TDF Stage 13: Saint-Girons-Foix 101 km (TV 1:30pm)

neris

Another day where the action didnt kick off till inside the flamme rouge but what fun it was. Bardet realy "flew off" on that finishing straight and the skybots lost the lead and Aru has yellow. Very short stage at just over 100km but 3 Cat1 climbs along the way. Its Bastille day and what proud French man wouldnt be trying to fire off the front for the win. Hopefully Astana and AG2R will go hell for leather and try to upset Sky setting the pace and controlling.

Precisely 100. In terms of kilometres, never has such a short format been on the menu of the Tour since halfstages disappeared. It'll be a total contrast compared to what the riders witnessed on the previous day but the terrain will be just as favourable for, I hope, audacious initiatives. Dynamism linked to distance will be joined by a degree of difficulty in the climbs: the Col de Latrape followed by the Col d'Agnes and finally the Mur de Péguère and its gradients that can reach 18%.

Doesnt look fun towards the top

1 ARU FABIO 51 ASTANA PRO TEAM 52H 51' 49''
2 FROOME CHRISTOPHER 1 TEAM SKY 52H 51' 55'' + 00' 06''
3 BARDET ROMAIN 11 AG2R LA MONDIALE 52H 52' 14'' + 00' 25''
4 URAN RIGOBERTO 188 CANNONDALE DRAPAC PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM 52H 52' 44'' + 00' 55''
5 MARTIN DANIEL 105 QUICK - STEP FLOORS 52H 53' 30'' + 01' 41''
6 YATES SIMON 89 ORICA - SCOTT 52H 54' 02'' + 02' 13''
7 LANDA MIKEL 6 TEAM SKY 52H 54' 44'' + 02' 55''
8 QUINTANA NAIRO 21 MOVISTAR TEAM 52H 55' 50'' + 04' 01''
9 BENNETT GEORGE 162 TEAM LOTTO NL - JUMBO 52H 56' 13'' + 04' 24''
10 MEINTJES LOUIS 61 UAE TEAM EMIRATES 52H 56' 40'' + 04' 51''

Stage starts late Live TV from 1:30pm ITV4 & Eurosport

Boscoirl

It'll be like an A4 race

pelevin

"Ok lads, it's every mad bast*rd for himself."

Lusk_Doyle

Intermediate sprint in Seix. A bunch of lads riding as hard and fast as they can in a place called Se(i)x. This is the most exciting thing of the tour since Peter Sagan flicked the elbow for Cav tomcome past and take his turn at the front.

retalivity

Bertie and quintana for the break, along with 75% of the french riders.

Im loath to jinx it but i feel tmoro will be mad

JK.BMC

Boscoirl wrote: »

It'll be like an A4 race

For the love of God hopefully it will be! 60 lads sprinting for the win in the hoods!

Daroxtar

Short stage, top 3km of the last climb with an average gradient of over 12% will blow any trains apart. It's could be insane like the Formigal stage in last year's Vuelta. I'm really looking forward to it.

dastardly00

Barguil, Rolland, Voeckler, Feillu, Pinot, Chavanel, Gallopin... ah the list is nearly endless of the amount of French riders that will surely give it a go in the breakaway on Bastille Day! It could be nuts!

Pretty much everyone except the AG2R riders working for Bardet; and Bouhanni

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

Barguil, Rolland, Voeckler, Feillu, Pinot, Chavanel, Gallopin... ah the list is nearly endless of the amount of French riders that will surely give it a go in the breakaway on Bastille Day! It could be nuts!

Pretty much everyone except the AG2R riders working for Bardet; and Bouhanni

Tommy V. Youll know for the day thats in it he,ll go hell for leather on his own get caught by a group then start whinging arms flailing that no one else is pulling

PhilipsR

How long will the stage last roughly? Hoping to be home by 2:30 latest for it.

greedygoblin

PhilipsR wrote: »

How long will the stage last roughly? Hoping to be home by 2:30 latest for it.

According to the schedule on letour.fr they're expected into Foix somewhere between 4:15 & 4:33 Irish time. So you should get the majority of the action.

MPFGLB

Dan ftw

07Lapierre

Maybe shorter "punchier" stages should be included in the Poll?

Andy Magic

The short distance with the climbing from the start will be great to watch. I think Froome will win today.

ThisRegard

Andy Magic wrote: »

The short distance with the climbing from the start will be great to watch.

I see you're new to this years tour

greenspurs

ATTACK >>>ATTACK>>>>ATTACK>>>>>>
ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ !!!...

Anyone But Sky ... ABS. , not to be mixed up with I.B.S

Leroy42

Doesn't look too hard (from the perspective of a pro cyclist!). Get through 74km and sit in basically.

None of the climbs are that bad. Longest is 10.5k @ 8%.

Certainly there will be plenty of attacks to try to get a stage win from the French and some others but I can't see any of the main guys going for it.

Can't see Martin attacking on the final climb with another 27km still to go.

JK.BMC

Leroy42 wrote: »

Doesn't look too hard (from the perspective of a pro cyclist!). Get through 74km and sit in basically.

None of the climbs are that bad. Longest is 10.5k @ 8%.

Certainly there will be plenty of attacks to try to get a stage win from the French and some others but I can't see any of the main guys going for it.

Can't see Martin attacking on the final climb with another 27km still to go.

I think today could turn into one of the hardest stages this year- the short distance means it should be balls to the wall for 100km up and down alpine passes. Bit of a lottery as to who will win but since Dan Martin has the best kick of the GC contenders it makes sense that he is the bookies favourite, assuming they all go hell for leather over the last climb. If Dan is in sight of the lead over the final climb he has a great chance.

Somedude9

This will be chaos woohoo!

Interestingly, Bennett said the last 70km of yesterday's stage was balls to the wall the whole way.

DominoDub

Dan is still dealing with the knock on effects of his crash ...finding it hard to climb out of the saddle.

https://twitter.com/DanMartin86/status/885542943439958018

mossym

two french lads up the road straight away. quelle surprise

dastardly00

Ah jaysus, poor Fuglsang has been dropped already. Going to be a long day for him

pelevin

dastardly00 wrote: »

Ah jaysus, poor Fuglsang has been dropped already. Going to be a long day for him

Not that long! There's only 80kms left or or so.

07Lapierre

pelevin wrote: »

Not that long! Tis only 100kms or so.

Its the Elevation, not the distance!

dastardly00

https://twitter.com/MRasmussen1974/status/885849742638546944

07Lapierre

dastardly00 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/MRasmussen1974/status/885849742638546944

I believe most climbs are easier when you have extra red blood cells in your system!

at1withmyself

Any action, still just 2 in the break?

mossym

here goes berti!!!

JoeyJJ

A few gaps nearly at top of first climb. Contedor going.

mossym

landa gone with him, handy bridge for froome.

riders all over the road. groups everywhere very early

DominoDub

Landa on a Free Pass from Sky or a P45 ?

Panrich

It looked like a little break had developed between the yellow jersey group and the next group headed by sky yellow helmets. Was Froome struggling already?

JoeyJJ

Landa situ is interesting at least.

Burial.

Contador's the greatest at creating absolute carnage. Man will he missed

mossym

Weepsie wrote: »

poor Fuglsang

at this stage it's hard to know whether to have more respect or pity for him.

Landa about 40 seconds off virtual yellow

hinault

Brian Smith, very poor commentator. His accent is grating too.

hinault

hinault wrote: »

Brian Smith, very poor commentator. His accent is grating too.

Yis

pelevin

Great as the situation is, if Contador had escaped crashes along of course with the likes of Dan, the drama of things would be off the scale mad.

How would Froome & Sky in general actually feel about Landa becoming their main man if everything goes his way today the way things pan out? Thrilled?

JoeyJJ

Hopefully Dan has some legs to get a bit of time off Aru and co who is only marking Froome.

Itziger

Very interesting moves by Sky. We often knock 'em but they're on the ball today tactics wise.

Why did Froome and co sit up

They were on the radio there.

SeamusAFA

Crazy Stage so far

neris

wheres froome in relation to aru? just coming to this now

neris

neris wrote: »

wheres froome in relation to aru? just coming to this now

Same bunch on descent

SeamusAFA

neris wrote: »

wheres froome in relation to aru? just coming to this now

There together, over 2mins down on contador & landa

pelevin

Deleted User wrote: »

Why did Froome and co sit up

They were on the radio there.

Was Froome chasing down Landa & got told knock it off? I think it's up in the air what is really going on regarding Sky, Froome & Landa here.

Sinbad_NI

These short stages are so much better for TV.

Great day so far and more to come by the looks of it.

C'mon Landa.

Leroy42

Where are all the French attacks?

neris

Really hope landa doesnt go into yellow

Fugalsangs abandonned

Fuglsang climbs off