Posted on 07/02/2010 11:30:15 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
Actually, how he responds over the next two weeks will be what is remembered. Imagine if somehow he can get Levi into a top-3 finish.
Yep. Pay it forward, Lance! If it doesn’t work out for Levi, then how about... oh, I dunno...Thor, maybe? ;-0
Two more Alpine stages to follow; then the peleton heads back onto the Plain as they work their way East & South toward the Pyrenees.
Here's a little preview of what they face Tuesday & Wednesday in Stages 9 and 10:
Morzine-Avoriaz Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - 204.5 km
•Km 18.5 - Côte de Châtillon - 2.1 km climb to 3.9 % - Category 4
•Km 46.0 - Col de la Colombière - 16.5 km climb to 6.7 % - Category 1
•Km 71.0 - Col des Aravis - 7.6 km climb to 5.9 % - Category 2
•Km 97.0 - Col des Saisies - 14.4 km climb to 5.1 % - Category 1
•Km 172.5 - Col de la Madeleine - 25.5 km climb to 6.2 % - Category H
Chambéry Gap - 179 km
•Km 77.0 - Côte de Laffrey - 7.0 km climb to 9 % - Category 1
•Km 98.0 - Côte des Terrasses - 3.3 km climb to 7.1 % - Category 3
•Km 145.5 - Col du Noyer - 7.4 km climb to 5.3 % - Category 2
We’re the same over here. My husband is firmly in Camp Schleck and I’m still on board for Cadel. Either way neither of us will be disappointed.
Thor marches to his bike with a look of singular determination.
and Thor's lady calmly saunters over to get a seat in the front row close to the podium:
If that's a female moose on that bike, she's, um, profoundly mammarily-challenged. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-)
FRANCE—Luxembourger Frank Schleck, a rider with the CSC team, emerged from the 182-kilometer underwater tunnel stage Monday triumphantly clad in a soaked yellow jersey after braving electric seaweed, underwater volcanoes, cyclist-trapping bubble fountains, carnivorous plants, man-eating fish, and electric eels. "These stages are always a pain," said a visually exhausted Schleck, who went on to complain about the stage's lack of turbo zones and power-ups. "I don't see why we have to go underwater instead of riding through the Pyrenees... It was an aerobic challenge to hold our breath for that long. By the end of it, I only had one life left."
The International Cycling Union says next year's Tour will skip the underwater stage as well as the lava stage, ice stage, and the stage where the riders are shrunk to the size of ants and ride the equivalent of 120 miles through a candy store.
So the last climb of tomorrow’s stage is rated “HC”. Looking at the pitch, I’d say that HC means “holy crap” !
LOL, pretty much, llevrok.
The climb is ~1,800 metres, 3-6 km long sections at 7.5 - 9%, one ~2 km section @ >11%. Unbelievable.
I’ll post the profile of the Col de la Madeleine tomorrow.
Make that ~1,545 m climb.
Stage 9 - Morzine-Avoriaz > > > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - 204.5 km
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Morzine-Avoriaz Saint > > > Jean-de-Maurienne - 204.5 km
•Km 18.5 - Côte de Châtillon - 2.1 km climb to 3.9 % - Category 4
•Km 46.0 - Col de la Colombière - 16.5 km climb to 6.7 % - Category 1
•Km 71.0 - Col des Aravis - 7.6 km climb to 5.9 % - Category 2
•Km 97.0 - Col des Saisies - 14.4 km climb to 5.1 % - Category 1
•Km 172.5 - Col de la Madeleine - 25.5 km climb to 6.2 % - Category HC
Stage 9 - Morzine-Avoriaz > > > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - 204.5 km
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
High Mountains - A sporting perspective
A final descent that can hurt
After the first rest day, which the riders will have to get out of their system, this is the main Alpine stage, with the Col de la Colombière pass via Le Reposoir, the Col des Aravis pass, Les Saisies and the Col de la Madeleine pass. If Contador has lost five minutes on the cobbles, it is not unimaginable that he will be clawing them back a little every day on this sort of terrain. However, there is no summit finish, because there would have been too many on this Tour. We preferred to diversify the route more to avoid riders waiting for the summit finishes to open up the gaps. The favourites might not want to attack to avoid finding themselves alone on the flat, which means a big battle is an unlikely scenario. That said, those who are not good downhill riders could lose Le Tour in the finish to this stage.
(letour.com)
July 12 post:
It has been an eventful first eight stages and there is much more too come. After the rest day, we'll have the big alpine stage of this year's Tour going from the stage 8 finish at the Morzine-Avoriaz ski resort to the Rhône-Alpes valley town, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne some 205 km to the south.
Naturally, with any big alpine stage you can expect equally spectacular scenery to go along with exciting race action. Remember the breathtaking helicopter shots of Linus Gerdemann soloing Col de la Colombière, the last climb before the descent into Le-Grand-Bornand on stage 7 in 2007? For this stage, Col de la Colombière will be featured in the first half at km 46. After the cat 1 Col de la Colombière, we'll have three more serious climbs climaxing with the massive Col de la Madeleine (26 km of 6.2%) before the long descent to the finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne which is hosting a stage finish for the first time. Col de la Madeleine is one of the more famous climbs in Tour history, first being used in 1969 and most recently in 2005 (I believe) for a total of 25 times.
A long descending finish is often more entertaining than a mountaintop finish because you get the battle going up before watching the GC contenders flirt with danger on a harrowing drop to the finish. For this stage, after the Col de la Madeleine descent, there is 13 km of mostly flat cycling to the finish where the weaker descenders will have a chance to catch back on.
Samuel Sanchez almost took the first mountain stage before the rest day so we know he's on good form and since he's one of the best descenders in the business, he would seem the logicial choice to win this stage if a break of non-GC contenders doesn't succeed. Rain and cooler temperatures are expected when the racing resumes on Tuesday which could make this stage even more treacherous. — Steve
The finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, a valley town in the Rhone-Alpes.
(steephill.tv)
Stage 9 - Morzine-Avoriaz > > > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - 204.5 km
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
MORZINE-AVORIAZ
• 17 times a stage town in Morzine
• 6 times a stage site in the resort of Avoriaz
• Population: 3,000
• Town in Haute-Savoie (74)
Morzine-Avoriaz and the Tour have enjoyed a solid alliance since 1975, as this will be the Tour’s twenty fourth visit, and a rest day to boot. Climbers have always triumphed here and the only one to have triumphed twice is Richard Virenque. Two winners in Morzine are no longer with us: Thierry Claveyrolat, who achieved one of his finest victories here in 1991, and Marco Pantani, who triumphed here in 1997. In 1988, thanks to his win in Morzine, Fabio Parra became the first Colombian rider to finish on the Tour podium.
Morzine, a preserved mountain environment
Morzine is located half-way between Lake Leman and Mont-Blanc. This authentic Savoy village, situated at an altitude of 1,000 m, has maintained its charm thanks to traditional architecture made of wooden chalets, with roofs often made of local slate. At the heart of the Portes du Soleil (the gates to the sun) and their 650 km of ski slopes, Morzine is ideal for all winter sports, such as family skiing holidays, snow-shoe hikes, as well as hang-gliding, but is also a warm and friendly place for recharging your batteries. Although white in winter, Morzine is bursting with colour in the summer. You can climb its slopes on foot or bike, plunge into its streams for gorge scrambling, rafting or other white water sports, or swing through the trees at the aerial adventure park. To get to know the heritage of Morzine better, weekly visits allow visitors to discover the old quarters, slate-making workshops, cheese-makers (of tome, abondance and reblochon) and themed trails reveal the riches of the natural environment on the banks of the Dranse as well as the to-and-fro of migratory birds.
SAINT-JEAN-DE-MAURIENNE
• Once a stage town
• Population: 9,400
• Sub-prefecture of Savoie (73)
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne has notably seen the birth of expert slalom racers, like Jean-Noël Augert and Jean-Baptiste Grange, but the close proximity of the Croix-de-Fer, Télégraphe, Lautaret, Madeleine, Glandon, Iseran, Mont-Cenis and Galibier mountain passes have always made it a natural cycling ground. The start of a stage in 2006, the Savoyard city will this year have the honour of hosting a stage finish.
At the heart of the biggest cycling area available to climbers, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne has a veritable passion for cycling. Galibier, Télégraphe, Madeleine, Glandon, Croix-de-Fer, Iseran… it is at the crossroads of all these mythical passes and famous climbs, for the utmost delight of sports cyclists, touring cyclists, mountain bikers or simply spectators. Furthermore, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne boasts the rich heritage of a Town of Art and History: the cathedral and gothic cloisters, a crypt that was a cradle to Romanesque art, the suit museum, the Mont-Corbier museum (a liqueur made out of plants gathered from the surrounding mountains) and, of course, the Opinel museum, devoted to the now world famous knife invented more than a century ago a stone’s throw away from the town. Lastly, in a year that marks the 150th anniversary of the annexation of Savoy by France, in 2010 Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne will be organising many events in addition to the traditional Saint-Jean Bread Festival that takes place on the 5th of August.
TdF 2010 Stage 9 graphics and previews are up!
Click the 'To' option to go to the start of the Stage 9 posts.
The Stage starts at 11:35 local time CEST (6 hrs ahead of US EDT).
The first Hors catégorie climb of the 2010 Tour, and it's the tough Col de la Madeleine - 25.5 km climb to 6.2 %, one stretch reaches >11%. Followed by a fiendish descent!
And all this preceded by two Cat 1 hills.
velonews.com - "Covering 204.5km, with two Cat. 1 climbs and one Hors Categorie, it would seem that stage 9 should be the marquee stage of the Alps this year. However, the Cat. 1 Col de la Columbiere and Col des Saises are too far from the finish to be decisive. And the final climb of the day, the Col de la Madeleine (25.5km at 6.2 percent), tops out with more than 30km to go and does not suit the explosive climbing styles of Contador or the Schlecks.
A similar stage in 2005 — over the Madeleine and Galibier climbs before finishing in the valley at Briançon — was won by Vinokourov out of a long breakaway with Santiago Botero."
FReepmail me to get on or off the 2010 TdF Ping List.
good day for a breakaway.
thanks for putting this up every day.
By Bill Strickland, Bicycling Magazine
July 12, 2010:
After getting caught up in crashes three times on Stage 8, the Tour de France's first major climbing day, the race's record-holding seven-time champion Lance Armstrong lost more than 11 minutes to the top contenders. He slipped to 39th place in the General Classification (overall standings). As he past the finish line atop the mountain of Morzine, he stopped and told reporters, "This Tour is finished for me. But I'm going to hang in there and enjoy my last Tour de France."
Armstrong-who with some humor called the stage, "A really bad day," and later posted on his Twitter feed that, "When it rains it pours I guess"—was forced to ride into the grass beside the road to avoid going down in a crash just a few kilometers into the stage. His teammates massed around him to bring him back to the pack. With a little more than 50 kilometers left in the 189 km stage, he clipped a pedal in a roundabout just as the leaders were beginning to ramp up the speed for an assault on the Category 1 climb up the Col de la Ramaz. "I was rolling on the ground at 65 kilometers an hour," Armstrong said. His teammates again dropped back to help him return to the pack. But with the speed of the peloton so high, "it's hard to come back," Armstrong said, "hard on the body. We didn't make it back until the start of Ramaz, and I was pegged."
On Ramaz, Team Sky (riding for Bradley Wiggins) and Team Saxo Bank (riding for eventual stage winner Andy Schleck) set a withering pace and Armstrong fell off the back. RadioShack kept Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden in the lead group; Chris Horner and Janez Brajkovic were assigned to stay with Armstrong on Ramaz and the descent. The trio were maintaining a gap of about a minute to the contenders when, near the summit of a small climb before the final Category 1 ascent of Morzine-Avoriaz, a Euskatel and a Saxo Bank rider fell in front of Armstrong, nearly bringing him down again.
In 2003, on his way to his fifth consecutive Tour de France victory, Armstrong had come under attack and was looking vulnerable. For the first time, rivals were attacking him over and over in the mountains, and most experts thought one of the relentless counterpunches would eventually crack Armstrong. During one attack on the climb of Luz Ardiden, Armstrong was chasing when his handlebar snagged a spectator's bag. Armstrong was thrown to the ground. He immediately popped to his feet, grabbed his bike, threw a leg over it and began pumping the pedals. The bike, it would later be discovered, had a partially broken frame. But Armstrong didn't care. He sprinted through his rivals and won the stage by 40 seconds.
In Tour de Lance, my chronicle of Armstrong's return to the sport last year, I wrote about witnessing the unfamiliar sight of him being unable to conquer the race: "The jersey, like all hallowed sporting grails, has its lore. One of the tenets is that its wearer rides with the strength of two men. Armstrong himself, however, is a sort of sporting grail all his own. Like the yellow jersey, he sometimes seems capable of bending the race to his will. In the Tour's 2005 team time trial, his Discovery team was behind the pace of CSC (the predecessor of Saxo Bank) and its yellow-jersey-wearing Dave Zabriskie. In the last two kilometers, Zabriskie clipped a teammate's wheel and crashed into the metal barrier lining the course. He finished 1:26 behind his team, which lost to Discovery by two seconds. Armstrong had won the stage and the jersey. Zabriskie will still barely talk about the incident to this day. With more resignation than rage, at the line that day Bjarne Riis, CSC's director, called Armstrong, 'the lucky golden guy.' So many times over so many years I had witnessed Armstrong bend the Tour de France to his will. Now for the first time I wondered if the race was, as it did with everyone else, bending him. The Tour de France ennobles men, turns them into heroes. Then eventually it turns its heroes into men, by humbling them."
After the third, silly crash in the feed zone this year, Armstrong unclipped from his pedal, untangled himself from the frame, put his hands on his hips and looked down at his bike, pausing for a second. Two seconds. "He's done." I said. "He just gave up on the Tour. Right now." And he had.
Brajkovic continued on with Armstrong, for the most part looking straight ahead and with an odd, deferential and respectful incline to his head. Other riders who passed Armstrong appeared unwilling to look directly at him, perhaps out of respect, perhaps out of sadness, perhaps out of a kind of almost fear.
The Tour hadn't destroyed a champion like this since 1996. Back then, Miguel Indurain had won five Tours in a row (the first to ever achieve that many consecutively). The six-foot-two Spaniard rode with a ruthless but stoic, almost-gentle riding style. Pedaling an enormous gear with a slow cadence, Indurain created unrecoverable gaps in the time trails-he won a 65-kilometer TT in 1992 by 3 minutes. Then in the mountains he sat among the leaders like an imperturbable giant who neither needed nor could be bothered to win those stages. (In fact, over those five years he won only two stages that weren't time trials.) But in '96, under intense pressure from younger rivals, he cracked wide apart on a climb, suddenly pedaling as if trying to yank his legs out of waist-deep, hardening concrete. He went on to finish 14 minutes off the podium and never again contend for a Tour.
As Cadel Evans moved into the yellow jersey, as Andy Schleck took the stage win but, more importantly, launched an attack near the top that defending champion Alberto Contador could not match, as Leipheimer became RadioShack's top rider, Armstrong stood after the finish with elbows and knees bloody and seemed to accept his fate: "I had a bad day. I've had a lot of good days at the Tour. I am staying in the race. I will work for my team now."
Glad to do it, fnord.
Should be a very interesting stage today!
Better them than me. I’m back to work so it’s only reruns now.
Cya next weekend then, Vision!
14:54 - 12 Lead By 6’29”
Here is a reminder of the 12 men in the lead of stage nine who are now 5’00” ahead of the peloton:
Jens Voigt (SAX)
Sandy Casar (FDJ)
Rinaldo Nocentini (ALM)
Jerome Pineau (QST)
Johannes Frohlinger (MRM)
Cyril Gautier and Anthony Charteau (BTL)
Christophe Moreau, Jose Ivan Gutierrez and Luis Sanchez (GCE)
Rein Taaramae (COF)
Damiano Cunego (LAM)
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