Le Tour 2011- Stage 6

Dinan to Lisieux 141 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Flaming chunks of twisted metal!

So the day started out with flats and evolved into crashes of which Contador had 2.  Withdrawals doubled, Janez Brajkovic of Radio Shack and Christophe Kern of Europcar got added to Jurgen Van de Walle of Omega Pharma (Stage 4).  Brajkovic was involved in Contador’s second crash.

The announcing team was pretty close in their predictions with Cavendish barely edging Gilbert and Rojas.  Cavendish complains that the new rules make it “harder to have a proper bunch sprint.”  What I’ve noticed is that there are fewer break aways.

When there were multiple sprint checkpoints you’d have a leadout group of sprinters form for each one and then swiftly collapse back into the Peloton.  Now we’re getting 4 or 5 riders out there all day long.

In the GC we have Hushovd in yellow again hanging on to his single Second lead with Evans and Schleck (Frank) close behind.  Other likelies Schleck (Andy), Horner, and Liepheimer are in 10th, 13th, and 14th a little less than 18 Seconds back.  Contador is still at 1:42 but has advanced to 39th rank.  I can’t help but feel that margin has to increase a lot before the Pyrenees if he’s going down.

Dinan to Lisieux at 141 miles is the longest individual Stage this year and is not exactly Kansas flat with 2 category 3s and a category 4 climb.  An uphill finish is expected to favor the same contenders as yesterday.

It’s already started and will be about 2 hours in when the coverage on Vs. comes on at 8 am.

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    • on 07/07/2011 at 13:05
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    • on 07/07/2011 at 14:01
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    • on 07/07/2011 at 14:18
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    Phil- Farrar

    Bob- Gilbert

    • on 07/07/2011 at 14:25
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    5 man lead group 11:00 in front.

    • on 07/07/2011 at 14:33
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    • on 07/07/2011 at 15:15
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    at Midway checkpoint.

    Split Peloton, hard rain.

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