TDF Stage 15: Limoux - Montpellier 187km

[Alpe d'Huez]

Stage 15: Limoux - Montpellier 187km.

With a rest day following, this is a day for attacks, breakaways, perhaps the right sprinters.

 

[Mambo95]

Sprinters all over. HTC aren't going to let opportunities like this pass, particularly now Martin's GC ambitions are dead, and the good breakaway riders will see better opportunities ahead.

But....

The finish is a long, wide, flat, straight run in, which is the sort of finish that allows Petacchi and Greipel to get up to speed so they can challenge Cav. It's not good for Rojas though.

 

[Gubby Allen]

Sprinters all over. HTC aren't going to let opportunities like this pass, particularly now Martin's GC ambitions are dead, and the good breakaway riders will see better opportunities ahead.

But....

The finish is a long, wide, flat, straight run in, which is the sort of finish that allows Petacchi and Greipel to get up to speed so they can challenge Cav. It's not good for Rojas though.

Probably, but I could easily see a big 20+ breakaway still getting away. There's about a dozen teams and 60+ riders whose last chance of a stage win is tomorrow.

I could see even some of the next tier of sprint contenders eg Petacchi, Hinault, Thor again getting in there and with only HTC & Europcar depending who's there, doing anything.

Even so, I still think they'll reel them in & find it hard to see past a Cav victory, but when the 8th favourite for the stage is 80/1 and over 150 riders are 200/1 or more, it's worth a punt on a couple of good breakaway riders.

 

[taiwan]

16 and 17 are both decent stages for breaks. Tomorrow will be a thankless token escape of 3-5 riders. The stage podium has to be Cav-Greipel-Farrar in some order, I'm struggling to find any outsiders even now that Gaga orwhatever and Feillu have both gone home, and Petacchi's not so great. I don't expect a very high placing from Rojas. Boasson Hagen might podium I suppose, or Swift.

 

[dgodave]

Too bad I'll miss seeing the group roll through "Homps".
.
My new favorite town name: Homps.
.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope breakways survive.

 

[Mambo95]

Petacchi's not so great.

His stage 13 performance, I thought, showed he's getting some form back. If he is, it will be good news for Cavendish, as Petacchi almost always gets his wheel, which will keep Rojas off it.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Could be some crosswind chaos. Voeckler was talking about crosswinds potentially being an issue on this stage and sure enough the forecast on the official site says it's going to blow a gale from the NW

 

[Mambo95]

Too bad I'll miss seeing the group roll through "Homps".
.
My new favorite town name: Homps.
.

I believe the Black Eyed Peas sang a song about it.

 

[taiwan]

I suppose Petacchi did get second on one stage as well. He may have just sat out the last sprint stage (11) because of the wet. He was obviously dropped on stage 10. Maybe writing him off unfairly.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

After all we've had in the first two weeks, THIS is what they serve up at the weekend?

The sooner Prudhomme loses his job and is replaced by the now-available-in-the-job-market Angelo Zomegnan the better.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Why this stage on a sunday, that's what's bothering me. Seriously.

 

[Mambo95]

The sooner Prudhomme loses his job and is replaced by the now-available-in-the-job-market Angelo Zomegnan the better.

Yeah, because this year's Giro was a thrill a minute, wasn't it. The Tour at the moment is way better than the Giro, this year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah, because this year's Giro was a thrill a minute, wasn't it. The Tour at the moment is way better than the Giro, this year.

Both have been pretty rubbish this year to be totally honest. The Tour has a week to save itself. But tomorrow won't do anything to that effect unless by some miracle Rojas scores a bunch of points on Cavendish and makes the Champs-Elysées sprint matter. But that's incredibly unlikely.

Please, answer Ruben's question. Why this stage on a Sunday?

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I actually think the Tour has been a better course than in recent years, if only because it's been very close, plus there have been early stages where the GC riders came out. I do agree though that having Stage 15 on a Sunday was lame. Why another MTF or col descending to a famous town wasn't ordered, we'll never know.

The blemish has been all the crashes, of course. Every year we see crashes, but this year has been worse than normal. I'd like to think a 30km ITT on about Stage 4 would have helped assuage the tension that caused that. Maybe next year.

 

[BYOP88]

The reason this stage is on Sunday is because Montpellier paid big bucks for it and the Tour route sucks a$$, period!

 

[Mambo95]

But tomorrow won't do anything to that effect unless by some miracle Rojas scores a bunch of points on Cavendish and makes the Champs-Elysées sprint matter. But that's incredibly unlikely.

Yeah, a guy who's won six races his entire career winning the green jersey with a best stage finish of third. That's just what the Tour needs to breathe life into it.

 

[Mambo95]

Please, answer Ruben's question. Why this stage on a Sunday?

Oh, you want me to answer that. No idea. Terrible decision. I won't defend that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah, a guy who's won six races his entire career winning the green jersey with a best stage finish of third. That's just what the Tour needs to breathe life into it.

I didn't say he had to win the green jersey. But if he got a big haul of points tomorrow and Cavendish didn't, it would then make it so Cavendish had to take points on the Champs-Elysées to take the green jersey to win it back, and it would go to the final day. Cavendish would still be the most likely winner (even if Cavendish isn't there in the finale tomorrow I don't see Rojas coming top 2-3 in the stage with that run in), but it would go to the final day.

Basically, if nobody really wants to fight for the yellow jersey, at least give us a fight for one of the other ones.


Alpe - the call for an ITT or at least something that settles the GC into some kind of order to prevent all the "we need to be up the front to protect our GC" muscling that led to all the crashes is precisely why I have been against this year's route. You could have had a really good route with these stages, just in a different order. Now, by the time we even get to the mountains half the GC field has crashed out because of a nervous péloton on some flat stages. The total sum of the GC action until Luz Ardiden was 6 seconds on stage 1, 8 seconds on stage 4, a TTT and the rest was crashes. For 12 days of a 21-stage GT. That's a woeful amount. I know it's been pointed out to me that not every stage needs to be GC-relevant, and I accept that - but I'd like there to be more than 1 GC-relevant stage in the first two weeks.

And that if we are going to stuff all the GC-relevant stages into one week, we don't then stick the only remaining flat stage on at the weekend when most people are able to watch.

 

[The Hitch]

I found a good way to watch these stages. I play this PCM thing for 3 hours as Tour commentary plays in the background.

Then lift my head temporarily for the sprint, and back down to listen to post race interviews and studio.

After all we've had in the first two weeks, THIS is what they serve up at the weekend?

The sooner Prudhomme loses his job and is replaced by the now-available-in-the-job-market Angelo Zomegnan the better.

Too bad Zomegnans Italian.

Yeah, because this year's Giro was a thrill a minute, wasn't it. The Tour at the moment is way better than the Giro, this year.

Giro wasnt all that, but no way has the Tour been "way better". the only thing way better about the Tour is that its the Tour with all the extra publicity and interest that goes with that but as a race, the Giro was definately not a signifactantly more boring afair.

Also the Giro only sucked because Contador was there on top form to destroy everyone. Nothing to do with organisation. Without Contador it would have been an awesome race.

Not that I thnk Prudhome has been that bad this years Tour. Its all right, some mistakes like putting this stage on the Sunday is and I hate the ttt and the lack of a prologue, also perhaps less mtfs and more mountains just before the finish.

But mountain wise it is way better than 09 and 10 Tours and some good finishes in the first week.

Way better than

 

[riobonito92]

Cross winds of up to 70 kph predicted. Hopefully some strong men will put it in the gutter and make the skinny climbers suffer. (Revenge?)

 

[El Pistolero]

andy_schleck Andy Schleck
the control happen in a restaurant so i had to walk with my urine sample true the tables where other people were having dinner!!!
2 hours ago

andy_schleck Andy Schleck
there were 1 h in between you guys must communicate a bit better!thats not good enough and shows no respect to the rider
2 hours ago
»

andy_schleck Andy Schleck
i never complain over the doping-control but today i had one after the finish an i arrive to the hotel an other on come on UCI ALFAD!!!!
2 hours ago

 

[Mambo95]

Giro wasnt all that, but no way has the Tour been "way better". the only thing way better about the Tour is that its the Tour with all the extra publicity and interest that goes with that but as a race, the Giro was definately not a signifactantly more boring afair.

"Way better" may be overstating a bit, but the I've enjoyed almost all of the stages so far - today's being one of the weaker ones, admittedly. (And I do like a bunch sprint)

The uphill (not mountain) finishes have been better in the Tour than the Giro. The points battle has been good. The meat of the mountains is presumably still to come.

The Giro was over within ten days. The course may have been 'epic' but it ended up with Contador handing out stage wins to his friends.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Giro was over within 10 days.

The Tour tried to counter this by making sure nothing happened in the first 11 days so that the last 10 days would be decisive. Sadly for them making sure nothing happened backfired on them, because the tight confines at the top meant everybody had something to protect, wanted to be at the front, and crashed out.

 

[taiwan]

Crosswinds? Bad for Sanchez, Basso and Contador would be my guess.