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Yesterday felt somewhat half-hearted despite some good racing in the end, lets see what today has on store.
The Route: 181.5km west, starting with some lumpy secondary roads near the Tarn valley and where riders will try to snap the peloton’s collective elastic. The Col de Sié stands out on the profile but it’s a gentle climb at 4-5%.
Starting outside of Mazamet – home of former French champion Laurent Jalabert who isn’t at ease with his past– the Pic de Nore is the big climb of the day and a long, winding road over the Montagne Noire (“Black mountain”) that is more irregular than the profile above suggests. Otherwise a straightforward climb, literally so for the steep middle section which is a direct line up and an obvious place for any punchy riders or climbers needing to thin the breakaway down or even make a decisive move. There’s 41.5km to go from the top of the climb and the descent is similar to the climb, steeper at first and the gradient eases by Cabrespine and the plains of the Cabardès to Carcassonne. The road isn’t flat to the finish, there are a few rises to exploit. The big difficulty is how the road is exposed to the wind, passing the monoculture of vineyards, fields of sunflowers, harvested wheat and so little shelter to the promised crosswind.
The Finish: a flat finish on big boulevards alongside the Canal du Midi in Carcassonne. There’s a sweeping right hand bend under the flamme rouge and then a gentle left hand bend with 600m to go and the road rises a few metres to the line.
The profile looks VERY interesting to my untrained eye.
A big lump in the middle
Yes a very flat last 5km.
So who's in the running for this one?
The Contenders: it’s so open. The silver lining of Peter Sagan’s monopoly in the points competition is that he and his team don’t need to ride the sprinters out of contention today, they could have tried to keep the break on a tight leash and then gone vollgas on the Pic de Nore to shake the sprinters and try to score maximum points in their absence. Now Sagan can can go in the move today and is an obvious pick. Yes he was in the move yesterday and but late into a grand tour it’s typical to see the same riders go again and again in the moves.
These are almost home roads for Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), not the ones he uses daily for training but near enough and again if he was in the move yesterday he’ll be trying again here but the final isn’t selective enough for him. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step) can sprint well on the flat.
Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) is a prototype rider for today, versatile on the climbs and handy in the sprint and he can save his team from a difficult Tour given their team leader Yates melted in the Alps. Groupama-FDJ’s Arthur Vichot needs a result, this is good terrain for him but is the level too high? Finally Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) gets a mention as he’s still versatile, Astana’s Michael Valgren and Magnus Cort Nielsen can double up on Omar Fraile’s win.
And as ever yesterday, which was a rather pretty wee stage.
Not been enough sunflower pics for me this tour.
Plenty of these though.
A new French hero has emerged this Tour.
And finally a win for the break.
Once again, please do pay CyclingTips a visit for the pics and Inrng a visit for the info, both fine sites and well worth a glance.
Start in home town today. Going to see the village of the Tour soon and start later on.
This is the stage my boy Bardet will start to dismantle the morally ambivalent Sir Dave Braisford Sky machine.
Go Bardet!
Cool stage bro’
Yeah, yesterday... well thought it actually a pretty decent stage all told. I was particularly pleased to see Stuy head out for a punt, but Omar did a great job of catching him.. I do wonder if Stuy had hung in the pack just a little longer whether he’d have launched it 10k later.. and took it to the end.
Tom did a fab job, Rojlic though had a cracker.. he’s going better than Kruijs which isn’t a suprise... after Stevens pop out a few years ago he’s sort of plateaued without much progress, which I’m hoping comes back now Rojlic is in the squad.
So Tom, who do you chase down ? And sorry Sunweb, but where’s the support for him. LtD is awesome, but I do think they burn him out far too soon in the stage.. Geshke I’m a fan of, but again he needs to match Tom later pace in the stage to add that extra support.. still a good showing though overall.. back to Tom, chase Fromage ? Or Thomas ? I’d stick with Mr Cheese, let Thomas burn himself out (if he ever does, under current fitness he’s proving to all that he’s as qualified as anyone to lead a Tour squad and capable of winning outright) Tom and Mr Cheese are pretty like fo’ like in an ITT so it’s between them, pick your target Tom and let Mr Cheese burn himself out.
Today, looong break... Valgren.
Over the bridge too, which if nothing else will be a photographers wet dream...
Agree about Dumoulin, he's looked great so far. Think I read somewhere that Sunweb are taking on another named sponsor for next year, be fantastic for Tom to have some more support riders that can cope with the mountains.
Alaphillipe is the new Voeckler?
I hope the other contenders can use this stage to put sky under some pressure.
I'd also like a winner from a pro conti team today.
Needs a top 5 gc rider to get in the break and put 5 mins on the peleton then everyone sits up and lets sky fatigue themselves .
Saying that I like sky the fact they've got the eye for detail. Incremental gains and spending money to get support riders, who would arguably be leaders elsewhere, doesn't make them bad it makes them professional. They are more willing to share rider data than other teams and the riders have taken a lot of undeserved shtick the past few grand tours.
Anyway sagan for the win today assuming he gets in the break and holds a reasonable tick up the last big hill. It's not too long and not too steep, certainly compared to yesterday .
Yates.
Because, why not?
Nommadge is high down this way..
The boy Bardet had a lesson in how it's good to do your turn when in the break yesterday. Second was all that was deserved after that epic wheel-sucking.
Not sure who'll get win today but it can't be Sagan, can it? He's going great but that Pic du Nore seems a bit to big. But who knows.
Dumoulin seems to be Mr Cool to me and I fancy him for the overall. If Froome cannot get more time on him and Thomas the Bike goes pop at some point, then Dumoulin could take it in the TT. I wonder what the steepness of the Pair o knees will do to the GC riders.
Dumoulin seems to be Mr Cool to me and I fancy him for the overall. If Froome cannot get more time on him and Thomas the Bike goes pop at some point, then Dumoulin could take it in the TT. I wonder what the steepness of the Pair o knees will do to the GC riders.
Tom D was at 7-1 yesterday, into 5 now, over G at lower than evens - seems an odd differential given G is totally unproven leading a grand tour into week 3. Anyhow, I've done my bit for G by throwing a tenner on Tom, which should hex him pretty good.
Dumoulin is going to win in Paris. G will have a bad day. Froome will not have a big enough buffer going into the TT. He has 11s on Dumoulin right now. In the Giro TT Dumoulin was 13s in front of Froome.
It's certainly poised for an interesting week 3, unlike the green jersey.
Who is particularly suited to the profile of that TT?
Great morning sucking up the Tour atmosphere .
Spent most of it by the team buses . Jumped the barrier to get closer look before being kicked out for not wearing the badge .
Saw the UCI commissaires checking the bikes for electric motors .
Sky mechanics were the fussier , making sure the wheels turned perfectly .
Peter Sagan and Alain Philippe signed lots of autographs for the kids .
Lots of Colombian for Quintana .
Froome went to sign with a staff member , the only one to do so .
My cousin rang me to tell me I was on Eurosport, standing by a gate behing an interview .
Need to go through the pictures and see if I can post them on here .
Who is particularly suited to the profile of that TT?
looks a little similar to the worlds last year with the steepish climb at the end, and Tom almost chased Froome down that day
Well as I sit here waiting for the delayed train I see that Majka has gone clear over the top and just needs to peg it to the finish, Martin is trying to edge back up the top 10 and not much else!!
There’s some good action, Valgren in there too 👍
As cChris2lou went to have a look but at the 10K mark the racing was already full on, quite hot as well. My legs where burning a bit when I dragged my heavy legs back up the mountain to get home(its the second year they put the start in a valley nea me every time I get to suffer to get home).
Actually quite a nice route that stage rode it on satuday with the ladies from Donnons des elles au velo who ride all the stages the day before the race.
@cChris2lou was it a large member of team sky with Chris Froome. Froome currently requires a body guard as a few members of the public are a little over excited and unable to control themselves. Unfortunate really as one of the reasons to love cycling is how close you can get to the action and the riders. (My claim to fame is my kids recognising me on TV from my distinctive back pack. Viviani had narrowly missed my toes - I was a bit close).
Moscon may be without a ride for next year! What a weapons grade male chicken.
Lovely to see one of of old stomping grounds on show. Mazamet and environs, glorious part of the world.
The incident is the latest addition to the 24-year-old Moscon's already lengthy rap sheet of distasteful behaviour. He was last year accused of deliberately causing Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ) to crashduring the Tre Valli Varesine, but the UCI disciplinary committee dropped the case in June, citing a lack of evidence due to the absence of video footage.
Reichenbach sustained a fractured elbow and hip in the crash, and the Swiss rider believed Moscon had deliberately caused the crash in retribution for his part in highlighting how the Team Sky rider had racially abused Kevin Reza at the 2017 Tour de Romandie.
Moscon was side-lined from racing for six weeks by his Sky team after he admitted to racially abusing Kevin Reza, though the squad allowed him to complete the Tour de Romandie. The UCI, however, declined to take any action against the Italian rider for the racist incident.
Following Moscon’s racial abuse of Reza in 2017, Team Sky said: “Gianni knows that there is no excuse for his behaviour and that any repeat will result in termination of his contract.”
In September of last year, Moscon was disqualified from the World Championships road race when video emerged of him taking a tow from the Italian team car after he was caught up in a crash on the penultimate lap.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gianni-moscon-disqualified-from-tour-de-france/
Wow, given that list of issues the bigger question is how he was still at Sky and in the tour, must have been a hell of a talent.
I can feel the love being showered onto sky on Tuesday ! 😀
Moscon is a heck of a rider but he’s such a weapons grade *insert insult here*. He’ll get a ride next year though, many of done much worse and still got a ride, and bear in mind this guy is seriously talented too, someone will snap it up.
Yes it was a big bloke on a very nice Pinarello hybrid bike . Froome got a mixture of boos and claps on stage .
Biggest cheer was for Saggan and Bardet .
@Hofnar : where do you live ? I did think to ride to Saint georges or Saint Romes but got to see more of the riders by the team buses .
What a nice fellow Moscon is eh.
Will he get a ride? Yeah, Astana.
sky will probably keep him they quite like the "nobody like us and we don't care persona"
@cchris2lou on the Levezou plateau between Rodez and Millau (slightly closer to the first). Its definitely interesting to see the start, but we had Laissac start last year which is basically in my back yard so I had seen the circus recently and have seen regualrly before(I spend some years living near the muur of geraardsbergen in Belgium). But couldn't pass on the opportunity to just ride out(with heavy legs) and see the tour.
We have been spoilt the last couple of year but might not see them for years at cycling distance.
Astana
A team with positive tests aplenty, sponsored by one of the most corrupt states on the planet, and yet none of the detractors. Funny that.
Has anyone else been following Chad Haga's twitter summaries of the stages?
https://twitter.com/ChadHaga?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
...yet none of the detractors. Funny that.
I'm with you on the scumminess of Astana @CaptainFlashheart, but I think there's been plenty of detractors of the the team over the years. The Astana roster has certainly been an A-list of dopers, from Vinokourov and Bruyneel to Contador and Armstrong, not even listing the other bad behaviours in and around the team...
Very glad the Sky Enforcer is out and now the way is paved for my boy Bardet to destroy Sir call me Dave Brailsford's morally questionable Sky machine in the Pyrenees.
Very glad the Sky Enforcer is out and now the way is paved for my boy Bardet to destroy Sir call me Dave Brailsford’s morally questionable Sky machine in the Pyrenees
You realise that's simply not going to happen don't you ?
Astana like a rebel, Moscon would do well there when Valgren and de Cort move on.
Thing is though, Astana have the cash to both encourage and keep riders. Vino for all his faults is the paymaster and it’s unusual this year to have not heard a word from him.
I find that very strange.
This isn’t in defence of Moscon, but like any mob gathered together there are tensions within that we do not know about. Is there a back story to the outburst or is this just Moscon being a Moscon?
Still de Cort rode a cracker and my pick of Valgren cake in 4th, good Dutch lads the pair of them.
but like any mob gathered together there are tensions within that we do not know about. Is there a back story to the outburst or is this just Moscon being a Moscon?
It was in the first km, I'm going with the latter theory!
Yeah I read that, bit odd innit.
I'm glad bardet rides for the morally just ag2r.
"
On September 21, 2012, Steve Houanardtested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test and was provisionally suspended.
On May 15, 2013, Sylvain Georges tested positive for the banned stimulant Heptaminoland failed to start stage 11 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia. Georges blamed the positive result on the freely available product 'Ginkor Fort' (made from Ginkgo biloba). On May 21 Georges 'B Sample' also tested positive for the stimulant causing the team to voluntarily remove itself from the 2013 Criterium du Dauphine in accordance with MPCC rules. As a result of the positive Georges was banned by the French Cycling Federation for 6 months.
On March 10, 2015, the UCI announced that Lloyd Mondory had tested positive for EPO on February 17 in an out of competition test. As a result, Mondory was suspended pending the outcome of his B sample analysis.