainly Costa was very good btw, but Betancur was even better.

By "waaaaay back" you mean Costa's wheel right? Because that was where Betancur was when the crash happened.

yes but just bwefore that he was way back. he alreayd started to make his jump with 1 k to go when he was in the back of the group. an incredible performance and sign of strenght

AG2R was at the front of the race with 3 riders when the climb started and Betancur was the third, so he didn't start from way back.

 

[Christian]

Well today was fun! The area around Bonnieux is my favourite place to ride, so of course I had to go today to encourage the riders. It really was a great day for riding, perfect weather, little wind, lots of trees blooming. So there were a lot of riders out on the road up to Bonnieux, it felt a bit like a cyclosportive at times. On the summit the majority of spectators were older riders from local clubs.

A moto from the race was parked there and they had the race radio cranked up, so we got life updates on who was attacking and who was falling behind on the way up. The town Bonnieux lies in a hill and from the very bottom the climb does drag out a bit. Must have been fun to watch the riders going through the town too, it has very narrow roads. Really beautiful, I can only recommend it.

It must have been raced quite fast. This was 37km in and no break had formed yet. Sylvain Chavanel had a 10 second advantage to the peloton, which was "en file indienne" as they say in France, a single line. There was already a small gruppetto and some riders were even further back, namely Isaychev who was easy to recognise. I think he was the last rider to pass, and I saw he abandoned.

The ambiance was great, especially since Chavanel was first, and when Thomas Voeckler attacked the peloton at the top of the climb, "the crowd went f*cking wild", to quote Eddie Izzard. Was a nice moment to witness! Another fun moment was one guy encouraging a rider who was slightly behind the peloton, saying "Allez, it's the descent now!" even though the rider most likely didn't speak French (I forgot which team it was, but it wasn't a French team). Doesn't matter, everyone gets cheered on.

Unfortunately my camera crapped out on me (the batteries on those little ones really don't last long, do they?), so I only managed to get a few pictures. They didn't turn out too bad though, I think.

 

[Rollthedice]

Thanks. Great pictures and story!

 

[Christian]

Thanks! I just watched the final km's, AG2R looked quite strong. Great performance by Vuillermoz for sure. Also nice to see Denifl so active again

 

[Der Effe]

and you call me a colombian chauvinist

I don't think you understand what chauvinist means.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

don't care about this PN anymore

for **** suck how is it possible that out of 1 swing of the peloton at 2km to go, the 2 Dutchman in the top 10 get screwed... one loses all spokes in his front wheel (Kelderman). Slagter was stuck in 1 gear, still managed to put in the decisive attack, and then breaks of his derailleur completely with that move..

Epic bad luck..

 

[manafana]

jealous of the pictures great see forum guys getting out to watch the racing in the flesh

 

[Afrank]

don't care about this PN anymore

for **** suck how is it possible that out of 1 swing of the peloton at 2km to go, the 2 Dutchman in the top 10 get screwed... one loses all spokes in his front wheel (Kelderman). Slagter was stuck in 1 gear, still managed to put in the decisive attack, and then breaks of his derailleur completely with that move..

Epic bad luck..

There's no such thing as the curse of the rainbow jersey. The curse of the Rabobank and the rabo-fail however...lives on.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

He went first, near the foot of the climb iirc. My problem with them is they don't position themselves where they should. Astana, Ag2r, Sky, they're always well positioned and always have someone near their leaders. I'm starting to think it is free-for-all in Lampre.

lampre has always been a free for all

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

By "waaaaay back" you mean Costa's wheel right? Because that was where Betancur was when the crash happened.

Yes I watched it again and you're right!

I don't know, I remembered him being further back for some reason. Still a nice sprint by Betancur though!