Tour de France 2011 Stage 7: Le Mans - Châteauroux 218 km

[just some guy]

Sprinters day tomorrow. With the intermediate sprint where it is expect French teams only in the breakaway - an exercise in sponsor promotion.

The battle for the green heats up.

Hopefully a less nervous day with no falls

 

[Raceoftruth]

Good chance of 70 points for cav if it works right!

 

[Gloin22]

I feel Siwfty will show everyone why was he picked for this Tour. Anyway the Tour experience will be massive bonus for him. Something like Thomas last year, and now going from streght to streght.

 

[Jamsque]

I am very curious to see how the intermediate sprint plays out so close to the finish.

 

[spalco]

Hm, maybe if you're DS for HTC you let a bigger break go away if you can with the goal of catching them after the intermediate sprint and contest the intermediate only with 90% power?

 

[Deagol]

the safe bet is Cavendish.

 

[UselessToo]

Denis top3

 

[theswordsman]

Heading out to buy pancake mix

 

[PedalCastro]

1- Cav
2- Farrar
3- Felliu?

 

[Cobblestones]

Every stage so far has seen a different winner. So maybe it's Feillu tomorrow?

 

[PedalCastro]

Every stage so far has seen a different winner. So maybe it's Feillu tomorrow?

Would love to see Felliu win, made me laugh riding behind the car the other day and encouraging the driver to up the speed

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

All about the sprint trains tomorrow. Top 3 - Cav, Farrar, Swift.

 

[Lexman]

It's a curious stage with that intermediate sprint so close to the arrival. I see someone like for instance Cav not participating at it.

Gilbert on the other hand will do the intermediate sprint and will lead out Greipel at the finish.

For the finish i fear it will be Cav but i hope Farrar will teach him a lesson or two, third will be Greipel...

 

[H2OUUP2]

Petacchi, Cav, Farrar. The old man will grab one even though he's not looking to hot.

 

[jens_attacks]

i hope it will be alejet.

 

[Jamsque]

Alejet has been anonymous in the sprints so far, I hope he's at the front tomorrow. Cav'll still beat him though.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

I wonder if Swift or EBH will be Sky's last man tomorrow, Eddie certainly looks fast at the moment.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I'm going to break the trend and say someone, don't know who, will win from a breakaway group.

 

[robow7]

I'm calling for Cav since he took a day off today.

 

[Frosty]

Crosswinds all the way tomorrow at about 15mph. Could be a few brief heavy showers too but hopefully they wont be on the same scale as today.

 

[lancaster]

hoping for a split/ break on the sprint.

also want everyone in the peleton to refuse to work, garmin for 50km then make HTC earn it.

 

[Cobblestones]

hoping for a split/ break on the sprint.

also want everyone in the peleton to refuse to work, garmin for 50km then make HTC earn it.

That's when you have the MJ and a sprinter. Normally you'd just keep the break within ~5 minutes and let the sprinters' teams do the rest. But if you want it all, you just have to work harder. JV should stop whining.

 

[Mambo95]

I am very curious to see how the intermediate sprint plays out so close to the finish.

My guess is that HTC won't catch the break until after the sprint and Cav will just sit on JJ's wheel and follow him over the line with minimal effort, happy to take a one point loss. It's quite possible that they'll be the only ones who bother with it (maybe Gilbert).

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Not worth risking much in the intermediate for Cav, on a stage like this he should be racking up 45 in the finish and Rojas will be lucky to get 20.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I'm going to go with Cav, but I think HTC have got their hands full with the Garmin train. Dean/Hushovd/Farrar were impressive on Stage 3. I'm not sure Cav and HTC have ever had such strong competition, and it will be good to see them challenged. Cav may have his eye in now, but his win was without all 3 Garmin boys present.

You'd think Cav wouldn't bother with the intermediate, but he'll probably think he's good enough to win both and go for it, if an opportunity presents itself and HTC don't have to work too hard. Gilbert will certainly go for it, Rojas too.

1. Cav
2. Farrar
3. Swift