Tag: Le Tour 2012

Jul 04 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 4

Abbeville / Rouen (133 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Narrow roads and crosswinds meant a big day for crashes yesterday with at least 3 major ones at the tail end of the stage and 2 retirements including Jose Rojas.  Perhaps more significant is Konstansin Sivtsov who’s departure from Sky leaves the team even more oriented to supporting Bradley Wiggins’ General Classification run and less to the Points competition of stage 3 winner Mad Manx Mark Cavendish.

Rookie Peter Sagan claimed a second stage victory with a funny finish sprint that left people talking.  Mike Morkov dominated the climbing checkpoints.

Today’s racing takes place along the Channel coast which can mean slippery damp sea breezes.  There are 4 category 4 climbs and a points award right after the major descent before the last hill.  This is one of 2012’s longest stages.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 CANCELLARA Fabian RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 14:45:30
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 EVANS Cadel BMC RACING TEAM +00:17
8 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE +00:18
9 HESJEDAL Ryder GARMIN-SHARP-BARRACUDA +00:18
10 KLÖDEN Andréas RADIOSHACK-NISSAN +00:19

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at 8 pm, 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-

Jul 03 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 3

Orchies / Boulogne-sur-Mer (123 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

No retirements so far though some riders are dealing with injuries.  The problem is that once you stop, you stop.

The Mad Manx racked up another stage win.

Probably not today though, Jean-François Pescheux the official site handicapper thinks it is highly unlikely that there will be any Sprinters around at the finish what with the 4 category 4 and 2 category 3 climbs.  There will be a mid stage point award.

In the General Classification there isn’t much movement of the top ten.  As I was working on yesterday’s piece I realized that deltas after each stage were hard to locate unless you captured them at the time.  I’ve got the data for the Prologue and Stages so far and I’ll post them with the pretty tables as soon as I can get the formatting done.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 CANCELLARA Fabian RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 10:02:31
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 8 pm 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-

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-

Jul 01 2012

2012 Le Tour – Stage 1

Liege – Seraing (123 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Four miles in is a little early to despair.  Wiggins didn’t win but he didn’t have to.  Evans is outside the top ten but by just a bit.  You can’t read too much into this, the entire field is separated by a mere 1:06 at this point with 95 riders within :30 of the lead.

What happens for the next several days traditionally is that we wait for breakdowns and crashes to thin the field and drop a few contenders.  This year the course is so flat that it may tempt a team (I sure would be) to put on a Tiger Woods early round charge and pile up some Vettel like deltas.  Run each stage as a team time trial, courtesy and tradition be damned.

We’re not likely to see anything that decisive but you pay a penalty for early inattention and end up trying to force results in less favorable circumstances.  This stage has 5 category 4 climbs and 2 point awards.

General Classification

Place Rider Team Time/Delta
1 CANCELLARA Fabian RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 07:13
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 LANCASTER Brett Daniel ORICA GREENEDGE +00:11
7 GRETSCH Patrick TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO +00:12
8 MENCHOV Denis KATUSHA TEAM +00:13
9 GILBERT Philippe BMC RACING TEAM +00:13
10 GRIVKO Andriy ASTANA PRO TEAM +00:15

Coverage is customarily on Vs. (NBC Sports) starting at 8 am with repeats at noon, 2, 8, and 10 pm as well as 1 am.  NBC recap at 4 pm.  There will be some streaming evidently, but not all of it is free.

Also today coverage of the America’s Cup World Series from Newport and the European Cup Final.

Sites of Interest-

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

Pretty tables-

Jul 01 2012

2012 Le Tour – Prologue

Liege – Liege (4 miles)

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Le Tour kind of kicks off the third year of The Stars Hollow Gazette.  The Prologue of 2010 is the very first public diary.  This is the 99th Tour.

Sports live blogging demonstrates many desirable characteristics for a ‘community’ diary- the experience is scheduled, it is shared in real time, it has a built in duration, and the result is unknown so it has the virtue of novelty.  While partiality and encouragement may be shown to sentimental favorites there is no argument about the situation once the play is called.

Participation is encouraged, all you have to do is register.  My opinion on the subject is not very deep, I’m a casual fan since a little before Armstrong.

Conventional wisdom will not allow for more than two contenders overall.  Cadell Evans, last year’s winner who spent his off-season adopting an Ethiopean; and Bradley Wiggins who has side burns and would be the first Brit to ever win.

Now there are other outlets that broaden the range of possibilities-

These are some opinions on the dates of importance-

The significance of today’s little 4 mile time trial is that just as in Formula One you want to get a good start and clean air and see if you can pull out to a substantial enough advantage (tens of seconds is a start) so that you can weather some bad luck.  Many of the initial stages will be along the coast which is picturesque but slippery and windy and contenders will be trying to avoid early washouts.  There are those who contend the course more time trial than mountain and the truth is that there are as many trials as up hill finishes and only 5 days of high mountains which represents a considerable shift in emphasis.

Points

So there are fewer teams featuring hill climbing anchors and more with sprinting  contenders. Goss predicts sprint battle royal on Tour de France.  Perhaps, it’s hard to keep track of.

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

Sites of Interest-

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

Load more