July 16, Stage 14: Saint-Gaudens - Plateau de Beille 168km

ednwireland

Stage win = Tour win?

The Tour has climbed Plateau de Beille three times and on each occasion, the stage winner has gone on to claim the yellow jersey in Paris. Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)? They just might, thanks to the five categorised climbs that precede the final summit ascent. At almost 16km and with a gradient just below 8 per cent, the final climb is long and tough enough for the leaders to overhaul any breakaways and dispute the day's spoils between them. The podium contenders should become clear today.





you have to think that the shlecks, evans, contador basso etc have to make a move

itv4 from 11am

petethedrummer

Right, I'm off to stock up on tea bags and biscuits. This will be an uninterrupted afternoon of viewing.

kennyb3

Magical stage, 6 tough climbs with an uphill finish. Bring it on

JacksonHeightsOwn

petethedrummer wrote: »

Right, I'm off to stock up on tea bags and biscuits. This will be an uninterrupted afternoon of viewing.

throw in the odd power gel, just for authenticity

Johnners1878

ednwireland wrote: »

Stage win = Tour win?

The Tour has climbed Plateau de Beille three times and on each occasion, the stage winner has gone on to claim the yellow jersey in Paris. Will today's winner follow Marco Pantani (1998), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Alberto Contador (2007)? They just might, thanks to the five categorised climbs that precede the final summit ascent. At almost 16km and with a gradient just below 8 per cent, the final climb is long and tough enough for the leaders to overhaul any breakaways and dispute the day's spoils between them. The podium contenders should become clear today.





you have to think that the shlecks, evans, contador basso etc have to make a move

itv4 from 11am

BRING IT ON! Go Nico, Go Thor! Go Shleks! Go Cadel! Boo Alberto!

mahoo

im hoping it pisses rain... in dublin! therefore i wont feel guilty sitting on my ass inside watching 5 hours of the live televised cycling spectacular that this 'queen stage' (i believe is the term) will be.. cant wait

Pherekydes

mahoo wrote: »

im hoping it pisses rain... in dublin! therefore i wont feel guilty sitting on my ass inside watching 5 hours of the live televised cycling spectacular that this 'queen stage' (i believe is the term) will be.. cant wait

I hope the weather's lovely. That way, the wife will go to the zoo and bring the girls with her. I'll be left in peace.

My tip for today is Damiano Cunego. It's time. Also, Sammy Sanchez, again.

Brian?

Contador to do it today, if not then his Tour is gone.

Last time they went up here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCxvckqzgtw


Evans to be in yellow at the end of the day.

I am very, very excited about this stage.

ben.schlomo

Reckon Basso might try for the stage today, he looked pretty strong on Thursdays stage.

Dr.Millah

Winner of this stage will be the one to watch!

blobbie

Couch cleared.

This will be EPIC - can't wait - like a happy kid

AG2R

20 men in the break

TheBlaaMan

Question for those in the know....
So the guys in the main peleton can take a 'natural break' within reason whenever they want to and be paced back up to the group, but if you're in a breakaway is that it for you for the day in terms of taking a leak? No stopping for a pee (or do you just 'let it flow' if you want to stay in the break?)......


Edit: Of course, you wait for a slight descent and hang off the side of the bike !

mkdon05

I dont care who is in Yellow at the end of today, just once its not Voekler. I dislike his face:D

titan18

Do people consider this to be the queen stage?Surely the monster next Thursday gets that honour. 4 NC climbs,ending on the Galibier, or even the following stage with the harder side of the Galibier and then the Alpe d'Huez.

2smiggy

evi leipheimer: it's the hardest stage of the tour and the final climb is gonna be brutal

todays final climb is a much tougher climb than stage 18's.

AG2R

Gilbert

ednwireland

Jv just said that thor did 69mph (112km/h) on the descent yesterday

AG2R

Gilbert getting a two from the Garmin Car :L

2smiggy

that been said, stage 18's final climb does ramp up near the end. and is a brutal 22.8km .

just hoping for a great stage today.

mgmt

Anyone watching a good stream. I'll be damned if i have to watch ITV4 with all the adverts.

AG2R

Cavandish in trouble, downing water and getting showered.

2smiggy

mgmt do you have eurosport ?

titan18

2smiggy wrote: »

evi leipheimer: it's the hardest stage of the tour and the final climb is gonna be brutal

todays final climb is a much tougher climb than stage 18's.

Probably, but they have to go up the Izoard and the Agnel before then, both climbs are horrible, and the Galibier is a big name mountain.

Same for stage 19 with the Telegraphe,Galibier(harder side) and then the Alpe d'Huez

2smiggy

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=122639&part=sports

DominoDub

The Eurosport lads are in good form today ,,,,Egg story was:D

ps Did you see the lad climbing in the An Post Jersey during the preview bit:P

tawfeeredux

ednwireland wrote: »

Jv just said that thor did 69mph (112km/h) on the descent yesterday

Only caught the highlights yesterday, wish they had shown more of Thor's descent, would love to see what sort of lines he was taking compared to, say, the Schlecks.

ajk24

Andy for the win. Cav to miss the time limit.

My setup for the 1st hour or so of the stage today. A workstand and a piece of plywood makes a great "table" for a laptop. I had to run a line from the laptop to the hi-fi to hear the audio above the turbo.
Need to get a fan though - stifling in the shed.

Slideshowbob

Nico noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

John.Icy

Roche dropped...he'll get back on the decent..but it spells trouble for the last climb.

Hermy

DominoDub wrote: »

The Eurosport lads are in good form today ,,,,Egg story was:D

You think so. It was at that point that I switched to TG4.:mad:

Hermy

Jens takes a tumble but not even a scratch.

mahoo

cant wait to hear jens voigts comments on this stage... nice soft landing at least

ch2008

Eurosport stream here... http://procyclingtv.com/live-video-stream-2011-tour-de-france-stage-14/

Hermy

And Jens falls for the second time!:eek:

Beached

Jens is not impressed

mahoo

now he's pissed! ... poor old jens... shouting at the the photographers

Slideshowbob

Jens has old man syndrome - time to retire Jens - we have a new hardman thanks!

Go Johnny go go go!!!

And then he dismisses the TV camera motorbike - yes the same ones that promote the sport and ultimately help pay his wages. What a crank

Sr. Assumpta

.....but since people here seem to be alive......

Why isn't Vincenzo Nibali riding TdeF?? Am having a little trouble being impressed by the descending without him there to measure others against.

Aside: Earlier, ITV4 commentator called Frank&Andy's crew 'Team Leopard-Schleck'

Hermy

Yeah, smile for the camera Jens.:rolleyes:

JacksonHeightsOwn

Roche back on the main group now

but the signs are ominous

mahoo

Sr. Assumpta wrote: »

.....
Why isn't Vincenzo Nibali riding TdeF?? Am having a little trouble being impressed by the descending without him there to measure others against.

Because he's sane... look at how gadret is suffering after trying to do both. we might be able to add contador to that after today.
i guess he's hoping to do a good vuelta too

Johnners1878

Has Roche gone out the back again? The live feed http://gaps.letour.fr/us.php seems to say he has. Trek looking very solid for the Schlecks...

mahoo

titan18 wrote: »

Do people consider this to be the queen stage?Surely the monster next Thursday gets that honour. 4 NC climbs,ending on the Galibier, or even the following stage with the harder side of the Galibier and then the Alpe d'Huez.

there was a good link on here somewhere to a review of all the climbs on the TdeF this year. cant find it though.... it basically ranked all the climbs based on difficulty. i think 3 of todays climbs were in the top10 with the final climb being the hardest. interestingly, some of the cat 1 climbs were ranked as harder than HC climbs because of their gradients

gavkm27

c'mon Nic,hope he is in there somewhere in the Peloton

happytramp

Johnners1878 wrote: »

Has Roche gone out the back again? The live feed http://gaps.letour.fr/us.php seems to say he has. Trek looking very solid for the Schlecks...

Le Tour site never put him back on.

davyjose

mahoo wrote: »

there was a good link on here somewhere to a review of all the climbs on the TdeF this year. cant find it though.... it basically ranked all the climbs based on difficulty. i think 3 of todays climbs were in the top10 with the final climb being the hardest. interestingly, some of the cat 1 climbs were ranked as harder than HC climbs because of their gradients

Harder than Alpe d'Huez?

mahoo

gavkm27 wrote: »

c'mon Nic,hope he is in there somewhere in the Peloton

the europsport ticker has him down as 'delayed'.... think today will be the end of nico's top15 aspirations.

Morrisseeee

Here comes the BIG CLIMB /grabs can of beer, sits down ahhhhh

Just back from holliers & trying to catch up with all the action (where I only had TG4 for coverage!) but I'm now back to ES in HD, yay ! Whats the story with the Schlecks, who's their 'main' guy now, Andy or Frank ??!!

tawfeeredux

That graphic they just showed on Eurosport makes the last climb look scary!

mahoo

davyjose wrote: »

Harder than Alpe d'Huez?

yeah. i was surprised too. think Alpe d'Huez was 2nd with whatever formula they used

they may have taken into account the amount of climbing done before reaching the climb.. Alpe d'Huez is a short stage this year