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Morning all, sorry it’s a little later that normal, has to do parkrun first.
Anyway, what’s in store today?
9
Saturday 13 July - Stage 8 in the Tour de France is a race from Mâcon to Saint-Étienne. The route takes in an altitude gain of 3,750 metres and amounts to 200 kilometres.Mâcon hosted its last Tour de France in 2012. That stage took in three mountains and it turned out to be a day for the breakaway. Thomas Voeckler finished solo in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.
The 2019 stage travels from Mâcon to Saint-Étienne. The capital of the Loire department is a popular arrival town in La Grande Boucle with 22 stage finishes since 1950. It has been a while though. The 2014 Tour de France saw the last stage finish in Saint-Étienne with Alexander Kristoff outsprinting Peter Sagan and Arnaud Demaré at the end of a hilly race.
This year’s route is also teeming with hills, yet ‘only’ seven are classified. Riders who are eyeing up the polka dot jersey have to be alert at kilometre 51. This is the summit of the Col de Croix Montmain, which is a 6.1 kilometres climb at 7%. At kilometre 71 more KOM points are available at the Col de Croix de Thel (4.1 kilometres at 8.1%) before the Col de La Croix Paquet (2.1 kilometres at 9.7%) is crested at kilometre 84.5.
Following the passage over the Côte d’Affoux (8.5 kilometres at 4.5%) the second half of the race offers three more KOM climbs. Côte de la Croix de Part peaks at kilometre 133 after a 4.9 kilometres toil at 7.9%. The Côte d’Aveize is also polka dot material. The 5.2 kilometres climb at 6.4% is crested with 51.5 kilometres remaining. The route continues to go either up or down with the Côte de la Jaillère standing out. The 1.9 kilometres hill slopes at 7.9%, while it is crested with 12.5 kilometres out. Moreover, time bonuses of 8, 5 and 3 seconds are up for grabs at the top.
The descent leads to an uphill kick at 5% in the third kilometre before the line. The ensuing downhill runs to the flamme rouge, while the last kilometre is flat.
Time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds are awarded to the first three riders on the line. Plus, as mentioned, there are extra seconds available at the Jaillère.
Lumpy.
Last KM? Also lumpy.
Hmm, so the contenders? Off to inrng.com we go.
The Contenders: a lot of riders will have today’s stage on their mind, the hilly terrain is ideal for a breakaway. Who is going to control the race? Trek-Segafredo have the yellow jersey but they’re not the strongest squad, can’t do it all themselves and besides they need to spare Richie Porte and a couple of riders around him and Julian Alaphilippe is only six seconds off Giulio Ciccone. Alaphilippe’s problem is he’s a threat to others on GC and nobody will want to gift him a lot of time, he might have no chance to win the race overall but put him in the yellow jersey with a five minute lead and it’s a different story, a risk the likes of Ineos won’t want to take.
Lunges almost always incorrect tip? Steve Cummings.
Anyway, yesterday was dull. Thankfully France is still pretty.
The break.
France.
The victor.
Strong break that is, they could stay away quite easily.
I'd like to have seen Cummings in there as well - not sure I've ever really seen him in a proper strong breakaway. Would make for a fun run-in
& Lillian Calmjane... still time for someone to have a go with 50 odd km to go. Here’s hoping.
the peloton is keeping it under 5 mins at the moment.
WTF are they doing in the peloton - watching with no volume but they seem to be smashing it for no obvious reason. Is there somebody with a GC chance out front somewhere inbetween the groups (surely not even Terpstra FTW ?)
Edit: Just checked the times and they're all way down - what's the rush ?
<Wonder if there's a rumour about one of the big names being a bit poorly>
Brian Smith on Eurosport preview mentioned “ sickness”.......
Wouldnt be surprised to hear Badet was sick
bardet is out of contention already no need to ride hard there.
This is brutal, it's being properly raced. Sagan burying himself to stay on the very back of a rapidly depleting bunch.
Back online viewing and I still don't get it - whose interests are being served by this, other than Skineos who aren't riding on the front so will be less shagged out for the coming week?
Astana & EF - really? are their leaders that confident that they can pick up win bonuses?
Astana & EF – really?
Looking at the stage I expect, all on if Sagan blows
****ing idiot in the helicopter films a horse getting wrapped up in barbed wire!!
crash for Thomas
Moscons bike trashed
kicked off now !
Thomas right back in - if he can hold tight now
(I think that's Thomas' bike !)
Itv say its G's bike and he took moscons
COME ON De Gendt !!
Awesome ride!
cracking race that!
Best stage so far.Shouting at the telly for TDG to hold on & take the stage!
General Classification after Stage 8
1 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (DQT) 34:17:59
2 CICCONE, Giulio (TFS) + 23
3 PINOT, Thibaut (GFC) + 53
4 BENNETT, George (TJV) + 1:10
5 THOMAS, Geraint (INS) + 1:12
6 BERNAL GOMEZ, Egan Arley (INS) + 1:16
7 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (TJV) + 1:27
8 URAN, Rigoberto (EF1) + 1:38
9 FUGLSANG, Jakob (AST) + 1:42
10 BUCHMANN, Emanuel (BOH) + 1:45
11 MAS NICOLAU, Enric (DQT) + 1:46
12 YATES, Adam (MTS) + 1:47
13 MEURISSE, Xandro (WGG) + 2:02
14 QUINTANA, Nairo (MOV) + 2:04
15 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (MOV) + 2:06
16 MARTIN, Daniel (UAD) + 2:09
17 GAUDU, David (GFC) + 2:15
18 PORTE, Richie (TFS) + 2:19
19 MOLLEMA, Bauke (TFS) + 2:45
20 KONRAD, Patrick (BOH) + 2:46
also who has stolen Moviestar ? In days of old had the competition crashed when the race was on it was no mercy. Seem quite happy to let G get back on, just sat in the peloton completely disinterested.
GC is interesting and how tight it is depends entirely on if you think Alaphillipe (and perhaps Ciccone) is a GC contender.
If you don’t it’s nicely poised with all the main contenders within a minute.
If you do then Landa down are 2+ mins away and are almost out of contention.
Interesting set-up.
When is the next big mountain top finish you would imagine G would be happy enough letting Pinot take yellow for a while and being close behind?
Cracking stage that, and I've had this going round my head all afternoon. Lucky it's a great tune 🙂
Awesome stage. And Sagan sprinting with the GC contenders. And o won’t be buying a cut and shut Dogma any day soon. Didn’t look a bad smash to snap a frame like that!
So much panache going on. What a stage.
One of those 'watch live then watch the highlights' stages.
My favourite part was Pinot's pain face as he went with Alaphillipe's attack.
One of those ‘watch live then watch the highlights’ stages.
I have to agree,so glad I watched it live,& again as the highlights show .
First time in this edition of the Tour that I've seen 'The Devil'.
If you don’t it’s nicely poised with all the main contenders within a minute.
Apart from Nibbles who lost 5 minutes today, came in with an EF rider doing a cutthroat gesture.
And o won’t be buying a cut and shut Dogma any day soon. Didn’t look a bad smash to snap a frame like that!
Pinarello are shit. Dreadful frames. I've seen one break from a guy sitting on the toptube. There's a carbon repair guy local to me who reckons 1/3rd of his work is Pinarello, more than any other individual brand.
One guy has a great set of crash pics which have been doing the rounds on social media. Zoom in enough on Moscon's bike and you can see the top tube has already split as the bike is going down. Looks like it gets an impact from the rear wheel of the bike in front as that falls.
What a stage.
Heroic effort from TdG and great to see Pinot taking his opportunity.
Alaphillipe had given an already interesting race a real extra dimension.