Tour de France 2017 Stage 16: Le Puy to Romans-sur-Isère

[klintE]

Obviously there is some potential for ambush stage with Kittel as a target. But personally I think that QSF will defend successfully.
Kittel maybe won't win this but won't lose much of his advantage

 

[Tank Engine]

It's a hard start and coming after the rest day with a number of teams still looking for a stage victory and being aware of Kittel's dominance, there will be lots of riders looking to get into an early break and a good chance that it will be a strong one. Kittel has often dropped from the peloton after Greipel and Kristoff, so I can't see a grand coalition pulling the peloton away from him. A break seems more likely to succeed.

Matthews is probably the strongest candidate in that case and a very strong candidate in any scenario, EBH also.

I'll go with Edvald.

 

[loge1884]

if the crosswinds aren't too extreme, I would believe a (big enough) break could get through .... with extreme crosswinds maybe some echelons, who knows .... otherwise most likely a boring stage with Kittel outsprinting everyone ....

 

[GraftPunk]

Re:

This stage is the wrong way around.

This. I'm thinking break.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

This stage is the wrong way around.

This. I'm thinking break.

A break will certainly go away, but if any of the top 5 misses a split after the descent or when echelons start to form, it'll be full gas to the line and any advantage the break gets in the first half of the day will be wiped out.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

I can't see why he shouldn't.

 

[Random Direction]

This stage could have some fascinating racing. Sunweb and others will go hard to drop Kittel in the mountains, and likely succeed in doing so.

Then crosswinds hit down the mountain and on the run in to the finish, where Quick Step is the strongest in echelons. So a potential scenario where Quick Step is working from behind to catch the lead in echelons. Would love to watch it - as I said, would make for some fascinating racing.

 

[sir fly]

I see the wind forecasts... Promising.
Didn't look like that previous days.

 

[BillyBrown]

Re:

This stage is the wrong way around.

Like it. I thought exactly the same.

 

[Vasilis]

Re: Re:

This stage is the wrong way around.

Like it. I thought exactly the same.

Though it's a much more exciting sprint stage than those of the first week.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

This stage is the wrong way around.

Like it. I thought exactly the same.

If it's crosswinds tomorrow, it's exactly the right way around.

 

[search]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

it's only a 30 points stage though, so he'd basically need to win both this one and the one on Friday from a breakaway to still stand a chance. Can't really see it happen

 

[Tonton]

Meh stage. Only cross-winds can make it entertaining...this is where the Mistral begins its course southwards, but the winds are not funneled and nearly as potent as they can be 100-200 km to the south. The 18 mph forecast is credible...and that means meh stage...

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

I can't see why he shouldn't.

No Trentin

 

[hazaran]

Curious what Quick-Steps tactics will be here. I expect Matthews team to set a hard enough pace on the initial climb to drop Kittel, so do they keep most of the riders around him to pace back to the peloton on the latter flat parts and what will Martin get?

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

it's only a 30 points stage though, so he'd basically need to win both this one and the one on Friday from a breakaway to still stand a chance. Can't really see it happen

I thought this was a 50 point stage. Difficult to say for certainty because ASO have neglected to provide a link for the rules and regs this year but this link https://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme-sur...que-dit-le-reglement-du-tour-de-france/813791 for example says stage 16 is a flat/easy stage

 

[Netserk]

50 points according to inrng: http://inrng.com/2017/06/who-will-win-the-green-jersey-2017-tour-de-france/

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Actually just seen they have finally posted the rules and regs on the official site now and it does say 30 for this stage

 

[search]

30 points according to the official rulebook

http://i.imgur.com/dMbRXB8.png

 

[Netserk]

Thanks, hadn't seen. Quite dumb, imho, as the stage is very easy and will be quite fast.

 

[Robert5091]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

it's only a 30 points stage though, so he'd basically need to win both this one and the one on Friday from a breakaway to still stand a chance. Can't really see it happen

I thought this was a 50 point stage. Difficult to say for certainty because ASO have neglected to provide a link for the rules and regs this year but this link https://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme-sur...que-dit-le-reglement-du-tour-de-france/813791 for example says stage 16 is a flat/easy stage

http://netstorage.lequipe.fr/ASO/cy...lement/TDF17-Reglement-INTERIEUR_FR-UK-BD.pdf has all the regulations in French and English (scroll down to page 11 for English version).

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Thanks, hadn't seen. Quite dumb, imho, as the stage is very easy and will be quite fast.

I think they realised that giving every other stage 50 points was excessive, but by then it was too late to change the parcours.

 

[Tonton]

50 points if Demare wins, 30 points if Sagan wins...the French did it again .

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

if Kittel wins this I might cry.

If Kittel gets over the early lumps on this and somehow wins the stage, it'll be well deserved. It'll kill Bling's last chance of making some sort of contest out of the green jersey, but then, that will be well deserved too at this stage.

The previous stage was a bit too hard for Matthews, that was his opportunity to get even closer on points but Sunweb have had such a good season so far that they won't be too concerned if they don't win another stage.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

Curious what Quick-Steps tactics will be here. I expect Matthews team to set a hard enough pace on the initial climb to drop Kittel, so do they keep most of the riders around him to pace back to the peloton on the latter flat parts and what will Martin get?

Keeping Martin safe is priority number 1. Kittel can't lose points if he finishes dead last, but missing one move on the front could see Martin drop from 5th to 10th. They might send Sabatini back with MK, but the rest will work for Dan as long as they can.