TDF Stage 13 - Final Should Be Good (Includes Spoilers)

[MattTuck]

You may want to pull up a feed for the final run in. It sounds like it will be a really tortuous route with lots of turns heading into the finish.

Add to that, the race has a ton of gaps now, as Valverde is trying to get back to the main group after a mechanical issue.

cyclingfans has the feeds, as usual.

[chengher87]

Wow! A flat stage with GC action!!?? This was unforseen!!!

[T.J.]

And now Froome is caught out

[T.J.]

Kudos to Sagan for be aware enough to make the split

[chengher87]

Bjarne Riis, Contador. They know how to animate a race. Bullocks for Valverde because he's done. Crosswinds have killed his chances to rejoin the main group. The seconds are growing by the kilometer! Contador might claw back some HUGE time on this stage. Also, with Valverde gone, Now Quintana can be let off the leash WITH full team support. Next week is now must see cycling!

[saab2000]

Now we see too where allegiances lie. Which of the bit players ride for Contador and who might help Froome.

[jr59]

Wow, the "doped to the gills" Sky team can't cover and are loosing time to more than a few riders.

I guess they are sandbagging! :eek:

[saab2000]

Wow, the "doped to the gills" Sky team can't cover and are loosing time to more than a few riders.

I guess they are sandbagging! :eek:

It's a ploy to make everyone think they're clean.

[Shortsocks]

Bjarne Riis, Contador. They know how to animate a race. Bullocks for Valverde because he's done. Crosswinds have killed his chances to rejoin the main group. The seconds are growing by the kilometer! Contador might claw back some HUGE time on this stage. Also, with Valverde gone, Now Quintana can be let off the leash WITH full team support. Next week is now must see cycling!

About F*CKING time. Give Quintana some back! If he gets some back next week WILL be exciting!! Oh man. :banana::banana::banana:

I really like Bradley Wiggins and all. And he was a good captain and all...so all respect to his exp and worth But it wasn't the most exciting tour I've ever seen. A Froome VS Quintana mountain fight, that would be GREAT!

[fiamme red]

About ******* time.http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=1375403&postcount=9

[54ny77]

what a day!!!!!!

[MattTuck]

Well that was exciting for a flat stage... :banana::banana::banana:

Ventoux should be interesting. LOTS of good riders out of contention for GC.

[alessandro]

So, crosswinds > mountains? Can't wait to see the tape tonight.

[jr59]

Pretty good day racing for any stage. Much less for a flat stage that at first glance was just a sprinters stage!

Very good indeed!

[chengher87]

Wow, Omega-Pharma deserved to win that race. They tried all day to blow the field apart in the crosswinds in order to isolate other sprinters in echelons. Then, Saxo-Tinkoff, seeing all the Sky riders in the back of main group, Valverde losing time decided to go together as a group.

What happened next was a perfect storm of events to destroy Froome. With Cav, Sagan, Belkin boys and Fuglsang up front, none of their teams were willing to chase. Which was HUGE because usually Omega and Cannondale would be doing the bulk of the work. Movistar wasn't gonna chase because they were trying to bring Valverde back. Only Katusha and Lotto contributed anything significant. Once Froome lost his last teammate, the gap ballooned from 30 to 1:08.

Just Wow.

[Lovetoclimb]

were totally K.O. after that effort, wonderful to see such happiness from results. I think Froome has plenty of a buffer going into the mountains, but he will have to answer attacks without much hesitation lest Contador or Quintana pull a move like Contador did on Rodriguez in last years Vuelta Espana.

[alessandro]

Pretty awesome to pick up more than a minute on a flat stage.
Mollema is now 2:28 behind Froome, and Alberto is now 2:45 behind. They both gained 1:09 today.

[tele]

that was about as exciting as a flat stage gets for me!

[goonster]

OK, it's not over yet, and Froome still has a decent lead, but this is exactly why it would have been premature to say "Froome doesn't need a team" after Tuesday.

[joep2517]

I can't wait to watch the stage tonight on my DVR. Sounds exciting, and it was a flat stage. Didn't see this coming. And Valverde is now 12+ minutes back. Wow....

[ultraman6970]

When I saw them going away I went... ···???? Been in races like that and if you don't get to the wheel you are left behind, sucks hehe

Valverde got just pure bad luck, I felt sorry for him :( Now quintana has to shine tomorrow and sunday.

Worse case scenario pistolero will get 2nd place, 3rd maybe quintana. I'm not even counting the belkin guys because they aren't in the same level than froome, quintana and pistolero in the climbs.

Tomorrow is an up and down stage, tomorrow probably valverde's team will end killing sky team to get some time back for quintana. They need to kill sky before getting to sunday's stage to have chances to win this race.

Great stage today!

[kurto]

I know he doesn't quite have the kick of Cav, Greipel and Kittel, but Sagan needs to learn better sprint tactics. It seems like every day he's in just about the dumbest/worst possible position to win a group sprint. That said, he's still in green and will win it, and I can't wait to see how his career unfolds.

[Lewis Moon]

Watch out for Nairo on Sunday.

[ultraman6970]

You need a team (up to some point), the problem is that they saw Froome catching flies and looking up to the moon and they they split the group, and when Froome noticed was too late, prove of that is that the 2 belkin guy went with contador sure because sure they were at his wheel and at the front, if you look Froome at that moment was like in the middle for some reason.

In the case of Froome he is so strong that for him with the lead he has and with lady luck taking care of the bike problems and punctures his team is not needed, just go to the wheel of the top 5 and you are all set but as i said before, he was probably scratching his scrotum or something, this shouldn't have happened you know. I bet his butt is in a PIKE (ok fixed it) right now, he screwed up.


OK, it's not over yet, and Froome still has a decent lead, but this is exactly why it would have been premature to say "Froome doesn't need a team" after Tuesday.

[jpw]

Froome showed a touch of inexperience today. When Saxo went for it he really ought to have taken Cav's wheel and sat on the back of the train. He hesitated, went to his radio,....and by then it was too late. Not the instincts of a top racer.

[alessandro]

I bet his butt is in a stake right now, he screwed up.

Ultrahombre, I am at the 95% comprehension interval, but sometimes your meaning escapes me.:help: Unmix metaphors, please? :)

[ultraman6970]

Dont worry about it, even i dont get them sometimes :D Not expecting you to understand anyways :D

[ultraman6970]

Ultrahombre, I am at the 95% comprehension interval, but sometimes your meaning escapes me.:help: Unmix metaphors, please? :)

Sorry meant Pike :D

[goonster]

just go to the wheel of the top 5 and you are all set
Sounds simple on paper, but who do you follow when they start hitting you one by one. Do you stay with 2, and let 3 go?

Kreuziger could still be a key player on Sunday. He's not as explosive as Quintana, nor is he considered as big a GC threat as Contador, but he's close enough that he can't be let go completely.

And I think the whole race benefits from Valverde's misfortune today. Having all of Movistar behind Quintana is way more exciting than having them ride conservatively for Valverde's always-doomed podium aspirations.

[firerescuefin]

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=1375403&postcount=9

Thanks for keeping the Internet safe!

"About friggin time"...phew, now we can come out from the shelter.


On topic...Great flippin stage! Kudos to teams trying to win, rather than hope they're dealt a favorable card.

[learningtoride]

.

[chengher87]

You know, I was wondering why Cannondale and Omega-Pharma were in front of Froome's group. An interview after revealed that they were there to disrupt the flow of the riders rotating in and out of the paceline, preventing them from properly organizing a chase. That's very interesting and explains why the gap started opening up even though Katusha, BMC and Lotto tried to help out. When Lotto realized that it would not get Greipel in the sprint, they stopped pulling, leaving it up to a pretty weak Ag2r train to lead them to the finish.

Strategy involved in every echelon, I love it!

[Rueda Tropical]

If valverde and the team bury themselves for Quintana it will make for some fireworks on the climbs. If nairo saves himself for the last climb contadir and froome will be tested. Maybe sky shot there load to early?

[petitelilpettit]

Can't wait to watch the stage tonight! Followed the Cyclingnews live text, and it sounds like a great stage to watch. Couple of things noted:

-Valverde was an idiot for not taking a teammates bike. Lost valuable time trying to swap a wheel when he should have just taken a bike, and suffer for the 80ish k's left.
-I so wished that Quintana was aware enough and made the split, distancing himself from Kwiatowski. Definitely looking forward to him spicing it up on the Ventoux, and claiming the white jersey in the process.
-Props to Mollema and Ten Dam for being aware and also gaining back time. Would love for one, if not both, to be able to stay in top 10 in Paris, but we will see what they are made of in the high mountains.
-OPQS split it once, spitting out Kittel, then had the right makeup in the second split. Glad to see that their hard work paid off with Cav winning it.

Best. Tour. Ever.

[goonster]

I posted this at the very end of the Stage 8 thread, but perhaps it might of interest to some.

Cool profile of Quintana (http://www.cyclinginquisition.com/2013/04/who-is-nairo-quintana.html) in everybody's favorite Colombian cycling blog.

[jlwdm]

I can't remember what years, but there were a couple of times Postal Service (or another name for the team) went to the front before echelons formed in the wind and made some time on other teams in the Tour. Once in the Vuelta also.

One of the tours several possible GC contenders lost a lot of time in the first week. Armstrong's teams were always really prepared for the changing wind conditions.

Jeff

[PQJ]

I can't remember what years, but there were a couple of times Postal Service (or another name for the team) went to the front before echelons formed in the wind and made some time on other teams in the Tour. Once in the Vuelta also.

One of the tours several possible GC contenders lost a lot of time in the first week. Armstrong's teams were always really prepared for the changing wind conditions.

Jeff

Not just Postal, but Astana under Bruyneel, too. If I'm not mistaken, Lance once dropped Bert - his then teammate - as a result of an echolon. Ah, the loyalty of the patron.

[Llewellyn]

Well, they tore up the usual script for a flat stage :banana: That was a classic.

Should make for an exciting last part of the tour

[alessandro]

Not just Postal, but Astana under Bruyneel, too. If I'm not mistaken, Lance once dropped Bert - his then teammate - as a result of an echolon. Ah, the loyalty of the patron.

2009 Tour, Stage 3, in the Camargue region.

[ultraman6970]

For the ones thinking that valverde screwed up, well... if you never raced in conditions like that with 45 degrees winds let me tell you, if you arent in the "ladder" (we call them like that in my country), in other places they call them "fan" (u guys call them echellon??)... you are screwed because you won't have a single chance to catch the group in front of you unless you are clark kent.

Thats the reason so many small groups today, is a thing of one guy drop the wheel of the guy in front and the next guy and who is behind him is dropped all together, in racing conditions just sucks big time.

In the case of valverde he got the bad luck for getting a broken wheel just when no cars were in front of them, they had cars between the groups they could have done something, for the ones that dont know or have seen it in the tv, always the team cars when somebody gets dropped they stop a little to stretch the file of cars to help the guys to come back, in the case of valverde he was screwed from the beginning with no cars in the middle and with that wind? I bet he knew they were condemned to die in no mans land. Some say that the teams started pulling, well thats racing and even if they pulled only to keep the pace valverde was not going to catch at all, that was a fact and probably he knew it.

Tomorrow is a big day, bet valverde's team will do some damage, up and down the whole day. anybody see sky domestiques losing more time tomorrow? Sunday, valverde can go solo for the stage and wait for quintana at 5 km from the summit. Contador can do the same but for contador is more like getting time little by little and a final assault by mid next week.

Darn purito has to do something but he has no team... :/

[Bikerist]

that was about as exciting as a flat stage gets for me!

+1 Maybe my all time favorite.

Whoever wrote the script should get an Academy Award.

[soulspinner]

Hope it stays windy :)

[Climb01742]

Part of tour wisdom is you need to conserve energy. Think of all the matches that were burned yesterday. The chases went on for hours. Now cut to the alps and mt ventoux. We won't be able to tell for sure but it will be fascinating to watch who has, as individuals and teams, enough gas left. And those that don't, how much was burned up on stage 13? Man, 3 weeks and sooooo much can happen. What a stage to watch!

[laupsi]

yesterday's "lucky" stage 13 was one for the ages, especially given the recent ho hum flat stages of what is the norm in today's pro racing. buckle up, we're not done yet! :eek: