Jul 20 2011

Le Tour- Stage 17

Gap to Pinerolo 112 miles

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The sporting press seems evenly divided over whether Contador or Evans benefitted the most from yesterday’s results.  At the very least it was a psychological boost to Contador’s chances as he aggressively attacked at least 4 times and was suddenly a part of the conversation after 2 weeks.

Looking at the times the results are not so clear.  There’s no doubt that Andy Schleck was hurt by his cautious descent into Gap, giving up 1:06, and Basso nearly as badly, but riders like Frank Schleck, Cunego, and Voeckler gave up just 18 Seconds and Evans gained 3.

Hushovd’s Stage win was also unexpected, and puts him in 4th place of the points competition some 84 behind the Mad Manx and 65 ahead of Greipel in 5th.  BruceMcF’s analysis of yesterday’s competition here.

In any event your adjusted overall times look like this today-

Rank Name Team ET delta
1 Thomas Voeckler Europcar 69h 00′ 56″
2 Cadel Evans BMC 69h 02′ 41″ + 01′ 45″
3 Frank Schleck Leopard Trek 69h 02′ 45″ + 01′ 49″
4 Andy Schleck Leopard Trek 69h 03′ 59″ + 03′ 03″
5 Samuel Sanchez Euskaltel 69h 04′ 22″ + 03′ 26″
6 Alberto Contador Saxo Bank 69h 04′ 38″ + 03′ 42″
7 Ivan Basso Cannondale 69h 04′ 45″ + 03′ 49″
8 Damiano Cunego Lampre 69h 04′ 57″ + 04′ 01″
9 Tom Danielson Garmin 69h 07′ 00″ + 06′ 04″
10 Rigoberto Uran Sky 69h 08′ 51″ + 07′ 55″

Today’s Stage has a category 3 climb before the sprint checkpoint and overall 2 category 3s, 2 category 2s, and a category 1.  The descent from Sestrieres is about 29 miles which is expected to be long enough to bunch the field before the final climb and descent into Pinerolo.  Since it’s not considered particularly difficult  the final section is thought by some analysists to favor Evans.

Vs. joins the race in progress at the relatively sane hour of 8 am.

rustymancuso581

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  4. Paul (14)- Evans

    Phil (26)- Basso

  6. Mad Manx gets the remaining sprint point.

    7. Photobucket

      Photobucket

  8. starts where the race ended yesterday, Gap. The race today ends in Pinerolo just southwest of Turin.

    Photobucket

    In the Middle Ages, the town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. Its military importance was the origin of the well-known military school that still exists today. The fortress of Fenestrelle is nearby.

    The earliest mention of Pinerolo is in the tenth century, when it belonged to the March of Turin and was governed by the abbot nullius of Pinerolo who ran the abbey of Abbadia Alpina, even after the city had established itself as a municipality (1247) under the government of Thomas Savoy.

    From 1235, Amadeus IV of Savoy exercised over the town a kind of protectorate which became absolute in 1243, and was continued thereafter either by the house of Savoy, or of Savoy-Acaia.

    When French troops invaded Piedmont (1536), Pinerolo was conquered and it remained under their control until 1574.

    With the treaty of Cherasco it again fell to France (1631).

    France agreed to hand back Pinerolo to the house of Savoy under the Treaty of Turin (1696) with the conditions that its stronghold’s fortifications were demolished and that Savoy withdrew from the League of Augsburg against Louis XIV.

    Surrounded by mountains and valleys and steeped in history, Pinerolo is just waiting to be explored. Following the example of Saumur’s Cadre Noir national riding school in France, Pinerolo is home to Italy’s cavalry, and upholds its traditions. Pinerolo can also claim its place as an Olympic town having held the curling here as part of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. It’s also a cultural town full of museums: Le Museo Nazionale de l’Arma di Cavalleria, la Collezione Civica d’Arte di Palazzo Vittone, le Museo Diocesano, le Museo Storico del Mutuo Soccorso et la Casa del Senato. The San Donato cathedral, the San Maurizio basilica – one of the town’s landmarks – and Pinerolo’s old town, with its squares and picturesque mediaeval streets, are also all well worth a visit. All year round, Pinerolo also holds a number of cultural events: la Rassegna dell’Artigianato, la Maschera di Ferro, and international equestrian competitions. Pinerolo is all this and more: a smiling, welcoming town.

    The Tour will be stopping for the first time in Pinerolo, which hosted a stage of the Giro d’Italia from Cueno to Pinerolo, in 1949, which became historic. “The Maddalena Pass would already have been enough to exhaust a bull. But it was just the beginning,» wrote Dino Buzatti, the special correspondent of the Corriere della Sera to describe the dual between Coppi and Bartali. On that day, Coppi, the younger of the two, gave the deathblow to the elder rider: «Today Bartali understood that he had reached decline. And for the first time he smiled.”

  9. Sestriere is an alpine village in Italy, a comune (municipality) of the Province of Turin. It is 17 km (11 miles) from the French border. Its name derives from Latin: ad petram sistrariam, that is at sixty Roman miles from Turin.

    It regularly hosts FIS Alpine Ski World Cup events, and it hosted the FIS World Championships in 1997, and the IPC World Championships in 2011. It was a main venue during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and the 2006 Winter Paralympics, hosting all the men’s alpine skiing competitions and being the site of one of the three Olympic Villages.

    It is also a famous starting and arrival point in the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. Notably, it was the scene of a definitive moment in Lance Armstrong’s career when he rode away from the field in a breakaway uphill finish to take the stage in the 1999 Tour de France, which was the first of his seven championships in that race.

    The ski resorts at Sestriere were developed from the 1930s by the Agnelli family.

  10. for being the first over the top of the mountain in Sestriere

  11. coming to the bottom of the 35 km descent and approaching the next climb, a cat 2, and the finish.

  12. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway riding for team Sky Procycling, takes the win for today’s stage.

    Stage 17 Top Finishers:

    1. Edvald Boasson Hagen

    2. Bauke Mollema

    3. Sandy Casar  

    4. Julien El Fares

    5. Sylvain Chavanel

    6. Dmitriy Fofonov”

    7. Maciej Paterski

    8. Dmitriy Muravyev  

    9. Jonathan Hivert  

    10. Borut Bozic

    Overall Standing on Time (yellow jersey):

    1. Thomas Voeckler

    2. Cadel Evans  

    3. Frank Schleck  

    4. Andy Schleck

    5. Samuel Sanchez

    6. Alberto Contador

    7. Damiano Cunego

    8. Ivan Basso

    9. Tom Danielson

    10. Rigoberto Uran

    Overall Points Standing (green jersey):

    1. CAVENDISH Mark – 320 pts

    2. ROJAS Jose Joaquin –  285 pts

    3. GILBERT Philippe – 250 pts

    4. HUSHOVD Thor – 235 pts

    5. HAGEN Edvald Boasson – 173 pts

    6. GREIPEL André – 170 pts

    7. EVANS Cadel – 165 pts

    8. FARRAR Tyler – 141 pts

    9. DELAGE Mickaël – 122 pts

    10. ROY Jérémy – 107 pts

    Overall Climber (red & white polka dot jersey):

    1. VANENDERT Jelle – 74 pts

    2. SANCHEZ Samuel – 72 pts

    3. ROY Jérémy – 45 pts

    4. CHAVANEL Sylvain – 38 pts

    5. SCHLECK Andy – 28 pts

    6. PEREZ MORENO Ruben – 26 pts

    7. EVANS Cadel – 26 pts

    8. SCHLECK Frank – 24 pts

    9. HOOGERLAND Johnny – 22 pts

    10. CASAR Sandy – 19 pts

    Overall Youth (white jersey):

    1. Rigoberto Uran

    2. Rein Taaramae

    3. Pierre Rolland

    4. Arnold Jeanesson

    5. Jérôme Coppel

    Overall Team

    1. TEAM GARMIN – CERVELO  

    2. TEAM LEOPARD-TREK

    3. AG2R LA MONDIALE

    4. TEAM EUROPCAR

    5. EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI

    6. KATUSHA TEAM

    7. SKY PROCYCLING

    8. TEAM RADIOSHACK

    9. COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE

    10. FDJ                  

  13. … “Operation Dump Cavendish”. The time before elimination depends on the speed of the route and the difficulty of the stage: flat, intermediate, high mountain, short high mountain, and then two classes for TTT and ITT … if Alp D’Huez is classed as a short high mountain stage, then the best chance to dump Cavendish may well be tomorrow.

    The main thing to watch is whether the first two HC climbs put any of the leaders into difficulty, since it can be a quite long climb up the Galibier in any event, and would be really hard for a rider detached from the main contenders group and turning into the wind on alternate switchbacks on their own.

    As Contador climbed a Cat.2 today, it seems likely he’ll attack again tomorrow to try to make up time on the current “virtual podium” of Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck and Sammy Sanchez.  

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