Pyrénnées Part Deux: Exploring Stage 10
by crashdan on Jul 13, 2008 12:30 PM EDT
Email
Print
Now that you've had a chance to snack on Stage 9 and get a taste of the delicacy known as Haute Pyrenees, it's time for the main parcourse. A couple of cat 3's as side dishes then two delicious heapin' helpin's of mountains that are so nasty, so brutal, so shattering that the French couldn't even find a way to categorize them.
(Both Col du Tourmalet and Hautacam Fly Overs Added...)
The stage starts in Pau and proceeds southeast over two Cat.3 climbs before curling back towards the west and north, crossing first the Col de Tourmalet and then ending at a summit finish at Hautacam.
It's a rolling day, not too much in the flats and seems to gain elevation throughout most of the day, with the fireworks highlighted in red again in the distance.
The first rated climb is the Cat.3 Côte de Bénéjacq, coming after the teams ride through the city of, you guessed it, Bénéjacq. The city to the far right is called Nay... not Nee, nor Icky-Icky-Icky-P'tang-Neewhong-Rrrrrrrrrrr; there are, undoubtedly, shrubberies.
The next is the Cat.3 Loucrup... it is neither a côte nor a col, it's simply Loucrup. Deal with it.
We'll pass through the finishing town of the previous stage and roll down South against the grain from stage 9 that went North after descending from the Col d'Aspin (the high ridges in the upper left of the graphic).
Now we climb the Col de Tourmalet... proving to be really Grippy racing... Get it... "Gripp"... "Grippy"??!?
Up the valley there is a nutty little kick off to the left that seems to really start the ascending proper, then curving back around the ridgeline and into the hanging valley towards the summit.
The max gradient of 10% is nearly within view of the Col de Tourmalet summit, but not within the last few km like both of yesterday's nastiness. As they pass over that, the saddle with the summit should be in relative view the entire rest of the slog to the top.
Now for a nice crazy little descent... maybe not as crazy as the Giro's Stage 20 descent into Tirano (marred by rain as I recall), but it certainly looks technical
The riders will get about a 20km break from the heavy lifting, passing through a pair of valleys going from Barèges to Chèze to Prèchac, and then it starts again. Up... Up... Up... to Hautacam...
The route really gets bonkers right after passing through Artalens-Souin, with long stretches that should really get the heart rate meters blowing.
Once you get around that tight right-hander on the lower left of the graphic, it's all pain all the time... with a gradient in excess of 10% coming within 2 km of the summit / finish.
Looks suitably brutal to me :)
67 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Looks good!
I wonder how Cadel is going to go tomorrow, hurting like he is. I’m sure he’ll go okay but you never know. I also wonder if Ricco is going to pay for today’s efforts. Logic says he will. If he just takes off from the peloton and doesn’t show any wear and tear from today’s efforts, then there may be something not quite right in the Ricco camp.
If I just had one more gear, I...
Sella
So.. do you think Sella was doping? And would that be the only way to explain being strong on successive mountain stages?
Myself I won’t go there in part because LNDD ain’t finding anything wrong. I also think that today’s climbs were not all that hard and the rest of the GC guys were playing it quite conservatively with their efforts. Not that they would have been rewarded much if they had tried harder but those climbs weren’t that taxing. So I can imagine Rico hanging near the front tomorrow.
It all depends on how the attacks go tomorrow. So who will attack? Hmm…
- Seems like CdE and Valverde plus CSC and Sastre will show tomorrow.
-A late attack by Menchov looks in the cards too, but mainly if Evans is showing any weakness.
-Vandevelde will play it by ear and just go as well as he can.
-Evans and Kirchen play defense. Kirchen could get isolated pretty quickly and I’m not feeling good about him. Maybe Siutsou can rally.
- I see Popovych doing some good work for Evans but the rest of the big boys will ignore him if he feints a breakaway.
- As to the others, I like Kreuziger to hold. And Cunego. But at any rate there won’t be a group finish- or at least no more than three winning together. The rest will be strung back.
Looking forward
To CSC sending some warning shots across the bow tomorrow. They have all three copilots at about the same time GC, so none of the other teams should realistically consider them a Ricco if they bolt. CdE may do the same with Peirero.
And I see CVV shadowing Evans’ wheel tomorrow unless Evans has a jour sans (could happen…anything is possible)
Regardless, I don’t think that we will be seeing 12 riders within 2’ of yellow by this time tomorrow. However, I won’t know the results unltil later as I will be flying over the mid-west as they are climbing the Hautcam…thank you again tivo, I love you.
The difference between the two is that
Sella isn’t in his second GT this year and Ricco is. Obviously the favorites let him go as he is no GC threat and they want to save energy for tomorrow. However, efforts like today never come without a price and if he just flies away from the peloton with the greatest of ease on tomorrow’s stage then we have every right to think that something isn’t right. I think being skeptical is a fact of life these days. I don’t need a positive test result to think that something isn’t quite right. If he wins tomorrow and it is very close then that would be normal and not strange.
As far as the others, Valverde, Menchov, and Cunego have no choice but to attack. Otherwise the best they can hope for is a podium. I would love to see Kreuziger do something and I think he will tomorrow. Liquigas probably feels obligated because the whole Triki thing. Popo will probably start earning his paycheck tomorrow as well.
If I just had one more gear, I...
We also have ever right to think such a performance might be a result of...
... Grinta, Talent, Conditioning, Strategy and Luck. Why bother with skepticism.
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Of course you do
That’s your right. But I think it would be somewhat naive not to harbor some doubts. I wasn’t calling him a cheater, just keeping an eye out. Clarify what you mean by “conditioning”. Is that the same thing as “preparation”?
If I just had one more gear, I...
Clarification
do you have doubts about Evans’ ability to grind away everyday with top climbers suffering only minor time losses? Or do you see that as being due to talent, conditioning, strategy and luck. My point is simply that perhaps your dislike of Ricco (which I share) is influencing your suspicions. Personally, I reserve my suspicions for individuals who pull off performances outside their specializations. If Ricco had been top 10 in the TT, I would be suspicious…but he’s a climber so the fact that he can climb well should be expected.
No I don't
As you said Evans grinds away everyday, pulling his self back to the the top climbers. He isn’t flying away from the others. That is completely normal. If he were flying away from the others like a bird I would be suspicious of him as well.
If I just had one more gear, I...
I don't like Ricco much
but I think the incredible burst of speed is not something you can dope to get. T in larger doses tends to bulk you up a bit as well as strengthen, in small doses it’s supposed to aid recovery, but not create wings on your heels. EPO lets you grind for longer without going into O2 deficit, but actually, Ricco does start to gasp a bit after he makes one of his patented strikes.
He may just have really good anaerobic tolerance. That’s partly inherent, also open to training. (I’m assuming here that he could not be getting away with something obvious and old-school like amphetamines.) The story I tell myself, looking at him, is that he’s a pain-in-the-ass kid with ADHD, and he comes by the fast twitch muscles fairly, as natural compensation for all the times he probably got paddled for being out of his seat in school. (This isn’t knowledge, just my reaction.)
I’m not saying he wouldn’t, or isn’t, or couldn’t be (and from the rate at which he’s being sampled, others agree with that assessment). But I’m unclear on what, exactly, someone would take to “become Ricco.”
I apologize if I come off as cynical
But I am, especially after the Floyd fiasco and all the former LA workers that have been busted for doping. Especially when there are teams that don’t have testing in place like CSC, Garmin, and Columbia. I couldn’t care less if Garmin is an American team or not, what I like is their transparency and their stance on doping. When SdV, Liquigas, etc. have the same system in place then I will be able to rest a little easier.
If I just had one more gear, I...
Heh
you still don’t love Ricco?? Come on Spunout!
Also I thought SDV had a real program? I don’t have full confidence in the Italian youth programs but SDV isn’t Liquigas, is it?
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2008 2:18 AM EDT up reply actions
holding Cunego and Kreuziger at the same time
might be illegal in some states, but hey, go for it ; )
My pick is...
Ricardo Ricco… if he accelerate like that, I cant think of anyone who can stay on his wheel
so . . . [danger . . .]
if you see a rider angling over very close to the posterior of another rider . . .
is that turbo-charging
or just joy in repetition?
That, my friend...
is a reason for Mighty Putty.
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Let's see them put "that" in the commercial for uses! ha!
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
Yeah, the effort put into this is
very much appreciated.
~
Me, I want to see Sastre move himself into contention. Watched Overcoming again last week, and every time I do that I like him a bit more.
Need a couple of recs
for Ryan’s diary on Tour Tech. Some good stuff on there, and given the ongoing stories we’ll be seeing on that them, it would be nice to keep it on the rec list (it just fell off the front page). Just two more to bump it to the rec list. Merci.
My understanding
is that if he updates it, that is will get reposted at the top…is this correct? (i’ve already rec’ed it)
no, comments don't bump up
and I don’t think that updating of the diary itself will. Someone with a diary on the list should go test that. :)
(and thanks for the recs, all, it’s up now.)
I think both recs of the post and comments in it will keep it up top for a bit.
Another way around to keep it handy is for Ryan to hop in and update the date on it to keep it current. :)
I’m not a techy person but I am enjoying all the stuff you guys are putting in there. :)
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
Anyone else seeing this one hour Tour review on CBS?
simply put… perhaps we don’t want to ever see our cycling heroes in HD again… they all look… weird… big heads, teeny bodies. Anyone ever notice how wide apart Millar’s eyes are??!?
The only guy who looks semi normal is CVV.
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Bonnie Ford on ESPN.com
has an interesting piece about why nobody is especially agitated about Beltran—old guard, end of career, etc. She also says he was known in the peloton for “his lousy bike handling and bad temper.”
(“[B]ut he could climb like a goat on wings”)
At CN, Beltran’s Tour roommate from last year, Willems, describes him as calm and a bit tight-lipped.
This is very different from the Triki in Dan Coyle’s book! Where he is described as talking non-stop, even on the hardest hills, to the point where it drove his teammates crazy. On and on about his family’s olive oil, iirc.
Time passes? We get older, we are driven to dope, we close up?
Just meant
to wonder if that’s what happened to Beltran. Or was Coyle’s reportage maybe off?
It seemed an odd discrepancy because so extreme. Triki as non-stop chatterbox in one account, terse and tight-lipped in another. Plus bad tempered in a third.
Whatever.
perhaps
he simply doesn’t like his teammates on Leaky, and got along better with the bunch on USPS (which had a substantial Spanish contingent, unlike Leaky).
Think about it—the best they can do for a roommate for a Spaniard is a Belge? It’s enough to turn you into Andrea Noe.
I don't have any idea if the picture will transmit (I'm trying)
but on the CorVos site (www.corvospro.com) on p. 3 of the pix of Stage 9 is a funny one of Erik Zabel in true Retired Guy mode—complete with baggy shorts and Crocs.
(I think the problem is that I don’t really know what a URL is. Is it the same thing as Location?)
Let me help you out there...
God help us all…
Image, obviously, property of CorVos…
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Oh my goodness Crashdan!
The picture didn’t show up the first time I looked.
HOW did you do it??
Ooops... looks like I've been edited.
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Wait - now I'm confused.
It wasn’t there the first time I came into the thread but it was the 2nd time and now is MIA again. That’s just strange.
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
URL
Here is a pretty good explanation of URL.
"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."
Emo Philips
Thank you, Bethie.
(I still don’t know what I did wrong. It must be what Crashdan said.)
Where's Jimbo?
The Croc Apologist….
After a hard day of watching a Tour stage, I like to unwind with Verbotene Liebe
Maybe he got jealous and went looking for Egoat and Drew?
It’s so late here and I can’t help it! We really did miss you two today! :-)
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
so tomorrow we have 3 events coming together that should make it go KABOOM
First off, it’s Bastille Day so every Frenchman is going to attack. Then, it’s THE tough day in the Pyrenees so all the orange boys (no not Rabobank) will be coming out and playing. And it’s all the GC boys think that it some will lose tomorrow.
Oh and it’s the day before a rest day so all the nutsos (yeah Jens! I’m talking to you) will try and win in a break.
KABOOM!
I'm riding at 5am
I can’t miss out on riding, but I am so obsessed with watching the event live that I’m heading out at 5 in the morning so I can be back by 8 and just miss the early part of the stage. I’ll catch the cool Phil Ligget intro monologue on the replay. : )
I’m new to this site, but this page is great. All the maps and flyovers are nice, all the talk is getting me fired up for what should be the best day of racing so far (and man that’s saying a lot in this exciting tour!)
I’m not sure who I’m pulling for in this tour yet. I’d kind of like Cadel to do well, but I prefer seeing someone attack and that’s just not his style. I would love to see Vande Velde do well, but I just don’t know how realistic that is. Maybe he’ll be the unexpected great story for the Tour this year?
I guess we’ll find out if Sastre is for real, too. His TT means he’s got to be an animator if he hopes to win.
I want to be like you
I’m amped for morning rides, but then I sign on, see the action and . . .
Well, billables aren’t at an all time high, at Sui & Juris, PLLC.
Welcome to the nut house! Tee hee :-)
Totally follow CrashDan’s advice and check out our live thread chatter! :-)
"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."
anyone else pleasantly surprised by Pereiro?
We pretty much all laughed about him as an accidental winner (even those who stuck him on the VDS team because he cost so few points—itself a comment). OK, he isn’t drop-dead incredible, and he benefits from being part of an incredibly strong team who are often as not still a “train” up to the end…but but he’s actually been plenty solid. Any respect for that yet?
I'm not surprised
He’s always lurked around the good but not great category. He’s just not consistent enough to ever really be a viable candidate for legit GT winner. But he’s a super solid teammate. Right now he’s looking as strong or stronger than Valverde.
If I just had one more gear, I...
Dan -- fine fine work
A bit scary, really.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2008 2:19 AM EDT reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Featured Stories
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recommended FanShots
Recent FanShots
![This is funny on so many levels. [Html should open bigger]](http://cdn3.sbnation.com/fan_shot_images/239959/flagged_small.jpg)
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
