Tour de France - Stage 12, Thu Jul 11, Fougères - Tours, **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 12, Fougères - Tours, 218 km

With no categorised climbs and the intermediate sprint in the second half of the stage, this will surely end in a big bunch sprint. There are two 90° turns in the last kilometre so there's potential there for crashes and carnage.

It's going to be Cav vs Greipel vs Kittel vs Sagan again.
I think it'll be piss-easy for Cav.
I'll get my coat






Final 4 km:


Last kilometre:


Stage betting: M Cavendish 11/8, A Greipel 13/5, M Kittel 7/2,P Sagan 12/1.

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

Live TV coverage on Eurosport1 from 12.45pm, ITV4 from 2pm, and TG4 from 1.10pm.
Highlights on Eurosport1 at 9.30pm, Eurosport2 at 6pm, ITV4 at 7pm, and TG4 at 10pm.

Live text-ticker will be here.

Darkglasses

Cav all day long for me. It's good and long, which Cav seems to deal with best. He'll deal with those last two corners better than the others too I think. And all the other 3 big sprinters have won a stage more recently than him, he won't want that to continue any longer.

And I think recent events will only make him hit the pedals harder.

All that said, WHEN is Kristoff going to get the stage win he deserves!

Oh and I'll stick with the bookies and say Greipel second.

manafana

Im not so sure i like the trains of Kittel and Greipel more than what OPQS have been offering, then you got sagan who loves those late bends we get on this stage.

Sky will be happy plenty stages for the sprinters teams to do the donkey work for them. This goes through my home Province of Mayenne, just flat open fields to offer.

More on stage 12

Talib Fiasco

I think this'll suit Cav and Sagan... Sagan is a very good bet. I'm going for him. Depends if he has it in him after his great performance yesterday though.

Darkglasses

Manuele Mori drops his bottle..

This is boring.

I'll try get Carlton to read out one of my tweets...

mcgratheoin

What's with all the dumb finishes this year anyway - The last 4 km is made up of 3.5km dead straight, but we'll put the finish line 500 metres further around 2 corners :rolleyes:

Darkglasses

Cav beats Greipel at the intermediate sprint.

Sagan nearly gets stuck against the crash barrier by Boeckmans.

Mint Sauce

Darkglasses wrote: »

Cav beats Greipel at the intermediate sprint.

Sagan nearly gets stuck against the crash barrier by Boeckmans.

Breakaway 3 minutes ahead. Closes the gap abit though.

Darkglasses

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Breakaway 3 minutes ahead. Closes the gap abit though.

I know, I just said he beat Greipel

manafana

kittel saving himself for final sprint as per usual, green jersey battle isn't what it used be back in day

Reginald P. DuM

10 posts here is all, with 30 odd km to do.. Says it all really doesn't it. Might try and win that Kelly book to gimme an interest for a few mins...

TinyExplosions

I stuck a fiver on Sagan, so he may well crash!

QueensGael

This stage is booooring - the competition for Seán's book was probably the highlight of the afternoon

Reginald P. DuM

QueensGael wrote: »

This stage is booooring - the competition for Seán's book was probably the highlight of the afternoon

Had a look at the # there, no shortage of correct answers, well what I think is the correct one. Will need plenty luck to get drawn out!!

drquirky

snip

Darkglasses

Been nice knowing you Quirky.

Right here comes the interesting bit.

drquirky

WHY?!?

drquirky

Would be nice to see Cav catch a balloon here, so to speak.

Lapin

Ouch !

godtabh

The sprinter teams are lining up

godtabh

big big crash

Darkglasses

Eek lots of crashes. Take it handy lads.

Greipel's on his own

Max_Charger

C'mon Sagan!

Darkglasses

Holy crap! Kittel is something else!

Lapin

Cav pipped.

jive

hahah cav caught on the line

retalivity

carlton kirby is some bellend.

cav wont like that...

Darkglasses

Here somebody tell Kittel to celebrate when he wins, it's very confusing when nobody celebrates

godtabh

photo finish

Max_Charger

Kittel the machine, Cav then Sagan in 3rd

Darkglasses

godtabh wrote: »

photo finish

Pretty sure it was Kittel, by a hair.

Reginald P. DuM

The King is dead, long live the King!!

Darkglasses

'Kin hell. Can't get over Kittel there. Just plain stronger.

Lapin

The look of utter disgust on Cav's face crossing the line.

Anyone

Ahh.....had Kristoff backed e/w at 45/1...he was 4th

manafana

superb by kittle to get back across not many have come off wheel to win of cav.

kal7

will Kittell big thighs make it over the alps. Be great battle on Champs Elysee.

Reginald P. DuM

Eddy Boasson Hagen fractured the collar bone in that spill...

quozl

Reginald P. DuM wrote: »

Eddy Boasson Hagen fractured the collar bone in that spill...

That's a real shame. I feel kind of guilty that I'm a little excited that it might make the tour more interesting as Sky are now down two men.

They'd probably need to lose 2 more in the next couple of days to really matter though - Froome could probably solo it actually

Reginald P. DuM

quozl wrote: »

That's a real shame. I feel kind of guilty that I'm a little excited that it might make the tour more interesting as Sky are now down two men.

They'd probably need to lose 2 more in the next couple of days to really matter though - Froome could probably solo it actually

It is unfortunate for him alright, not nice to see, he's quite useful. It won't impact Froome in the least. As long as he has Porte on his side he will remain bulletproof. Even if he was to go, you may well be correct about the solo run.

torturedsoul

anyone know who the garmin rider was at the bottom of the pile up? Hope its not Dan

Darkglasses

torturedsoul wrote: »

anyone know who the garmin rider was at the bottom of the pile up? Hope its not Dan

Pretty sure it was Navardauskas or possibly Jack Bauer.

Wasn't Dan anyway.

Heisenberg1

Hi Folks,

Off topic for any ITK regarding the ITT yesterday and Tony Martin I read that he was using an awe-inspiring 58x11 gear what does that mean? Cheers

SHOVELLER

Glad Cavendish lost. What he did yesterday was a disgrace.

Speak Now

SHOVELLER wrote: »

Glad Cavendish lost. What he did yesterday was a disgrace.

Got urine thrown on him?

Dr. Bre

what do pepole think of kittel not going for green? hes won 2 more stages than cav and greipel and sagan but he hasnt contested the intermediate sprints

Reginald P. DuM

It's his first Tour in earnest afaik, he went sick early doors last yr never got the chance to fire. Though I doubt he'd have shown the same power as this yr had he lasted the 3 weeks. A year later, extra experience and conditioning he's now the real deal, and will be fav to win in Paris on Sunday week I'd imagine. I'd assume his team orders were to go for stage wins, whether they expected minimum 3 is unlikely but one was a certain requirement. The train Argos has is probably just as good as Lotto, well drilled for finals, not picking up scraps like Sgaan and Griepel have being doing. Can't argue with results. He certainly has been the revelation for this yrs tour. Green jersey next yr will be a target surely. Hard to knock that man Sagan though.

SHOVELLER

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

Got urine thrown on him?

Pushing a fellow professional off his bike. He can deny it all he wants. The video is damning. When questioned by a journalist he takes his dictaphone.

Child.

Reginald P. DuM

MOD VOICE: If you have an issue with a post or it's relevancy, report it. To everyone else, try and stay on topic for the thread, I know it wasn't exciting today but at least try.

CramCycle

BQQ

Dr. Bre wrote: »

what do pepole think of kittel not going for green? hes won 2 more stages than cav and greipel and sagan but he hasnt contested the intermediate sprints

Some would argue he's winning stages because he's not contesting the intermediate sprints.
Griepel had a lot of success last year doing the same thing, so I was surprised to see him going for the intermediate sprints this year.

Darkglasses

Heisenberg1 wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Off topic for any ITK regarding the ITT yesterday and Tony Martin I read that he was using an awe-inspiring 58x11 gear what does that mean? Cheers

It means there were 58 teeth in his biggest front chainring, and 11 teeth in his smallest rear cog. In human terms, it means a mere mortal you or I wouldn't have been able to turn his hardest gear

SHOVELLER wrote: »

Pushing a fellow professional off his bike. He can deny it all he wants. The video is damning. When questioned by a journalist he takes his dictaphone.

Child.

I realise you probably won't be interested in this..But what Cav did, that's racing. Veelers moved towards Cav, and Cav moved towards Veelers. Cav didn't give an inch or even think about softening the hit on Veelers, and so Veelers was flooored.

If you think Veelers didn't move his line, you need to check again.

Cavendish wasn't exactly charitable, but that's not what racing is about. It's not friendly, people get knocked over. If you think it's any other way, you don't understand top level racing.

The commisaires know this and didn't even give him a slap on the wrist. You don't have to like him, but that's how top-level racing is.

What isn't racing, is throwing piss on someone. That's pathetic scumbag behavior.

As for the dictaphonegate, I regard that as a storm in a teacup. Cavendish is one of the least sterilized, clean-cut professional sportsman there is, and many including myself love him for that. He gave it back in about 10 seconds, no harm done or piss thrown.

I don't expect you will agree, nor do I think either of us are right or wrong, but that's the opinion of someone who supports Cav in case you are wondering. Hakuna Matata.