Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 11: Sorgues – Malaucène, 198.9 km

[sir fly]

Break including WVA, Asgreen and Nibali to have a half hour lead at the base of Ventoux 1. Pogacar to catch the break at the top of Ventoux 2. Nibali to descend like a meteor to victory, pack his bag and fly to Tokyo.

Pogačar will catch them at Chalet Reynard.

 

[RedheadDane]

Break including WVA, Asgreen and Nibali to have a half hour lead at the base of Ventoux 1. Pogacar to catch the break at the top of Ventoux 2. Nibali to descend like a meteor to victory, pack his bag and fly to Tokyo.

No. Nibali will forget the fact that he was supposed to stop at the finish line, in order to collect his win, and just fly directly to Tokyo without that pesky need for planes or such nonsense.

 

[BlueRoads]

Everything will depend on the weather. If it's better I can see some of the climbers who have suffered so far coming out to shine. Otherwise Pogacar will win.

 

[DanielSong39]

Surely Cav can't win this one

 

[SHAD0W93]

I can't decide if this is a dumb gimmick stage or cool, but i'm tending towards cool.

Cooler than double Alpe.

 

[Bardamu]

Bahrain to create mayhem, Cav OTL.

 

[Escarabajo]

Time for Superman to fly again!

Cosnefroy will try to get into the break as well.

Superman looks dead. Literally. Something must be wrong with him. He might come back to his old self slowly. But not tomorrow. The weather looks bad also. That has been his luck. If he comes back it will be in the Pyrenean stages where is hotter.

 

[Escarabajo]

I can pick 3 riders for the break with high certainty: Quintana, Woods and Poels!
To these riders we can probably add Chaves who tried to go with the break on Sunday but had a flat at the wrong moment.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Bahrain to create mayhem, Cav OTL.

Absolutely be hard. If they were Movistar I could see them creating mayhem and having their sprinter OTL. Maybe he’ll get help from Thomas and Froome if they are back by him. If he doesn’t go in the break, he absolutely needs to be in the peloton for as long as possible up the first time.

Does anyone have an estimate of what they think the time will be?

 

[Kangaridoo]

Van Aert will probably make it into the break. Let's see how long he can last. Maybe he will chase down Woods on the last descent Hushovd style.

 

[Amazinmets87]

I'm wondering what the max leash will be for the break. I'm thinking we may see near Worlds gaps (20+ minutes)

 

[Leinster]

Cooler than double Alpe.

This.

Double Alpe deliberately ignored all the amazing climbs around Bourg d’Oisans, to do the same one twice.

There’s nothing near the Ventoux, and they’re climbing it from 2 different directions. If there’s a disappointment it’s that they can’t start the stage by including a climb from the other side and include all 3.

 

[hfer07]

The question is:

will Pogacar get greedy?

 

[JosefK]

Recently, some members of the press have not respectfully genuflected when Pog has passed by. This has angered the great leader, Pogasaurus Rex. Thus, a lesson will be administered for all non-believers during the 2nd ascent of Ventoux. Sacrifices will be offered up and laid down by the mortals of the peloton. P. Rex will punctuate his current reign with a hypersonic flight to the apex. At the finish, spectators will be given special goggles to prevent blindness from the resulting megatonic flash. A billowing mushroom cloud will signal completion of the stage. Pog will have time to warm down, take a shower, and eat a doughnut before returning to the finish line to applaud whoever arrives in 2nd place and collapses in a heap at his feet.

 

[Big Doopie]

...i have no idea why UAE don't just refuse to lead when break sets off. all they should do is let the rest of the top ten chase each other down (they will). every day should be a rest day for UAE.

i would hate the break to take this.

pog must crush everyone (and i am not even a particular fan -- just a fan of the best rider winning).

hoping uran and gaudu do well.

hoping bahrain all get a "stomach virus" and abandon (PDM 1991 anyone...?).

 

[SHAD0W93]

...i have no idea why UAE don't just refuse to lead when break sets off. all they should do is let the rest of the top ten chase each other down (they will). every day should be a rest day for UAE.

i would hate the break to take this.

pog must crush everyone (and i am not even a particular fan -- just a fan of the best rider winning).

hoping uran and gaudu do well.

hoping bahrain all get a "stomach virus" and abandon (PDM 1991 anyone...?).

Heck UAE could all just get in the Break bar Pogacar so they can all finish together.

 

[Amazinmets87]

Can anyone from the top 13 (within 12 minutes) get into the break? Would be nice to see a new "yellow on the road" if not the actual podium.

 

[movingtarget]

Carapaz has to put some time into O'Connor or at least try. Expect Ineos to use up Porte and the other doms on the second ascent. Be interesting to see how Pogacar plays it but the battle for the podium spots will probably only help him. He doesn't have to attack but I expect him to counter attack. O'Connor has a good gap over third place and can afford to lose some time.

 

[yaco]

I can pick 3 riders for the break with high certainty: Quintana, Woods and Poels!
To these riders we can probably add Chaves who tried to go with the break on Sunday but had a flat at the wrong moment.

Certain it be Yates from BEX - Maybe it could be both riders.

 

[BullsFan22]

Pogačar will catch them at Chalet Reynard.

And Froome will run past all of them before the tree line ends.

 

[yaco]

Well if Lopez has the form from the Mt Ventoux challenge then he will be the one to beat.

 

[BullsFan22]

The question is:

will Pogacar get greedy?

Well, he only has one stage win so far. Had he had three already then we may start to call him greedy.

 

[Stelvio]

In 2013 it was a 242k stage with a cat 3 and three cat 4 in the first half of the stage. There were two groups coming in at 27 and 32 minutes. The Sault side is easy, so OTLs probably will depend more on how hard Liguière is raced.

I’m not a fan of starting the climb statistics where they do (15.7@8.8), in my mind it starts at the exit of Bédoin. The whole climb is 21.5@7.5 (or thereabouts).

Due to reasons I’ve done those first kilometres twice, so I’m biased towards that part of the climb

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I like stages to have a meaningful story to tell. To be part of a bigger narrative. Doing a loop on a climb makes no sense in the story of riders pedalling their way around France (unless you wanna tell the story that someone forgot their wallet on top of the mountain and had to go back to get it).

Anyway, break to take it. Woods vs Poels vs Quintana.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Ven-One
Ven-Two