Le Tour 2018 stage 16:Carcassonne - Bagnères-de-Luchon 218km

Inquitus

After the second rest day, we have stage 16 -


The first half of the route is played out on flat to rolling roads. The climbers stretch the legs on the Côte de Fanjeaux (2.4 kilometres at 4.9%) and Côte de Pamiers (2.3 kilometres at 5.8%), although attackers undoubtedly will want to do more than just stretch the legs – they want to go clear on the Fanjeaux. The hill is crested at kilometre 25, so it is a perfect place to break away.

The route continues in undulating fashion and after 124 kilometres the riders enter a long false flat, which is getting steeper along the way until Col de Portet d’Aspet is crested at kilometre 155.5. The actual climb is 5.4 kilometres at 7.1% with its steepest section approximately 1 kilometre before the top.

On descent the riders pass the monument in honour of Fabio Casartelli, who died in a crash on the descent of the Portet d’Aspet in the 1995 Tour de France. Back in the valley the road immediately goes back up again, this time to head for the summit of the Col de Menté. This is a 6.9 kilometres climb at 8.1% with, early on, some intimidating double digit stretches.

A descent with a lot of hairpins, especially in the first part, takes the riders to the valley of the Garonne. Momentarily the Tour de France dips its toe into Spain and on rolling roads the route continues to the base of the Col du Portillon. The fairly regular closing climb is 8.3 kilometres at 7.1%.

The summit of the Portillon lies 10 kilometres before the finish. Fast descenders can take advantage as it’s almost all downhill after the top. Three hairpins in short succession with 5 kilometres out could be tricky – and on it goes on flying descent. The last kilometre is played out on the flat. The winner follows in the footsteps of Thomas Voeckler (2012), Michael Rogers (2014), and Chris Froome (2016).

That last victory was startling. People always thought of Froome as a poor descender, but when all GC-favourites reached the crest of the then last climb Peyresourde together, he dropped down like a rock and won the race 13 seconds ahead of his opponents.





Final 5 km -


Weather forecast - hot, 30 C.

The Bookies Take! The Stage!

Yates 7/1
Julian Alaphilippe 10
Rafa Majka 11
Warren Barguil 12
Primoz Roglic 14
Chris Froome 18
Romain Bardet 18
Mikel Nieve 18
Geraint Thomas 20
Alejandro Valverde 22
Ion Izagirre 22
Daniel Martin 28
Tom Dumoulin 25
Bauke Mollema 33
Omar Fraile 28
Domenico Pozzovivo 33
Thomas de Gendt 33
Damiano Caruso 33
Lilian Calmejane 33
Serge Pauwels
Sren Kragh Andersen
Michael Valgren 40
Tanel Kangert 50
Mikel Landa 40
Nairo Quintana 40
Pierre Rolland 33
Steven Kruijswijk 40
Marc Soler 50
Gorka Izagirre 66
Jacob Fuglsang 66
Pierre Latour 50
David Gaudu 50
Daniel Navarro 80
Daniel Martinez 80
Magnus Cort Nielsen 66
Bob Jungels 80
Simon Geschke 80
Ilnur Zakarin 80
Yves Lampaert
Gregor Muhlberger 125
Tomasz Marczynski 125
Robert Gesink 100
Guillaume Martin 125
Jesus Herrada 100
Silvan Dillier
Tejay van Garderen 125
Rudy Molard 125
Toms Skujins 150
Pawel Poljanski 125
Andrey Amador 125
Mathias Frank 125
Soren Kragh Andersen 150
Darwin Atapuma 150
Greg Van Avermaet 150
Peter Sagan 150
Franco Pellizotti 150
Marcus Burghardt
Antwan Tolhoek 200
Edvald Boasson Hagen 200
Daryl Impey 150
Arthur Vichot 200
Jasper Stuyven 200
Philippe Gilbert 200
Simon Clarke 200
Adam Hansen 200


The Bookies Take! The Race!

Geraint Thomas 10/11
Chris Froome 11/8
Tom Dumoulin 9/2
Primoz Roglic 18
Romain Bardet 66
Nairo Quintana 80
Mikel Landa 80
Steven Kruijswijk 125
Daniel Martin 250
Jakob Fuglsang 250
Alejandro Valverde 500
Iinur Zakarin 600
Bob Jungels 750
Egan Bernal 1000
Mikel Nieve 1000
Pierre-Roger Latour 1000
Adam Yates 1500
Rafal Majka 1500
Warren Barguil 1500
Greg Van Avermaet 1500

The Bookies Take! The KOM!

Julian Alaphilippe 11/10
Warren Barguil 6/4
Rafal Majka 12
Serge Pauwels 18
Mikel Landa 28
Chris Froome 22
Nairo Quintana 28
Mikel Nieve 40
Daniel Martin 40
Pierre Rolland 33
Romain Bardet 66
David Gaudu 66
Steven Kruijswijk 70
Thomas De Gendt 80
Adam Yates 90
Primoz Roglic 90
Jakob Fuglsang 100
Tom Dumoulin 150
Lilian Calmejane 150
Domenico Pozzovivo 150
Ilnur Zakarin 150

Inquitus

Just 4 key stages of the Tour left, 2 Big Mountain stages finishing after a descent from the final climb, either side of the super explosive 65km summit finish, and then the penultimate Saturday ITT Stage. Other than that there is Thursdays sprint stage into Pau!

Also in case anyone missed it Sagan has won the Green Jersey as of a couple of days ago, unless he falls off or gets time cut! Some say it might need some Sagan proofing if it is ever to be a competition again, who can forget his amazing 4th place on Saturdays stage to Mende, finishing up this!

and after all of this!

velo.2010

Inquitus wrote: »

Also in case anyone missed it Sagan has won the Green Jersey as of a couple of days ago, unless he falls off or gets time cut! Some say it might need some Sagan proofing if it is ever to be a competition again,

The green jersey is closer to a combination type competition now with Sagan's dominance.

I'd drop the mountains classification as the winner/podium of the GC is almost certainly the best climber and that's not usually reflected in who wears the polka dot jersey.

Maybe the ASO could consider a pure sprinters jersey for what they designate a sprinter's finish and have a combination jersey for those who get up in a finish and get into the breakaways, a la Sagan.

Obviously keep the young GC classification.

Boscoirl

Do sky let Bernal go in the break tomorrow for him to try make up the ~90s he needs to get in the top 20 to have an extra man in the first group for Wednesday ?

MPFGLB

NIcolas Roche on Eurosport UK for the next 4 stages

He climbed the final climb tomorrow pretty well in 2014 so should have good insight


https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1021491115193712642

irishrover99

Boscoirl wrote: »

Do sky let Bernal go in the break tomorrow for him to try make up the ~90s he needs to get in the top 20 to have an extra man in the first group for Wednesday ?

They don't really need to put him in the break. If they set a really fast pace up the last climb, they could drop some of those in the top 19 and then just make sure bernal finishes with the lead group by not having him do much work at the front.

Hopefully it doesn't work out like that and it might be harder with moscon gone.

What is the gap between the groups leaving on S17.

I've yet to hear anything about it.

Tigerandahalf

I am surprised Thomas is the bookies favourite. Surely Froome is still the main man. If not is it an open race between the two? I can't see Sky wanting the 2 of them chasing each other down on a steep descent, and possibly taking either/or both out of the race. I would expect Froome to make a break for it at some stage. On some of the hills over recent days Thomas has still looked like a support to Froome.

manwithaplan

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

I am surprised Thomas is the bookies favourite. Surely Froome is still the main man. If not is it an open race between the two? I can't see Sky wanting the 2 of them chasing each other down on a steep descent, and possibly taking either/or both out of the race. I would expect Froome to make a break for it at some stage. On some of the hills over recent days Thomas has still looked like a support to Froome.

That suggests Sky can just pick who wins the race. Dumoulin is only 11 seconds off Froome and is the World TT champion. What DS is going to suggest to Thomas that he lose time with him lurking. That's not to say that they won't let Froome attack and make Dumoulin chase. It's anyone's guess to whose advantage that would be - I suspect it may benefit Thomas more but an attack could stick and that would obviously change things.

I'd love to see Roglic at least get a podium spot

at1withmyself

manwithaplan wrote: »

That suggests Sky can just pick who wins the race. Dumoulin is only 11 seconds off Froome and is the World TT champion. What DS is going to suggest to Thomas that he lose time with him lurking. That's not to say that they won't let Froome attack and make Dumoulin chase. It's anyone's guess to whose advantage that would be - I suspect it may benefit Thomas more but an attack could stick and that would obviously change things.

Froome will be able to take the time back on Thomas with both keeping the gap to Tom D. I can't see Thomas winning overall and it's not a case of will Froome attack, I think it's just a case of when and today looks suitable I think.

neris

i think tomorrow is going to very interesting and will be be the stage where Thomas wins or looses the race. With the amount of climbing tomorrow over a short distance Dumoulin could be gone. Think today will be one of those days where a quintana/landa rider will blow up and go out the back

mloc123

Race stopped... some incident with local farmers.. Eurosport were on a break

neris

wtf is going on

mloc123

Riders sprayed with pepper spray they think

neris

pepper spray incident

scott1974

This is weird...

neris

wheres Bernard Hinault????? he,ll sort this out

retalivity

Did they go after sky, or everyone? At work, no eurosport

scott1974

"It's a French Cultural Thing"....

mloc123

retalivity wrote: »

Did they go after sky, or everyone? At work, no eurosport

Everyone. Some farmers protest, not aimed at any team/rider in particular

neris

so the police sprayed tear gas or something on farmers

Farmers protesting trying to put bales in the road and the police let loose the tear gas / pepper spray.

mirrormatrix

The police also sprayed themselves apparently...

neris

when french farmers protest they really dont hold back and have nice peaceful protests

Raining now, I guess we'll be hearing all about rooster tails soon :rolleyes:

fat bloke

Deleted User wrote: »

Raining now, I guess we'll be hearing all about rooster tails soon :rolleyes:

Almost immediately !

Zoncolon

Snip

Mod: No requests for streams.

Zoncolon

Got one, missed all the tear gas fun.

mr spuckler

there are pictures here of some of the protest. some fine self defense from the Gendarme pepper spraying the protester sitting in the road.

neris

Has froome done any pulling on the front of the sky choo choo today?? Or just sucking wheels?

Eamonnator

neris wrote: »

Has froome done any pulling on the front of the sky choo choo today?? Or just sucking wheels?

It's not in his job description.
That's the domestiques' job

Zoncolon

I honestly believe that this is all to protect Froome. The least days he is in Yellow the better.  He'll take the Yellow in the TT and win the Tour with the minimum of fuss possible.  G is just taking as much heat off him as possible... Just a theory I could of course be completely wrong

Inquitus

Zoncolon wrote: »

I honestly believe that this is all to protect Froome. The least days he is in Yellow the better.  He'll take the Yellow in the TT and win the Tour with the minimum of fuss possible.  G is just taking as much heat off him as possible... Just a theory I could of course be completely wrong

Dumoulin is only 11 seconds behind Froome, time he could well take back in the TT, if Thomas loses enough time in the TT to lose yellow, it will likely be to Dumoulin not Froome. The only way Froome wins the Tour is if he takes at least 40-50 seconds somewhere out of Dumoulin and Thomas imo.

mloc123

****. Gilbert over a wall

RobertKK

Oh God, hope he is ok.

mr spuckler

mloc123 wrote: »

****. Gilbert over a wall

jesus that was dramatic. fingers crossed for him.

fat bloke

mloc123 wrote: »

****. Gilbert over a wall

JEEEZ! I was only watching it and listening to Kirby praising his bike handling and descending, while thinking in my own mind that he was a bit wayward!

Heart in my mouth seeing that

funnights74

F!!!!!K he's gone.

Andy Magic

Any idea how far down the drop is?

Edit he looks ok

ED E

Seems to be ok.

RobertKK

He seems ok, good luck to him.

mloc123

Back up, no serious injuries.. looked like a decent 10ft drop

funnights74

Drop mustn't have been too bad, lucky man. If he was a footballer he would be spinning around in agony.

hinault

Glad to see Gilbert get back on the bike.

I feared the worst when I saw that crash

Was having flashbacks to Il Lombardia last year seeing that. Glad he's ok and back up.

dastardly00

Link to video of Gilbert crash

https://video.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/tour-de-france/2018/tour-de-france-2018-miraculous-escape-for-philippe-gilbert-as-he-crashes-over-wall_vid1110018/video.shtml

retalivity

Ag2r have only 5 lads left, 2 of them are in the break, one is burying himself at the front for the other. I guess they are all in on the stage/white jersey for latour instead of bardet

wirelessdude01

No matter what your feelings are towards Froome/Sky, watching the yellow jersey shielding a teammate from the wind is just so so wrong.

dastardly00

The breakaway have started the final climb.

The peloton are 10 minutes behind.

Arnaud Demare is 35 minutes behind... so he will most likely be over the time limit... another sprinter gone!

dastardly00

The size difference between Gesink and Pozzovivo