Jul 02 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 2

Visé – Tournai (129 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, if you’re rooting for one of the 135 riders that are now more than a minute down you have my official permission to panic.  Given the tight bunching and mass timing during the flatter stages it will be hard to make that up.

This one is Kansas flat.

You may think Menchov and Gilbert put on moves yesterday, but what happened is that Lancaster and Gretsch fell back.

Now there’s always the possibility of flaming chunks of twisted metal to keep you amused as well as the spectacular scenery.  One category 4 climb and a point award.  It should be routine and restful except that it’s rare for there not to be some early breakdowns.

Sprinters will be featured and everyone will be looking at Cavendish for a good finish.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 CANCELLARA Fabian RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 05:05:32
2 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING +00:07
3 CHAVANEL Sylvain OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP +00:07
4 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +00:10
5 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald SKY PROCYCLING +00:11
6 MENCHOV Denis KATUSHA TEAM +00:13
7 GILBERT Philippe BMC RACING TEAM +00:13
8 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +00:17
9 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +00:18
10 HESJEDAL Ryder GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA +00:18

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon, 8, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Sites of Interest-

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

Pretty tables-

Points

Place Rider Team Points
1 CANCELLARA Fabian RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 55
2 SAGAN Peter LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE 49
3 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald SKY PROCYCLING 42
4 GILBERT Philippe BMC RACING TEAM 33
5 CHAVANEL Sylvain OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP 23
6 MOLLEMA Bauke RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 22
7 GENE Yohann TEAM EUROPCAR 20
8 VALVERDE Alejandro MOVISTAR TEAM 20
9 GESINK Robert RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 18
10 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 17
11 URTASUN PEREZ Pablo EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI 17
12 MARTIN Daniel GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA 16
13 HESJEDAL Ryder GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA 15
14 EDET Nicolas COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 15
15 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM 13
16 DELAPLACE Anthony SAUR-SOJASUN 13
17 DEVENYNS Dries OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP 12
18 BOUET Maxime AG2R LA MONDIALE 11
19 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM 10
20 LANCASTER Brett Daniel ORICA GREENEDGE 10
21 MORKOV Michael TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK 10
22 GOSS Matthew Harley ORICA GREENEDGE 9
23 GRETSCH Patrick TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO 9
24 MENCHOV Denis KATUSHA TEAM 8
25 CAVENDISH Mark SKY PROCYCLING 8
26 GREIPEL André LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM 7
27 GERRANS Simon ORICA GREENEDGE 6
28 GRIVKO Andriy ASTANA PRO TEAM 6
29 RENSHAW Mark RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 6
30 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING 5
31 VAN HUMMEL Kenny Robert VACANSOLEIL-DCM 5
32 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE 4
33 DUMOULIN Samuel COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 4
34 VELITS Peter OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP 4
35 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM 3
36 ROJAS Jose Joaquin MOVISTAR TEAM 3
37 BOZIC Borut ASTANA PRO TEAM 2

Team

Place Team Time/Delta
1 SKY PROCYCLING 15:17:10
2 RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +00:04
3 BMC RACING TEAM +00:06
4 OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP +00:13
5 GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA +00:23
6 LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +00:30
7 ORICA GREENEDGE +00:33
8 KATUSHA TEAM +00:38
9 AG2R LA MONDIALE +00:42
10 VACANSOLEIL-DCM +00:50
11 ASTANA PRO TEAM +00:52
12 RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM +01:01
13 FDJ-BIGMAT +01:13
14 MOVISTAR TEAM +01:17
15 TEAM EUROPCAR +01:36
16 EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI +01:51
17 COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE +02:23
18 TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO +02:27
19 LAMPRE – ISD +02:47
20 TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK +03:27
21 LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +03:38
22 SAUR-SOJASUN +04:38

Hill Climbing

Place Rider Team Points
1 MORKOV Michael TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK 3
2 SAGAN Peter LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE 1
3 URTASUN PEREZ Pablo EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI 1

rustymancuso581

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  3. I have yesterday’s taped I hope and I think I can back into the prologue.

    A bigger problem is that it’s hard to find overalls after a particular stage.

  6. Vise, BelgiumVisé

    Capital of the Lower Meuse, the only French-speaking city to have a shared border with the Netherlands, Visé is midway between Liege and Maastricht. This location has enabled it to develop its importance as a transportation hub and at the same time increase its tourist numbers thanks to a rich heritage.  These include in particular the Town Hall built in the seventeenth century whose bulbous steeple rises to over thirty meters and whose chimes ring with the life of the city every quarter of an hour,  the Collegiate and its Gothic choir, the Perron , once a symbol of authority of the Prince-Bishops of the Principality of Liege or even the shrine of Saint Hadelin, jewel of 11th century Mosan art.  Visé, which also includes three guilds of crossbowmen and arquebusiers, is also nicknamed the City of the Goose. This relates to a traditional recipe where the bird is cooked in a vegetable stock before being covered in a garlic sauce. Market town but also a city of leisure, traditions, culture and sport, life is good in Visé.

    Tournai, BelgiumTournai

    Crossed by l’Escaut, Tournai is one of the oldest cities in Belgium. Near Brussels, Paris and London, a veritable crossroads of cultures, it has been under French, Austrian, Spanish and English control in the past. Testament to its past, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Belfry, symbols of spiritual and temporal powers, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A country town (Tournai as a whole is composed of twenty-nine villages), Tournai invites you to discover the museum of Fine Art where the only two paintings by Manet are kept in Belgium.  Fabulous works in a setting that is even more special since it was the only museum designed by renowned architect Victor Horta. Fourth largest city of Belgian Hainaut, Tournai invites you to stroll along the banks of the Escaut, whilst the Mont-Saint-Aubert, its highest point, is a paradise for cyclists and poets. Tournai is also part of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, the European grouping of territorial cooperation at the heart of a community with more than two million inhabitants.

  7.  The Citadel or Castle of Namur is a fortress in the city of Namur, at the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers. It is originally from the Roman era, but has been rebuilt several times. Its current form was designed by Menno van Coehoorn, and improved upon by Vauban after the siege of 1692.

    Namur began as an important trading settlement in Celtic times, straddling east-west and north-south trade routes across the Ardennes. The Romans established a presence after Julius Caesar defeated the local Aduatuci tribe.

    Namur came to prominence during the early Middle Ages when the Merovingians built a castle or citadel on the rocky spur overlooking the town at the confluence of the two rivers. In the 10th century it became a county in its own right. The town developed somewhat unevenly, as the counts of Namur could only build on the north bank of the Meuse – the south bank was owned by the bishops of Liège and developed more slowly into the town of Jambes (now effectively a suburb of Namur). In 1262, Namur fell into the hands of the Count of Flanders, and was purchased by Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1421.

    After Namur became part of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1640s, its citadel was considerably strengthened. Louis XIV of France invaded in 1692, capturing the town and annexing it to France. His renowned military engineer Vauban rebuilt the citadel. French control was short-lived, as William III of Orange-Nassau captured Namur only three years later in 1695 during the War of the Grand Alliance. Under the Barrier Treaty of 1709, the Dutch gained the right to garrison Namur, although the subsequent Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 gave control of the formerly Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian House of Habsburg. Thus, although the Austrians ruled the town, the citadel was controlled by the Dutch. It was rebuilt again under their tenure.

    France invaded the region again in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars, and again annexed Namur, imposing a repressive regime. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna incorporated what is now Belgium into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Belgium broke away from the Netherlands in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, and Namur continued to be a major garrison town under the new government. The citadel was rebuilt yet again in 1887.

    Click on first two images to enlarge.

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    Citadel of Namur

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  12. and very old abbeys and churches. Great weather so far I hope it holds out for the riders

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