Tour Stage 21 Preview: Montereau-Fault-Yonne - Paris Champs-Élysées
by crashdan on Jul 25, 2009 12:00 PM EDT
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Stage 21 :: Sunday July 26, 2009
164km :: Montereau-Fault-Yonne - Paris Champs-Élysées
The large majority of us know this route by now like the back of our hands. A piano parade through the surrounding towns and cities of Paris, until around St-Maurice, when things start to organize. Then the plunge along the Seine, until the hard right hand turn and they are on the circuit, speeding up each time, flying past the statue of Jean d'Arc at massive velocity, barreling up the Champs-Élysées to a wicked hairpin, flipping around, and accelerating again down the back straight to run the circuit all over again.
Steegmans, Beautiful Benna, Hushovd, Vinokourov, Boonen, those are the last five men to have siezed victory on the World's Most Beautiful Avenue. Is there any doubt as to who the likely favorite is tomorrow?
My regular shamless cribbing of Gavia's hard work is interrupted today (as you read this, I'm about 40' under water), so I'll merely direct you to what is most likely a magnificent preview of Stage 21 over at Steephill.tv.
Rather than post up a bunch of poor satellite screen captures of Paris, I'll just embed in the video I put together last year for Steegman's win and Sastre's awesome ride into yellow up Alpe d'Huez. Enjoy everyone! It's been a pleasure putting these together for you.
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This stage needs to incorporate the Eiffel tower in one way or the other
Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja men who know how to twirl.
It's at least a cat 1, although I'd argue it's a HC
on the final stage, I can’t see the organizers putting in a climb of that difficulty, it’s average grade is what? 89%?
Vamos Alberto!!!(Contador not Ricco)
The Eiffel tower as a start ramp satisfies my needs
Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja men who know how to twirl.
by TheFigurehead on Jul 25, 2009 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
Not necessarily
Second floor would still be cool
Staring at the swim team gets you killed by a gang of dancing ninja men who know how to twirl.
by TheFigurehead on Jul 25, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Definitely HC
It might be a cat 1 if they can change shoes, but if they have to climb the stairs in cycling shoes, definitely HC.
Brooklyn Chewing Gum: Vlaanderens Mooiste
Farrar at last...
But this sprint will be on a wide road with 0 corners leading up to the sprint. Millar normally attacks right at the end of this stage. Instead of that Wiggins, Zabirske, and Millar will finally give Farrar the leadout he deserves, and he will win the stage.
I think that Garmin is a terrible team, that really should be riding triathalons. Even an inept team can give a leadout tomorrow.
(BTW I just read yesterdays report – noone seems annoyed about the stage. I wanted to see who the best rider was. This was stage that everone was waiting for. In the end, Condador and Andy never tried. The stage was won by Garate. (Alias who????) O.K. I know who he is. Contador was afraid to sprint at the end, thinking that Lance might get annoyed.)
Am I the last to notice
the blurred out sponsor names? What’s the deal?
Blame my wife!
Waiting until August!
I haven't seen vid..
but yes there is something going on there. Alberto C had a green blue blur on the chest of his jersey all day the last two stages I saw….
by Christopher See on Jul 25, 2009 11:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Beethoven's 9th, IV:
+ 50
I’ll end up looking it up on the nets probably, but will still DVR to watch it.
"He walked 18."
"New league record!"
"Struck out 18."
"Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...also new league records! But, Joe, this guy's got some serious shit."
side note. Bert just said he wont race on the same team
as Lance next year
Isn't that kind of a given?
Seeing as how the Accountant is under contract with Astana, and LA has that Radio Shack thing going on?
JB owns the contract
but now he’s moving on, I’m hoping they will all just be void.
contracts, that is.
Oh... I see...
Hmm, actually no I don’t. Oh, but that’s the point isn’t it? – mystery, intrigue and friggin’ politics. Righto, back to ignoring the Astana shite, then ;-).
On the positive side, I am glad that I will never again have to hear the words ‘token Kazakh rider’ in relation to Astana. What a bloody disgrace that was!
see link below
AS asked Bert why he stayed at Astana knowing LA will be back.
he said, I had a contract. the choice is yes or yes.
He was riding on the same team as Lance this year?
Dude, I can see my house from here
Well those Cd'E guys were totally confused
I guess they really really have to suck up because Bert will have to take a pay cut – similar to when Alonso moved back to Renault in F1
Dude, I can see my house from here
not necessarily
if AV gets banned, they will have plenty of money to spend.
Bert was getting around 1.5M when he first signed with Astana, I’m not sure if it’s changed or not. But AV gets 3M a year.
Bert's interview with AS
http://www.as.com/ciclismo/articulo/tour-ciclismo-corri-tours-bici/dasclm/20090726dasdaicic_4/Tes
something translate as I ran two tours, on the bike and in the hotel….
Alright, I've made a difficult decision
…and I’d appreciate a ‘logic check’ please, folks ;-)…
Gonna go to bed early and watch the stage in the morning. (For reference, it’s 7pm here now, coverage starts at 10-10:30pm).
The logic: The fatigue is extreme. I got 4hrs sleep last night, on top of the existing fatigue from 3 weeks of insufficient sleep. (Visiting a mate this afternoon, I was nodding off sitting at her kitchen table having coffee). Not sure that I could stay awake for the stage. I do not have to work tomorrow… If I fight off sleep and watch the stage, I’ll waste half of tomorrow sleeping and STILL feel like crap (and have trouble getting an early night before work on Tuesday, ‘cause I woke up late!). Also… well, there’s a good chance that the result of the sprint will be… um…. ‘Bah’, for me. It would piss me off no end if I were to go to bed at 3am ‘having stayed up for that’, y’know?. If I go to bed early, I can be up and watching the stage at 6am, and then spend all day engrossed in the post-tour analysis (with a functioning brain!).
Any flaws in my logic, people? (aside from the whole factor of ‘But it’s the last stage of the Tour!‘, and the chance that the sprint may not result in ’Bah’)
But you'll miss the live threads
which is really the best part isn’t it? Especially with stages like this which are so slow racing wise. Think of all the shenanigans you’ll miss.
But if you’re going to watch it early tomorrow, it’s not like you’ll be spoiled. And sleep is good. I think the rest days benefit us as much as the riders.
My parents are in NZ and have been taping it every night and watching the next day. They decided that staying up till 4am every night was a bit too much. Not quite sure why – they both retired last year, so it’s not like they have to go to work the next day!
Yeah, the live thread thing :-(
Hanging out with you lot has become a huge part of the experience for me! But… there was a time when when it was not a part of the experience, and I somehow managed to watch races without the insight, witticisms, good-natured abuse… Actually, in my current state I’m not convinced that I could effectively handle the multi-tasking involved with the live threads… And for sure, I’ll skim through afterwards to pick up anything that I might have missed (and have a laugh, no doubt).
And let’s face it – there’s always the post-stage thread, which will no doubt still be going strong when I’m done watching, LOL.
I watched last nights stage in the company of actual people
instead of huddled up in bed. So I wasn’t reading the threads. It is quite amusing to read back through them afterwards, and see 15 people exclaim “Andy!” or “crash!” etc, all in a row.
Comments to BTD yesterday
BTD,
You seemed to have an issue yesterday about Lance finishing 3rd, yet “in your mind” he was not the 3rd best rider. You argued that he only got 3rd because of his positioning in the breaks of the peleton. You wondered if this was normal, and you got a lot of feedback to your question.
The problem with your overall premise is your pre-supposition that Lance is not the overall 3rd best rider. If you understand that he IS the overall 3rd best rider, then all of the subsequent arguments about his not being valid for his position are wrong.
Lance is the 3rd best rider because in the ITT’s he showed that he is better than Frank Schleck, and on Ventoux he showed that he could match with Frank and Wiggins. They could not drop him. In fact, he seemed to show a couple of times that he could have dropped both Frank S. and Wiggins. (In fact, he did drop Wiggins). They were struggling on Ventoux, but Lance was not. So, Lance was definitely the 3rd best rider over the course of the whole tour. It is amazing for a 37 year old, and we all should take pride in his effort.
So your premise that Lance was not the 3rd best rider because he gained time in peleton splits is false. He actually showed on Ventoux that he deserved to be the 3rd best rider. Your argument is completely null and void. He fully deserves the 3rd place finish that he will get on the podium today.
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