Tour de France 2015 Stage 19 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne / La Toussuire - Les Sybelles

ZiabR

Stage Summary:

In the past few days, the early breakaways have been formed by a significant number of riders. It could be the case again from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire. Start and finishing location are less than twenty kilometers away but the unprecedented col de Chaussy, right from the gun, the grueling col de la Croix-de-Fer and the tricky downhill of the col du Mollard are just as many opportunities to turn the race upside down. As Chris Froome noted, there are a few races within the race. The most undecided is the hunt for the polka dot jersey. Joaquim Rodriguez and Romain Bardet are equal on points. They need to go on the attack again but GC contenders won't let Bardet moving up again after he entered the top ten at the expense of his compatriot Warren Barguil. Frenchmen will be inspired by his triumph on stage 18. La Toussuire is where Pierre Rolland won a Tour de France stage in 2012, the day Chris Froome was held back by his sport director at the request of Bradley Wiggins. It's also where Thibaut Pinot claimed stage 3 of the Tour des Pays de Savoie in 2009 prior to turning pro. In 2011, again at La Toussuire, he came second in stage 7 of the Critérium du Dauphiné… behind Rodriguez. Don't murderers always come back on the scene of their crimes?…

Stage Start:

Often on the program of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne has already hosted the prologue of the 2011 edition claimed by an impressive Lars Boom. Since then, the Tour de France enjoyed a nice start in the city of the Opinel knife in 2012. On that day, the strongest man was David Millar, winner of the stage heading to Annonay Davézieux after being part of a breakaway and eventually outsprinting Jean-Christophe Péraud.

Stage Finish:

The last finish of the Tour de France at La Toussuire was one of the many turning moments in the recent renewal of French cycling. Already revealed to the world on the previous year thanks to his win at l'Alpe-d'Huez and the White Jersey he conquered in Paris, Pierre Rolland enjoyed another moment of glorious climbing, eventually winning his second alpine stage. Behind him, Thibaut Pinot confirmed what a talented climber he was after his earlier triumph in Porrentruy: at only 22 years of age he would capture second spot ahead of Chris Froome, Jurgen Van den Broeck, Vincenzo Nibali and Bradley Wiggins.

Climbs:

Km 15.5 - Col du Chaussy (1 533 m) (D77-VC)15.4 kilometre-long climb at 6.3% - category 1
Km 83.0 - Col de la Croix de Fer (2 067 m)22.4 kilometre-long climb at 6.9% - category H
Km 103.0 - Col du Mollard (1 638 m)5.7 kilometre-long climb at 6.8% - category 2
Km 138.0 - LA TOUSSUIRE (1 705 m)18 kilometre-long climb at 6.1% - category 1

Stage Profile:



Mountains & Hills:





Sprint Section:

ZiabR

Le'Mond thinks that today's stage is going to be action packed and that the profile suits attacks. Not really sure who to expect here for the win, going to be a very tough day.

bazermc

Meh. I did that stage on Sunday. It was so easy.

victor201

Hope they dont beat my strava time on the glandon etape challenge lol looking foward to seeing it today should be some good attacking on it

bryangiggsy

So they go back up the glandon in the opposite direction today?

Arrow in the Knee

I hope something happens early in this stage and the GC lads aren't waiting for the last few kilometres to attack as usual.

dastardly00

@logik

That's dedication to the stage preview when you are putting in the profile for the intermediate sprint

bryangiggsy

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

I hope something happens early in this stage and the GC lads aren't waiting for the last few kilometres to attack as usual.

Do you believe the GC lads can attack early in this stage or any stage?
I don't.
Any attack by GC contenders is shot down. they are not allowed get away.
GC race is over imo unless Quintana can drop Froome in one of the big climbs near the end of the stage when he is vulnerable . So far it does not look like he is capable of doing so.

spock.

Eurosport live coverage starts at the earlier time of 12:15 today.

lennymc

sure its only 138 km. It will be boring.

Arrow in the Knee

bryangiggsy wrote: »

Do you believe the GC lads can attack early in this stage or any stage?
I don't.
Any attack by GC contenders is shot down. they are not allowed get away.
GC race is over imo unless Quintana can drop Froome in one of the big climbs near the end of the stage when he is vulnerable . So far it does not look like he is capable of doing so.

My head says nothing will happen today regarding Yellow jersey or GC positions except maybe Geriant Thomas might attack or wear down Valverde for 3rd in GC.

But my heart would love to see a very good attack early on by one of the GC lads. Put Sky underpressure for the first time in this tour.

If its going to be a Froome and Sky procession to Paris I might aswell not watch it.

happytramp

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

My head says nothing will happen today regarding Yellow jersey or GC positions except maybe Geriant Thomas might attack or wear down Valverde for 3rd in GC.

But my heart would love to see a very good attack early on by one of the GC lads. Put Sky underpressure for the first time in this tour.

If its going to be a Froome and Sky procession to Paris I might aswell not watch it.

Movistar will most likely be happy with a 2nd and 3rd place. Doubt they'll do anything to risk that. Maybe a small testing attack by Quintana to see if Froome is knackered but i expect him to stop after 200m otherwise......Hope I'm wrong.

MrMischief

I'm thinking the pace will be frantic from the go...a breakaway will be reeled in towards the end and the GC boys will fight it out on the last climb.

Going for Quintana for stage win.

Will be really disappointed if he doesn't really go for it on the last climb. He needs to take a big chunk of time (not going to happen) out of Froome today to set it up for the big one tomorrow.

Bertie no doubt will put in multiple attacks also.

Looking forward to watching all the min battles unfold. Will be interesting to see what Purito and Bardet have in the legs for the KOM.

dastardly00

Thomas to attack on La Toussuire and drop Froom, to be told to come back and help him, á la Froome dropping Wiggins on this climb in 2012? :pac:

bryangiggsy

Arrow in the Knee wrote: »

But my heart would love to see a very good attack early on by one of the GC lads. Put Sky underpressure for the first time in this tour.

.

But thats my point....its not physically possible with the power of the bunch at the early part of a stage....everything gets reeled back in. A team is not going to expose itself to blowing up either at km 20. the best thing we can hope for is Quintana pulls a Carlos Sastre on Alps d'huez tomorrow. I fear we are in for a procession though....with froome just sitting on whatever GC wheel is in front of him

Koobcam

bryangiggsy wrote: »

So they go back up the glandon in the opposite direction today?

The harder side of the Glandon today, with the Croix de Fer thrown in on top for the last 2km. HC points are for the CDF rather than Glandon.

Proxima Centauri

bryangiggsy wrote: »

But thats my point....its not physically possible with the power of the bunch at the early part of a stage....everything gets reeled back in. A team is not going to expose itself to blowing up either at km 20. the best thing we can hope for is Quintana pulls a Carlos Sastre on Alps d'huez tomorrow. I fear we are in for a procession though....with froome just sitting on whatever GC wheel is in front of him

What a race we could have had if Froome was only 30/40 seconds ahead on GC

odyssey06

Proxima Centauri wrote: »

What a race we could have had if Froome was only 30/40 seconds ahead on GC

I read somewhere that Froome was only 1 minute ahead 'on the road'... the rest are due to time trials, and time bonuses for stage finishes. Haven't done the maths on it to verify.

That said, this TDF has been setup as unfavourable to Froome with no long individual time trials where he would have an edge over climbers like Quintana.

MPFG

odyssey06 wrote: »

I read somewhere that Froome was only 1 minute ahead 'on the road'... the rest are due to time trials, and time bonuses for stage finishes. Haven't done the maths on it to verify.

That said, this TDF has been setup as unfavourable to Froome with no long individual time trials where he would have an edge over climbers like Quintana.

Froome's time over Quintana is only 1 min (or thereabouts ) in the mountians The rest is crosswinds & TTs

Koobcam

MPFG wrote: »

Froome's time over Quintana is only 1 min (or thereabouts ) in the mountians The rest is crosswinds & TTs

Froome didn't actually do a particularly good TT and I think Quintana lost a bit less time to Froome in that than might have been expected. I think the main reason for the gap is the first mountain stage

spock.

Movistar's directeur sportif Jose Luis Arrieta:
"Second and third, it looks good on paper. But it's not enough for us. We came for winning and the whole has been working for three weeks to make Nairo a winner."

Talib Fiasco

spock. wrote: »

Movistar's directeur sportif Jose Luis Arrieta:
"Second and third, it looks good on paper. But it's not enough for us. We came for winning and the whole has been working for three weeks to make Nairo a winner."

BS if I ever heard/read it.

gordongekko

Talib Fiasco wrote: »

BS if I ever heard/read it.

So you believe they came into they tour hoping to finish second and third???

mhiggy09

So exciting. .. The neutralise section....in irish

check_six

spock. wrote: »

Movistar's directeur sportif Jose Luis Arrieta:
"Second and third, it looks good on paper. But it's not enough for us. We came for winning and the whole has been working for three weeks to make Nairo a winner."

I'd like to see Valverde's version of that: "Me me me me me me. Nairo who? Me me me."

stecleary

congrats to eurosport they managed two minutes of live coverage at what is probably going to be the most exciting part of the stage with climbers forming a breakaway for some very vital points and took a break

MPFG

Koobcam wrote: »

Froome didn't actually do a particularly good TT and I think Quintana lost a bit less time to Froome in that than might have been expected. I think the main reason for the gap is the first mountain stage

Like I asid Quinatan lost most time before the mountains and only lost about a minute in the mountains

He lost 11 seconds in TT
1 minute & 28 seconds in crosswinds
11 seconds on stage 3 ( plus 8 seconds for bonuses to Froome)
and 3 seconds in TTT

That is a total of 1 minute 59 seconds which makes i minute 11 seconds lost in mountains

Talib Fiasco

gordongekko wrote: »

So you believe they came into they tour hoping to finish second and third???

Not since the start, but since stage 10, definitely yes.

MPFG

So Greg Le Mond says Froome should attack Quintana on the Croix de Fer and both of them go off together man o man

As if ?

dastardly00

Pretty much half the peloton are trying to get into the breakaway :pac:

MPFG

Rolland and Gautier doing their 2 man thing already ...its like they are riding a tandem

dastardly00

MPFG wrote: »

So Greg Le Mond says Frooem should attack Croix de Fer and both of them go off together man o man

As if ?

He must have had a bottle of vino with lunch?

mhiggy09

Did martin get swallowed up by the main field?

MPFG

Porte on the front for SKY ...he won't be there at the end then...supposed to be sick according to the all knowing Kirby

mhiggy09

mhiggy09 wrote: »

Did martin get swallowed up by the main field?

Never mind I see him in the chase group

mhiggy09

Nice amount of garmin riders in the front group. Martin, Talansky and hesadal I think

MPFG

How did that Kruijswijk get such shoulders...Its like he has a clothes hanger in his jersey

MPFG

So break so far is Kruijswijk Rodriguez Sicard Plaza Peraud Losada Herrada Westra Edet Van Baarle lead. Talansky, Rolland, Gautier Scarponi chasing

dastardly00

I'm getting fatigued just looking at the peloton climbing so early in the stage

MPFG

dastardly00 wrote: »

I'm getting fatigued just looking at the peloton climbing so early in the stage

Me too ...look at some of those faces...they looked knackered already

Subpopulus

Bardet not in the break... Expect J-Rod will take some points on the first Category 1 climb and extend his KOM lead.

irishrover99

looking at froome yesterday, he looked pale at the end of the stage and was reaching for a gel in his pocket that wasn't there. hopefully he has a bad day today and makes tomorrows stage interesting for the GC

gordongekko

It's raining

mhiggy09

Haha contador is attacking. By by breakaway. Froome is suffering

MPFG

Contador has attacked

mhiggy09

Froome defiantly not looking good. Think this is the bad day we have been waiting for

Subpopulus

Valverde has gone with him too.

Bit early does anyone think?

spock.

Nibali Valverde and Contador trying to put sky under pressure.

mhiggy09

Nibali going now.

MPFG

SKY need to send a man up the road now

mhiggy09

Subpopulus wrote: »

Valverde has gone with him too.

Bit early does anyone think?

They have to go from this far out and since Frome isn't looking to good atm they have the chance at staying away