Tour de France - Stage 13, Fri Jul 12, Tours - Amand-Montrond, **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 13, Tours - Saint-Amand-Montrond, 173 km

This stage is not as flat as Stage 12 and it has a Cat. 4 climb, but it's possibly the last chance for the sprinters to win before they reach the Champs-Elysées. The final kilometre is again fairly tricky, with a couple of roundabouts and tight turns to be negotiated before the finish line.

Kittel looked very strong when winning Stage 12, but it's not often that Cav is beaten by pure speed too many times on the trot. So I think Cav will win this, with Kittel a very close second. Greipel has the potential to beat Cav and Kittel, but Sagan doesn't yet seem to be able to compete with the three other lads in out and out sprint finishes.






Final 2 km:


Last kilometre:


Stage betting: M Cavendish 2/1, M Kittel 12/5, A Greipel 4/1, P Sagan 5/1.

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 9.35pm, Eurosport2 at 11.45pm, ITV4 at 7pm, and TG4 at 9.20pm.

Live text-ticker will be here.

Darkglasses

After the manner in which Cav was beaten by Kittel today, I just don't know anymore.

Terrain is quite lumpy. Sagan at 5/1, go on then.

Reginald P. DuM

Darkglasses wrote: »

After the manner in which Cav was beaten by Kittel today, I just don't know anymore.

Terrain is quite lumpy. Sagan at 5/1, go on then.

Small percentages though if Sagan is gonna do it and theres not a crash he'll have to get by the three lads.. Griepel won't have a train to match, they got knocked about badly today in that spill... I think its between Cav and the wunder kid again.. Ya have to give the nod to the latter, he's the fastest in the land...

theSHU

That's some nasty finish. Hopefully Orica don't pull at the front going into that corner or their lead out man will bring down the whole peleton

Darkglasses

Reginald P. DuM wrote: »

Small percentages though if Sagan is gonna do it and theres not a crash he'll have to get by the three lads.. Griepel won't have a train to match, they got knocked about badly today in that spill... I think its between Cav and the wunder kid again.. Ya have to give the nod to the latter, he's the fastest in the land...

You're spot on, on all counts. I'm really hoping for someone else though, Gossy and Kristoff really deserve a stage win. And Sagan and Cav are waaaay more fun than Kittel.

manafana

Kittel really was nifty today quickly onto the cavendish wheel and flew out at just right time.

Looks a pretty much the same stage tomorrow this time Greipel will want to be involved here. The Alpes are getting closer thats the main thing.


<snip>

Reginald P. DuM

manafana wrote: »

Kittel really was nifty today quickly onto the cavendish wheel and flew out at just right time.

Looks a pretty much the same stage tomorrow this time Greipel will want to be involved here. The Alpes are getting closer thats the main thing.


<snip>

Do you write those blogs?

Leroy42

why do they make the end of these stages so potentially dangerous? it seems like they are doing their upmost to cause crashes.

I m not saying the finish should be perfectly straight but particularly in this stage they seem to have thrown in additional tight corners for no reason

manafana

i do write those blogs, i try keep betting stuff off the thread as it annoys people, not sure people see my signature as i do have it up their too.

I will be back later but probably another quiet day like yesterday

GetWithIt

That lump at the end on the profile would generally be a tempter for Gilbert/Roche but it looks like the finish after that is just too flat and straight.

Darkglasses

Unsurprisingly, EBH has abandoned. I'm travelling all day so any updates would be gratefully received!

mcgratheoin

Leroy42 wrote: »

why do they make the end of these stages so potentially dangerous? it seems like they are doing their upmost to cause crashes.

I m not saying the finish should be perfectly straight but particularly in this stage they seem to have thrown in additional tight corners for no reason

Yeah, they've done it on quite a few stages this year

luapenak

Anyone know what split it? TommyV is 2.50 down, Kittel distanced but back on now

manafana

GetWithIt wrote: »

That lump at the end on the profile would generally be a tempter for Gilbert/Roche but it looks like the finish after that is just too flat and straight.

that final climb is very shallow max 5% 2.5% avg.

Darkglasses, cyclingsnews works well on phone if you use their race updates.

echeleons forming now on straight open roads

corny

Break in the peloton. Looks a bit tetchy with the wind.

retalivity

why are belkin and saxo up there helping OPQS?

calling in favours ahead of the alps perhaps???

IM0

the question is what was kittel doing so far down

Columbia

Jesus, Kirby is absolutely delighted that Kittel is behind the split.

retalivity

Kittel hasnt contested any imtermediate sprints at all yet afaik, doubt hes too bothered with 90k left.

Rovi

Fine big Irish flag there at the 'summit'

IM0

Rovi wrote: »

Fine big Irish flag there at the 'summit'

and a nice indicator of strong the wind is. looks about 35k/hr

IM0

poor form taking advantage of valverde's mechanical there

Reginald P. DuM

Columbia wrote: »

Jesus, Kirby is absolutely delighted that Kittel is behind the split.

The usual Kirby jingoism.... Still ya can't blame him really they know Cav wouldn't do him in an outright sprint.. If Kittel was Irish and Jimmy McGee was on the mike it'd be a whole lot worse!!

dastardly00

retalivity wrote: »

why are belkin and saxo up there helping OPQS?

calling in favours ahead of the alps perhaps???

Saxo have appeared at the front of bunch quite a number of times on flat stages. I think it's just because they are very conscious of keeping Contador out of harm's-way.

dastardly00

IM0 wrote: »

poor form taking advantage of valverde's mechanical there

Ah Valverde would be do the same if he had the chance

IM0

dastardly00 wrote: »

Ah Valverde would be do the same if he had the chance

was its just armstrong that decided to bring in the thing of not taking advantage of guys in the GC that crashed/had mechanicals behind him on an important mountain stage? or did they do that before him a bit too? otherwise I can see why he was known as the boss, the whole peleton were his bitches :pac:

unichall

IM0 wrote: »

poor form taking advantage of valverde's mechanical there

I dont think they are taking advantage but they are certainly making the most of it. It is OPQS that are doing the driving to keep kittel out, it just so happens that it favours Belkin amd Saxo too so they are rowing in a bit but if OPQS knocked it on the head I dont think the others would be so keen

Green&Red

It looks like they'll struggle to catch the lead group

mcgratheoin

IM0 wrote: »

was its just armstrong that decided to bring in the thing of not taking advantage of guys in the GC that crashed/had mechanicals behind him on an important mountain stage? or did they do that before him a bit too? otherwise I can see why he was known as the boss, the whole peleton were his bitches :pac:

The unwritten rule is that you don't attack someone when they've had a mechanical. If the pace is already high like today, then it's just their tough luck.

dastardly00

IM0 wrote: »

was its just armstrong that decided to bring in the thing of not taking advantage of guys in the GC that crashed/had mechanicals behind him on an important mountain stage? or did they do that before him a bit too? otherwise I can see why he was known as the boss, the whole peleton were his bitches :pac:

Armstrong knew he had the ability drugs to beat his rivals in the mountains, so he didn't need to attack them if they crashed or had a mech.

dastardly00

1'40" back to the Valverde group. If it finished like that, Valverde would be back in 7th place :eek:

IM0

mcgratheoin wrote: »

The unwritten rule is that you don't attack someone when they've had a mechanical. If the pace is already high like today, then it's just their tough luck.

but thats what they just did to valverde! an ecplosive attack no, but putting the hammer down yes. they could have back off for a bit to let valverde get within reach and then take it back up

REBELSAFC

Rui Costa is also in the group. He's ninth at the moment and would drop behind Dan Martin if things stay the same. I can see them losing more time tbh. The peleton isn't going to slow down

manafana

sky must be delighted all this and their not doing a tap of work except for protecting their yellow from the wind.

n-dawg

I love cross winds...

dastardly00

I presume Dan is in the lead group. And Nico?

mcgratheoin

IM0 wrote: »

but thats what they just did to valverde! an ecplosive attack no, but putting the hammer down yes. they could have back off for a bit to let valverde get within reach and then take it back up

Not really, OPQS were driving the peleton along and they weren't going to sit up and allow Kittel to get back on. Racing incident, no major change in pace after Valverde had his mech, if he can't get back on then that's bike racing...

mcgratheoin

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Rui Costa is also in the group. He's ninth at the moment and would drop behind Dan Martin if things stay the same. I can see them losing more time tbh. The peleton isn't going to slow down

He was there and was ordered back - none too happy about it I gather

n-dawg

dastardly00 wrote: »

I presume Dan is in the lead group. And Nico?

Nicos on the front... Big split

Rovi

Saxo doing a bit of a pull at the front!

mcgratheoin

now it's kicking off!!

IM0

oh its on now :cool:

corny

Won't be able to hold it.

pprendeville

And Saxo make a move. 100m gap on Froome dog

corny

Sky, BMC and Katusha chasing. Shame. If Evans had made it across they would have made it.

IM0

katusha and BMC idiots make sky do the work ffs! :rolleyes:

Darkglasses

Dang, sounds like I'm missing a cracker

AG2R

Not going to last sadly but good idea by Saxo about time they done something.


Also this is the best flat stage i've seen in a long time!

mcgratheoin

Valverde 4 minutes down now!!

IM0

Darkglasses wrote: »

Dang, sounds like I'm missing a cracker

oh you are

Max_Charger

This is a great race. Lead group seem to be working well together but doubt they'll make it for rest of the 23km left