Tour de France 2015 Stage 14 Rodez - Mende *contains unmasked spoilers3

Darkglasses

The transition to the Alpine stages continues, with another tricky day that gives a decent chance to a breakaway. The final is quite tough, and unless the break stays away it will be contested by the best climbers and puncheurs. Joaquin Rodriguez enters as favourite, who will be picking up a hat-trick if he gets the win tomorrow. Valverde will also be a strong contender tomorrow, along with Vuillermoz, Martin, Fuglsang and the GC contenders.

Oddschecker: Rodriguez 6/1, Valverde 6/1, Froome 9/1, Martin 14/1, Fuglsang 20/1, Vuillermoz 20/1

Darkglasses

Chris Froome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCxp2a7hw-0

A very good backstage pass from today's stage. Svein Tuft gives a good explanation of how breakaways are formed at the start of the race.

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

This is "Contador's Hill" so I pray to God for the sake of this Tour he shows us why. I think a Purito win is likely though.

Last time out here

happytramp

Katusha have said that they won't be trying to bring the race back together today. Since they were the most likely to do it, it looks like an extremely good day for the break. (Possibly with Rodriguez in it?)

retalivity

Gesink and Pinot down in a crash already...

greendom

retalivity wrote: »

Gesink and Pinot down in a crash already...

What a disaster of a tour for Pinot.

Kavrocks

Darkglasses wrote: »

A very good backstage pass from today's stage. Svein Tuft gives a good explanation of how breakaways are formed at the start of the race.

This is the future of cycling. It's really nice to see so much of it during this Tour.

retalivity wrote: »

Gesink and Pinot down in a crash already...

Morabito abandoned too!

happytramp

Break formed. 24 gone, no idea who's in it but defo no jrod.

dastardly00

The full list of the 24 out front: Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), Adriano Malori (Movistar), Warren Barguil and Koen de Kort (Giant-Alpecin), Giampaolo Caruso and Alberto Losada (Katusha), Pieter Weening and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep), Pierre Rolland and Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing), Ruben Plaza and Rafael Valls (Lampre-Merida), Andrew Talansky and Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM CYcling), Bartosz Huzarski and Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) and Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka)

ThisRegard

happytramp wrote: »

Break formed. 24 gone, no idea who's in it but defo no jrod.

The official tour app is great for live updates. Too many to list but it's a pretty good break, Sagan, Roland, Uran Uran, Hesjedal, Talansky to name but a few, only just over a minute ahead though.

dastardly00

Some big names there... Sagan Talansky, Rolland, Hesjedal, Duran Duran.

GetWithIt

Barguil too @9 mins down. Wouldn't be all that surprised if Sky let them get 5-10 mins. Maybe not lose the yellow but give the French press something to talk about.

Subpopulus

Alex Vuillermoz

Barguil, Talanksy, Rolland, Uran, Sagan, Hesjedal, Jungels, Simon Yates among them.

One minute up on the peloton with 142 km to go. Presumably, the group will hold together as far as the intermediate sprint, Sagan will take the points, and the break will start to fragment.

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

IAM are c*nts for reeling in the break so hard.

ThisRegard

Break has split, 6 with Uran Uran and Talansky included.

Subpopulus

Alex Vuillermoz

Dan seems to have fallen off the back of the Peloton....

ThisRegard

Subpopulus wrote: »

Dan seems to have fallen off the back of the Peloton....

He's currently listed as 5th in the peleton?

Subpopulus

Alex Vuillermoz

ThisRegard wrote: »

He's currently listed as 5th in the peleton?

letour.com has him as part of a group of 30 stragglers...

ThisRegard

Ah, sorry. I didn't see the Atardes heading above his group.

Darkglasses

Chris Froome

Did anyone just see Flecha explain the neutral service bikes? Who uses Time Pedals?

Pudsy33

I hope Dan can stay at the pointy end, it should suit him today. He could still be suffering from his effort. A lot of riders will be counting down the hours until tomorrow's flatter stage

Lusk_Doyle

Alberto Contador

That Ashley fella on ES is a dirty sleaze bag perving over the young girls at the finish line. Made Lemond really uncomfortable.

ThisRegard

He was only looking for breast of the chicken variety!

Kavrocks

Looking at live pictures, Dan is at the back of the peloton with Talansky...

ThisRegard

Kavrocks wrote: »

Looking at live pictures, Dan is at the back of the peloton with Talansky...

Yeah, it has me confused as Talansky is still listed as being in the first break on their app.

Edit, now listed as being in the second.

Kavrocks

ThisRegard wrote: »

Yeah, it has me confused as Talansky is still listed as being in the first break on their app.

Edit, now listed as being in the second.

Eurosport didn't list him as being in the second just there and it didn't look like he was either. It definitely looked like he was at the back of the peloton.

EDIT: Talansky had a puncture, that's why he's back in the pack!

Lusk_Doyle

Alberto Contador

ThisRegard wrote: »

He was only looking for breast of the chicken variety!

Before that he asked Lemond if he would rather share the back of the race director's car with two pageant girls who were standing with them or the president of france. These girls were barely 18, if even that.

gordongekko

Dan wrote in the Times today that he has a cough. Yes probably going to wait for another day to try anything.

spock.

Green jersey in the bag for Sagan now.

ThisRegard

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Before that he asked Lemond if he would rather share the back of the race director's car with two pageant girls who were standing with them or the president of france. These girls were barely 18, if even that.

Crass, I was fortunate not to see that bit.

dragratchet

ThisRegard wrote: »

Crass, I was fortunate not to see that bit.

you could see le mond stumbling over his words (more than usual) as he considered how to answer in as inoffensive a way as possible

Lusk_Doyle

Alberto Contador

I tweeted him telling him he was disgusting and to leave that sort of thing off the air.

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

What did he actually do/say?

Darkglasses

Chris Froome

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

What did he actually do/say?

Just after the special feature on Prudhomme's commisaires car, Ashley House asked LeMond if he'd rather be in the car with Preudhomme or the two winners of a local beauty contest who were onscreen with him. LeMond responded that they should get limousine because he couldn't decide I think.

gordongekko

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

I tweeted him telling him he was disgusting and to leave that sort of thing off the air.

Did you tweet the tour complaining about using girls on the podium as well?

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

Darkglasses wrote: »

Just after the special feature on Prudhomme's commisaires car, Ashley House asked LeMond if he'd rather be in the car with Preudhomme or the two winners of a local beauty contest who were onscreen with him. LeMond responded that they should get limousine because he couldn't decide I think.

I don't really see the issue here but perhaps I'd have had to have seen it myself?!

dragratchet

it was a bit of an off the cuff comment to bring in the two girls and came off poorly and put greg in an awkward position. gordongekko is right though, podium girls should be a thing of the past, ive seen a well known irish sportif have em for photo opps at the end ffs

Darkglasses

Chris Froome

Don't like seeing the riders tossing their bidons here, rural protected area with few people around. I know needs must but they could have waited to get into a spectator area.

efb

Jakob Fuglsang

Dan effectively wrote off his chances today on itv4 interview due to illness

Lusk_Doyle

Alberto Contador

gordongekko wrote: »

Did you tweet the tour complaining about using girls on the podium as well?

No because that was not what I saw and has nothing to do with what he said.

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

Snap of Lance doing the stage yesterday. Still has that very aggressive style

Eamonnator

Was he on a Trek?

MPFG

Jakob Fuglsang

Gannondale Carmin ?? Sean

Doc07

The Skybots look in complete control at the front of the main peleton. Would love to see some attacks on the Cat 2 climbs but I think Sky will snuff everything out.

If you have time YouTube Stage 12 1995 Tour, same finish as today. A drug fueled Jalabert in the green jersey won in style. Would love to see Sagan repeat that green jersey win today (Sagan is clean, the comparison to Jalabert refers to wearing the green jersey) I think the last climb might be beyond him.

MPFG

Jakob Fuglsang

It seems if you go in the break in this Tour you can get back into the top 10 ?

Plus have a chance of winning a stage

dastardly00

MPFG wrote: »

It seems if you go in the break in this Tour you can get back into the top 10 ?

Yeah but you're probably cream crackered for the next couple of stages and liable to lose the time you gained in the breakaway.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Talib Fiasco

Vincenzo Nibali

I got Uran at 7/1 earlier e/w. Looks to be a solid bet.

MPFG

Jakob Fuglsang

Guess this break will try and get rid of Sagan (and a few others) on the penultimate climb

Eamonnator

What happened to Porte?

ratracer

Eamonnator wrote: »

What happened to Porte?

Puncture according to sky twitter