[Closed] Tour de France stage 6 - Mulhouse > La Planche des Belles Filles

Seems like there is a bit of uncertainty on the surface of the last section of the final climb too (according to the Cyclingtips podcast); it was originally gravel; they've compressed bits and then tarmaced bits. A lot of the teasm don't seem to know which bits are what...

interesting to see how it compares to 2017 edition

Pinot?

Its a tough question to answer. But because the french press and media seem to think he’s the forgone winner, I think not. He will put up a fight until he falls off dribbling, but ultimately a marked man if ever there was one.

Dan Martin.

The Vosges was stunning yesterday, it’s going to look stunning once again.

A break, is obvz, and “you-know-who” will be in it, innit. Doomed to fail, but I’d like to see someone from Samsic like Barguil, Bouet or Delaplace or even Moinard just because they’ve been mid pack so far.. or someone from T-DE... Bonifazio, Calmejane (If he’s feeling a bit better than yesterday) Sicard (was once brilliant, fingers crossed he’s on form) or Taaramae, even Terpstra please let Nikki be in the break..

I want to see a break with 12mins, but I really doubt that will happen 🤷‍♂️

Looks brutal.

if he wasn't in yellow it would hava Alaphillipe in a breakaway written all over it.

I want to see a break with 12mins, but I really doubt that will happen

depends on how the GC battle unfolds, if they let Exxon Valdez dictate the pace it may well go out.

Looks brutal.

Got to feel sorry for the sprinters on a stage like this.
I wonder how Movistar will play it with their multiple leaders?

There' another race up the hill today too:

https://twitter.com/millarmind/status/1149052078628704259

I guess this is the really big question of the race up to now. In all honesty i have absolutely no idea who can or will win this one today.. I'd expect it to be full of the main protagonists though with all the usual suspects.

For me though it should answer the big Bernal/Thomas question, not necessarily which of them is the dedicated leader as such, but which is having the best form.

Well I've been spectacularly wrong with all my guesses so far, so I'll go for Nibbles today.

Great stage, but too early in the race. The contenders will be marking each other closely, so don’t expect glory today.

Calmejean is a good call for the breakaway win.

Valverde anyone?. If he can get in the front group he's going to be hard to beat. Look how he won the world championship in Innsbruck. I hope Dan Martin puts on show too. I missed out yesterday, was going to pick Sagan then changed to Alaphilippe. So i'll go Valverde, it will certainly be an interesting team dynamic at Movistar. Not sure they are going to ride for each other.

I think there'll be gaps but quite small. Favourites will mark each other until the steep final K when it can be nothing but each man for himself on those gradients. G to loose about 30 seconds to Bernal, Pinot and Bardet. Michael Woods for the win. He deserves a Tour stage and these finishes suit him.

so don’t expect glory today.

should be some fireworks on top of the final climb it's steep enough to lose time very quickly. And probably too steep for a repeat of that early Etna stage in the giro a couple of years back.

Surely with that amount of ascent the tiny sub 60kg climbers will fare better.
If the domestiq riders can get Porte or Quintana to the final 2 climbs and not blow in the first 1km then they could dance away with it.
Never discount NIballi or Yates as he is another pocket rocket who can grab a gap and maintain high outputs

Really excited for this stage.
The time gaps may be small but the psychological wins will be huge so be prepared for those who aren't top favourites to have a go.
I'm expecting Valverde and Nibali to strike out late (after pissing about a bit to test old legs) but hoping that Bernal or Yates will show them that climbing is a young man's game and go a bit earlier. Or is it the other way round?

Woods for today.

Yellow will change hands. Either to Woods or Ineos (tbc)

Pinot as the outsider. He Looks good.

Just so we know (from Wiki):

La Planche des Belles Filles (English: "Board of the beautiful girls") is a ski station in the Vosges Mountains

The name Belles Filles literally means "Beautiful Girls", but is actually derived from the local plant life. The mountain is attested from the 16th century as lieu peuplé de belles fahys, a "place inhabited with nice beech trees" in the local dialect. Belles fahys later became corrupted into Belles Filles, though there remains a nearby village of Belfahy. Meanwhile, Planche, "board", is derived from the nearby small town of Plancher-les-Mines.

A folk etymology, in contrast, holds that the mountain took its name from the time of the Thirty Years' War. According to legend, young women from Plancher-les-Mines fled into the mountains to escape Swedish mercenaries as they feared being raped and massacred. Rather than surrender, they decided to commit suicide and jumped into a lake far below. One of the soldiers then took a board on which, with his dagger, he engraved an epitaph for the "beautiful girls".[1][2] A wooden statue, created by a local artist, is a reminder of the legend

Gone for Bernal or Pinot today. Picked 3 winners so far (didn't bother with TTT).

Again, I'm taking this from the Cyclingtips podcast, but their suggestion was ther might well be a proper GC battle, despite it being early in the tour, because after today it is rolling/sprint stages all the way till the rest day on Tuesday. Here's hoping!

Every time I hear an interview with Geraint Thomas he seems to be playing down his chances - bluffing or realistic?

Exxon Valdez

🤣🤗🌻☀️

Every time I hear an interview with Geraint Thomas he seems to be playing down his chances – bluffing or realistic?

Realistic IMHO. I think he peaked last year after many years of gradual improvement - the stars aligned for him with a leader who did too much at the Giro. Bernal is the Ineos favourite for me, by some margin. I'd liek to be proved wrong, but don't think I will be.

The commentator's just said that due to today's stage with the compacted gravel section near the finish they'e installed some kind of 'transition area' for spare bikes & Ineos have fitted some special wheels to theirs @ 5K a pair!

Ineos have fitted some special wheels to theirs @ 5K a pair!

Lightweight Meilensteim, under 1kg a pair. But also early 00's aerodynamics. Odd choice.

is the anywhere to watch the race like as a gps tracked race you can watch live on a map?

Ineos have fitted some special wheels to theirs @ 5K a pair!

I assume that's because they don't want to risk their best ones on the gravel `:-)

You don’t worry about aerodynamics on a 25% slope! Marginal gains in the bike swap. Who got them duty if guarding them all afternoon?

Interesting that the bikes are fat enough that they can lose 200g and stay within the rules

Interesting that the bikes are fat enough that they can lose 200g and stay within the rules

I think the general view is that the Pinarello's are a little porky.

Interesting that the bikes are fat enough that they can lose 200g and stay within the rules

the hidden motor'll add a bit back

out for a club ride at the moment....

is the anywhere to watch the race like as a gps tracked race you can watch live on a map?

https://racecenter.letour.fr/#/map?theme=

how long till moviestar send someone up the road ?

16stonepig

Subscriber
is the anywhere to watch the race like as a gps tracked race you can watch live on a map?

https://racecenter.letour.fr/#/map?theme=
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brilliant, cheers. 🙂

 

It’s quite exciting 😘

Surprised to see the 2 sky just blown out the back

TJ gone as well

Going to be savage!

TJ gone as well

Standard

😘😘🥇

Well well well. Interesting at the end then!!!

That looked horrid.

it's not often the pros look so "feeble" on a climb!

Turns out Thomas isn't quite as out of form as some suggested then.
Also, at what point do we talk about Alaphilippe for GC?

at what point do we talk about Alaphilippe for GC?

probably when DQS turn up with a team to win it 😉

Cripes, just seen the result, was expecting Thomas to lose a bit today, looks like a massive ride from him. Chapeau that man.

General Classification after Stage 6
1 CICCONE, Giulio (TFS) 23:14:55
2 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (DQT) + 6
3 TEUNS, Dylan (TBM) + 32
4 BENNETT, George (TJV) + 47
5 THOMAS, Geraint (INS) + 49
6 BERNAL GOMEZ, Egan Arley (INS) + 53
7 PINOT, Thibaut (GFC) + 58
8 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (TJV) + 1:04
9 WOODS, Michael (EF1) + 1:13
10 URAN, Rigoberto (EF1) + 1:15
11 FUGLSANG, Jakob (AST) + 1:19
12 BUCHMANN, Emanuel (BOH) + 1:22
13 MAS NICOLAU, Enric (DQT) + 1:23
14 YATES, Adam (MTS) + 1:24
15 MEURISSE, Xandro (WGG) + 1:39
16 QUINTANA, Nairo (MOV) + 1:41
17 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (MOV) + 1:43
18 MARTIN, Daniel (UAD) + 1:46
19 GAUDU, David (GFC) + 1:52
20 NIBALI, Vincenzo (TBM) + 1:56
21 PORTE, Richie (TFS)
22 MOLLEMA, Bauke (TFS) + 2:22
23 KONRAD, Patrick (BOH) + 2:23
24 LUTSENKO, Alexey (AST) + 2:31
25 VALVERDE, Alejandro (MOV) + 2:55
26 BARDET, Romain (ALM) + 2:57
27 BARGUIL, Warren (PCB) + 3:03
28 KREUZIGER, Roman (TDD) + 3:05
29 ARU, Fabio (UAD) + 3:25
30 MARTIN, Guillaume (WGG) + 3:27

Ol' G has come a long way in 2 years as he dropped 40s up a shorter version!!

Ol’ G has come a long way in 2 years as he dropped 40s up a shorter version!!

Yeah but in the past he was going in specifically as a super-domestique; it was more luck than judgement that he ended up in yellow last year although to be fair Sky did then throw their weight behind him rather than trying to get CF back into yellow.

So now he's going in as joint leader / defending champion and more importantly minus CF so he's free to ride with full support now.

Thats quite a tight top 20.

Could really be anyones race ATM. One bad day, one crash, one dodgy taco..

So glad we had a break, great to see Meurisse from Wanty in the top 15! I can only imagine the DS's amazement and the Company that backs them.. Great ride right to the end.

I think the ride of the day was Teuns's. He played it right out, seemed to be savvy at the bottom of the last climb and looked in great form all the way up to the top..

Enjoyed the gravel bit at the end, but honestly think it was put in as an afterthought or press gossiping piece..

😬

So now he’s going in as joint leader / defending champion and more importantly minus CF so he’s free to ride with full support now.

Froome won on that climb as a super domestique where as G lost 40 secs.

Good stage that.
Thomas looks in great form it must be said, and so too is Valverde .. amazing!

It still very early though in this race, but I’m hoping Alaphilippe can some how do it.

I think the team TT has distorted the race somewhat. Not sure I like, or particularly agree with the team TT.

I think the team TT has distorted the race somewhat. Not sure I like, or particularly agree with the team TT.

isn't there to justify each rider having his own TT bike ? if it was just a TT most riders would riding their road bikes with tri-bars attached.

Gnarmac!

isn’t there to justify each rider having his own TT bike ? if it was just a TT most riders would riding their road bikes with tri-bars attached.

Erm, so what will they be riding in the ITT next week?

isn’t there to justify each rider having his own TT bike ? if it was just a TT most riders would riding their road bikes with tri-bars attached.

No-one does that anymore. They're all on specialist TT bikes.
Occasionally the organisers will put in a TT with a bloody great climb in the middle and riders might do the first half on a TT bike and then swap to a road bike (which personally I think should be banned) but any form of TT, they're all on specific TT bikes.

I thought Klunk was being silly/flippant with that comment?

The team TT can give an unfair advantage/disadvantage as has been shown already.
The winner of the TDF is an individual. I know it takes a team, but they don’t announce the winner of the TDF as ‘Team Sky won with Chris Froome having the fastest time’ .. it’s correctly announced as Chris Froome won, and he rides for Team Sky.

I'd like to see a single speed ITT stage on a rolling course.

The team TT can give an unfair advantage/disadvantage as has been shown already.
The winner of the TDF is an individual.

I get people's dislike of the TTT, but in some ways it's just a recognition that three-week tour cycling is essentially a team sport. No-one wins the Tour de France riding as an 'individual'. It's one of the main reasons Ineos / Sky are so formidable, they could lose Poels early on the climb yesterday and still have a rider of Kwiato's quality pulling on the front. It also means that if you load up your team with tiny climbing elves with a view to the big mountains, you'll likely take a hit at the TTT - hello Movistar.

It's also way too early to be making serious predictions about the overall standings. Even in the sense of yesterday being a pointer to climbing form - the climbs were steep, but relatively short. And they were at much lower altitude than the high mountain climbs, which affects riders differently. You'd think that an altitde native like Bernal, for example, is likely to go better above 2,000m or so than yesterday when they were only at about 1150m or so.

That said, Nibali looked like he was still feeling the aftermath of the Giro, which is what everyone thought would be the case, so you do wonder if he'll forget about GC and just ride for stage wins, which is what he said he was going to do anyway.

I thought Klunk was being silly/flippant with that comment?

I was just kind of baffled. You do wonder how much training most teams do for team time trials. It's a really specific skill that's only used occasionally. Apparently Jumbo-Visma did a whole lot of training on an airfield to get things spot on, but in the end it gained them, what, 20 seconds. I guess that might be crucial in the end, but most of the margins were pretty small. Unless you have a team of diminutive climbing elves, in which case you've presumably calculated that the gains outweigh the losses.

TTT, good coverage for sponsors, good for tv, good for spectators and it breaks up the monotony of the flat sprinters stages. I like them.

As for the gravel, well if your going to do it , then do it properly. Lets have 100km of the stuff, heck while were at it lets have a xc mtb stage, a fixie crit and a bmx race.

Good to see Geraint letting his legs do the talking after all the Bernal hype, but too early to read much into it (beyond that GT's not as slow and out-of-shape as some have suggested).

Apparently Jumbo-Visma did a whole lot of training on an airfield to get things spot on, but in the end it gained them, what, 20 seconds.

Because they came in 20s quicker than Ineos? That would assume their base time was the same as Ineos, but they may well have been a couple of minutes slower without said airfield training.

I'm sure they regard smashing the TTT and keeping the yellow jersey as a big success.

Still don't want to watch a TT of any sort myself though.

I think it's more race sharpness that GT's lacking rather than being out of shape. There wasn't really any of the sparring you get between GC contenders yesterday more get to the bottom of the last climb and give it what you've got. OK, Alaphilippe made a break near the end and GT reeled him in but he wasn't having to constantly cover attacks the way he'll have to do in the Alps and Pyrenees.

TTs give roadside spectators more to look at than a breakaway then a bunch going past in a blur - now you've 176 riders all going past one at a time in a blur! Individual TTs are part of road riding so I can see a logic in including them, TTTs not so much. The organisers have a balancing act in deciding how long the TT will be such that it doesn't disproportionately affect the whole race which we've seen in the Giro with Yates.

I think it’s more race sharpness that GT’s lacking rather than being out of shape.

Point taken, "out of form" was what I meant really.

I think there's been an assumption (or suspicion) in some quarters that he'd been living the high life on the celeb circuit last year's win and wouldn't be at the same level this year.

Still too early to tell obvs, but yesterday's finish made this year's race even more interesting.

Bernal, for example, is likely to go better above 2,000m or so than yesterday

interesting point - long attacks in thin air - exciting prospect.

lose Poels early on the climb yesterday

I reckon this was tactical, I seem to remember him doing similar last year, and being saved for the long climbs in the 2nd and 3rd weeks. There was no need to have a 4-man train on the Plank.

@cha****ng - wasn't getting at you, honest!

There's still two weeks of racing to go so I wouldn't expect the GC riders to be peaking at the moment. In addition teams will arrange the domestiques to peak at different times so that there's always someone "fresh" to protect the GC contender. All that means is that I wouldn't read too much into the differences on lPdBF, it's a statistical outlier coming so early in the race (it's never been later than stage 10), the main GC contenders were all pretty close apart from Bardet who lost over a minute to Thomas.

wasn’t getting at you, honest!

No worries, didn't think you were having a pop.

I agree with you anyway, too early to tell who's strong but some hints on who's not.

Was it only Alaphillipe really trying to chase GT yesterday anyway?

Was it only Alaphilippe really trying to chase GT yesterday anyway?

I only watched the highlights and there didn't seem to be that many genuine attacks, maybe a few probings but no attack where the intention was to get ahead and stay ahead or even get a trusted lieutenant up the road then bridge across to him.

Oh, missed one of the pre-race 'favourites', maybe outside favourite - TJ Van Garderen. He lost over six minutes yesterday so don't think he's in contention anymore.

I thought yesterday turned out as expected. Neutral race and a bit of a spectacle at the end. I’m not really a fan of silly steep extensions to try and add a bit of sparkle and time gains. I’d prefer the old fashioned big time bonuses instead and see riders race for them. Seeing the pros struggle up 25% is no different to sticking them on a KICKR at the end of a session after a transition in my view. Just a power test. Why not make them run instead? Think that’s been done already ;-). Could warm up with a fresh dip first 😉

As for the TTT, I love them. Especially now that they have limited the distance to prevent big discrepancies in times. It is a great spectacle and something you have to train for. Jumbo Visma are all big units with lots of power. Deciding how to get four over the line as fast as possible provides plenty of strategy. How would you use Tony Martin tontow your train for example?

I think Alaphillipe needs to start thinking he's a contender and not trying to win every stage - apparently he was annoyed to lose yellow but Ciccone (as good a prospect as he is) won't hold onto it. I think this year I'd like to see either Alaphillipe or Pinot win it

I think Alaphillipe needs to start thinking he’s a contender and not trying to win every stage

Has he ever stated that he's going for GC? I haven't been paying full attention but I thought trying to win every stage was kind-of his thing - like a more climb-y Sagan?

Alaphillipe not going for GC surely just wants to stay in yellow for as long as possible. If he was doing a GC race he wouldn't be on the lead out train or attacking like this, he'll be cooked by the middle of next week