Tag: Le Tour

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

So first day in France and not only more sprinters, but the same guy won for the 3rd time out of 4 stages.  The day started without Andy Scheck who had ligament damage in a crash just outside of London in Stage 3 and had to withdraw.  It soon claimed Chris Froome, one of the favorites in the General Classification.  Thomas Voeckler staged a breakaway to claim the Sprint checkpoint but he was caught up 16 km from the finish.  Shortly after the 30 km mark from the end of the stage Lotto had a crash that involved 3 of their own riders forcing one of them, Greg Henderson to withdraw and severely hurting the team’s chances as he was considered the primary setup man for André Greipel.

About 15 km from the line Peter Sagan had a fall that dropped him all the way to the back of the field.  He staged an amazing comeback though to finish 4th.  Giant-Shimano delivered the victory to Marcel Kittel but in a far less convincing fashion than in the previous stage as Katusha made a strong challenge.

Top Stage finishers in Lille were Marcel Kittel, Alexander Kristoff, and Arnaud Demare with Peter Sagan in a miracle 4th.  All of the top 98 finishers were awarded the same time as Kittel.  In the General Classification Vincenzo Nibali continues to lead with 20 riders 2 seconds behind.  Top points awards for the stage were Thomas Voeckler with 20, Luis Angel Mate Mardones 17, and Peter Sagan with 15.  15 Riders scored points in the Sprint competition.  The overall point leader is Peter Sagan with 158, Marcel Kittel 135, and Brian Coquard 121.  Their nearest competition is 39 points behind.  There were 2 category 4 climbs yesterday  but Cyril Lemoine still leads with 6, Blel Kadri has 5, and Jens Voigt and Nicolas Edet are in a 2 way tie for 3rd with 4 each.  In Team results there were no changes with Sky, Astana (-00:12), and BMC (-00:14) are in front with only NetApp-Endura and Trek within a minute of the leaders.  No changes in the Youth championship either with Peter Sagan, Roman Bardet, and Michal Kwiatkowski still in a 3 way tie for the lead.

Today’s stage is the dreaded cobbles of Belgium which even when dry produce severe vibrations that can force injured riders, especially those with upper body injuries (like Chris Froome, left wrist), to withdraw in the best of times.  They can also produce punctures and other equipment failures that can take riders out of contention, at least temporarily.  When damp they are very slippery and nearly always cause crashes of greater or lesser consequence.  There will be 9 sections of cobbles.  Many riders won’t use this section to win and will merely be seeking to survive without too much damage, but it’s not impossible that we will see as many changes in the standings as we would if this were a Mountain stage.  The stage is 97 miles long and relatively flat with no rated climbs.  The 9 cobble sections start after the halfway mark with only the first coming before the intermediate Sprint line.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

As predicted a sprinters’ race with Marcel Kittel picking up his second stage victory and the teams of Giant-Shimano, Cannondale, and Omega-Pharma QuickStep dominating the final kilometer.  Peter Sagan wasn’t able to put much pressure on Kittel and was in fact losing ground to Mark Renshaw at the finish.

In the General Classification Vincenzo Nibal continues to lead with no less than 20 riders a mere 2 seconds behind after the 3rd Stage.  In the points competition Peter Sagan leads with 117, followed by Marcel Kittel at 90 and Bryan Coquard with 88.  Their next nearest rival is 41 points behind.  No climbing points were awarded yesterday so the leader in that contest is still Cyril Lemoine with 6, Blel Kadri has 5, and Jens Voigt and Nicolas Edet are in a 2 way tie for 3rd with 4 each.  In team results Sky, Astana (-00:12), and BMC (-00:14) are in front with only NetApp-Endura and Trek within a minute of the leaders.  Peter Sagan, Roman Bardet, and Michal Kwiatkowski are in a 3 way tie for the youth championship.

Today’s 102 mile stage starts in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage with is a Channel coast resort town and not anywhere near Paris Paris.  It’s flattish, but not nearly as flat as yesterday with 2 category 4 rated climbs.  Lille Métropole is just outside of Belgium where tomorrow’s racing will be.  It’s likely to be another day for the sprinters with the intermediate Sprint Checkpoint shortly before the day’s second climb.  It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Marcel Kittel will pick up his 3rd stage victory in 4 days since Giant-Shimano seems very highly organized and the ability to position your sprinter for the final kilometer more than almost any other factor seems to be determining element in the sprint stages so far.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

What?  Another day in sunny old blighty?  Must have misread my stage digest.  This 96 and a half mile stint has no rated climbs and even at exaggerated scales little elevation change so I expect it will be a good day for the spirinters.

Yesterday we had some crashes at the beginning one of which involved the day one maillot jaune, Marcel Kittel, but things eventually got sorted out before the first climb.  In the end the big teams (Sky, Astana, Tinkoff) were able to control the field and the final miles of the stage were a showcase for the three favorites, Alberto Contador (who peaked too early and didn’t look all that dominant), Chris Froome (who would have liked a win in front of his home crowd), and the ultimate leader Vincenzo Nibali who only has a 2 second margin at the moment but baring misfortune seems like he could easily become the prohibitive favorite.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

So last day in England and the course is bumpy.  We’ll not see the kind of sprinter’s duel that sent Cavendish crashing to the pavement.

Oh, by the way, he’s out.

This stage, from York to Sheffield, has 9 rated climbs in 125 miles- 3 category 4s (the lowest), five category 3s, and one category 2.  You can’t win today, but you sure can lose.

Looking at the profile I’d rate the climb at Todmorden too.

The Mad Manx Cavendish is the only drop so far and his injuries are serious (ligament damage in the shoulder) but likely not career threatening.  They are devastating to the team built around him, Omega Pharma-Quick Step out of Belgium, and we’ll have to see if they have it in them to even be spoilers.

Late nights and early mornings, I’m not yet adjusted to the rigors of Le Tour.

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.  Oh, did I mention I’m totally overwhelmed today?

My thawing hamburger waits next to my Hummel hot dog and will no doubt turn rancid as I sleep off the effort it’s taken me to arrive at this point, not that I’m complaining- I chose this life and it’s little enough compared to those that truly suffer (I’ll take that hair shirt and scourge now please).

What is immediately notable is that the first two stages take place in England and the 3rd in Brittany over the slick cobblestones that have wrecked many a rider.  Le Tour strives to be exciting and this race promises to be exactly that, but more later.

The 100th Edition of Le Tour de France comes to a close today under the lights for the first time ever on the Champs-Élysées.  By tradition there will be no actual racing except for a 10 lap sprint from the Place de Etoile to the Place de la Concorde.  This could in fact change a few results which I’ll list first below, but for the most part we are already done.

You may ask yourself, well, how did we get here?

Chris Froome, the Maillot Jaune, has continuously worn it since Stage 8, Castres / Ax 3 Domaines, first day in the Pyrenees featuring a Beyond Category and Category 1 climb, when his kick in the final 5 km put him :51 ahead of his team mate Richie Port and about a minute and a half ahead of everyone else.

This lead was cemented the very next day on Stage 9, Saint-Girons / Bagnères-de-Bigorre featuring 4 Category 1 climbs, when Froome overcame the absence of Porte and finished even with every other major contender, 1:25 in front of his closest rival, Alejandro Valverde.

It was as close as things got.

The standout from this year’s Tour has to be Nairo Alexander Quitana Rojas who not only won the Young Rider competition (eh), but also King of the Mountains(!) and finished 2nd in the General Classification.  Pretty damn impressive.

Your penultimate standings in the order of Classifications that may see any change at all-

The overall Points title goes to Peter Sagan walking away 100 points clear of his nearest rival, Mark Cavendish.  Where you might see some movement is in the 5th and 6th slots were Alexander Kristoff and José Joaquin Rojas are separated by a single point.

Points

Team time is determined by the top 3 riders to finish so it’s barely possible there may be a swap between AG2R in 2nd and Radioshack in 3rd.

Team

I suppose Andrew Talansky could fall off his bike but 1:20 is much larger than it looks.

Young Rider

King of the Mountains is done.

King of the Moutains

C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding me.  Any actual change would be a huge scandal of bad sportsmanship, even if someone did fall off their bike.

General Classification

Hope you enjoy the stately parade.

Sites of Interest-

• Wikipedia
• Versailles / Paris Champs-Élysées (83 miles, Le Tour)
• Versailles / Paris Champs-Élysées (Guardian)
• The Guardian
• Guardian Interactive Route Guide
• Le Tour

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour

Well it’s pretty much over except deciding the places between 2nd and 5th.  Chris Froome would have to fall off his bicycle for anyone else to have a chance.

Not even a greasy day yesterday ending in a fairly heavy steady rain made anyone take a flyer on forcing Froome to act as both he and Contador (and everyone else at the top of the General Classification) simply played it safe and let the next to last day of racing tick by without many changes.

Particularly galling, at least to Pierre Rolland, is that he still is a point behind in the King of the Mountains.  If the leaders duke it out on the final climb today up the Beyond Category Annecy – Semnoz to the summit finish, it’s highly likely that Chris Froome will be the only Yellow/Polka Dot dual winner since 1970.

General Classification

I suppose it’s possible that André Greipel could beat out Mark Cavendish for 2nd, but other than that I don’t see much possibility for change.  Chris Froome is 9th with 92 points in a group of 6 riders including Christphe Riblon with 83.

Points

King of the Mountains is pretty much up for grabs (except for tha caveat above about Chris Froome).  It finishes today as no points will be awarded tomorrow.

King of the Moutains

Radioshack made a comeback yesterday and is once again comfortably in 2nd.  There is a certain amount of speculation Team Saxo-Tinkoff is thinking ahead and playing for next year’s sponsorship money which would account for their extraordinary passivity in support of their lead rider, Alberto Contador, yesterday.  Katusha is the only other team under an hour in arrears but just barely.

Team

Nairo Alexander Quitana Rojas could easily finish 2nd in the General Classification and win the King of the Mountains title.  In any event it’s a pretty impressive performance for a young rider and he’ll finish on the Champs-Élysées as one of the top contenders for next year’s Le Tour.

Young Rider

Today’s final racing stage is relatively easy as far as Alpine stages go with 3 Category 3s, a Category 2, a Category 1, and a Beyond Category.  The one descent of note is from Mont Revard to Montcel.

Sites of Interest-

• Wikipedia
• Annecy / Annecy – Semnoz (75 miles, Le Tour)
• Annecy / Annecy – Semnoz (Guardian)
• The Guardian
• Guardian Interactive Route Guide
• Le Tour

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour

Christophe Riblon is the first French Stage Winner of Le Tour had a great race, gutting it out over a U.S. rider, rookie Tejay Van Garderen, in the final 2.2 K.

Though it didn’t rain the descent from Col de Sarenne, as predicted, was pretty dramatic.

Tejay Van Garderen (leader over the top) lost gearing (I’m pedaling and nothing is happening) and had to replace and catch up with Riblon.  Riblon, the eventual stage winner, drove off a left hander and into a swampy ditch and had to pick up his bike and wade back to the road.

Toward the tail end of the descent Froome had a puncture and he too had to replace his bike before the final climb.

Contador, who was attacking all day, eventually eked out a 20 second lead over Froome going into the final ascent up Alpe Huez.  But it wasn’t enough and he was soon overtaken and finished a minute behind on the day.

It might have been different- with 5 K to go in the race Froome’s a blood sugar dropped precipitously and he had to have a team mate drop back to the support car and pick up a tube of glucose (they call it energy gel, but I’ve known Diabetics).  This is a big no no in the final kilometers and eventually he was penalized 20 seconds; not, alas, enough to change the overall dynamics of the race.  If you are a big Contador fan it’s not unreasonable to think that if Froome had not cheated he might have lost up to 3 minutes.

Nairo Alexander Quitana Rojas’ outstanding performance leapfrogged him into 3rd.

General Classification

In the Green Jersey competition nothing much changed except that Peter Sagan is now firmly over 100 points ahead.

Points

For King of the Mountains (Polka Dot) Nairo Alexander Quitana Rojas gained 2 points on Chris Froome with yesterday’s performance and Riblon and Van Garderen moved into contention.

King of the Moutains

In Team Competition Radioshack had a terrible day, dropping about 11 minutes.  On the strength of Riblon’s victory (and of course his team mates performances) the French team AG2R moved into 2nd place and Katusha of Russia, while still under 1 hour behind overall, moved back toward the pack.

Team

I must say that given the strength of Quitana Rojas I have newfound respect for the performance of the other young riders in contention for the White Jersey.

Young Rider

Today’s Stage 19, Bourg-d’Oisans to Le Grand-Bornand, may actually be the toughest of the Alpine Stages especially considering the effort expended yesterday.  It has 2 Beyond Category climbs, 2 Category 1s and a Category 2.

It is raining on and off and there is water on track which might make for some tricky descents.

Today and tomorrow are the only racing days left so if riders are going to make a move, now is the time.  Given Froome’s difficulty on Alpe Huez it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he could break down and give back a chunk of time though I’ll not kid you, 5 minutes is a lot.

Sites of Interest-

• Wikipedia
• Bourg-d’Oisans / Le Grand-Bornand (127 miles, Le Tour)
• Bourg-d’Oisans / Le Grand-Bornand (Guardian)
• The Guardian
• Guardian Interactive Route Guide
• Le Tour

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour

It’s been a while since I’ve tuned into Le Tour, partly because of computer woes (my main drive was deteriorating invisibly, except for the slowness that made it positively painfull to compose).  It is I suppose no great loss except for those who are fans of the scenic countryside the race winds through, and it is spectacular.

The race itself has gone to form which has left me feeling the same ennui and diffidence I do when Vettel gets an early lead and disappears.  You are left hoping for a game changer, something that will put a contender within striking distance and force the favorite to do something other than coast to victory.

Well, if that’s going to happen, it will happen today.

The reason is the course and the conditions.  Today is the double ascent of Alpe-d’Huez and the descent after the Col de Sarenne.  In addition to the two beyond category ascents there are 3 category 2 and a category 3 climb.  Now this in itself is not much of an obstacle to Chris Froome, the maillot jaune, who has out climbed his nearest rivals time and again.

Nope, it will be the descents, especially given the heavy overnight rain and the dampness expected at altitude.

You don’t like to hope for a crash, but it’s a good way to modify the time picture which at this point is entirely unfavorable to any rivals with only 2 riders less than 5 minutes back and merely 2 more under 7.

General Classification

They finish this year’s Tour with 2 more Alpine stages after today before the grand procession to the Champs-Élysées so things could still change if Froome breaks down physically or something else unexpected happens.

In Sprint (Points, Green Jersey) competition things are looking equally set in stone with Peter Sagan almost 100 points ahead and only 8 riders over 100 ponts at all.

Points

If you like handicapping backmarkers there is a race for Second between Mark Cavendish and André Greipel.

For King of the Mountains (Climber, Polka Dot Jersey) as you would expect Chris Froome has a commanding lead and Alberto Contador is not even in the picture (25 points).  Only 4 riders have over 50 points.

King of the Moutains

In the Team Competition Sky (Chris Froome’s team) is a surprising 11th, over 1:15 behind.  Also, as you can see, there’s a lot of racing left in the top 6.

Team

Youth (White Jersey) is a hard category for me to get behind, I think it a poor substitute for amature.  Still, there is no denying Nairo Alexander Quitana Rojas has had an outstanding Tour, sitting at 5th in the GC and 2nd in King of the Mountains.

Young Rider

Sites of Interest-

• Wikipedia
• Gap / Alpe-d’Huez (107 miles, Le Tour)
• Gap / Alpe-d’Huez (Guardian)
• The Guardian
• Guardian Interactive Route Guide
• Le Tour

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour

One of my favorite parts of Le Tour is the Team Time Trials because of the beautiful co-ordination of the riders.  Heck, if I had my way the race would be nothing but (except for mountain stages).  Alas U.S. Postal and Radio Shack domination of this event have led race organizers to de-emphasise it to the point where it is but a single stage.

Of the 22 teams competing this year, 16 were within a minute of the best time, so it’s a lot more competitive than it used to be nor did it bounce around the General Classification very much with 3 Orica team mates tied for first and race favorite Froome a mere 3 seconds behind in a 3 way tie for 6th place.

Tomorrow’s course from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseille isn’t pancake flat (classed Medium Mountain) with 3 Category 4s and a Category 3, but most riders should find it of little difficulty except for those injured in the disasterous crash at the end of Stage 1 some of whom are expected to withdraw now that the Team Time Trial is over (they’ve basically been hanging on to support the team).  There will be one Sprint Checkpoint in addition to the finish.

After 4 Stages there are 39 riders within 30 seconds of the lead-

The sprinters are already starting to sort themselves out with 44 points separating the leader Peter Sagan from the 3 way tie for 10th.

There are only 3 Mountain Kings worth mentioning, Pierre Rolland, Simon Clarke, and Blel Kadri-

And 4 Young Riders-

19 Teams are within 2 minutes of the lead and 9 are under 30 seconds out-

Sites of Interest-

• Wikipedia
• Cagnes-sur-Mer / Marseille (142 miles, Le Tour)
• Cagnes-sur-Mer / Marseille (Guardian)
• The Guardian
• Guardian Interactive Route Guide
• Le Tour

The Stars Hollow Gazette Tags-

• Le Tour
• 2010 Le Tour
• 2011 Le Tour
• 2012 Le Tour