Tour de France - Stage 17, Wed Jul 17, Embrun - Chorges (ITT), **Unmasked Spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 17, Embrun - Chorges (ITT), 32 km

This 32km TT features two second-category climbs: Côte de Puy-Sanières (6.4km @6%); and Côte de Réallon (6.9km @6.3%). Pure climbers shouldn't lose as much time as they normally would to the specialist TT-ers.

Froome is in the form of his life, he'll definitely extend his overall lead, and will more than likely win the stage too. The most interesting battle will be for the podium places. Just over three minutes separate 2nd to 7th place, so everything is up for grabs. It's hard to pick between Mollema, Contador, Kreuziger, Quintana and Rodriguez. Contador is regaining form, but he's nowhere near as good as he used to be in TTs. Purito has spent a lot of time focusing on his TT ability, and he's been appearing on our TV screens more frequently in the last couple of days, so he might spring a surprise. Quintana put in a very impressive performance in a 24km-long, very bumpy ITT in the Tour of the Basque Country. He beat Porte, Peraud, and Contador that day (and finished just 17 seconds behind Tony Martin). Quintana was also 3rd in the Paris-Nice ITT, 27 seconds behind Richie Porte. Speaking of Richie Porte, he definitely has the ability to be Top-3 for this stage, but he might take it easy because of the tough Alp stages to come. Ten Dam could drop a few places in GC.

And what about the World TT champion Tony Martin? The profile is lumpy but there are downhill sections, and it's only 32km long. So he should still be very quick. I don't think he'll be able to beat Froome, but 2nd place is a strong possibility.

Dan Martin will probably drop a few places in the GC as Kwiatkowski and Mick Rogers are just behind him. Andrew Talansky might pass him out as well. Nico will be on orders to take it very handy.

Start order and times can be found here (All times are CET!!).

The times below are GMT:
11:39 MARTIN Tony
.......
14:07 ROCHE Nicolas
.......
15:06 MARTIN Daniel
15:09 PERAUD Jean-Christophe
15:12 FUGLSANG Jakob
15:15 RODRIGUEZ Joaquim
15:18 TEN DAM Laurens
15:21:00 QUINTANA Nairo
15:24 KREUZIGER Roman
15:27 CONTADOR Alberto
15:30 MOLLEMA Bauke
15:33 FROOME Christopher





Final km:


Stage betting: C Froome 1/4; T Martin 12/1; R Porte 16/1; A Contador 18/1.

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 Eurosport2 at 9pm, ITV4 at 7pm, and TG4 at 10pm.

Live text-ticker will be here.

Darkglasses

No way Froomey will lose this. Unless he hits a cow or something.

Squidgy Black

Tony Martin at 11:39 is definitely one that should've been including in the OP's list of times.

unichall

Tony Martin is going to use his road bike until the top of the 2nd climb and then switch to his TT bike for the final 10k. He says it doesnt suit him and that they are using it to test numbers etc etc so he can see how to improve over this type of terrain, I still think he will be up there but with Froome so close to him last week on the flat this should be another win for him

Edit: the weather could change later in the day and if it does Tony Martin has a good chance because the decents are technical enough and will be tougher obviously when wet

Reginald P. DuM

^^^^^^
link??

Rebel Rebel

Good work Dastardly

Brian?

Unfortunately I can see Froome winning this at a canter. Contador should put
In a better performance judging by the last few stages but I still see him losing a 1:30 or more.

dastardly00

From the Official TdF website:

Jean-Christophe Peraud (9th in GC) has crashed while doing a recon of the TT course. He has hurt his shoulder and has gone to hospital to get some scans done.

Reginald P. DuM

Looks like AG2r Peraud is in trouble, crashed his bike this morning on a spin, gone to hospital.. He's 9th overall..

Darkglasses

Rotten luck. They'd been doing so well after losing Nico.

unichall

Reginald P. DuM wrote: »

^^^^^^
link??

https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=495256333882748&id=192337574174627

Tony Martin Facebook, he uses it to keep fans up to date, its in german though

Reginald P. DuM

3 bikes Martin is gonna use today!

manafana

hearing rumours peruad has a collarbone problem, surely though with what is at stake hes get back up on his bike/.

Stage 17 is tricky one to access 55,50 fastest so far, would said about 50mins or winner bit it could well be nearer 51 or even 52 if weather gets wet.

laraghrider

Dan Martin is not using his time trial bike for this either but a modified road bike.

godtabh

manafana wrote: »

hearing rumours peruad has a collarbone problem, surely though with what is at stake hes get back up on his bike/.

Stage 17 is tricky one to access 55,50 fastest so far, would said about 50mins or winner bit it could well be nearer 51 or even 52 if weather gets wet.

i heard its more a mind thing. Twitter saying he has a fear of descending

check_six

godtabh wrote: »

i heard its more a mind thing. Twitter saying he has a fear of descending

Is that not Pinot, who withdrew from the race yesterday?

godtabh

check_six wrote: »

Is that not Pinot, who withdrew from the race yesterday?

Sorry maybe I'm getting them mixed up

check_six

manafana wrote: »

hearing rumours peruad has a collarbone problem, surely though with what is at stake hes get back up on his bike/.

Stage 17 is tricky one to access 55,50 fastest so far, would said about 50mins or winner bit it could well be nearer 51 or even 52 if weather gets wet.

If Peraud is unable to get back on the bike, what happens with the running schedule? Do they just leave a gap, or do they shuffle the starters after him a few minutes forward?

dastardly00

godtabh wrote: »

Sorry maybe I'm getting them mixed up

Yeah it is Pinot who has the fear of descending.

check_six

Tony Martin is 22"behind Westra's time at the 6.5km mark. The start is a big hill though, yes?

gordongekko

check_six wrote: »

Tony Martin is 22"behind Westra's time at the 6.5km mark. The start is a big hill though, yes?

did he change bike yet

dastardly00

He should make up a good bit of time on the descent. Then lose time on the next climb, then gain again on the descent

buffalo

Ag2r are saying JCP will ride today.

dastardly00

buffalo wrote: »

Ag2r are saying JCP will ride today.

Yep he will start, but he has a small fracture of the right clavicle.

Granolite

T. Martin 57 secs behind fastest rider at 20km..and all downhill from that point to the finish.

Squidgy Black

Did Martin do a triathlon-style running start on the new bikes? Surely velominati has something to say about that

TheKingslayer

Pointless post deleted

check_six

Tony Martin has finished with a time of 54' 39", 37" behind the best time so far of Westra (54' 02"), which is a decent time, but I'd imagine the stage winner today may better that by more than a minute.

check_six

Nico Roche's start time is just after 2pm (our time), and the big boys (including Dan Martin) kick off after 3pm.

uphillonly

Good interview with Charlie Wegelius on Eurosport.

Garmin using S5 bikes - he described it as a hybrid Road/TT. 80mm Rear wheel rims & 60mm front.
On the warm up they are doing an easier one than normal for a TT as the riders are so tired.

Reginald P. DuM

The general consensus seems to be Froome will do it in or around the 52 min mark, so at 25% for the slower riders today the cut of should he about 65mins.. No room for too much slacking then ahead of the double D'Huez.

fat bloke

Whatever about climbing, it must be a fine line choosing between a road bike and a TT bike for a technical descent. Higher speeds mean a significant aero advantage but then you're changing bar positions for all the cornering and you won't have the same handling and possibly braking performance on the TT bike. - I wonder which would be quicker overall

manafana

looks like its worth changing for final downhill anyway which seems really fast

buffalo

uphillonly wrote: »

Good interview with Charlie Wegelius on Eurosport.

Garmin using S5 bikes - he described it as a hybrid Road/TT. 80mm Rear wheel rims & 60mm front.
On the warm up they are doing an easier one than normal for a TT as the riders are so tired.

Dan described his bike as:

I have got a special one made up for Wednesday’s time trial, which is a lot hillier than the one we had last week. Normally I use the Cervélo P5, which is a pure time trial bike built for flat speed rather than climbing and is consequently heavier than the normal bike.

For Wednesday, I am using the Cervélo S5 instead. It is the aerodynamic road frame, and the mechanics have dressed it up as a time trial bike. It is not quite as aerodynamic as the P5, but it is a hell of a lot lighter. It gives us the best of both worlds, and hopefully we will be competitive as a result.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/dan-martin-diary-rest-day-i-had-a-bit-of-a-disaster-on-sunday-night-with-the-air-conditioning-unit-1.1464608?page=1

fat bloke

Chr1st just looking at the lads in the full giro TT helmets, they must be frickin burning up!

It's gas, a lot of them on road bikes with TT clip ons! - Look like a bunch of Freds

fat bloke

OMG, I was wondering about bike weights, I'd have thought that the pro spec TT bikes would easily be at or around the UCI minimum, but a quick google there and bike radar says the Cervelo P5 frame weight alone is 1800g!!! :eek:

mloc123

fat bloke wrote: »

OMG, I was wondering about bike weights, I'd have thought that the pro spec TT bikes would easily be at or around the UCI minimum, but a quick google there and bike radar says the Cervelo P5 frame weight alone is 1800g!!! :eek:

TT bikes are heavy... Frames are heavy, deep section wheels and discs are heavy.

I was still always led to believe that unless the TT is all uphill a TT rig will be faster..

Reginald P. DuM

Just saw on twitter that Italian TV are reporting if its raining heavily tomorrow the race will finish atop Alp D'Huez on the first run up.... A nasty rumour I hope regardless of the weather forecast..

uphillonly

Lets be honest. It's a bit dull to watch especially without Rasmussen's bike handling to look forward to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OQAX90sFA


Inner Ring had a piece the other day on how to spice it up.
http://inrng.com/2013/07/time-trial-tv-production/

Darkglasses

No rain on the course yet but there are showers about. Few drops on the camera lenses and roads are looking damp already.

Some of the early starters gave their opinion on today's course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It1jS1QAijA

Darkglasses

Just watching Jeanesson go down the first hill. Looks really quite tough, even just with moist conditions right now.

Do your rain dances people.

Tejay van Garderen sets an awesome time, good news at last for BMC. If the rain comes, Froomey will have a real problem.

Darkglasses

Getting wetter out there now.

Reginald P. DuM

Looks treacherous in parts, the rain has all but sealed it for TJ... Impressive run. It could still dry I goes it's a while before Froome hits the ramp..

Darkglasses

Absolutely lashing now. Like that ridiculously heavy rain in old movies.

dastardly00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFwatKASjko

Granolite

looks like Nico was passed by His 2 minute man J. Gadret at first time check...I'm sure Nico just loved that..

Ultegra

First time check and lost 2 mins + . Come on Nico

dastardly00

Kelly about Pierre Rolland's descending....
"I think my postman would be quicker"
LOL!!

death1234567

Ultegra wrote: »

First time check and lost 2 mins + . Come on Nico

I would guess he's not giving it his all. Probably saving himself to Help Contador in the mountains (and hopefully for the Veulta)

Darkglasses

Nah, Nico worked too hard yesterday. He'll need to take it easy today, Alpe D'Huez like.

check_six

Maybe Roche is just trying to complete the course without emptying himself completely in preparation for the big day tomorrow? I hope!

He was two and a half minutes off the leading pace at the first split.