Tour de France - Stage 6, Thu Jul 4, Provence - Montpellier, **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 6, Aix-en-Provence - Montpellier, 176.5 km

This stage is less lumpy than the previous couple of days, and it's also the last flat stage before the peloton heads for the Pyrenees. There's no way a breakaway will survive, so it'll end in a sprint finish. Seemingly it's meant to be pretty windy during the stage, so crosswinds will probably be the biggest difficulty that the riders have to face.

Basically it's going to come down to a battle between Cav, Kittel, Griepel, and Sagan, with the likes of Boasson Hagen, Kristoff, and Impey not too far behind. Take your pick! :P (Cav ftw!)





Last 9km:


Final kilometre:


Stage betting: M Cavendish 8/11, A Greipel 9/2, M Kittel 8/1, P Sagan 12/1.

Here's a link to the Irish riders' diaries thread.

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 12.45pm, and ITV4 from 2pm.
Highlights on Eurosport1 at 7pm and 11pm, Eurosport2 at 6pm and 9pm, ITV4 at 7pm, and TG4 at 10pm.

Live text-ticker will be here.

Darkglasses

Great preview as always Dastardly. Where did you find the picture of the last few corners? It's terrific

They seem to be going along basically a motorway for the finish, fortunately the roads will be somewhat wide. Those corners and the bridge could still be tricky enough.

manafana

Heard the finish is straight forward and the final 2-3km should be a tailwind as well.

The worry will be in the final 40km or so, when they get hit by some nasty crosswinds which have made this area famous in previous tours its broken many men.

Ferrari could well spring a surprise if more organised in his sprint. Cavendish is a favourite after his showing today.

RobFowl

Jurgen Van den Broeck out with a knee injury

manafana

yeah very annoying had real prospects and always rode hard in the mountains

pelevin

Of course Cavendish has to be considered strong favourite but put a bit on Sagan at Ladbrokes as think his real chances have to be considered a bit better than the, I'd have thought bit odd, 12/1 they're offering. Even if he loses for the few euros for me it's worth making it more exciting.

mcgratheoin

pelevin wrote: »

Of course Cavendish has to be considered strong favourite but put a bit on Sagan at Ladbrokes as think his real chances have to be considered a bit better than the, I'd have thought bit odd, 12/1 they're offering. Even if he loses for the few euros for me it's worth making it more exciting.

12/1 for Sagan? Are they giving 1/4 odds for each way? 3/1 for Sagan to be in the top 3 would be ridiculous.

Inquitus

mcgratheoin wrote: »

12/1 for Sagan? Are they giving 1/4 odds for each way? 3/1 for Sagan to be in the top 3 would be ridiculous.

I had 25 yoyos lying around in my PP account, just took Sagan 12/1 EW paying 1,2,3

Tour De France Stage 6 (Aix-en-Provence - Montpellier)
04-07-2013 12:20
Stage Betting
Each Way Odds: 1/4 places 1,2,3
P Sagan @ 12/1

pelevin

mcgratheoin wrote: »

12/1 for Sagan? Are they giving 1/4 odds for each way? 3/1 for Sagan to be in the top 3 would be ridiculous.

Sorry only just back but I see Iniquitus has responded anyway. A quick look at Ldbk's site has the betting on the stage gone for now, will presumably come back in a while though doubtful Sagan will still be that long.

TinyExplosions

pelevin wrote: »

Sorry only just back but I see Iniquitus has responded anyway. A quick look at Ldbk's site has the betting on the stage gone for now, will presumably come back in a while though doubtful Sagan will still be that long.

Paddy power had him at 10/1 a few mins ago (stuck a couple quid on each way as that's an insane price!)

pelevin

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Paddy power had him at 10/1 a few mins ago (stuck a couple quid on each way as that's an insane price!)

Hopefully we'll all get more than just a little excitement for our money. Cmon on Sagan you beauty. Went bit brave on him at evens before the Tour for the Points jersey, looking decent but Cav a bit ominous all the same.

mcgratheoin

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Paddy power had him at 10/1 a few mins ago (stuck a couple quid on each way as that's an insane price!)

10/1 - he's coming in so, I got him E/W at 12/1.

GetWithIt

I'd imagine that Mate guy feels like a fecking eejit now. Out there on his own, sprinting away from the flag.

Darkglasses

Every day he says omega pharma lotto...come on!

TinyExplosions

mcgratheoin wrote: »

10/1 - he's coming in so, I got him E/W at 12/1.

Yeah, I'd say the odds'll have to drop as it seems far to long for a guy like him! Sure, it's 20 quids worth of excitement, so I'm happy

Darkglasses

Got a text from a friend at Maussane Les Alpilles, supposed to be very hot and very windy.

Anyone

Sagan 14/1 just there on PP, had some of that E/W.

DDC1990

Bugger had Cav for the INT sprint

Darkglasses

Sad to watch Bouhanni going backwards. Commisaires should probably get involved soon.

TinyExplosions

Darkglasses wrote: »

Sad to watch Bouhanni going backwards. Commisaires should probably get involved soon.

I apologise for causing that, I stuck a couple quid each way on him -a sure fire jinx!

Darkglasses

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I apologise for causing that, I stuck a couple quid each way on him -a sure fire jinx!

Hah! Must have been more than a couple of quid, getting the trots on the bike is a pretty terrible jinx! Even Moses didn't give the Pharaoh that.

RobFowl

Darkglasses wrote: »

Sad to watch Bouhanni going backwards. Commisaires should probably get involved soon.

Comms will only get involved at the finish or if he's hanging onto a car!
His team should be making a call though tbh as with 100k to go he'll struggle to make the limit...
(Hope he does though, great sprinter on his day)

IM0

how did bouhani lose contact?

dastardly00

I'm not watching the TV coverage yet, is Bouhanni on his own, or are any team mates helping him?

Nairo Quintana had a small crash earlier but I think he's ok.

Darkglasses wrote: »

Great preview as always Dastardly. Where did you find the picture of the last few corners? It's terrific.

Thanks! I found that image of the last few corners on a couple of different cycling blog websites (here's one link). I haven't a clue where they got it from.

RobFowl

IM0 wrote: »

how did bouhani lose contact?

He's sick with a stomach bug and couldn't hang in despite seeing the race doc a few times.

Darkglasses

RobFowl wrote: »

Comms will only get involved at the finish or if he's hanging onto a car!
His team should be making a call though tbh as with 100k to go he'll struggle to make the limit...
(Hope he does though, great sprinter on his day)

He's been hanging onto the cars since the live feed came on over an hour ago, and they've been showing him a lot!

Darkglasses

Bouhanni's packed, very sad to see. I'm sure he'll have more tours in the future.

IM0

RobFowl wrote: »

He's sick with a stomach bug and couldn't hang in despite seeing the race doc a few times.

ah thatll do it alright :pac:

Darkglasses

Risky one there by Sagan, choosing to change both wheels.

TinyExplosions

Darkglasses wrote: »

Risky one there by Sagan, choosing to change both wheels.

Sorry again, it's my betting jinx I tells ya!

Anyone

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Sorry again, it's my betting jinx I tells ya!

Stick a few Euro on Froome to win overall, and Sky to be best team please

dastardly00

The peloton are absolutely flying it .... looks like they will reach the finish at (or before) the quickest predicted arrival time of 4.10pm (GMT).

dastardly00

Cav has seemingly been involved in a crash. He's now trying to get back into the peloton.

godtabh

IS Cavendash been towed by the car there?

Darkglasses

dastardly00 wrote: »

Cav has seemingly been involved in a crash. He's now trying to get back into the peloton.

TinyExplosions strikes again I assume.

Anyone

Darkglasses wrote: »

TinyExplosions strikes again I assume.

Last year it was tacks, this year its TinyExplosions.

Beasty

Got to say that was a pretty impressive (if a bit risky over that roundabout!) return to the peloton by Cav

godtabh

Crash there for someone in astana

dastardly00

Brajkovic!!

Darkglasses

Greipel, Sagan, Kittel, Cavendish, Lobato, Kristoff

Greipel best lead-out and freshest legs.

godtabh

Sagan is there or there abouts on these stages. He'll get it soon enough

DDC1990

Greipel saves the (betting) day for me.

Also had Sagan at 2/1 to finish ahead of Kittel.

Just broke even after losing on Cav to Win the Stage and the Intermediate Sprint!

EDIT: Actually i'm up €4 :P I'll get a pint and toast Greipel :P

Darkglasses

Impey the new yellow jersey. Roche stays 9th.

pelevin

I want my percentage on the Sagan ew bets please.

Proxima Centauri

I got Sagan at 14/1 so my e/w came in at 3.5

Amazing price for Sagan really, I now have some money to play around with on the next few mountain stages.

Pierre Roland anyone??

cunavalos

Wasn't able to see the stage finish where did the 5 second spit come from, did Evans let the wheel in front go or was there really a genuine gap.

manafana

evans was happy to just role in once safe, but i had nice match bet on him against poels as he loves to stay near front and he was bound to with the wind risk.

Proxima Centauri

Might put a couple of quid on David Millar for tomorrow 500/1. Can see him getting into a break tomorrow that might stay away and then jump the break and timetrial it home. Worth a punt at that price?

dastardly00

Proxima Centauri wrote: »

Might put a couple of quid on David Millar for tomorrow 500/1. Can see him getting into a break tomorrow that might stay away and then jump the break and timetrial it home. Worth a punt at that price?

Hmmm I dunno about Millar, or any Garmin-Sharp rider going in a break. They'll want to take it easy until they reach the big mountains. With Vande Velde still recovering after crashing the other day and Hesjedal with cracked ribs, they need to conserve as much energy as possible. Plus they kinda have 3 leaders (Hesjedal, Dan, and Talansky), so the domestiques will get very little chance to have a go themselves for the stage win.

TinyExplosions

Anyone wrote: »

Stick a few Euro on Froome to win overall, and Sky to be best team please

Nope, he's my hope for velogames (now I'm down about 4 riders!)

Darkglasses wrote: »

TinyExplosions strikes again I assume.

No money on Cav, but he is on my velogames team, so I'll take 1/2 credit...

Had Sagan e/w at a tenner, so am up 15 quid thanks to that (well, really only 5 as I also had a sneaky few quid on Bouhanni, but you know what happened there)

Mint Sauce

Just seen Cavs bunny-hop to catch the peloton from todays stage.

Personally, I was impressed, can do it easily on a mountain bike and BMX, but have only ever tried it once on a road bike, it was either that or go over the handlebars when forced towards a kerb. Wouldn't try it voluntarily.