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tombeej

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Everything posted by tombeej

  1. tombeej
    FDJ are trying to "pull a Sky" by lining out the peloton on the slopes of the mountain, pulling Pinot along in prime position.
  2. tombeej
    Cunmings attacks on his own! 'He hit them hard'. 27km to go.
  3. tombeej
    With all those attacks and frantic increase in pace in the original break, the gap has yawned out to 5 minutes again.
  4. tombeej
    Nibali and Geshke put in a huge effort to bridge to group 2. Both Astana riders together in this 2nd group.
  5. tombeej
    Front guys are 100% committed. It's full gas now.
  6. tombeej
    The front 4 have about a 300m gap to a small chase group of 5 - 6 riders. From that second group back to the rest of the break is another 400m or so.
  7. tombeej
    A little counter attack by 3 riders. They've opened a small gap. Nibali in the break still. An attack by an Astana rider (can't see who) to bridge across. This is where this big break is going to splinter up. It's a bit of a free-for-all at the moment.
  8. tombeej
    Meanwhile, Sky has pulled the gap down by over a minute to 3'30". Nibali has another little dig, looking around all the time to see who's responding to these jabs.
  9. tombeej
    And Nibali attacks. And then sits up. Tony Martin shakes his head.
  10. tombeej
    The break is now 55 km from the finish. They're onto the gradually rising road now. You can see it in the image below: the final 55 km is the red area. We should expect something to start happening soon.
  11. tombeej
    The peloton are 'managing' the time gap to the break at the moment - just holding it steady, not wanting to bring it down nor let it increase further. It's at 4'55" right now.
  12. tombeej
    Cancellara is brought back into the fold. But he's sent his message to the others. The whole of the Sky team is now on the front of the chasing peloton and have strung everyone out in one long line. They're bringing the gap down now.
  13. tombeej
    Yip, Cancellara is now trying to break away from the break. Has already got a good gap from this attack. One Cofidis rider has managed to hang on to his wheel. I'm sure a few more of the strongest will try and bridge across now. A good number should be about 6 - 8 riders to be really effective.
  14. tombeej
    It's a big group, with lots of roulers and a few puncheurs. They won't be within an hour of the winners time by the end of 3 weeks. They're really a non-issue for the GC guys, incl. GVA. The first thing of interest is that 3 of the strongest time trialists in the world (Spartacus, Martin & Robocop) are in there. Not something you usually see. And I never really see Robocop in a break - normally the guy Sky looks to, to hold a high temp for Froome until the finale. The fact that he's in the break means that he was told to be in the break. Let's see how Sky's tactics play out here. I can't quite make out what they're up to yet. Of course the main bit of interest for me is the fact that Nibali +1 made it into the break, as I was speculating this morning. Either Nibali is going for personal glory, or they're setting up an attack for Aru at the top of the Col d'Aspin.
  15. tombeej
    Ja I'm watching the live footage at the moment and I can tell you that it's as if the main peloton is out on a Friday coffee ride. The gap is growing rapidly.
  16. tombeej
    Robocop is in there
  17. tombeej
    Tony Martin in there too. And Chavanel. The peloton has sat up - they're not chasing - and the gap is growing quite quickly now. Sagan tried to bridge across at one stage but couldn't make it and is back in the peloton.
  18. tombeej
    The yellow jersey is in the break. Kyrienka too. 22 riders in total. Maybe too big to be effective. I think the strong ones are going to break away as soon as they can.
  19. tombeej
    Right, the break has formed, and it's a big one. And Nibali has made it into the break along with a teammate....
  20. tombeej
    snap
  21. tombeej
    An oldie, but a goodie:
  22. tombeej
    Astana: Ok so Nibali is now 14 minutes down on GC. He's put himself well out of contention and so he can go off on a flyer without worrying about the other teams chasing him down. Will we see Astana play the Nibali leapfrog card today? That downhill is perfect for a guy like him, one of the best descenders in the world. If he can get ahead early, then Aru attack near the top, bridge across to Nibali's back wheel and hitch a ride to the bottom....
  23. tombeej
    Don't worry, I'm with you on that! I'm wrong much more often than I'm right. But that just makes this race more fun to watch . If it was as predictable as that, then it would just become a boring procession, like F1. I think the other teams have to come up with surprise tactics to disrupt these super powerful teams. So I agree, we should expect to see the others trying to disrupt the big boys and put them off their game. They've also learnt that they need to do this early in the Tour, not leave it to week 3 when the damage has already been done.
  24. tombeej
    Here's the profile of the climb, showing its very regular/consistent gradient. The true mountain goats prefer the steep, irregular ramps where they can put in short attacking bursts to knock out the legs of their opponents. They don't really care for these straight-line climbs that require an ability to hold high power numbers for long periods of time.
  25. tombeej
    It's the Pyrenees, baby! Today, the race profile might say the finish comes after a long downhill, but really the stage should be decided on the famous Col d'Aspin. From the Inner Ring: "The descent is shorter and steeper, 8% on the way down which makes it fast and means it’s hard to chase, someone who takes 20 seconds over the top can keep it on the way down, at least until the point the descent ends." In the past, Froome has targeted the first mountain stage to be his big all-out attack. Quintana has said he's been training specifically for that, so he'll be ready and waiting for sure. It might just be another win from the break again, with the GC teams wanting to keep all their ammo for the Col d'Aspin. So they'll most likely let a break go away. That final climb is a very regular one, hardly changing from 6.5% to 7% all the way up its 12 kilometres. So it's tailor-made for the big teams who can hold big watts for long periods of time, barely having to change gear. We'll be seeing Movistar and Sky doing that today. A nice moody photo of the Col d'Aspin (click on image to enlarge):
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