Posted on 07/12/2006 9:40:51 PM PDT by nutmeg
Stage 11: Tarbes to Val d'Aran/Pla-de-Beret - 206.5km
Course: Any Pyrenean stage that goes over the mighty mountain passes of Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde and Portillon merits the greatest attention from the race favorites - even though this one then continues into Spain for another 40km to finish on the long, but gently graded climb to the Pla-de-Beret summit. If this Tour is going to be a free-for-all, then climbers who want to shoot for the polkadot jersey or a high GC placing must attack on this challenging day. So look for likely KOM candidates to infiltrate the breaks that are bound to form on the narrow, winding roads that precede the Tourmalet. If GC contenders wait until the final climb (13.5km at 5.4 percent) before making a move, they will end up gaining (or losing) very little time.
History: This is the first time that a Tour stage will finish at Pla-de-Beret, but stage 8 of the 2003 Vuelta a España completed a similar course (except for the Tourmalet). At the Tour, the Tourmalet stage in this more difficult west-to-east direction (18.4km at 7.7 percent) has almost always caused major upsets.
Favorites: A stage finishing in Spain has to motivate the Spanish riders. Should a breakaway succeed, look for the Euskaltel team's Iban Mayo, Gerolsteiner's Georg Totschnig or Rabobank's Rasmussen, whereas a larger group arriving at the foot of the Pla-de-Beret will favor Valverde.
Gaaaah!!! 16:31 back, still counting and still no Hincapie!
You can't be series! This is a hugh disaster!
Damn, too bad Levi screwed the pooch in the first TT, or he'd be in the top five right now.
hmmm "screwed the pooch"? Is that Gearhead cycle speak?
hmmm "screwed the pooch"? Is that Gearhead cycle speak?
"Screwed the pooch" is old fighter pilot/astronaut jargon, from "The Right Stuff."
Sorry for the double post! I wanted to be sure to make my point... ;-D
That french crack must be good stuff.! Seriously, I guess there's something to be said for racing on your home turf.
I'm quite glad I was wrong on this, makes it sooo much more exciting to watch. I am loving that the tour is finally starting to tighten up , the better riders are coming into sharper focus and the "narrative" of this year's tour is at last truly beginning to unfold.
I never saw "The Right Stuff". I was too busy watching, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!" "STOP saying that!" :-D
AARRRRRGGGHHH! 21.23 back! Say it ain't so, George!
He's obviously saving himself for L'Alpe d'Huez...
At least he has the yellow jersey from stage 1.
Boy, we can only hope!
Hincapie finished 21:23 behind Landis today. He completely cracked. He is roughly 23 minutes behind on GC after today's stage.
Leipheimer doesn't seem so far behind now.
I remember reading that Mayo quit the race, but according to letour.fr, he finished the stage with the sprinters group, 24:24 behind the stage winner.
LOL!!!!
Oh no, that was yesterday. Mayo is out.
The sprinters finished 44:20 behind the race winner. For those of you who don't know, the time limit is withink 13% of the stage winner's finishing time, which is 13% of 6:06:25. That is 47:38.
In other words, 36 guys, including McEwen, Hushovd, Freire, Horner, Paolini, Rubiera, Backstedt, and O'Grady all came within 3:18 of being tossed out of the race for finishing outside the time limit.
That rule isn't absolute, having been discarded at times when an escape has put some HUGE minutes on the peleton (didn't that 36-38' escape we talked about earlier end up voiding that rule?). But even then, I think the organizers blamed it on the weather, and not the bitch-slapping the escape gave the peloton... perhaps this time they could have blamed it on the exceedingly tough stage?, but I'm glad it didn't come to that.
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