Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez 175k

[Poursuivant]

Geraint Thomas was the fastest today on Alpe d'Huez: 41 min 15 sec. That's 4 min 35 sec slower than Marco Pantani's record and not even fast enough to enter the Top 100 fastest Alpe d'Huez ascents.

Mihai Cazazu Twitter

 

[Descender]

Re: Re:

Indurain had also won on Luz Ardiden, beating Lemond in sprint in 90.

He'd also won two Paris-Nice, a Volta a Catalunya, a Clasica de San Sebastian, the Tour de l'Avenir itself... Indurain was a boringly predictable Tour winner in 1991. People were just skeptical because he was supposed to be Pedro Delgado's domestique in 91 again and some people said he was too big to win a three-week race.

 

[SKSemtex]

Re: Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez

This could be still quite interesting as not too many sprinting teams will be willing to chase in mountain stages just to see Sagan win.

I would not like to be the Sky dom right now.

Unless someone from Top 10 attacks, no one is close. They won't care.

Strong breaks will be formed early and I just hope riders 4-10 and their teams are not going to hunt the breaks just to defend their 4-10 position.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Indurain had also won on Luz Ardiden, beating Lemond in sprint in 90.

He'd also won two Paris-Nice, a Volta a Catalunya, a Clasica de San Sebastian, the Tour de l'Avenir itself... Indurain was a boringly predictable Tour winner in 1991. People were just skeptical because he was supposed to be Pedro Delgado's domestique in 91 again and some people said he was too big to win a three-week race.

...and he'd won more Tour mountain stages other than the one you mentioned.

And he'd been by far the strongest guy in the race the previous year, only for Banesto/Movistar to do their usual of having the strongest guy work for the designated leader.

Then came the last mountain stage and he was finally given freedom. It wasn't a sprint, he straight up dropped everyone.

The talk at the end of that edition was "Indurain would probably have won if he had freedom" since negating the time loss of just a single stage would have him winning, and that's without even removing the time loss from domestiquing in every other stage

 

[Anderis]

Looks like Craddock might be leaving the last place in GC before the end of the race. 42nd today.

 

[Frosty]

Re: Re:

I think 162 finished yesterday, 1 DNS, 6 DNF = 155 to finish today. Jack Bauer was 148th in 37:10 which suggests quite a few miss time cut if the limit is about 35 minutes.

today's limit is 41:26
https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1019981438203162624

Cool, thanks for finding that.

 

[Frosty]

Bernal and Latour both penalised 10 seconds. A lot of penalties for the riders at the back!

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

No boy. You clearly have not watched cycling in the past. How many group sprints have you seen here?

I can remember one involving your avatar. If I remember correctly, Gianni Bugno won from a sprint of 5 riders.
There were some tactical similarities to today's stage. LeMond was at the time riding for Z-Peugeot. His team mate Pensec was in the yellow jersey. LeMond was in a very strong break, but didn't push. Pensec was dragged up the Alpe by super dom Robert Millar, losing less than a minute and keeping the yellow yersey.

Pensec lost the jersey to Chiapucci in an MTT on the next day and LeMond went on to win the Tour.

Going back a long way (I guess nearly 30 years).

 

[Mayo from Mayo]

Re: Re:

I think 162 finished yesterday, 1 DNS, 6 DNF = 155 to finish today. Jack Bauer was 148th in 37:10 which suggests quite a few miss time cut if the limit is about 35 minutes.

Demare has finished so ASO can close the gate.

Sorry opened it again for Sinkeldam and Guarneri. Got to know the password - it's fdj

 

[SKSemtex]

Re: Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez

I know that nobody cares about the green jersey but does anybody knows what was the maximum scored in the points competition.

Should be easy peasy for Sagan to beat it this year, no matter how big this record is.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

Thomas just Superb and an incredible ambassador for the Sport. Great stage. Only spoilt by the absolute scum that Boo the riders.

What makes you say Geraint Thomas is an incredible ambassador for the Sport while being booed?

At least Froome made it to the top of the climb? What happened to that creepy prediction of yours?

Yes, I’m disappointed.

The show goes on. Many don’t like it but it goes on.

 

[willbick]

Team sky have known that Thomas has the ability to win a GT for years. He's finally got the chance to show it as he's in top form and allowed to ride for himself and has avoided mishap. But I suppose the arrogant keyboard warriors on this forum think they know more about what it takes to win the tour than the team who have won it 5 of last 6 years. Laughable. P.s. 32 is no age at all for modern day endurance athletes

Oh and btw he would have podiumed at least in last year's giro if he hadn't been knocked off by a moto. Was in top form then but didn't get the chance to show it

 

[roundabout]

Re: Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez

I know that nobody cares about the green jersey but does anybody knows what was the maximum scored in the points competition.

Should be easy peasy for Sagan to beat it this year, no matter how big this record is.

In the past it was less than 50 points for the stage win (35 for all stages IIRC, back when I started watching)

Edit: 35 for flat stages, less than that for harder ones

 

[yaco]

Thomas has a fast sprint for a climber type - Probably only Valverde beats him in a sprint.

 

[alspacka]

Re: Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez

I know that nobody cares about the green jersey but does anybody knows what was the maximum scored in the points competition.

Should be easy peasy for Sagan to beat it this year, no matter how big this record is.

In the past it was less than 50 points for the stage win (35 for all stages IIRC, back when I started watching)

Edit: 35 for flat stages, less than that for harder ones

Yeah, although I imagine his proportional gap to second place for green will be a record by a large margin.

 

[woodburn]

Re: Re:

No boy. You clearly have not watched cycling in the past. How many group sprints have you seen here?

I can remember one involving your avatar. If I remember correctly, Gianni Bugno won from a sprint of 5 riders.
There were some tactical similarities to today's stage. LeMond was at the time riding for Z-Peugeot. His team mate Pensec was in the yellow jersey. LeMond was in a very strong break, but didn't push. Pensec was dragged up the Alpe by super dom Robert Millar, losing less than a minute and keeping the yellow yersey.

Pensec lost the jersey to Chiapucci in an MTT on the next day and LeMond went on to win the Tour.

Going back a long way (I guess nearly 30 years).

Yes. Sprint narrowly won by Bugno. LeMond followed Delgado and others because leader in yellow. Another missed chance to win on the Alpe.

 

[Amazinmets87]

32 is still peak age for an endurance athlete. I believe the posters expression incredulity over his age are referencing his late-career ascension to an elite GC rider.

 

[rghysens]

Re: Le Tour '18 stage 12: Bourg-Saint-Maurice > Alpe d'Huez

I know that nobody cares about the green jersey but does anybody knows what was the maximum scored in the points competition.

Should be easy peasy for Sagan to beat it this year, no matter how big this record is.

Problem is that the points distributions (of stages and intermediates) changed quite a lot over the years, so it's difficult to compare.

 

[Frosty]

Re:

Thomas has a fast sprintf for a climber type - Probably only Valverde beats him in a sprint.

Used to be lead-out for Boasson Hagen back in the early 2010s.

 

[woodburn]

Re: Re:

Indurain had also won on Luz Ardiden, beating Lemond in sprint in 90.

He'd also won two Paris-Nice, a Volta a Catalunya, a Clasica de San Sebastian, the Tour de l'Avenir itself... Indurain was a boringly predictable Tour winner in 1991. People were just skeptical because he was supposed to be Pedro Delgado's domestique in 91 again and some people said he was too big to win a three-week race.

...and he'd won more Tour mountain stages other than the one you mentioned.

And he'd been by far the strongest guy in the race the previous year, only for Banesto/Movistar to do their usual of having the strongest guy work for the designated leader.

Then came the last mountain stage and he was finally given freedom. It wasn't a sprint, he straight up dropped everyone.

The talk at the end of that edition was "Indurain would probably have won if he had freedom" since negating the time loss of just a single stage would have him winning, and that's without even removing the time loss from domestiquing in every other stage

Riding for GC and domestiquing are totally different things. Yes, you pull but then you can chill to the finish.

Fact is, Indurain dropped time on Alpe and other places because he wasn't strong enough. LeMond, however, didn't have the chance to attack and gain time until the final stages. Even up Luz Ardiden, LeMond attacked and Indurain just sat on the whole way to allow him to sprint for win. Wouldn't work same way if Indurain was GC contender.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

Thomas has a fast sprintf for a climber type - Probably only Valverde beats him in a sprint.

Former Tour Down Under Sprints clasification winner Geraint Thomas?

 

[rlntlssly]

Re: Re:

Thomas has a fast sprintf for a climber type - Probably only Valverde beats him in a sprint.

Used to be lead-out for Boasson Hagen back in the early 2010s.

I think he led out Cavendish for the 2011 Worlds.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Thomas just Superb and an incredible ambassador for the Sport. Great stage. Only spoilt by the absolute scum that Boo the riders.

better with boos than piss get thrown and fans attacking them

Yes, I suppose so.

There’s nothing at all wrong with booing riders. It’s an entirely civilized way to show disapproval of the behaviour of people with a public profile or platform.

You are wasting energy by booing riders instead of using positive energy to cheer on riders - The French public are embarrassing their country with their uncouth behaviour, whereas in the Giro the fans were well behaved.

 

[saganftw]

Re: Re:

Thomas has a fast sprintf for a climber type - Probably only Valverde beats him in a sprint.

Former Tour Down Under Sprints clasification winner Geraint Thomas?

thats former track champion turned cobble specialist turned best climber among time trialists and best time trialist among climbers and best sprinters among non sprinters to you ,put some respec on his name

 

[spalco]

Re: Re:

There’s nothing at all wrong with booing riders. It’s an entirely civilized way to show disapproval of the behaviour of people with a public profile or platform.

I don't know. It depends on the circumstances. I regularly go to matches of a football club whose fans don't really have a good reputation, so I'm not squeamish about those things.

I would have viewed cycling as being a sport that is more classy than that, but I also can't blame people for voicing their opinions.