2014 Tour de France, Stage 7: Epernay–Nancy (234.5 Km)

[LaFlorecita]

Yes it will seem as an atrocity to drop back frome everyone to offload the jersey risking the excact thing you say..
But let's think about it..
What is the chance of another 8 second GT win? close to zero i would say..
Furthermore this plan could give Nibali the final edge he needs beeing totally fresh without a all the extra duties.. IMO it's easily more worth than a loss of 3 seconds to other contenders..

Then again we have 1 rider with a big advantage on presumably the best climber in the race... it could come down to seconds

 

[Publicus]

If Astana's tactic is to hand the jersey over to Birdsong, why in G-d's name is Birdsong talking about it in the press??? Moreover, how does this help? On balance, yes Nibali has fewer post-race responsibilities, but the converse is the team STILL has responsibility on most upcoming stages, Birdsong will now have all of those post-race responsibilities and most likely this will all go to Birdsong's head (and from all indications he thinks VERY highly of his own talents) and could create problems in the future (internal team politics).

All of that being said, I suspect this is just a double-head fake to set up Birdsong as a plausible Plan B and other teams to try and chase him should he attack, etc. Offense as defense and all that.

 

[Frosty]

Anyone, who is in the break?

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2014/us/live/aso/

 

[mrhender]

Then again we have 1 rider with a big advantage on presumably the best climber in the race... it could come down to seconds

Yes it could, and that would be totally awesome
I myself layed out the scenario in the clinic thread just before....
I couldn't wish for anything more, but I don't get my hopes up yet

 

[tomorrow]

any chance sagan wanting to leave some power for tomorrow? As the peloton must be quite fatiqued and the pace might not be killing on the two 2cat climbs?

 

[mrhender]

If Astana's tactic is to hand the jersey over to Birdsong, why in G-d's name is Birdsong talking about it in the press??? Moreover, how does this help? On balance, yes Nibali has fewer post-race responsibilities, but the converse is the team STILL has responsibility on most upcoming stages, Birdsong will now have all of those post-race responsibilities and most likely this will all go to Birdsong's head (and from all indications he thinks VERY highly of his own talents) and could create problems in the future (internal team politics).

All of that being said, I suspect this is just a double-head fake to set up Birdsong as a plausible Plan B and other teams to try and chase him should he attack, etc. Offense as defense and all that.

The bolded:
Why shouldn't he?
He has progressed every year and was 7th in 2013...
It's not that I see him winning this tour, but is it really more plasuble that a guy like Froome over a short space of time suddently becomes the best cyclist in the world? (sorry if too clinic related)
Fuglsang has improved consitently over the yers and could one day podium in a GT if he progresses as he has done so far IMO..

 

[Cimber]

Luckily, this time there is plenty of time

 

[Dazed and Confused]

any chance sagan wanting to leave some power for tomorrow? As the peloton must be quite fatiqued and the pace might not be killing on the two 2cat climbs?

To me Sagan has a better chance today than tomorrow.

Surely with such a finale today, he would be a favorite.

But he can also win stage 8, but that depends much more on GC riders imo.

So yea, I would go all in today.

 

[wirral]

Get that Stefano bloke off the TV.

 

[indianfanboy]

We'll see some fireworks from the GC guys tomorrow although the gaps wont be too big.Astana look strong as a team they will try to control the finish for tomorrow.

 

[Tom T.]

Read in the ticker that the final climb today tops out at 5 km to go followed by a technical descent. Any chance Nibali attacks and tries to pry some more precious seconds out of Contador? I'm not familiar with today's run-in, anyone have more specific knowledge of it?

 

[Netserk]

any chance sagan wanting to leave some power for tomorrow? As the peloton must be quite fatiqued and the pace might not be killing on the two 2cat climbs?

Tomorrow will be the first stage without Sagan in the final. Way too hard for him.

 

[veji11]

any chance sagan wanting to leave some power for tomorrow? As the peloton must be quite fatiqued and the pace might not be killing on the two 2cat climbs?

I think it's the other way round. Tomorrow would already be very hard for him if it was a one day race, too steep. At the very limit of his abilities at best, and most likely beyond.

Add to this that we are in the Tour with guys like Valverde, Contador, Purito, Kwiat and many others on top form... Sagan will just relax tomorrow me thinks and not make any effort. So today is the day. He hasn't scored where he should have (stages 2 and 5), but has done what he had to on the flat ones so the green jersey is secure.

Now today is one of the few stages tailor made for him. My take is he takes the saturday and monday off, maybe goes on a raid on sunday, but most probably just takes the whole week end off.

For him key stages for a win are today, wednesday in Oyonnax and thursday in St Etienne. After that it gets harder... maybe Bergerac on the friday ?

So it's all in today and then 4 days of rest.

 

[Cimber]

Read in the ticker that the final climb today tops out at 5 km to go followed by a technical descent. Any chance Nibali attacks and tries to pry some more precious seconds out of Contador? I'm not familiar with today's run-in, anyone have more specific knowledge of it?

I have been thinking the same thing. An Nibali is an upredictable attacker.

 

[indianfanboy]

Read in the ticker that the final climb today tops out at 5 km to go followed by a technical descent. Any chance Nibali attacks and tries to pry some more precious seconds out of Contador? I'm not familiar with today's run-in, anyone have more specific knowledge of it?

yeah there is a 1km 7% climb tops out at 5km..the run is is technical..dont see any GC guys escaping a sprint finish by a reduced bunch

My pick for the win is Kristoff

 

[Netserk]

The bolded:
Why shouldn't he?
He has progressed every year and was 7th in 2013...
It's not that I see him winning this tour, but is it really more plasuble that a guy like Froome over a short space of time suddently becomes the best cyclist in the world? (sorry if too clinic related)
Fuglsang has improved consitently over the yers and could one day podium in a GT if he progresses as he has done so far IMO..

I didn't see a lot of progress between 2009 and 2012...

 

[ToreBear]

I think this is smart cannondale tactics. Make it hard early on: 1. tire the purer sprinters and 2. tire the favorites.

Hence there might be a high speed on the final climbing, but not so high that Sagan is exhausted.

 

[Jspear]

I didn't see a lot of progress between 2009 and 2012...

I haven't followed his career that closely, but how much opportunity has he been given to show if he has progressed or not? He seemed to rise to the occasion when he was given the opportunity last TdF.

 

[wahl84]

Who have been setting the pace for the most at Cannondale? Is Di Marchi as well a regular in that "pace-train"?

 

[mrhender]

I didn't see a lot of progress between 2009 and 2012...

I see your point regarding race reults.. The statement i made has flaws yes..
However he took the step from captain to novice in 2009..
He had to learn to ride bigger races whilst beeing a support for others..

I would argue that it takes some time to find your place at the level he entered back then but I always considered him to be developing during those years.
His Radioshack time was far from perfect, but still learning and building on his experience, how to ride 3-week stages, recovering etc..

 

[Carstenbf]

Possibly heavy showers developing for the final. Weather guy talked about thunder etc. Asked about whether it's likely to affect the peleton, he said 50/50.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Who have been setting the pace for the most at Cannondale? Is Di Marchi as well a regular in that "pace-train"?

Right now 9 Cannons at front with Ted King doing 90% of work.

 

[Akuryo]

I see your point regarding race reults.. The statement i made has flaws yes..
However he took the step from captain to novice in 2009..
He had to learn to ride bigger races whilst beeing a support for others..

I would argue that it takes some time to find your place at the level he entered back then but I always considered him to be developing during those years.
His Radioshack time was far from perfect, but still learning and building on his experience, how to ride 3-week stages, recovering etc..

Sometimes it is just the change of teams. Kwiatkowski for example did almost nothing for Caja Rural or RadioShack but was getting results from the get go for Quickstep.

 

[Kender]

Right now 9 Cannons at front with Ted King doing 90% of work.

And being fed by Porte for his efforts

 

[Bumeington]

If Fuglsang can attack and gain a few seconds - fine. Nibali giving up time on purpose just seems silly. What if it really came down to a matter of seconds in Paris ?

Why didn't they do this already on the cobbled stage is my thinking? Fuglsang could have had 3 seconds there at the end it looked like