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Couldn't see one, so here goes...
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The word from riders on Twitter is there is a chance of a 'bunch kick'. I've no idea what that is, but it sounds exciting
Its either going to be Big Phil for me or Cav if he really wants it, although for HTC to pull for two big days (Goss tomorrow) its tough going, but if Cav wants green, well, thats what you Gotta do!
OR
Is it going to be a day for the break? Astana need something now Vino has gone, Quickstep have had a poor showing? Gee Thomas? EBH?
bunch kick = bunch sprint.
needs to be a very good day for Cavendish if he wants the Green jersey
Don't forget to add "Possible Spoiler" to the thread title 🙂
**** that looks hard...and they're not even in the mountains proper like.
Oh dear. There's going to be trouble now.....
*sits back and awaits 'his' arrival*
Breakaway to try and get away on the cat 4 climb at the end only to be pulled back in with 2km to go and for Cav to win as usual.
*sits back and awaits 'his' arrival*
For christ's sake, it's nearly midday - if he's going to try and "own" the thread, then he needs to get up a little earlier. 🙂
Does anyone have a good live stream link? Preferabbly in HD!
MartinGT, why would Goss be going for tomorrows sprint? Cav will be contending both days IMO
so who's dropped out after Sunday's carnagival?
what DD says ****less students living of our taxes .....why cant he get a job and post early on stw , from work, like what proper honest decent hardworking folk do
Warton
I read soemwhere, cant remeber where that Goss has been marked down for tomorrows stage.
Will try and find.
I want Goss to win a sprint against a youngster and then sing "Drop The Boy" 🙂
yesiamtom have a look on Steephill.tv 😉
cheers martingt
Interesting, but I really can't saee it happening if cav wins today. If Cav doesn't do anything and gilbert wins today I can see Goss getting a look in, as Cav will be finished for the green
I cant seem to find it atm.
Interesting like you say, why would they stop their chances of taking green?
I reckon Cav for the intermediate sprint and Gilbert for the stage win if there isn't a breakaway that makes it to the end.
I see both the sprint and the finish are reasonably downhill - anyone know how twisty or tight they are?
Its been great how OPL have handled the Greipal and Gilbert situation. Now that VDB is out, they can concentrate on the remaining sprints.
Apparently its rainig again, could be interesting, the GC riders asses will be twitching!
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Cav's not going to be anywhere near the front after those hills. He's probably off the back already.
It's going to be Gilbert to win. (I'm going to name Gilbert for every win that's not a TT or mountain stage!)
It looks like a day for a classics rider not a pure sprinter so maybe to cover myself I'll add in Thor or Cancellara if it isn't a breakaway.
Maybe Millar.
Probably a random breakaway, they'll gain 13minutes and Tommy's team won't be strong enough to reel them back in. He'll lose yellow and a neo-pro nobody's ever heard of will hold it until Thursday.
Or maybe Cav will remember how to climb (because he claims to be able...) and win the bunch sprint.
Or perhaps half the peoloton will fall into a ravine, Cancellara will slow everybody down, and they'll ride into the finish in a strop, nobody racing.
It's one of those days. Gilbert!
Geraint puts tour videos on his site. He was talking yesterday of wanting to get in a break. THis looks like the kind of stage where you could make it stick.
With no final kms in the OP (shoddy work) it's hard to tell whether it'll be an out and out sprinters stage or one for the likes of Gilbert. I think it might be a bit lumpy for HTC to get it together for Cav.
Contador to be eaten by a feral cow just outside Saint Remy
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Voeckler's new Colnago.
I like Colnagos.
Hmmm, not worked?
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Sexeh
Crash already with Fab, gesink and LL down 🙁
I agree completely with IdleJon's predictions.
In other words anything could happen today.
We have a break @ approx 1m 🙂
Di Gregorio (Astana), Minard (AG2R), Vichot (FDJ), El Perez (Cofidis), Marcato (Vacansoleil) and Delaplace (Saur Sojasun)
Basically thats messed the intermediate sprint up for HTC
/edit realised I messed up lol
i'd like to see Geraint Thomas give it a go in the early mountain stages, he's only a few minutes down.
Will be interesting to see Rabbo's reaction if he does go for it 🙂
COME ON G!!!!
HTC On the front already..............
*sits back and awaits 'his' arrival*
Shouldn't that be "His"?
Morning all. Tough today to call here, already had a crash as well it sounds. Bloody French putting the sprint in early, I missed it. I want to say Cav for the win, think he'll be hungry for it. I don't think the breakaway will stay away.
Im with you RealMan. Espec now their on the front pulling back already. 51.5kmh avg!!!!
Done before but worth a repost...
Sat in the office with a live feed on the laptop and the srm on the desktop. I really should be getting some work done.
Why are the mechanics so massive? They always look knackered after changing a wheel and giving their man a desultory push...
How did that guy lose his shoe...?
I love that live SRM feed. they're doing 50+kph and putting out about 300 watts (OK, not that much by their standards) and the HR? Oh, around about 120bpm.
In other words, barely trying. 😯 (Yes, they're going slightly downhill but still...)
Love SRM.....El Fares in the breakaway today
Their HRs are up around 160 now for 350W ish.
Looking at those wattages, I'm somewhat surprised at how easy it is (relatively) to be in the peleton. I reckon if it was mostly flat I could stay in the peleton for a couple of hours 🙂
Farrar dropped!
Looking at those wattages, I'm somewhat surprised at how easy it is (relatively) to be in the peleton. I reckon if it was mostly flat I could stay in the peleton for a couple of hours
I've heard that on a flat stage if you stay in the peloton you only output an average of ~80 watts. So nearly any club cyclist could comfortably stay in the bunch.
The difficult part of the peloton is the technical aspect when its on flat stages.
You also need the fitness too 😉
Is wattage absolute? How does fitness come into it? If i rode at x watts, surely i'd be going slower than a Tour rider...?
You need to be fit to sustain x wattage for x amount of minutes??
if your heavy you need more watts to maintain the same speed as a lighter rider.
Fitness wise many of us could stay in the peloton for a few miles. Unfortunately the bulk of thos that could do that would crash because they couldnt handle riding in a group of 200 folk.
Cav was once asked how long a normal club level rider would last in the peloton.
His answer was that no-one would make it out of the neutralised section! He's right as well. 😉
Yeah from experience it's wishful thinking that you could ever sit in a racing group and just be sucked along. It's not a club run where everyone is nice. If you are not moving forwards in the group you'd very quickly find yourself out the back.
Worth a quick read
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-de-france-rest-day-gallery
His answer was that no-one would make it out of the neutralised section! He's right as well.
Might be right, depends on the acceleration I guess.
if your heavy you need more watts to maintain the same speed as a lighter rider.
Only when going uphill.
Fitness wise many of us could stay in the peloton for a few miles. Unfortunately the bulk of thos that could do that would crash because they couldnt handle riding in a group of 200 folk.
I've wondered about this. How is it any different from riding in a bunch of 30? You just follow the guy in front, don't brake, and don't knock into the guys next to you.
Cav was once asked how long a normal club level rider would last in the peloton.
His answer was that no-one would make it out of the neutralised section! He's right as well.
Thats in his book.
If in theory the roads were straight and you sat and drafted you could prob hang on, but everyone knows thats not the case.
SBZ many of those in the peleton are struggling to ride in a group of 200!
CaptJon - Member
Is wattage absolute? How does fitness come into it? If i rode at x watts, surely i'd be going slower than a Tour rider...?
SRM and the like measure watts transmitted to the bike. For a given size of rider on the flat, wattage for a given speed will basically the same irrespective of fitness and weight (well heavier will slow you down very slightly). For a given weight of rider on the hills at a given speed, wattage will again be the same irrespective of fitness.
What's different for different fitness is your ability to generate that wattage and sustain it. A fit rider may be able to ride at x watts for 8 hours while the unfit one could only do x watts for 10 minutes.
So basically if you rode on the flat in the tdf peloton, you'd be doing the same watts as the other riders around you. If you hit the hills, unless you're a complete whippet, you'd be doing more watts for the same speed or more likely less watts and less speed 🙂
Cycling is a funny old sport. The problem is (watching it) that pretty much everyone can ride a bike so they don't see how it could be *that* difficult. After all, you just sit there and pedal right?
Watch a local road race, the local chipper. Then watch the best UK pros, maybe at a Premier Calendar or the British National Road Race Champs. It's chalk and cheese. Then watch the Tour/Giro etc. The riders in that make even the best UK pros look average. You put Rapha, Endura, Team Raleigh etc into the Tour and most of them wouldn't last the stage. Yet they'd absolutely muller your average club rider.
The difference in ability is just phenomenal.
Cheers Clubber.
The problem is (watching it) that pretty much everyone can ride a bike so they don't see how it could be *that* difficult. After all, you just sit there and pedal right?
Surely that's the same for running, swimming, etc.
Surely that's the same for running, swimming, etc.
People already see those as sports though, that take effort. Most people see cycling as just a way of getting around if you can't afford a car..
anyone feel like mentioning the stage ?
Bunch sprint with the usual suspect then
Maybe not, they're really dishing it out now. Really messing things up.
Yellow and green in the break 😀
risky from gilbert, if he gets caught, he'll be nowheere in the sprint.
this is what I said yesterday, he has to attack, doesn't know how to do anything else
give me more info fellas the Tdf Site just shows a group 😳
5 guys off the front, including Voeckler, Gilbert, and Martin. Main bunch about 10-15 seconds behind, with Cav.
ta
is the TdF live on the radio anywhere (in English)?
Man, I wish I could see this. He aint going to be first up the Alpe but right now Gilbert is the school bully.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra
no speakers here but should be TdF may only work in UK not sure
gilbert looks like a man posessed!
Poor Gilbert, good effort from him though!
ah. spoke too soon. blown out his arse.
Cooked himself there, waste of energy.
Cav FTW
Cav FTW
I dunno, HTC under a lot of pressure at the moment...
Are HTC at the front ?who is leading the train?
I dunno, HTC under a lot of pressure at the moment...
Is it right Renshaw has been dropped???
No Goss or Renshaw in the HTC lead out train though.
Cancellara or Millar for the win - he'll jump out at TT it with 1km to go...
f*** me I'm good - Millar just attacked! Go Millar!!
Millar attacks off the front