July 23, Stage 20: Grenoble (ITT) 41km

ednwireland

The podium is decided

In recent seasons, the yellow jersey has still been up for grabs going into the final time trial. If that's the case again, this course could prove an inspired choice. anyone who's got some significant strength left in their legs will feature today. The rolling course, which includes the opening part of the climb to chamrousse, won't overly favour time trial specialists such as Fabian Cancellara, but will appeal to the likes of the Schleck brothers, who should be able to take some advantage of their prowess on the hills. The podium places will finally be settled today.

Brian?

1. Contador
2. Cancellara
3. Evans

Captain Havoc

I think the route suits Cancellera down to the ground.

tawfeeredux

I presume Cancellara's been sitting in the grupetto the last couple of days saving himself for this. Don't recall seeing him at the front for any sustained length of time since they hit the Alps. Would love to see Evans take the yellow, but I fear he may have had to work himself too much the last 2 days. Also, can't believe that Leopard Trek won't have had the Schlecks working on what has been an obvious weakness for them. Dream result would be for Evans to take 58 seconds off Andy & for Voeckler to put in one last massive effort to overtake Frank & get on the podium! You can do it Tommy:D

ednwireland

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/FRXX0153?dayNum=1

anyone for andy complaining no one wants to see a TdF won ina wet TT

Hermy

Roche and Gadret to go on the attack in the first climb and get a lead of about an hour or so before being brought back by Cav as he tows the peleton along single-handedly straight through the finish-line and directly on to Paris so he can catch the overnight train from Gare du Nord to London and onwards to the Isle of Man, arriving home just in time for the Antiques Roadshow!

Captain Havoc

There's one flaw with your prediction, Gadret is out. (and you're talking about the wrong stage)

gowayuwilya

ednwireland wrote: »

The podium is decided

In recent seasons, the yellow jersey has still been up for grabs going into the final time trial. If that's the case again, this course could prove an inspired choice. anyone who's got some significant strength left in their legs will feature today. The rolling course, which includes the opening part of the climb to chamrousse, won't overly favour time trial specialists such as Fabian Cancellara, but will appeal to the likes of the Schleck brothers, who should be able to take some advantage of their prowess on the hills. The podium places will finally be settled today.

Cancellara all the way here.Those are not hills suited to the frandy more like drags. Hope to god cadel gets his 58seconds.

ednwireland

Hermy wrote: »

Roche and Gadret to go on the attack in the first climb and get a lead of about an hour or so before being brought back by Cav as he tows the peleton along single-handedly straight through the finish-line and directly on to Paris so he can catch the overnight train from Gare du Nord to London and onwards to the Isle of Man, arriving home just in time for the Antiques Roadshow!

Roche to do well on this one.

hows roche and gadret going to attack together on a ITT

never mind the fact that gadret went home a week ago

Hermy

Gadret didn't go home - he's been hiding in the grupetto.

BQQ

Leipheimer is a good time trialist. Looks overpriced with the bookies.

Hasn't been going well, but may have been saving his legs for this once his GC ambitions were gone.

I think Andy will just about hang on to yellow.

petethedrummer

Cancellara to destroy everyone by miles. Martin has been doing too much work. Would have been nice to see Wiggins going into this one with a shot at a win or podium. Is Velits a good time triallist?

ROK ON

I think there's a lot of Pressure on Evans tomorrow. Everyone expects him to bury the other GC leaders. Not sure it's that simple.
I would be not at all surprised to see the brothers Schleck pull out top drawer TTs. They have been training in wind tunnels and with Julich and Cancellara.

What time do the top 5 start from tomorrow.

Pity Wiggo isn't here. I think the course is very suited to him. For me Tony Martin then FC for the top 2.

jiffybag

Evans is in with a real chance to win this year . Just hope everybody plays fair and we dont get a superhuman performance similar to Carlos Sastre versus Evan a few yrs ago .
It would make for an akward dinner tomorrow night if Frank where to take the yellow jersey from Andy!

Hermy

We've already had at least one superhuman performance quite recently.

Beasty

Sorry guys but I feel like I've been issuing warnings about using spoiler tags all day, and my last one in the main TdF race thread made it clear that we were going to start issuing cards for any further "offences"

Beasty

C3PO

Trying to juggle work, family and trying to get out on the bike for a couple of hours (probably with inevitable results!!) - anyone know approximate TT start times for the main contenders today?

nomadic

http://gaps.letour.fr/us.php

Sammy Sanchez off at 3pm.

Sacksian

Just wondering generally what the range of times is for individual TTs like this, i.e. the gaps between the faster and slower guys?

There's two minutes between riders starting, and I know that they're not allowed work together but has it ever happened that riders have ended up in a group of two along the way? Or would they just get disqualified?

Lumen

yesboyicecream wrote: »

Just wondering generally what the range of times is for individual TTs like this, i.e. the gaps between the faster and slower guys?

There's two minutes between riders starting, and I know that they're not allowed work together but has it ever happened that riders have ended up in a group of two along the way? Or would they just get disqualified?

Passing is normal. Drafting is not permitted. Finishing outside the time limit gets you disqualfied, in theory.

blorg

yesboyicecream wrote: »

Just wondering generally what the range of times is for individual TTs like this, i.e. the gaps between the faster and slower guys?

There's two minutes between riders starting, and I know that they're not allowed work together but has it ever happened that riders have ended up in a group of two along the way? Or would they just get disqualified?

If you catch the guy ahead of you, you will be going substantially faster and so you overtake. The guy being overtaken must hold back and not ride in your slipstream; you must overtake within a set time period. They are the rules. I honestly can't remember anyone being disqualified for drafting in a Tour time trial although other heads may have an example... it is not generally an issue at this level (in amateur TTs it is a different matter!)

Gipo3

Cancellara has already left, he will have a long wait for the podium.

ednwireland

full start order

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/07/news/starting-order-for-the-grenoble-time-trial-at-the-tour-de-france_185827

thats french time so its an hour earlier than our time

Morrisseeee

Irony is: wearing the yellow on the last (competitive) day and handing it over to the eventual winner (bitter)
Irony is: not having the yellow jersey during the tour, chasing it all the time and then getting it on the final day (sweet)

Well I can't see Andy TTing his way to victory, Cadel is a strong TTer and has reconed the course aswell, is in perfect shape and it's all between the ears now !!

Race for White is interesting: from Dauphine TT:
Rein Taaramae +01' 56"
Pierre Rolland +04' 53"

xz

ednwireland wrote: »

full start order

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/07/news/starting-order-for-the-grenoble-time-trial-at-the-tour-de-france_185827

thats french time so its an hour earlier than our time

Umm, I think you'll find France is an hour AHEAD of us, or you may have meant "thats French time so its an hour earlier than our time"

LuckyGent88

57' 15" for Cancellara. Thats 57 seconds ahead of 2nd so far.

Captain Havoc

Thought he would have been quicker

BQQ

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Thought he would have been quicker

+1

1;37 slower than wiggins in the Dauphine. And wiggins did it in wet conditions

AstraMonti

You have to take in account that they have 3 weeks of brutal racing in their legs and especially the last 2-3 days have been hard.

Mint Sauce

Anything interesting or exciting happened yet. TG4 have not started their coverage yet.

AstraMonti

Cancellara is the fastest man so far. The interesting part was that the Schlecks were in the car that was following him, most likely to scout the route.