Tour de France Stage 13 – July 18th, See mod note post #107 **Unmasked Spoilers**

Darkglasses

We are officially in the Alps! The first climb is a very moderate 8 km at 4.1%, and will invite a sizeable breakaway. Following this there is a full 100km of flat roads, before the riders hit the Col de Palaquit. The climb is 14.1 km long and has an average gradient of 6.1 %, and inrng have produced an excellent description of it here.



After the descent there is the small matter of the intermediate sprint, before the riders face the most difficult task of the day, the summit finish up to Chamrousse. It is just over 18km long with an average gradient of 7.3%. It begins quite severely with several sections in double digits for the first 7km, before slackening off towards the summit.



Joaquim Rodriguez appears to be coming back into top form, and will be keen to race for the KOM competition. Nibali appears to have the yellow jersey safely in his grasp and will be the distant favourite going into the stage, being the strongest climber left in the race. But there will be resistance from Porte, Valverde, Pinot, Bardet and Peraud.

Darkglasses' outrageous prediction - Christophe Riblon to make a successful breakaway for the stage win.

Oddschecker: Nibali 5/2, Rodriguez 11/2, Valverde 13/2, Porte 11/1, Pinot 12/1, Riblon 33/1

Lusk_Doyle

I'm interested to see what Movistar have in store for the others. They have been very quiet and Valverde is sitting pretty in 3rd without drawing too much attention.

ZiabR

Valverde

Christophe Riblon might do some damage today alright but not sure about the stage win. He has been quiet so far this TDF, I think only in the break away once. He rode an amazing TDF last year so he could definitely take the stage but is his form good enough?

Brian?

Rodgers

Rolland will certainly have a go, might make it.

Today is the day the race will really miss Contador. I think we'll see Nibali and Porte pace up the final climb with a small attack at the end to take 10-15 seconds.

MPFG

Two races today

One between the breakaway including Purito,Navarro, Tinkoff Saxo riders

2nd GC guys behind ...with Nibali taking it IMO .....Hopefully Valverde & Pinot will have a go ....Maybe Horner & JVdB will also be up there and have a go
Bardet is saying he will have go

gordongekko

MPFG wrote: »

Two races today

One between the breakaway including Purito,Navarro, Tinkoff Saxo riders

2nd GC guys behind ...with Nibali taking it IMO .....Hopefully Valverde & Pinot will have a go ....Maybe Horner & JVdB will also be up there and have a go
Bardet is saying he will have go

Agreed. Rodgers for me.

Pudsy33

Good opportunity for Roche or Rodgers today. I think Nico in particular has looked in good form and I fancy his chances of staying in the business end of any break.

Inquitus

Bardet

Voted Roche, but hard to see past Nibali, hope I am wrong, would love to see on of the men up in the GC make some inroads into his lead.

retalivity

roche to go up the road first, start getting reeled back and Rodgers to have a stab then.

daramike

Roche

the break will stay away today, Astana will leave it off as long as no GC threat is in it. I think Valverde will do the best of the GC guys. I can see Pinot and Porte suffering with the heat today. I think the winner will come from Rodgers, Navarro, Spilak or Rolland.

pajor

Porte

Just put €1 e/w on Porte.

dastardly00

What a bizarre place to put the intermediate sprint!

duffyshuffle

Konig

I'm in on Rodgers too 18/1 earlier

CramCycle

Spilak

My betting account is locked, but one of the guys in work followed my suggestion and took Riblon e/w at 25/1.

pajor

Porte

dastardly00 wrote: »

What a bizarre place to put the intermediate sprint!

It is weird but dead flat.

Darkglasses

Spilak

Very sad scenes, Dani Navarro has stepped off the bike and abandoned just now. Looked quite green around the gills.

buffalo

Porte

Darkglasses wrote: »

Very sad scenes, Dani Navarro has stepped off the bike and abandoned just now. Looked quite green around the gills.

That's pretty sad alright.

On the plus side, a head-to-head with J Rod should pay off if he can make it to the finish.

Beasty

Roche

Couldn't believe the Cofidis team car there - Navarro was weaving all over the place, and clearly capable of collapsing at any moment, and they simply drove alongside him. Would have thought someone could have jumped out to help him get off the bike safely and not risk him actually colliding with the car

Beasty

Roche

... anyway, just voted for him - hopefully that'll cheer him up a bit:)

Darkglasses

Spilak

Europcar, Sky, Astana, and Katusha are all sticking together at the front. Good sign of things to come

dastardly00

Arthur Vichot (FDJ) and Javier Acevedo (Garmin) have also abandoned today.

death1234567

Konig

pajor wrote: »

It is weird but dead flat.

and it's the only part of the stage that is flat.

ThisRegard

Gauthier

We need more inserts like that one about the truck that cools the road. Not the boring ones with riders talking tactics.

Darkglasses

Spilak

Tommy V dropped now, he won't be contesting any KOM points.

mruser2014

Darkglasses wrote: »

Tommy V dropped now, he won't be contesting any KOM points.

Crazy.

It's amazing how Tommy V has changed from riding with the top climbers in the world and finishing 4th in the Tour to a poor rider hanging off the back in just a few years.

MPFG

Horner looking strong

MS.ing

poll needs more options

Darkglasses

Spilak

MS.ing wrote: »

poll needs more options

25 is the maximum you can put in on this site.

Itziger

Those GPS gaps are all over the shop. Just gave 35 secs to Bakelants and then the 1k to top sign gave 1.02. Big difference.

pelevin

Porte

The other star of these races besides the riders and crowds - of course the landscapes. What a magnificent land France is.

MS.ing

Darkglasses wrote: »

25 is the maximum you can put in on this site.

what kind of a shambolic poll situation is that :mad:

Pudsy33

Horner looks to be towing Costa

gordongekko

ThisRegard wrote: »

We need more inserts like that one about the truck that cools the road. Not the boring ones with riders talking tactics.

Just tuned in so what you talking about Willis?

Darkglasses

Spilak

gordongekko wrote: »

Just tuned in so what you talking about Willis?

There's a truck that goes in between the peloton and the caravan (in front of the peloton), clearing the road and marking obstacles and closed roads. It was interesting!

MS.ing

fuglsang

really bad for nibali

gordongekko

Darkglasses wrote: »

There's a truck that goes in between the peloton and the caravan (in front of the peloton), clearing the road and marking obstacles and closed roads. It was interesting!

I was imagining some mad machine blowing cold air onto the road to cool it.

MS.ing

ThisRegard wrote: »

We need more inserts like that one about the truck that cools the road. Not the boring ones with riders talking tactics.

gordongekko wrote: »

Just tuned in so what you talking about Willis?

Darkglasses wrote: »

There's a truck that goes in between the peloton and the caravan (in front of the peloton), clearing the road and marking obstacles and closed roads. It was interesting!

???

letape

Rodriguez

Just looked at the poll - can't believe four people voted for "Rodgers". is that Brendan or a distant cousin?!

ThisRegard

Gauthier

gordongekko wrote: »

Just tuned in so what you talking about Willis?

Darkglasses wrote: »

There's a truck that goes in between the peloton and the caravan (in front of the peloton), clearing the road and marking obstacles and closed roads. It was interesting!

And the guys take the road temperature, when it's too hot it sprays the roads down to cool them.

MS.ing

ThisRegard wrote: »

And the guys take the road temperature, when it's too hot it sprays the roads down to cool them.

after riding the mtns of the tour alot, I did wonder how it wasnt so melted when the pros came through. bastids :mad: the pros are the ones who can get up no bother without the assist of non sticky tyres

Darkglasses

Spilak

J-Rod's cooked :eek:

Pudsy33

Think Nico is out of the yellow jersey group

Yep, no stage for him today

Darkglasses

Spilak

We now have a select group with the usual suspects. Very few team-mates

gordongekko

Horner riding into the top 10 at this rate

Pudsy33

Porte is cooked

griffin100

Schleck for the stage?

Green&Red

Porte

Porte getting dropped?

Inquitus

Bardet

Aye Porte is done

Eamonnator

Valverde

Porte is cooked.

Darkglasses

Spilak

Porte

Eamonnator

Valverde

Horner is gone.