Tour de France: Stage 13 Live Thread (Saturday, July 15, 2006)

VeloNews.com ^ | July 15, 2006 | VeloNews.com

[nutmeg]

Stage 13: Béziers to Montélimar - 230km

Course: At 230km, this is the longest stage of the race, and together with the likely fast pace and baking hot weather, it could be one of the most grueling, too. It starts at Béziers on the Mediterranean seaboard before cutting across the southeast corner of the Massif Central on winding back roads that are constantly dipping and climbing through the foothills. The critical part of the stage comes with 60km to go, from where the race twists through the spectacular canyons of the Ardèche and Ibie rivers and crests two Cat. 4 climbs before emerging onto the N.102 highway with 25km to go. There's a fast twisting descent to the wide Rhône River, which the race crosses before a flat finish in Montélimar.

History: Surprisingly, for a city of 30,000 and the home of world-famous nougat candy, Montélimar has never hosted a stage.

Favorites: This marathon stage is ideal for a small group to gain a substantial lead in the early kilometers. If potentially dangerous riders like CSC's Fränk Schleck are in the breakaway then the yellow jersey's team won't let the move get too far ahead. Otherwise, there will be little opposition to a break with riders way down on GC. It could suit a rider like Rabobank's Pieter Weening or Davitamon's Chris Horner.

Graphics by CyclingNews.com

[luv2ski]

Ha! I'm here! I've just been lurking b/c I'm behind in the TV coverage. I am quite puzzled over Phonak's strategery today, though. Why give up the yellow?

[leilani]

re eurotwit & luv2ski:Ya think? Come to think of it, they do always seem to appear & disappear ensuite.For her husband's sake, we can only hope it's just a summer romance. Just a fleeting seasonal affaire de coeur, albeit (quel dommage!) an annually recurring one. Eurotwit:You cad!

[Ready4Freddy]

Hiya! luv2ski!!

We don't know if they deliberately gave up the yellow (at least from the start of the escape), but there are advantages to not having to defend tomorrow. Pereiro Sio's squad will have to take over those chores.

PHO presumably didn't care about him, either because they think he can't climb w/ Landis / Kloden, et al, or they think his time trialing chops aren't there.

Only 1 other rider in the escape was less than 1h behind the leaders, so they were clearly not a threat to PHO today.

[luv2ski]

Our secret is out! How could you have known? It is a long distance romance but intense.

[Ready4Freddy]

I'm trying not to make a crack about Eurotwit pining for a fjord, but.. oops!! I just did! LOL

[luv2ski]

I agree that defending it puts pressure on Phonak but it also provides a lift to the team. This is the opposite. Now they're just another Tour team. Plus, it wouldn't have taken much of an effort to keep it. I doubt that Bruyneel would have surrendered it this easily.

[Ready4Freddy]

'Just another team', but with one of the favourites in perfect position...

It wasn't often that Lance didn't have a significant lead at this point (should I go for a triple negative?? :), so of course DSC wouldn't have been yielding the yellow at this point in the Tour.

I'm thinking that Landis learned from one of the best strategic riders in Tour history, and is showing patience worthy of a champion.

[Ready4Freddy]

Then there's also the legs factor, PHO knows that they need to save theirs for the 3 Alps stages coming up, that's where this brouhaha will be decided. It may have taken more than we think to keep it - 5 escapees from 5 different teams, several other teams that don't have a dog in the hunt, and all of a sudden it's Phonak having to do all the major lifting on a long tough stage in very hot weather...

[luv2ski]

Well, I hope you're right. It just feels very unsatisfying today. Giving up 29 minutes + was unnecessary IMO. They could have let the escape build 15 min which would still have been hugh. Then they could have just ridden to the finish comfortably and retained the jersey. I know that Landis has mixed emotions (to say the least!) about his team sacrificing for him. Maybe he preferred to give up the jersey for now so that they don't have to ride so hard but then go for it in the Alps.

[Ready4Freddy]

Interesting! I hadn't noticed the link on OLN to Robbie Ventura's (Landis' Coach) blog. Prolly want to reach it from the OLN main TdF page later, this link goes directly to his Stage 12 entry.

[Vision]

If everything goes well tomorrow, it should be a great day for Landis considering the climbing. It will be fun to see what Voigt, Pereiro, Chavanel, Quinziato, and Grivko do tomorrow.

[Ready4Freddy]

From that blog:

First day in yellow is an exciting one. With a new yellow bike, yellow glasses, yellow helmet, and a full yellow and white kit, Floyd looks great.

and...

Back to Floyd and the race: The bike he is riding is not to show off to the public who the champion of this race is, but rather a reminder to Floyd of all the hard work and struggles to get to this point.

Elrond has given Aragorn the sword! ;>)

[Ready4Freddy]

No climbs serious enough to make a difference tomorrow, but it's not an easy stage. Plenty of ups & downs, medium length but not so long that anyone will be able to pull off an escape like today's, I think.

The rest day on Monday before the Alps will be well received, I'm sure.

[Vision]

There's two category 2s and two 3s. That's respectable.

It will be a fun watch tomorrow.

[Ready4Freddy]

And found this on cyclingnews, while waiting on those lamers Liggett, Sherwen & Roll to tell us why Phonak did what they did today! LOL

An interview with Floyd Landis, July 13, 2006 - The time has come

[luv2ski]

I read his comments but I can't help but ask what the point was in killing himself to get yellow 3 days ago only to p*ss it away today. He put some time between himself and his chief rivals but he didn't have to take the yellow if not defending it was their ultimate strategery. Yes, of course, having it the last day is the most important but I don't remember Lance et al giving it away this late in the Tour. They often let it go the 1st week b/c they didn't want to destroy themselves defending it for 3 weeks but we are into the 3rd week now. Big difference.

[Ready4Freddy]

Phil Liggett's report:

Stage 12 Report
by Phil Liggett

What happened? Only the riders really know, and only hindsight will reveal whether it was a good decision by Floyd Landis not to chase the leaders in the final miles just to keep the yellow jersey he has worn for two days.

Oscar Pereiro has finished 10th in both of his previous Tours, but this time he lost almost half an hour in the Pyrenees. The Alps next week are much harder, so it appears that Landis has chosen to pass his jersey over for safe keeping. The advantage of such a move means that tomorrow he will not have to race on the front of the pack all day.

Instead, that will be the job of Pereiro's Spanish Caisse d'Epargne, while Landis can save his team for the mountains next week when he will really need them. It will be seen as the most intelligent move of the race in Paris -- or the biggest mistake! Time will tell.

[Ready4Freddy]

Comment at the end of the cyclingnews live coverage:

17:46 CEST
And we will leave it at that at the end of the Tour's longest stage. A little odd that Floyd Landis let the jersey go that easily, but the boy knows what he's doing and you can bet that either he or one of the other GC riders are in yellow on Tuesday night in the Alps. Pereiro only has 1'29 on Landis, and given that he lost half an hour before today's stage, I don't think he'll hold it for very long.

[luv2ski]

I wish Hincapie had been in the break.

[Ready4Freddy]

I saw a blurb of an interview saying that he'd conceded the Tour, and was hoping for at least a stage win.