The Daily Race: Tour de France Stage 15
by Jen See on Jul 19, 2010 12:55 AM EDT
in Tour de France
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Stage 15: Pamiers — Bagnères-du-Luchon
What is it? More mountains! Mad men descending finish.
Got Climbs? Yes, and the final climb of the day is the hors catègorie Port de Balès.
Yellow Jersey Battle: No time like the present.
Ideal Rider: David Arroyo. At the Giro d'Italia, Arroyo fought a desperate battle to hold his race lead against Ivan Basso. On the wet, technical descent off the Mortirolo, Arroyo took over a minute out of his Italian rival in a fab display of crazy descending skillz. This stage begs for a downill ace like Arroyo to attack on the tricky drop from the Port de Balès.
@Gavia: Mountain top finishes make for more time gaps, but I can never resist a descending finish. Drag race!
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The Climbs
Col de Portet-d'Aspet
Col des Ares
Port de Balès
The Tour continues its jaunt about the Pyrénées with this stage between Pamiers and Bagnères-du-Luchon. Four categorized climbs enliven the proceedings and the final hors catègorie Port de Balès summits with 20 kilometers left to race. The descent off the Port de Balès is fast and technical, and only the daredevils will look forward to this finish. As Arroyo showed us at the Giro, a good descender can gain a big advantage on a technical descent. Samuel Sánchez is smiling.
The big climbs come at the end of this stage, and the race covers around 90 kilometers of rolling terrain before reaching the Col de Portet-d'Aspet. The Aspet is short and steep at 5.8 kilometers with a section at nearly 11%. There are scarcely any flat kilometers from the Col de Portet-d'Aspet to the finish, as the riders climb the Col de Buret and the Col des Ares on the way to the final ascent of the day.
The Port de Balès is a nasty piece of work. It's a 19.3 kilometer slog to the summit. The average gradient is a relatively kind 6.1%, but there are multiple sections of road in the 10% and 11% range. The climb stairsteps, alternating relatively easy stretches with steep ramps.
The pure climbers will eat this one up, though they may need their parachutes to get to the finish. The descent is a tricky business and only the good descenders will enjoy it.
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The 6% average of the Balès is quite misleading it seems
seeing the first 9km are more of a false flat and the final 10km average close to 9%, should be a good battle.
Vamos Alberto!
Quitter's People United member # 42
Yes, of course
although the Tourmalet is pretty consistent with its grade.
Vamos Alberto!
Quitter's People United member # 42
Is Arroyo at the Tour?
I thought he skipped it in order to challenge at the Vuelta.
Dat was echt een schwalbe!
Arroyo just finished around 30th at the Vuelta Madrid
Vamos Alberto!
Quitter's People United member # 42
I think Arroyo was an example of an ideal rider
Not necessarily here, an ideal type.
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Jul 18, 2010 3:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks, Phil, for the update
Following his performance in the Giro, I’d have to agree. I was confused as to whether he was in the TdF.
Dat was echt een schwalbe!
The second part was a response to Figurehead.
Dat was echt een schwalbe!
sorry 'bout that
I tried to only mention riders in the race here, oopsy. arroyo was on some early startlist I looked at when i wrote this thing. stoopid startlists!
by Jen See on Jul 19, 2010 12:51 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I think CdE shifted Arroyo to a full go at the Vuelta after his Giro success
or after the Valverde ban. But I think it was after the Giro when it looked like he could get a real good GC finish at the Vuelta.
Vamos Alberto!
Quitter's People United member # 42
Seems like just a few years ago when I watched four Americans
take the first four ITT spots at the Dauphine.
Today I was looking at the young rider placements for the Tour and, not only are there no highly placed Americans on it, there are no Americans period.
So now Lance will retire – undoubtedly for the last time.
Levi’s abilities seem to finally have reached the point were he is sliding backwards.
Zabriskie is too lazy to ever develop that natural talent that he has.
CVV’s one great Tour result was likely one of a kind.
The bubble boy still needs a brain transplant.
Mini Phiney may develop into a fine ITT guy and even a good classics guy, but he will never be a great stage racer.
My conclusion is that America is moving from a period of cycling renaissance backward to a period of cycling dark ages. I have a difficult time seeing where we will find a rider who will even be able to make the top ten of the Tour for the next few years – much less win it.
TeeJay is 6'1" and 148.
I wonder if he is done growing.
big mig, 6'2"... just sayin'
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
VandeVelde
Two top tens in a row, probably has a couple more cracks at it. By then we might see some other faces on the horizon for the US. Patience!
"Good thing I never said out loud that I was pulling for France, before this all started." -Mark Blacknell
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 18, 2010 9:08 PM EDT up reply actions
really hate to say it
but VandeVelde’s career as a GC contender is probably over.
Maybe he has next year.
But the man has a lifetime’s worth of really serious injuries accumulated. He needs time to heal physically and mentally.
As for the rest: Danielson is an object-lesson in how NOT to groom a bike-racer. (Matt Bussche: pay attention—that could be YOU!). Zabriskie’s too lazy? He might be a lot of things, but I’d never heard the lazy one. He developed his natural talent as far as it could go—the un-natural talents of positioning and reading a race (not to mention lacking a killer instinct) are what he lacked.
As for the rest of the post, American cycling is actually in as good a position as it’s been since the late 80s—and the fan base just might be able to recognize that there’s a sport beyond the Grand Tours, so that riders like Farrar, Phinney, and Fairly can turn into classics contenders.
(and . . . careful now Tamburlaine: your comment about Taylor Phinney repeats almost verbatim what people were saying about a certain Lance Armstrong circa 1991).
Think that Taylor will be coming down with cancer soon?
I don’t expect that Americans are going to become esoteric enough about cycling to become classics lovers. There will always be a few, but most will think that it’s stupid to ride on cobbles when perfectly good roads are available. And that’s fine.
Look at Zabriskie’s results in Europe. Spends most of his time soft pedaling at the end of the peleton. But we have seen a few rare cases of what he can do. Lazy as dirt in my mind.
Danielson’s problem isn’t grooming – it’s Danielson.
“As for the rest of the post, American cycling is actually in as good a position as it’s been since the late 80s”
Don’t know how you can look at the young rider classifications, see not even a single American, and say that.
I think he can say it because the white jersey competition says little about future success.
Only two US riders have ever won the young rider’s jersey and those where Andy Hampsten (86, 4th place) and Greg Lemond (84, 3rd place).
Bobby Julich, Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and Christian Vandevelde have all had high placings without impressing much as young riders.
On the other hand there was a tremendous battle for the white in 2006 between Damiano Cunego and Markus Fothen. Cunego had previously won the Giro, but hasn’t been a presence in GTs since and this was the height of Fothen’s career to date.
So, I’m not worried about the lack of young GT talent. Let them develop. Danielson is an excellent example of what happens when a young talent is anointed the next big thing too soon.
Vlaanderens Mooiste
Vicious Climb
This was in the 2007 Tour (Stage 15, ironic) and the L’Etape.
It had never been used in the Tour due to the lack of paved descent; they paved it for the 2007 Tour. The ascent had been paved for years,but the descent was fresh- like someone drizzled tarmac over a goat path. The only reason this doesn’t have a brutal reputation is that it hasn’t been used enough…yet.
It is very deceiving, it starts off on a smooth road that traces a river, then it gets steep and the road surface turns to crap. Make no mistake, this is a vicious climb. I never suffered so much before, the middle and top are ruthless. Look closely at the ClimbByBike profile… So many people were walking it during L’Etape.
Back in 2007 VeloNews stated, “…the frightening hors categorie Port de Balès. This is a very narrow, twisting 19km uphill, with the last 10km having an average grade of almost 10 percent and a maximum pitch of 14 percent.”
Following a recce ride, Sam Yarwood stated, "Its a beautiful, picturesque climb, with a fairly easy bottom section (be warned – its easy to get the pace too high here and then be cooked when you get to the steeper middle sections. The descent is FAST, especially the bottom section as you approach the bottom of the Col de Peyresourde. "
Sorry, I don’t have the full citations or links for these quotes. I snagged them back in 2007 for a electronic scrap book I made for my L’Etape adventure.
by touriste-routier on Jul 18, 2010 9:26 PM EDT reply actions
And back in 2007
Contador and Rasmussen finished together, 4’40" back of Kirchen in 9th and 10th places. (No one else finished with them.)
I've talked to two riders independently who did the Etape that day.
Both of them said the same thing, that they had never suffered like they did on the Balés. Apparently the heat was miserable to that day. It’s pretty hot again now.
Though Löfkvist said that the heat was bearable
About 30C(/86F). Of course it can be different today.
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Jul 19, 2010 3:08 AM EDT up reply actions
I'm Callin' SamSan . . . .
. . . maybe not for the win if the break stays up the road, but I’d expect him to rip this decent in the hopes of putting time on Menchov.
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