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Tour de France 2017 Stage 12: Pau > Peyragudes 214.5km

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The waiting is finally over. No more dull stages till Paris. OK there are a couple of stages that might finish in a sprint but at least there are some climbs and ups and downs in those, so it won't be that easy to bring it all together for a bunch sprint. I can live with that.

Tomorrow should be fun. I expect a showdown between Barguil and Roglič for KOM from the break.
 
Jul 1, 2013
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Re: Re:

Jspear said:
arvc40 said:
Sky to destroy everyone's panache. Froome to gain some time. Contador to fall off. All GC wannabes to ride defensively and suffer like dogs at Sky wattage. Then everyone to do the same the next day.

Bardet and Aru won't ride defensively.

They will be made to look as if they are. Hope not
 
Something tells me that only Bardet/AG2R will have the "coronas" to do something. Aru will stay in the shadows considering his standings...if he sees a weak Froome, he'll attack. But I don't see him initiate anything at this juncture. A great Bertie move would lit up the forum, but it's doubtful that it will happen AND stick. Uran would be happy with a top-5, he won't do anything stupid. Movistar can do whatever they want: Quintana is Giro-tired, he's the shadow of Quintana, he'll lose time tomorrow. Sad but probable.
 
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Tonton said:
LeoMontero said:
Tomorrow is nairos day, for good or for bad
Probably the day when Valv_Piti destroyes his TV with a jackhammer :eek: . I don't feel good at all about his chances. I hope that I'm wrong. But I feel bad...

My impression is not good with nairo, but this tour dont give to much options to take time. if he wants to take it, tomorrow he should start. but maybe he burns trying.
 
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Sestriere said:
The loss of Cataldo and the injury of Fuglsang will propably not enhance the chances of long range attacks.

On the other hand, if AG2R manages to drop Kwiatkowski decisively on Menté, we could be in for an interesting day. If...

Danish media writes Fuglsang has a fractured wrist and a fractured elbow.

Effectively this means he can't do sharp accelerations uphill, and can't go fast downhill when it is steep.

I think we will either see him leave the tour on the first mountain (in order to get healthy for the Vuelta), when he has felt how the wrist is, or he will go already on Mente, because only by getting away so early that none of the other favorites go after him, can he preempt the accelerations he can't cope with (anymore), and just pedal his own tempo all day.

Even better if he has someone like Valgren in the early break, to supoort him until after Bales, and then he has to ride the last double climb alone.

If he tries to sit with the favorites, he will get dropped the first time there is an acceleration (up or down), and Froome is sure to test his wrist fairly early, to see if he is still a threat ;)
 
If we were in the '80s this would be the first non-flat stage of the race. Of course, there would have been two ITTs and one TTT adding around 100kms, so the GC would be crowded with rouleurs and the climbers would be 7 minutes behind.

I see many predictions of Aru and Bardet going all out at some point. The icing on the cake would be Landa effectively becoming the Dawg's Dawg in the chase :D
 
Baring further freak crashes (heck, by this rate, Brice Feillu can end up on the podium in Paris :D), I think the race is pretty much set after tomorrow:

Froome, Bardet, Aru and Uran are the clear podium candidates.
Fuglsang is injured
Martin is injured
Yates, Quintana, Contador, Meintjes and Chavez don't have the form
Porte, Thomas, Valverde, Majka and Izaguirre all crashed out.

And we and not even half way..... accident prone tour this year :(

- Oh, and btw...... I think Cannondale will surprise us all tomorrow.

They actually have a pretty strong mountain team, and we might even see them send a couple of intermediate guys out early, to be able to back up Uran later in the stage (on the last double-mountain), while Talansky and Roland stick with him until the favorites attack.

- We have gotten so used to them sucking, the last couple of years... that we forget the team actually does have skill, when it is directed at a common goal ;)

For the early break: Roche, Avermaet, Cummings, Pauwels, Bakelants, Latour, Valgren, Mollema, Betancur, Brown, Roglic, Feillu, Wellens, De Gendt, McCarthy, Brambilla,G. Martin, Matthews, Geschke, Ten Dam, Edet, Voeckler, Chavanel, Atapuma, Grmay, Pinot.... Am I forgetting anyone? :D
 
High hopes for tomorrow. My only fear is any or all gc teams helping Sky chase Bardet if(?!) he gets clear. He and AG2r looked ready to go for it last sunday. Aru only in the last 3km..
How come not to cheer for Uran? hang on Contador!!
 
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Broccolidwarf said:
For the early break: Roche, Avermaet, Cummings, Pauwels, Bakelants, Latour, Valgren, Mollema, Betancur, Brown, Roglic, Feillu, Wellens, De Gendt, McCarthy, Brambilla,G. Martin, Matthews, Geschke, Ten Dam, Edet, Voeckler, Chavanel, Atapuma, Grmay, Pinot.... Am I forgetting anyone? :D

You forgot the most obvious one. Barguil will be there ;)
 
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Ikbengodniet said:
Broccolidwarf said:
For the early break: Roche, Avermaet, Cummings, Pauwels, Bakelants, Latour, Valgren, Mollema, Betancur, Brown, Roglic, Feillu, Wellens, De Gendt, McCarthy, Brambilla,G. Martin, Matthews, Geschke, Ten Dam, Edet, Voeckler, Chavanel, Atapuma, Grmay, Pinot.... Am I forgetting anyone? :D

You forgot the most obvious one. Barguil will be there ;)

I thought about him, but I think he will wait until Mente, and have Matthews, Geschke and Ten Dam pull him up Bales, to try and finish it up Peyresourde himself.

He saw the other day, that he can hang with the best, even after having been out in front all day, so saving strength for a later try, might be the better idea ;)
 
Re:

For the early break: Roche, Avermaet, Cummings, Pauwels, Bakelants, Latour, Valgren, Mollema, Betancur, Brown, Roglic, Feillu, Wellens, De Gendt, McCarthy, Brambilla,G. Martin, Matthews, Geschke, Ten Dam, Edet, Voeckler, Chavanel, Atapuma, Grmay, Pinot.... Am I forgetting anyone? :D[/quote]

I believe Chaves...
 
Feb 21, 2017
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Yep, I wish Cummings would hit the pointy side of things so my velogames team isn't quite so deep in the toilet. So much rain, so little mischief on his part.
 

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