2014 Tour de France, Stage 8: Tomblaine – Gerardmer/La Mauselaine: 161km

[jens_attacks]

le papy horner oulalala comme il est fort l'americain!!!!!!

alleeeeez papyyyyyyyyyyy

 

[Ruudz0r]

Think the break also has a chance, depends on who is in it but I wonder if any team wants to ride in the first 120K

 

[infeXio]

Someone requested the profile for the 2nd climb;

It sure looks like a tricky little one

 

[indianfanboy]

Contador,Kwiatkowski,Valverde to contest for the victory with Nibali trailling by 5-10 sec and Slagter towing Talansky when he could have won!

PS:If the break is caught i doubt anyone will chase the break

 

[tomorrow]

Break or if not, then valverde and kwiat, then the rest

and yes sagan will probably not be there, but if he was ther and not won it at the end, i think that would kill him for good mentally

 

[Tournesol]

Contador,Kwiatkowski,Valverde to contest for the victory with Nibali trailling by 5-10 sec and Slagter towing Talansky when he could have won!

PS:If the break is caught i doubt anyone will chase the break

Someone must have chased the break if it got caught surely?

 

[Publicus]

should be an interesting stage. It will really depend on how they race the penultimate climb. If Purito cares and has the fitness, he could win this stage, otherwise it will be Valverde--though as someone pointed out the final climb is similar to the climb at Pais Vasco. I guess we'll see if Contador is interested in pulling back any time.

 

[indianfanboy]

Someone must have chased the break if it got caught surely?

my bad i dint punctuate it properly...but you know what i meant

 

[Tournesol]

my bad i dint punctuate it properly...but you know what i meant

No,what did you mean? If a quality break is formed, no teams will chase?

 

[indianfanboy]

the second last climb looks very steep...Contador might attack in the big ring like in Basque

 

[indianfanboy]

No,what did you mean? If a quality break is formed, no teams will chase?

yeah correct what i meant is i dont see any teams wanting to chase the break...

 

[sir fly]

It's a pity that descents from Col de la Croix des Moinats and Col de Grosse Pierre aren't more technical. And even though using a descent to attack Nibali doesn't sound logical at all, combination of ascents and descents is what they'll meet on Monday, so this could be a dress rehearsal.
If I'd have to suggest a strategy, it would definitely be to attack before the Côte de La Mauselaine. At least it could reveal responsive capacity of the Astana team before more demanding stages.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Sagan weighs 3kg less than last year. He'll be fine in mountains. But this stage is just too much. He and entire team Cannondale need a good rest.

 

[roundabout]

2009 Avenir with Grosse Pierre up the "main" road, but otherwise a very similar stage to tomorrow with the flat part and the same 3 climbs

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=15291

 

[Jspear]

Jrod for the win. AC will gain just a couple of seconds on the big GC guys.

 

[LosBrolin]

Trofimov to take this. Hoping Sagan can handle the climbs but dunno. Could be still too hard like mentioned.

 

[indianfanboy]

Yeah the Katusha breakaway specialists will rule the day! before Westra catches them at the finish

 

[el_angliru]

The last climb is steeper (avg.) and longer than Muur de Huy. The 2014 edition of Fleche-Wallone had a 15 seconds gap from Valverde (winner) to Gilbert at 10th. Considering the difficulty of this stage (not least the penultimate climb) we could see even bigger time gaps here. But this is not a spring classic so I guess it depends on how much effort they're willing to put into it.

I hope the GC contenders won't just watch each other while lesser riders goes for the win.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Contador will attack tomorrow to gain at least a few seconds and psychological advantage over Nibali. However I think Valverde will win it.

 

[Liquigas]

I hope Horner is not forced to wait for Rui Costa if he's dropped.

 

[jens_attacks]

papy has freedom, he won't wait for no one.

 

[Tournesol]

1 Valverde
2 Porte
3 Contador

 

[therhodeo]

1 Valverde
2 Porte
3 Contador

So cute.

10ch

 

[L'OgreDeRostock]

I already climbed the path leading to the finish line and this stage is definitely for an explosive rider (Valverde, Albasini, Kwiatko...). It's going to be hard to gain 15-20s during the ascent of La Mauselaine... The best way to gain time would be to attack in the cat.2 Grosse Pierre. This short pass is very steep and regular, and if someone had a bad day, he might lose the TdF here.
I don't think the first pass (Croix des Moinats) will change anything in the race.

I'm looking forward to seeing the TdF coming in Elsass. This is my region.

 

[trevim]

Rui Costa dealing with a saddle sore. It's still a result of the cobbled stage.