Tag: Le Tour 2012

Jul 22 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 20

Rambouillet / Paris Champs-Élysées (74.6 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

I ♥ a parade, as a matter of fact I dare say you’ll find The Stars Hollow Gazette is your leader among left blogs in Parade coverage.

Not to mention professional bicycle racing, Formula One, NCAA Tournament Basketball, Playoff Baseball, and Dog Shows.

Have I mentioned there’s a lot of data in the tables?  I’m having some trouble processing them and so you will have to wait until some late night between now and the Olympics (only Wednesday folks) for me to update the stage diaries and publish comprehensive lists.

I generally skip the Award Ceremonies and today most of my attention is going to be on collecting lap positions at Hockenheim, however that doesn’t start until tape delayed at noon.

The course has two category 4 climbs which will not be enough to change any positions.  They will ride up and down the Champs Élysées 8 times before a sprint which is meaningful mostly in terms of a spectacular stage victory, but should have very little effect on Points.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 84:26:31
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +03:21
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +06:19
4 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +10:15
5 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +11:04
6 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +15:43
7 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +15:51
8 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +16:31
9 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +16:38
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +17:17

Points

Place Rider Team Points
1 SAGAN Peter LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE 386
2 GREIPEL André LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM 264
3 GOSS Matthew Harley ORICA GREENEDGE 238
4 CAVENDISH Mark SKY PROCYCLING 175
5 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald SKY PROCYCLING 146
6 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 144
7 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING 125
8 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 104
9 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM 100
10 IMPEY Daryl ORICA GREENEDGE 98

Team

Place Team Time/Delta
1 RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 253:47:28
2 SKY PROCYCLING +06:02
3 BMC RACING TEAM +36:36
4 ASTANA PRO TEAM +43:39
5 LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +01:05:02
6 MOVISTAR TEAM +01:08:19
7 TEAM EUROPCAR +01:08:58
8 KATUSHA TEAM +01:12:53
9 FDJ-BIGMAT +01:19:28
10 AG2R LA MONDIALE +01:41:22
11 LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +02:15:16
12 OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP +02:17:23
13 RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM +02:54:09
14 SAUR-SOJASUN +02:54:56
15 EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI +03:11:11
16 TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK +03:21:35
17 LAMPRE – ISD +03:56:28
18 VACANSOLEIL-DCM +04:33:00
19 COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE +04:39:51
20 GARMIN-SHARP +04:58:01
21 ORICA GREENEDGE +05:39:36
22 TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO +07:41:53

Hill Climb

Place Rider Team Points
1 VOECKLER Thomas TEAM EUROPCAR 134
2 KESSIAKOFF Fredrik ASTANA PRO TEAM 123
3 SORENSEN Chris Anker TEAM SAXO BANK-TINKOFF BANK 77
4 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR 63
5 VALVERDE Alejandro MOVISTAR TEAM 51
6 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING 48
7 MARTINEZ Egoi EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI 43
8 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT 40
9 FEILLU Brice SAUR-SOJASUN 38

Youth

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM 84:37:35
2 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +06:13
3 KRUIJSWIJK Steven RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM +01:05:48
4 TAARAMAE Rein COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE +01:16:32
5 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI +01:20:40
6 VALLS FERRI Rafael VACANSOLEIL-DCM +01:26:37
7 SAGAN Peter LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +01:27:42
8 NERZ Dominik LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +01:31:08
9 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald SKY PROCYCLING +01:41:39

Coverage is on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon (on NBC), 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

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Jul 21 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 19

Bonneval / Chartres (33.25 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The last Time Trial.  The last stage before tomorrow’s Champs-Élysées parade.  I don’t know about you, but I get all nostalgic and sentimental at the end of events like this.  This is the only 99th Le Tour there will ever be.

That said, I’ll also be covering Hockenheim, which will conflict today but not tomorrow since the parade will be live on Vs. (NBC Sports) at 8 am and I’ll do it it while taking lap notes.

It seems the sporting news is coming fast and furious with The Stars Hollow Gazette Olympic coverage starting Wednesday (Women’s Soccer).  We’ll be providing schedules and results and may live blog some of the more obscure events (Fencing, Team Handball).  It’s not Curling, but what can match the excitement and majesty of sliding around big rocks on ice?

Despite their apparent obscurity there are reasons I indulge myself in the diversion of sports.  For one thing the defined time element, things are over when they are.  There is no argument about the score, though the officiating may be questionable.  Their study provides insights into other things AND they have the benefit of novelty.  When you sit down you have no idea how things will turn out.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 83:22:18
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:41
4 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +05:53
5 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +08:30
6 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +09:57
7 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +10:11
8 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +10:17
9 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +11:00
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +11:46

Keep in mind that according to his form in the 2 previous Individual Time Trials Wiggins is expected to gain 5 minutes on this course which is essentially flat.

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

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Jul 20 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 18

Blagnac / Brive-la-Gaillarde (138.25 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Yesterday BruceMcF analyzed the 2012, 99th Edition of Le Tour this way-

Hopes that Cadel was having a bad recovery from the rest day faded when I heard him refer to seeing how his “health” recovers. Word was he had a “parasite” he was diagnosed with two hours before the race on Wednesday’s stage. Oh, joy! No wonder he lost big time ~ the wonder is he didn’t drop out of the top ten altogether.

The problem with the Yellow Jersey competition is that the race was designed for a four way show-down between Evans, Wiggins, Andy Schleck, and Alberto Contador, and then Contador was found guilty of doping, Schleck was knocked out by injury, and it seems like Global Warming conspired to do Evans in ~ he’s not got a reputation for coping well with the very hot conditions, and this was one hot run through the Alps they had in week two. If he was fighting at his limit just to hang on, catching some bug on the rest day is no surprise.

What made today’s stage was the King of the Mountains competition ~ Voeckler vs Kessiakoff was a fine fight.

As far as the Mountain stages, its not how long they are, its how long the top contenders put each other under pressure. If you add one more HC to the front of yesterday’s stage ~ the Queen State ~ it wouldn’t add any more racing. Indeed, by wearing down teams other than Sky, it could easily have led to less. Without Schleck and Contador in the peleton, then the two remaining serious climbing contenders, Evans and Nibali, are more pace-climbing riders than attacking climbers.

Some commentators on PodiumCafe question the design of the course for some of the stages. But I can see places on each of the stage where earlier attacks could have been made ~ had someone had the GC contender and the supporting team to launch the attack and then back it up.

In the end, the riders make the race, and the two best GC riders in the race this year were riding on the same team. Move Froome to BMC or Liquigas, and run it again, and the same course would see fireworks, and we would have Froome going into the final time trial leading by a minute or more, but Wiggins making up time in the time trial, just as Evans did rising as second last in the time trial last year, except with an excellent time trialer riding last defending his yellow jersey, instead of Andy Schleck.

Riders that did not appear in Stage 17 were Vladimir Gusev and Grega Bole.  Frank Schleck withdrew after testing positive for the diuretic Xipamide.

Today’s stage is labeled ‘Plains’ and has a category 3 and three category 4 climbs.  Points will be awarded in Hill Climbing but probably not enough to make any difference.  The Award point is in the middle of a category 4 climb 2.5 km from the top, so that could be interesting.

Tomorrow is the 3rd Individual Time Trial, the final day anything much will change (by custom) except amongst the Sprinters.  Sunday we finish Le Tour on the Champs-Élysées.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 78h 28:02
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:41
4 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +05:53
5 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +08:30
6 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +09:57
7 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +10:11
8 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +10:17
9 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +11:00
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +11:46

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 7:30 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Sites of Interest-

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Jul 19 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 17

Bagnères-de-Luchon / Peyragudes (89 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Here’s an article alleging that one goal this year was to use the course setup to encourage competition.

Unprecedented climbs, with record-setting steep slopes, and sprint stages that ended in surprising uphill drags, were among the novelties planners threw into the mix with the hope of boosting the suspense factor in the 99th Tour de France.

…

Yellow jersey holder Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky have so dominated the Tour that the race’s top 10 has been all but set for the last six stages.

Now if you ask me we spent entirely too much time Sprinting the first week and the Mountain stages, while having severe climbs, were too short with not enough climbs and not enough days doing them.  Individual Time Trials are a pox!  I admit that all this dominance seems quite nice when your side is on top, but having Red Bull win every week is not good for business.

Today are the last hills with an uncategorized climb, two category 1s, a category 2, and a category 3.  The Award point is after the initial 1, 2, 3 climbs.  Tomorrow is Plains, Saturday the Time Trial, and Sunday the Champs.  Formula One at Hockenheim Saturday and Sunday.  Olympics Wednesday.

Yesterday’s winner was Thomas Voeckler (five or six stage wins for France) followed by Chris Anker Sorensen, and Gorka Izaguirre Insausti.  Evans is now in 7th, over 8 minutes back.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 74:15:32
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:23
4 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +05:46
5 UBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +07:13
6 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +07:55
7 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +08:06
8 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +09:09
9 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +10:10

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 7:30 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

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Jul 18 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 16

Pau / Bagnères-de-Luchon (122.4 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

This Tour is basically over with commanding leads in both the General Classification and Points but if anyone is going to make a move in the GC it’s either today or tomorrow in the Pyrenees or in the Individual Time Trial the day before the Champs.

It’s this (yawn) gripping duel in the High Mountains you see that justifies the absurdly early 6:30 am coverage start.

The Mountains will certainly be high enough, 2 uncategorized, 2 category 1s.  The Award point is mercifully early before any of the climbs, it could be some Sprinters won’t make the time boundary.  Newly not appearing for the 16th Stage are Sylvain Chavanel, Brett Daniel Lancaster, Yauheni Hutarovich, Kenny Robert Van Hummel, Vincent Jerome, and Giovanni Bernaudeau.

Monday saw Pierrick Fedrigo take a 4th French stage win with Christian Vande Velde second and Thomas Voeckler third.  No changes worth mentioning at the top.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 68:33:21
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:23
4 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +03:19
5 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +04:48
6 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +06:15
7 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +06:57
8 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +07:30
9 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +08:31
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +08:51

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 6:30 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, and 8 pm.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Sites of Interest-

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Jul 18 2012

2012 Le Tour – Rest Day 2 – Points Part 3

This set covers Points from Stage 13 to Stage 15.

Jul 18 2012

2012 Le Tour – Rest Day 2 – Points Part 2

This set covers Points from Stage 8 to Stage 12.

Jul 18 2012

2012 Le Tour – Rest Day 2 – Points Part 1

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

So I was telling you about evil tables and overflow errors.  I was able to crank out consolidated ones for Team, Hill Climbing, and Youth.

Tonight I’ll attempt to assemble a complete data set.  I’m dividing it into chunks to make debugging easier and to identify true overflows (there’s a lot of information and the formatting is not trivial).

This particular group has all been previously published and covers Point standings until Stage 7.  I hope to follow shortly with the other daily Point standings and then with General Classification tables and Team, Hill Climbing, and Youth (also to date).

Jul 16 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 15

Samatan / Pau (98.5 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Perhaps you have wondered what would happen if you ran out into the middle of the course and dumped a box of tacks.

Well now you know.

Everyone stops as soon as they can’t pretend not to have heard about it anymore and waits around until they fix all the flats and clean up the tacks.

Sportsmanship of the misplaced sort you get in contests where you’re packing your bag for the quick get away.

The breakway was 18 minutes ahead and made no difference in the standings.

Today is short and bumpy with the possibility of a Sprint finish.  Two category 3s and a category 4 stand between the Award point and the finish which could screw that up.

Robert Kiserlovski was forced to withdraw yesterday.  Luis León Sánchez won the stage.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 64h 41:16
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:23
4 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +03:19
5 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +04:48
6 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +06:15
7 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +06:57
8 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +07:30
9 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +08:31
10 PINOT Thibaut FDJ-BIGMAT +08:51

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, 8 pm, midnight, 8 am, 11:30 am, and 3 pm.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Tomorrow is a rest day in Pau which accounts for the extended repeats.  My Rest Day 2 piece will be up some time before the Rest Day Recap on Vs. (NBC Sports) at 8 pm.

Getting right to those tables, ayup.

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Jul 15 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 14

Limoux / Foix (119 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

So Wiggins rode point for Boasson Hagen (Geipel won anyway) and the commentariat can’t wait to proclaim him the new “boss”. Le Tour has reached that gossipy point where Vilager Idiots are talking about “respect” and not wanting to be too dominant.

Fools.  Tiger Woods is already coming to win on Thursday and your quaint 20th century notions of “sportsmanship” are obsolete.  This race is just little over half over but it’s already done.

I suppose a bus.  First day of the Pyrenees and someone could put it away or back in contention over the one 2 and two category 1 climbs.  The Point award is well after the initial category 2, but even in Point competition the margins are all in favor of the current leaders and it’s unlikely here shall be much change unless someone gets caught out on the time limit.

Tom Veelers and David Moncoutie withdrew Friday and Robert Gesink did not start.  Tony Gallopin withdrew yesterday.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING 59:32:32
2 FROOME Christopher SKY PROCYCLING +02:05
3 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +02:23
4 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +03:19
5 VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM +04:48
6 ZUBELDIA Haimar RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +06:15
7 VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC RACING TEAM +06:57
8 BRAJKOVIC Janez ASTANA PRO TEAM +07:30
9 ROLLAND Pierre TEAM EUROPCAR +08:31
10 PINOT Thibau FDJ-BIGMAT +08:51

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon, 2:30 pm, 8 pm, and midnight.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Sites of Interest-

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