Le Tour: Business Time!

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 18, 2008 4:45 PM EDT in News

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At long last, by Monday morning we'll be in the thick of another Tour de France Alpine campaign. Outside of Flanders-Roubaix week and an occasional stretch of the Giro, this is hands-down my highlight of the season. Some data and thoughts on the flip. Hopefully Dan will start posting flyovers soon.

The big question is whether or not we have to wait for Alpe d'Huez for the real action to begin. I'd guess the answer is no. For a number of reasons:

The stats: Km 58.0 - Col Agnel - 20.5 km climb to 6.6 % - Category H; Km 183.0 - PRATO NEVOSO - 11.4 km climb to 6.9 % - Category 1. As the km marker indicates, this is 183km, no small matter. The presence of an early hors categoire climb should make for tired legs, particularly after some fast, bumpy stages all week, and two full weeks of the Tour. There will be vulnerabilities on the Prato Nevoso climb.
The final climb itself is only Cat-1, but it's not too far removed from h.c., stats-wise:
It's in Italy. There are still a few Italians with visions of grandeur -- Nibali, Cunego... Kreuziger is a liquigaser. Those three at least should be thinking of stage glory. Efimkin may want to show Italian fans what he thinks of Ricco stealing his stage win. Valverde will be looking to save face.
Finally, the next day is a rest day. Leave it all on the road Sunday boys.

Part of this is wishful thinking -- I can't stand to wait any longer, and we're having a 6am house party to boot. But with Monday off, there's no great penalty for trying a little something on this stage, and anyway with a mere second separating the top two, the riders' natural instincts should take over and result in aggression at the first sign of weakness. Nobody has a real lead to sit on, and the only guy who technicall can claim any lead will have no team to help him sit on it. So... what does that make Sunday?

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Comments

Tomorrow is Google Earth Day for Dan...

... I’ll have stage previews up accordingly starting with stage 15. Do you know of any place I can get climb profiles like the ASO issued “Last KM” one above for the other climbs? Climbbybike has something similar, but they don’t include city names or landmarks so it’s hard to place max gradients on the maps.

I am excited as all hell for next Monday and Tuesday… with a little bit of Giro nostalgia creeping in for Sunday (I really dug watching the Giro this year).

Ricco stole my marbles.

by crashdan on Jul 18, 2008 6:01 PM EDT reply actions

Monday

is a rest day. Personally I’m excited for that too.

"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 18, 2008 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Aren't rest days during the tour...

... supposed to be Federal Holidays here in the US?

Ricco stole my marbles.

by crashdan on Jul 18, 2008 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions

But those are the only days

that I get work done during July!

by Katiek on Jul 18, 2008 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions

cyclingchallenge

might have some for climbs he has done.

Viva la Lactique

by nrs5000 on Jul 18, 2008 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Danish TV2 have the official "fly over"- movies

You may get some help from these.

Stageinfo

Just click on the stagenumber on the right . Good ones of Bonette-Restefond and Croix de Fer.

by Jens on Jul 19, 2008 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't really know how much of a difference this is going to make in the GC

Valverde, Cunego, etc. will be fighting for the win especially since it is below the magic 1500m number. I don’t think any of the GC guys are that much better than the others on a stage like this and with Schleck, it’s kind of a crap shoot as to what Schleck we’ll see. As far as Sastre, he’s never really shown that he can get away and stay away from the big guys. Somebody may take the yellow jersey from Evans, but it may be more by design (on his part) than by weakness. If Sastre or Schleck has it, all Evans has to do is sit on their wheel and drag himself back if they try to get away. It will be fun, but not GC deciding. As far as all the Google Earth stuff, it’s cool but it hurts my head to look at. I’d rather just see the graphic like the one at the top of the page. It’s actually more useful.

If I just had one more gear, I...

by SpunOut on Jul 18, 2008 6:07 PM EDT reply actions

To be honest

These past two days have gotten me down re: cycling and the Tour but with these mountains coming up I’ll be back in top form.

Nibali will be interesting to watch. Can he hang in close enough? Prato Nevoso will be huge for him and I hope he and teammate Kreuziger rip the field apart to make the overall wide open.

by ursula on Jul 18, 2008 7:47 PM EDT reply actions

Heads up, everyone: VS coverage starts at 5:30am CDT

for all three stages in the Alpes! They just announced it on their prime time show… I absolutely love it when they broadcast the full stages in the mountains, showing all the little breakaway attempts from K1.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. - George Carlin

by Ruthann on Jul 18, 2008 8:53 PM EDT reply actions