TDF Stage 16*Warning-contains unmasked spoilers

ednwireland

Pau – Bagnères-de-Luchon

Distance: 197km
Highest point: 2,115m
Category: High mountains

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-16

Morrisseeee

Is that the fat lady I hear singing ?! :o:rolleyes:

In other words it'll take a 'mighty' effort or a collapse from Wiggo for us to see a major change to the yellow jersey.

retalivity

Sagan to go up the road with a liquigas domestique to get the intermediate points , power over the aubisque ahead of the peloton in anticipation of nibali attacking on the tourmalet.

seligehgit

Any chance Nibali can claw any time back?Everybody seems to see it as a foregone conclusion that Wiggins has the Tour in the bag with such a strong Sky backup,Froome.....Hope there are fireworks tomorrow!

ednwireland

seligehgit wrote: »

Any chance Nibali can claw any time back?Everybody seems to see it as a foregone conclusion that Wiggins has the Tour in the bag with such a strong Sky backup,Froome.....Hope there are fireworks tomorrow!

he thinks he can certainly on the itv4 interview

flying11

Dan Martin to win the stage after being in a breakaway all day long. He also picks up maximum points on all the climbs to get the king of the mountains jersey.
*you heard it here first folks

Rovi

Don't forget The Sean Kelly Show kicks off 'live' on Eurosport at 10am tomorrow!

AG2R

schleck will take this one....oh wait

greenrocket

Tour is over even if anyone claws back time over the next two days brad has another tt to put it right. I pray that there are fireworks tomorrow however I backed Frank for the stage win so it shows you what I know.

Morrisseeee

Rovi wrote: »

Don't forget The Sean Kelly Show kicks off 'live' on Eurosport at 10am tomorrow!

"............make the calculation..........."

BQQ

Looks pretty brutal

GC group will be quite small from halfway up the Tourmalet and there's still nearly half the stage and 2 cat 1s to go from there :eek:

Can't wait

Go Nibali

Sammo13

Like Cobo to do something over the next 2 days, tomorrows stage looks right up his street... 33/1.
Also went for Scarponi and Martinez of Eusktel, 50/1 & 150/1...:cool:

RGIII

wonderfullife

it's going to be an electric day! all sorts going on! Kesiakoff et all will be in the 1st breakaway trying for King of Mountains points, Evans will have a go somewhere to prove a point, Nibali will, van den Broeck will have a go, ....from an irish perspective Nico Roche did say he will "try something" in the Pyrenees.

velopeloton

Stage 16 weather. It's hot, up to 33c.

ThisRegard

They could really do with adding an estimated time of arrival at the start of those climbs in the stage profiles so those of us who can will know when we can pop out for a tea break to catch the action.

Hermy

They do that here.
climb 47.0 km/h 45.0 km/h 43.0 km/h
Col d'Aubisque (1 709 m) 11h18 12h51 12h56 13h03

Col du Tourmalet (2 115 m) 13h27 14h46 14h58 15h12

Col d'Aspin (1 489 m) 14h25 15h37 15h53 16h10

Col de Peyresourde (1 569 m) 15h25 16h30 16h49 17h10

Rovi

ThisRegard wrote: »

They could really do with adding an estimate time of arrival at the start of those climbs in the stage profiles so those of us who can will know when we can pop out for a tea break to catch the action.

Go to the stage page of the www.letour.fr website, scroll down to the 'A sporting view' section, click 'Time schedule'.

Times are CET, so subtract 1 hour to get Irish times.

ThisRegard

Egg on my face ! Cheers lads, I never actually thought of looking at the official site, I usually just go by the boards stage threads.

lennymc

This time next week, a group of us boardsies will be tackling these very same climbs. Cant wait!!

buffalo

ThisRegard wrote: »

Egg on my face ! Cheers lads, I never actually thought of looking at the official site, I usually just go by the boards stage threads.

Although they may not be much help. So if you want to catch the summit of the Tourmalet all you have to do is pop out for tea at 12.30. Or 2pm. Or somewhere in between.

Morrisseeee

lennymc wrote: »

This time next week, a group of us boardsies will be tackling these very same climbs. Cant wait!!

I was just looking at seve65's strava file where he did today's stage (Letape Act 2), savage stuff !!

flying11

flying11 wrote: »

Dan Martin to win the stage after being in a breakaway all day long. He also picks up maximum points on all the climbs to get the king of the mountains jersey.
*you heard it here first folks

Part 1 of my prediction has come true.
Dan is in the breakaway!

FANTAPANTS

flying11 wrote: »

Part 1 of my prediction has come true.
Dan is in the breakaway!

just backed him 22/1

dastardly00

flying11 wrote: »

Part 1 of my prediction has come true.
Dan is in the breakaway!

..... and so is half the peloton!

Hopefully Dan can have a good day today

AstraMonti

This turkish airlines ad is starting to get annoying :mad:

Rovi

Chris Horner off the road and down a hill!!!
Looks okay though, back on the bike.

DDC1990

Lads on TG4 were commenting on Horners bike, saying it has no brakes at the back, or some strange brakes.

Then I saw him in the ditch and thought, well that was stupid :P

But what happened was he came up the inside and didn't see a low wall, so nothing to do with his odd bike :P

EDIT: They just confirmed that its hidden under the bike or something.

flying11

brakes on the new trek bikes are located under the bike near the bottom bracket.
here is a picture

kenmc

It's already less boring than the last couple of days, now that slack has toddled off home. And I haven't even started watching!

mahoo

think i might have to feign illness and watch the rest of todays stage... i love when its sunny outside and im inside watching the tour. its a real guilty pleasure

AG2R

Tommy V takes max points on the first climb

Ormus

Disappointing Martin only 6th over the top, thought he would have a proper go at it.

irishbuzz

From Sagan's parody account

Tweeter Sagan
‏@TweeterSagan
Dehydration big problem in heat today. Busy stage for Cocktail Waiter Mr Cav.

Morrisseeee

Katusha rider hurt at the side of the road, holding arm, jersey torn, one guy looking after him, but................5 photographers poking their lens in his face :eek::p (seriously tho, that must be very annoying).

mcgratheoin

Ormus wrote: »

Disappointing Martin only 6th over the top, thought he would have a proper go at it.

I think he's given up on KOM and is hopefully just saving as much as possible to go for the stage win...

mahoo

dan just destroyed the break.. very early to go though.

at least hes still got kessiakoff and ten dam for company... he's looking strong today. fingers crossed

DDC1990

Dan Martin has split the front group, and is leading the race ATM.

Unfortunatly Kessiakoff is up there so, he wont gain on the KOM points.

A Rabobank lad with him as well.

wonderfullife

Some acceleration there by Dan on the Tourmalet to drop 32 out the back of the front group!!! Looks like he might be 2nd over the summit (assuming Kesiakoff outsprints him for the points)

dastardly00

Dan has raised the tempo in the breakaway while they are climbing the Tourmalet.

ednwireland

irishbuzz wrote: »

From Sagan's parody account

Tweeter Sagan
‏@TweeterSagan
Dehydration big problem in heat today. Busy stage for Cocktail Waiter Mr Cav.

thats world champion cocktail waiter tweetersagan

Morrisseeee

What's Dan on ..............?!..................oh yeah, a Cervelo :pac:

wonderfullife

I just hope he hasn't gone for too much too soon. He did the same thing 4 stages ago (had about 6 mins in hand on his cousin Roche in peloton) and cracked over the 3rd climb and ended up finishing behind Nico.

A lot will depend on who attacks Wiggins. If Nibali or Evans makes a move the pace can spike so fast, 6 mins gap to the peloton can come down rapidly with Sky chasing down.

AG2R

Peruad gone out the back

gaybeer

Plenty of Irish updates please guys. Roche/Martin not getting too much coverage in work!!

AG2R

Martin and Tommy V are gone ahead


Roche still in Peloton

mahoo

****e. dan being dropped

finlma

Ormus wrote: »

Disappointing Martin only 6th over the top, thought he would have a proper go at it.

Waste of time going for KOM with Kessiakov and Voeckler with him. He's going for the stage. Hope he hasn't gone too early but great to see him giving it a lash.

dastardly00

Voeckler and Feillu have dropped Dan Martin.

gaybeer

How close is Dan to the top?

wonderfullife

dan martin in 3rd place 3km from the summit of the Tourmalet - Voeckler and Feilliu up front, Dan at about 40 seconds and about 30 seconds ahead of a group of 5 containing Kesiakoff.