TDF Stage 14: Saint-Gaudens - Plateau de Beille 168km

[El Pistolero]

Your Sig




How has Bjarne Riis "yet to reveal" Alberto Contador. THat doesnt make any sence. Contador is the only person on Saxo bank most people watching the TOur can even name. Hes the most famous rider in the race.

Hes also the only guy Riss talks about.

Sig fail

Because he has yet to reveal his true power. It's not like the Witch King of Angmar wasn't revealed yet at that point. Pay more attention to the movies Hitch! Besides now I can insult everyone that drops Contador of racing like girls.

 

[The Hitch]

Because he has yet to reveal his true power. It's not like the Witch King of Angmar wasn't revealed yet at that point. Pay more attention to the movies Hitch! Besides now I can insult everyone that drops Contador of racing like girls.

But your sig doesnt say

"contador is yet to reveal his power".

It says "Riis is yet to reveal his deadliest servant" - Contador.

So Riis is yet to reveal Contador. Umm dont think so.

And the Witch king of Agmar was only shown once or twice before and not a major character. Contador is a major character. Someone like Samu who has power but is totaly overlooked can be the witch king Angmar. Or maybe Cunego but Contaodor certainatly isnt someone that "bjarne riis has yet to reveal" now is he

 

[dlwssonic]

tomorrow we will be all waving bye bye to contador. everyone knows he doesnt have good form as he was exposed in stage 12 and they will attack early to gap him.

 

[the chicken from T]

prediction saturday

1. Ivan The Terrible
2. AC +26
3. Senior Schleck +42
4. Baby Schleck +42
5. Samuel +46
9. Cadel +1.37

 

[luckyboy]

Nah, we will be waving bye bye to Contador as he flies up the road and annihilates the Brothers Schleck

 

[dlwssonic]

Nah, we will be waving bye bye to Contador as he flies up the road and annihilates the Brothers Schleck

in the second group while cuddles flies up the mountain destroying everyone else and unleashing all hell!!!

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Tomorrow he'll hang on and lose no time. His betfair odds will rebound from 5-1 to about 2-1, and we can begin the countdown to the real race starting Thursday.

 

[The Hitch]

The Plateau de Beille needs a way better name. Its the hardest Pyraneen climb but name wise it just cant compete with Hautacam, Angel, Tourmalet, Agnes, Telegraf Galibier, Madeline, Columbiere.

 

[dlwssonic]

The Plateau de Beille needs a way better name. Its the hardest Pyraneen climb but name wise it just cant compete with Hautacam, Angel, Tourmalet, Agnes, Telegraf Galibier, Madeline, Columbiere.

I like the Port de Bales. btw why is it the hardest. thought it was the madeline or tourmalet

 

[Deagol]

Your Sig




How has Bjarne Riis "yet to reveal" Alberto Contador. THat doesnt make any sence. Contador is the only person on Saxo bank most people watching the TOur can even name. Hes the most famous rider in the race.

Hes also the only guy Riss talks about.

Sig fail

Got to agree with you about that "Lord of the Rings" signature. Trying to shoe-horn the Contador situation into a movie quote that doesn't match. Sig fail +1


I will stick my neck out on the proverbial chopping block and choose AS for the stage win. I could be wrong, of course, but I think AC would be too tired from the Giro. I think that is a good thing because it seems to demonstrate that the riders are still human.

Having one rider dominate the Giro and then coming back in a short amount of time to win the Tour sounds like that rider may not be human.... if you know what I mean.

 

[roundabout]

I like the Port de Bales. btw why is it the hardest. thought it was the madeline or tourmalet

Madeleine is about 500 kilometers from the Pyrenees.

 

[davestoller]

I like the Port de Bales. btw why is it the hardest. thought it was the madeline or tourmalet

You can look at the gradient chart, and it shows many km back to back of nearly ten percent and tilting toward 9 %.

http://www.zanibike.net/altimetria/1874/Francia/salita_Plateau+de+Beille+-+Les+Cabannes.aspx

but mostly its because it always features after a ridiculous run in with numerous other climbs before. Leipheimer's quote was that he just got more and more empty and just imploded on it.
2004, almost exactly the same as this year
Km 42.5: Col des Ares, 4 km at 4.7%
Km 64: Col de Portet d'Aspet, 4.4 km at 9.8%
Km 99.5: Col de Core, 14.2 km at 6%
Km 131: Col de Latrape, 5.6 km at 7.7%
Km 146: Col d'Agnes, 9.8 km at 8.2%
Km 155: Port de Lers, 3.8 km at 5.7%
Km 205.5: Plateau de Beille, 15.9 km at 7.8%
The time gaps are always immense. 2004:

1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) T-Mobile Team 1.27
6 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 2.42
10 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco 3.43
13 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangère 4.42
16 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 6.34
19 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank 6.39

This year:

 

[roundabout]

Heh, and it's mostly the same route this year. 40k or so shorter but the last 150 or so are the same.

 

[Winterfold]

LOL @TheHitch

When I read these previews I hear the voice of Geoffrey Chaucer as played by Paul Bettany in the gladiatorial cultural epic 'A Knight's Tale'.

He's not infallible though - Plateau de Beille is an epic name (a fitting showground for the merciless defeat of the Schlecks) - not much beats it IMO - Croix de Fer of course for both being beautiful and hard as, and Galibier for being huge but lyrical.

This is not the end of Berty, even if he loses this Tour ( and there are still a lot of mountains to come ) he will be back even harder and stronger next year.

Uncle Bjarne will take good care of him this off season

 

[Winterfold]

Basso FTW (stage) after Smyzd dishes out another beasting

Wiggo must be gutted - he would have been right up there - the top tier are not looking very top

And VDB2 and Gesink and Horner etc

 

[il_pirata]

Alberto Contador Velasco is undisputedly the greatest rider of our generation.

Sorry what? I'm 19 and he isn't the greatest rider of my generation, not by a long shot, also not the greatest climber!

 

[Ratatosk]

Say you're OPL, there's no VDB anymore, Gilbert's doing okay for green, and Vanendert is close to polka dots.

Would you floor it from the start, collect points at the first intermediate and keep going, trying to put Cav out of the time limit?

or

Would you floor it from the start, Vanendert collects polka points on the Aspet and gets in the break away?

I hope the GC guys don't wait until halfway up Plateau, but they haven't been too spirited so far.

 

[il_pirata]

It'd be nice to see some longer 20k + climbs this year, Madeleine etc, as then we'd see a genuine chance for Basso to win I feel.
As it is, if the race explodes on a Mountain top finish this tour, he'll lose time for sure (not huge chunks, but enough)

 

[guncha]

It'd be nice to see some longer 20k + climbs this year, Madeleine etc, as then we'd see a genuine chance for Basso to win I feel.
As it is, if the race explodes on a Mountain top finish this tour, he'll lose time for sure (not huge chunks, but enough)

Stage 18 have some - Agnel 23,7km-6,5% (last 9,1km has 9,8%), then Izoard and finish at Galibier 23km-5,1%

 

[Archibald]

Say you're OPL, there's no VDB anymore, Gilbert's doing okay for green, and Vanendert is close to polka dots.

Would you floor it from the start, collect points at the first intermediate and keep going, trying to put Cav out of the time limit?

or

Would you floor it from the start, Vanendert collects polka points on the Aspet and gets in the break away?

I hope the GC guys don't wait until halfway up Plateau, but they haven't been too spirited so far.

or

C) expand on option A) and team up with Movistar to put the hurt on Cav and try to get him knocked out due to the time limit

 

[il_pirata]

Stage 18 have some - Agnel 23,7km-6,5% (last 9,1km has 9,8%), then Izoard and finish at Galibier 23km-5,1%

Thanks man, must be the Sky fans love of Wiggins getting to my head, and making me say I only look one day ahead on the route map.

He can switch the diesel on in the Alps, and my podium prediction of Schleck the younger, Frank and Ivan can come true!

 

[kurtinsc]

Sorry what? I'm 19 and he isn't the greatest rider of my generation, not by a long shot, also not the greatest climber!

I'd say your not paying very close attention then.

He's got 6 GT's in the last 5 years (7 if he manages to win the Tour). He's won the last 6 GT's he's entered. He's also won 11 other stage races (2 paris-nice, 2 pais vasco, 3 castilla y leon, 2 Algarve, 1 Catalunya and 1 Murcia).

His career isn't over. If it ended today, there might be some small debate on if he was the best stage racer in the last 30 years. But given his age, the chances are good there will be no debate in 2-3 years (assuming he doesn't have clinic issues).

I'm not a Contador fan... but I recognize that.

 

[Fus087]

Say you're OPL, there's no VDB anymore, Gilbert's doing okay for green, and Vanendert is close to polka dots.

Would you floor it from the start, collect points at the first intermediate and keep going, trying to put Cav out of the time limit?

or

Would you floor it from the start, Vanendert collects polka points on the Aspet and gets in the break away?

I hope the GC guys don't wait until halfway up Plateau, but they haven't been too spirited so far.

Both.

or

C) expand on option A) and team up with Movistar to put the hurt on Cav and try to get him knocked out due to the time limit

With Gilbert being Gilbert, I can't see such a coalition forming.
He wants to do it all by himself. A new cannibal?

There, I said it.

 

[kurtinsc]

or

C) expand on option A) and team up with Movistar to put the hurt on Cav and try to get him knocked out due to the time limit

To actually knock Cav out, you'd probably end up knocking out so many people that the officials will let them stay in despite missing the cutoff.

The best that can be done is to cost him some points as a penalty for missing the time limit. He's got a team working to keep him from losing too much time... if you drop him you're dropping 50 other riders.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

But stupidly, because the Tour biases things with more than double the points for sprints than for mountain stages, he would only get penalised an intermediate sprints' worth of points, because the penalty is to be docked the equivalent of a stage win in the stage in question.