Le Tour 2018 stage 11: Albertville > La Rosière 108,5 km

[Simurgh]

The stage starts in the former Winter Olympics (1992) host town Albertville, and ends at the top of La Rosiére, a new climb in the Tour de France.

Profile

The first climb is the Montée de Bisanne, which features in the Tour for the 2nd time, the first being in 2016 in the stage towards Mont Blanc.

After Bisanne another newcomer, Col du Pré is to be climbed by the peloton.

Cormet de Roselende however, has featured in the Tour many times before, such as in the 8th stage in 2007 , where "the Chicken" Michael Rasmussen was the first over the top and went on to win in Tignes in what seemed to be another raid for the polka-dot.

That stage was just the first of many days in yellow for the Chicken, and if that hadn't happened, who knows how it would have ended!

We end this joruney on the summit finish La Rosière, which is another newcomer in the Tour de France, even though it has been used in the Tour d'Avenir.

A short stage design like this can in the best case scenario end in fireworks (as in 2011, which started the trend), since the short distance can make riders more willing to risk it. On the other hand Alpe d'Huez awaits the following day, and then the one we would call brave for attacking on the Bisanne, we might call stupid. Perhaps another stage for the break away, while the heads of state will conserve their energy to have a shot at winning on the Alpe. And as the saying goes, who ever wears yellow on top of the Alpe d'Hez, wears yellow in Paris

General classification after stage 10:
1. Greg Van AVERMAET (BMC)
2. Geraint THOMAS (SKY) + 2' 22''
3. Alejandro VALVERDE (Movistar) + 3' 10''
4. Jakob FUGLSANG (Astana) + 3' 12''
5. Bob JUNGELS (QST) + 3' 20''
6. Chris FROOME (SKY) + 3' 21''
7. Adam YATES (M. Scott) st.
8. Mikel LANDA (Movistar) st.
9. Vincenzo NIBALI (B. Merida) + 3' 27''
10. Primoz ROGLIC (Lotto-NL) + 3' 36''

Polka-dot jersey competition after stage 10:

1. Julian ALAPHILIPPE (QST) 41
2. Rein TAARAMÄE (Direct Energie) 28
3. Serge PAUWELS (DDD) 24
4. Rudy MOLARD (Gr. FDJ) 22
5. David GAUDU (Gr. FDJ) 21

Points jersey competition after stage 10:

1. Peter SAGAN (Bora) 319
2. Fernando GAVIRIA (Quickstep) 218
3. Dylan GROENEWEGEN (NL-Jumbo) 132
4. Alexander KRISTOFF (UAE) 129
5. André GREIPEL (Lotto-Soudal) 106

Weather forecast for...

...Albertville:

...La Rosière:

 

[SHAD0W93]

Barguil from breakaway, Movistar to attack but all GC leaders finish together.

 

[thehog]

Looks a better profile than today’s stage, MTF hopefully should bring out something... anything?

 

[bob.a.feet]

Alaphilippe should go in the break again if he is targeting the KOM. Doubt any of the main GC guys will try anything with Alpe tomorrow. Most likely someone like Dan Martin will sprint in the last km to gain a few seconds

 

[cody57]

Great work again OP! Much appreciated.

 

[Laplaz]

Same as today. A few GC riders to lose a bit and the others to come together to the finish line.

 

[spiritualride]

Looks a better profile than today’s stage, MTF hopefully should bring out something... anything?

I don't know... stage 10 had what was effectively almost 15km of 9% climbing as a near MTF type finish but still hardly anything happened.

This type of stage is an exact profile that would be very exciting without a dominating team controlling it, but very boring if there's a dominating team. Sky will cause any attack to be worthless as there are many kms below 5% gradient to reel in any attacks. And if 15km of steep climbing couldn't do anything for the race in stage 10, I don't see how 4km of steep climbing on the MTF will do it here. At this rate, the 1cat + descent finish on stage 16, and stage 19 will be boring AF too because Sky will strangle the racing those days as well.

Mongoose makes a good point ... if the stage was later in the race, depending on the placement, might be a lot better.

I can't believe the GC riders are relying on two hard MTFs, a short steep hilltop MTF, and a short TT to win the race. Only 4 GC days going to happen. This could have been a great route if not for the superdomestiques.

 

[SlickMongoose]

I think this type of stage is better placed later in the tour. I don't think anybody good enough to shake things up is desperate enough to attack early yet.

Also the Sky doms are pretty fresh still.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Sky, team Sky will control it till the end. I hope CF FTW.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Because there is no flat at all... I think we will see attack’s. Bardet and Martin being the most likely.

 

[rghysens]

The procession, part 2. Brought to you by team sky, with cooperation of about anyone else.

 

[Robert5091]

A repeat of the 6th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2018

see http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-2018/stage-6/results/

Warm up rollers before the start?

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re:

Because there is no flat at all... I think we will see attack’s. Bardet and Martin being the most likely.

I can see Nibali trying here something, but it might be still too early. I am afraid that this is going to be more of the same because everyone wants to keep themselves fresh for Alpe D'Huez.

 

[Salvarani]

If every stage at least can be raced hard, even without attacks, people will crack sooner or later. Like we saw in the Giro.

If they wanna wait another day to attack on Alpe, at least make the race very hard on this stage. Im expecting a few riders similar to today losing time.

 

[Gigs_98]

Time gaps will be measured in seconds, not in minutes, but it should nonetheless be better than today. Maybe some early attacks on the steep slopes but probably most riders will wait for the final kilometer because of the alp on the following day. Dan Martin could sneak his way to a 2nd win.

 

[jfazendeiro]

If there was a plan for a long distance attack and there is trust in it after today this should be the chosen stage.
Apart from W.Poels and E.Bernal, all the Team Sky elements had their time leading the peloton and W.Poels was quickly substituted without being evident if it was to manage his energy.
To happen Kwiatkowski needs to be excluded in Montée de Bisanne.

 

[Alexandre B.]

A vital stage for KOM guys.

 

[Red Rick]

Cycling will die just a little more

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Re:

If there was a plan for a long distance attack and there is trust in it after today this should be the chosen stage.
Apart from W.Poels and E.Bernal, all the Team Sky elements had their time leading the peloton and W.Poels was quickly substituted without being evident if it was to manage his energy.
To happen Kwiatkowski needs to be excluded in Montée de Bisanne.

Will not to be excluded.
Be fair, Ladies & Getlemen, what may happen?
Froome's crash or illness? But of course, so impredictable, it may happen. Game over.
If not, you of course may have the hope of ambush. It was reeeaaally great at Vuelta. If not (no Contador), what else?
Movistar? Today's stage told us we have much more stronger Sky's squad... . Nibali? - no doms.
So we have 5th win of CF in TdF.. unless he crashes.. .

 

[Ataraxus]

Looks a better profile than today’s stage, MTF hopefully should bring out something... anything?

I don't know... stage 10 had what was effectively almost 15km of 9% climbing as a near MTF type finish but still hardly anything happened.

This type of stage is an exact profile that would be very exciting without a dominating team controlling it, but very boring if there's a dominating team. Sky will cause any attack to be worthless as there are many kms below 5% gradient to reel in any attacks. And if 15km of steep climbing couldn't do anything for the race in stage 10, I don't see how 4km of steep climbing on the MTF will do it here. At this rate, the 1cat + descent finish on stage 16, and stage 19 will be boring AF too because Sky will strangle the racing those days as well.

Mongoose makes a good point ... if the stage was later in the race, depending on the placement, might be a lot better.

I can't believe the GC riders are relying on two hard MTFs, a short steep hilltop MTF, and a short TT to win the race. Only 4 GC days going to happen. This could have been a great route if not for the superdomestiques.

Agree with everything except the last sentence.
Today's stage was a great route and superdomestique irrelevant at the same time.
If any of the big guys had attacked in Romme or Colombiere, the likes of Moscon, Kwitao Poels and maybe Bernal etc. would have disappeared immediately IMO.
The slopes of today were so good, they needed only one big gun attack as a trigger.
Didn't happen unfortunately.

 

[GraftPunk]

Eh, I'd like to be optimistic, but I figure it'll be just another stage smothered by sky.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Looks a better profile than today’s stage, MTF hopefully should bring out something... anything?

I don't know... stage 10 had what was effectively almost 15km of 9% climbing as a near MTF type finish but still hardly anything happened.

This type of stage is an exact profile that would be very exciting without a dominating team controlling it, but very boring if there's a dominating team. Sky will cause any attack to be worthless as there are many kms below 5% gradient to reel in any attacks. And if 15km of steep climbing couldn't do anything for the race in stage 10, I don't see how 4km of steep climbing on the MTF will do it here. At this rate, the 1cat + descent finish on stage 16, and stage 19 will be boring AF too because Sky will strangle the racing those days as well.

Mongoose makes a good point ... if the stage was later in the race, depending on the placement, might be a lot better.

I can't believe the GC riders are relying on two hard MTFs, a short steep hilltop MTF, and a short TT to win the race. Only 4 GC days going to happen. This could have been a great route if not for the superdomestiques.

Agree with everything except the last sentence.
Today's stage was a great route and superdomestique irrelevant at the same time.
If any of the big guys had attacked in Romme or Colombiere, the likes of Moscon, Kwitao Poels and maybe Bernal etc. would have disappeared immediately IMO.
The slopes of today were so good, they needed only one big gun attack as a trigger.
Didn't happen unfortunately.

Yes, and then we will have the fight between CF, GT and Quintana & Nibali.

 

[Amazinmets87]

After GT who's likeliest to grab yellow?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

After GT who's likeliest to grab yellow?

G. Thomas. Even if he loses time he's not likely to lose much

 

[dacooley]

I have a feeling Sky are ready to arrange the most enclosed and controlled climbing-wise tour ever, such boredom that 2016 and 2017 editions would've started to be remembered like illustrious mountain battles. nairo should attack and give it all just to force froome and thomas go really deep. no expecting any drilling job from valverde and landa, no holding back and no looking over the shoulder, just attack!