Tour de France: Stage 19 Live Thread (Saturday, July 22, 2006) Le Creusot to Montceau les Mines - 57

Le Tour Website ^ | 7/22/06

[Aeronaut]

Welcome To The Live Coverage Of Stage 19...

[leilani]

Yeah! You're here. You can post the ticker stuff. (I don't think it's so impt today since most of the cubicle people have ready access to TV today.) But here are early finishes:


1 Serhiy HONCH 1h07'45''
2 Sebastian LA 1h11'03''
3 David ZABRIS 1h11'20''
4 Viatceslav E 1h11'26''
5 Bert GRABSCH 1h11'28''
6 David MILLAR 1h11'46''
7 Joost POSTHU 1h11'48''

[leilani]

Ooh.You read our minds. Yours are more recent than mine. Which ticker are you using?

[leilani]

Saw this at letour.fr,It’s a long time ago but, for interests sake, it’s worth having a look at the top 10 in the penultimate stage of the 1998 Tour because that was a time trial that started at the site of today’s finish and concluded at the site of today’s start...

1. Jan Ullrich (GER) 52.0km in 1h03’52"
2. Bobby Julich (USA) at 1’01”
3. Marco Pantani (ITA) at 2’35”
4. Daruiz Baranowski (POL) at 3’11”
5. Andrej Teteriouk (KAZ) at 3’46”
6. Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS) at 3’48”
7. Christophe Rinero (FRA) at 3’50”
8. Riccardo Forconi (ITA) at 3’55”
9. Axel Merckx (BEL) at 3’59”
10. Roland Meier (SUI) at 4’29”
Ekimov, Rinero and Merckx are the only riders from this group at the 2006 Tour and the oldest man in the race currently has the best time at the finish...

[leilani]

thanks.(velo)

[Aeronaut]

don't outdo Nutmeg, or else it'll be your job from now on and Nutmeg will be on easy street;)

No worries there. Meg is incredible!!!

[leilani]

You know, I swear I was just thinking about this exact same phenomenon yesterday. I wonder if it has anything to do with handedness (i.e., left or right hemispheric dominance of the brain.)? Interesting!

[bwteim]

Truer words were never spoken/written;)

[Ready4Freddy]

Stage 19: Le Creusot to Montceau les Mines - 57km (ITT)
velonews.com
This report filed July 22, 2006

Course: This final time trial follows a complicated 57km route between the twin industrial cities of Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines. There are a few long straightaways, but in between - from 5km-17km, 23km-34km and 47km-55km - the course is on a mixture of narrow back roads and city streets that twist and climb around the district's former coalmines and steel mills. In other words, it's a challenging up-and-down course where riders are constantly changing direction, sprinting out of turns, grinding up hills and racing down descents.

History: Only once has this area hosted a Tour stage; that was in 1998 when a 52km time trial was held in the opposite direction, on a less-demanding course, from Montceau to Le Creusot. Ullrich was the winner by 1:01 over American Bobby Julich, with third place going to race leader Pantani - which confirmed the Paris podium of Pantani-Ullrich-Julich.

Favorites: It's possible that the time gaps between the GC contenders will be close enough that this final TT will decide the outcome of the whole race. Assuming none of the top guys have dropped by the wayside, the stage should be closely fought, with top favorite Landis being challenged by Evans, Klöden, Leipheimer and Menchov. Time-trial specialists like Sergei Gontchar, Michael Rogers and Dave Zabriskie could also vie for the stage win.

Graphics by CyclingNews.com

[Ready4Freddy]

A couple of things to note - this course is much tougher than the ITT in Stage 7. Not only is it ~5km longer, but it is much curvier, too.

And to make us viewers suffer more - unless the graphics are wrong, or setup has changed, the 2nd & last Time Check is at 30km (only ~51% thru the course) vs ~70% in Stage 7. It's gonna be a looooong ~27km to hear how your boys are doing. Remember Apollo 8, while we waited for Borman, Lovell, & Anders to restablish radio contact as they came back around from the first trip to the 'dark side of the moon'? Yeah, it's gonna be like that (well, almost!! :).

[Paradox]

Showtime coming up....

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And he's off and runnin! Landis is off!

[MAD-AS-HELL]

Officials are hosing down the finish due to the intense heat that is liquifing the road. This could spell trouble for Landis as the track might be much slower now than it was in the morning when the first riders took off.

[Ready4Freddy]

Thank goodness they have better Time Checks than the graphics indicated!

Oh, and good morning, y'all!! LOL

I see that Gonchar is up to his old tricks, the boy can time trial, what?