2012 Le Tour De France

[dedja]

The Tour each year is great tourism for France, after seeing all their castles and things I always want to go there!

Imagine what it will be like when a stage is actually in France ...

[The Sleeping Giant]

Lol

[brod]

A few guys coming off their bikes tonight, including Hyserdal, Vinokourov and Brajkovic and we're only half way today

[brod]

Team SKY rider Kanstantsin Sivtsov has abbandoned after a crash....cant be bad for Cadel

[Grahaml]

Cadel and BMC have been excellent so far. Sky have left Wiggins isolated too often and they've been constantly having issues. Wiggins was lucky the crash wasn't right in front of him and if they don't lift their game he could so easily crash out or pick up an injury. Cadel has at every important moment had 3-4 teammates around him and been right up the front.

Sagan landed an important blow in the green jersey last night. I'm not convinced Cavendish has 100% decided to leave the tour early. He could very easily decide the last week is as good an olympics preparation as anything else, depending on how he feels. But even if he does stay, Sagan is a chance. What he'll need to do is keep having strong finishes in these lumpier stages and chip away at the other sprints. He'll get routinely spanked on the flat sprints but once the time gaps become more significant the yellow jersey team won't need to chase down every breakaway so he'll want early stage wins. He's done superbly so far, but it's a long way to Paris.

[RustyCage]

The Tour each year is great tourism for France, after seeing all their castles and things I always want to go there!

Imagine what it will be like when a stage is actually in France ...

I was close, just a few kms off!

[pels]

How good is this Peter Sagan 22 and dominating already, very impressive

[am Bays]

Seriously, how good is the scenery in tonights race?? All along the Normandy coast with channel in the background for some of the shots. Magnificent.

[The Sleeping Giant]

Too bad they keep going back too those guys on the bikes.

[The Sleeping Giant]

Just as I post, a couple of lovely cows.

OOH. Now a whole herd.

[Sploosh]

The scenery is certainly impressive. I also liked the tour of the GreenEdge bus they showed at the start tonight - pretty cool team bus.

[Grahaml]

Sky have left Wiggins isolated too often and they've been constantly having issues. Wiggins was lucky the crash wasn't right in front of him and if they don't lift their game he could so easily crash out or pick up an injury.

And again last night he was caught up in trouble. Sky are going to cough up a great chance to win the overall if they're not careful here. Thisn is where you have to give full credit to guys like Hincapie and Monfort. They are always on hand making sure Cadel is in need of support and make sure he's never isolated. Cadel himself is also making sure he doesn't get caught up like he used to.

[Grahaml]

Another meaningless stage in terms of who will win the tour overall, but a fascinating finish. A great effort by the breakaway to hold out so long. Just a little more and they'd have pulled out a shock win. Griepel with a strong finish and beat Cavendish in a straight fight, something that will no doubt mean something to him.

Green jersey wise, this was a big blow to Sagan. He looks like he has a big advantage in the hilly stages but will always get beaten on the true sprints. But to win the green, he'll need to keep picking up 4th,5th type finishes on the intermediate and finishing sprints if he wants to win it (if he gets to Paris, there's still every chance he won't). His lead got slashed today and later on when the yellow won't be lost by a breakaway and the other sprinters aren't planning on contending those lumpy stages could well see breakaways win and Sagan might be taking minor places.

[mickey]

Tyler Farrar wasnt a happy camper after the stage

[pels]

Sagan wins another stage, what a freak.
Geez if Goss was ever going to win a stage it would of been this one, No Cav & Griepel hurting but Sagan was too quick
Massive crash with 20km to go has put some riders who where outsiders even further behind like Schleck, Valverde, Gesink & Hesjedal who is out now.

Medium mountains tonight that will not do much damage

[Grahaml]

Sagan wins another stage, what a freak.
Geez if Goss was ever going to win a stage it would of been this one, No Cav & Griepel hurting but Sagan was too quick
Massive crash with 20km to go has put some riders who where outsiders even further behind like Schleck, Valverde, Gesink & Hesjedal who is out now.

Medium mountains tonight that will not do much damage

Sometimes it's the medium ones that cause the most trouble. The true climbers like the longer, steep climbs. Big win for Cadel tonight I thought. Wiggins looked if anything to be struggling to hold him. Froome perhaps is looming as an alternative to Wiggins, so Sky have options, but I think tomorrow and the time trial might see whether Froome is a long term threat or spent all his tickets today.

[pels]

Froome from team Sky wins the stage.
Geez team Sky rather ominously destroyed the peloton, they had Rodgers,Porte,Froome & Wiggins in the last 5km and everyone else was isolated.
Lets hope that having Yellow now Sky have to control the Peloton every day and they might spend all their petrol tickets a bit early otherwise Wiggins is going to romp this in

GC after the Stage is
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 34:21:20
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:16
4 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:00:32
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:54

[am Bays]

Froome from team Sky wins the stage.
Geez team Sky rather ominously destroyed the peloton, they had Rodgers,Porte,Froome & Wiggins in the last 5km and everyone else was isolated.
Lets hope that having Yellow now Sky have to control the Peloton every day and they might spend all their petrol tickets a bit early otherwise Wiggins is going to romp this in

Evans spent all of last years race isolated on the final climbs (think the Galibier and d'Huez) so he is used to that situation. He looked pretty comfortable going up the final climb lst night. Don't think he is fussed sitting on Wiggins wheel on climbs. Froome looks looks the goods though.

The first time trial will tell a tale on Tuesday night.

[Grahaml]

Froome from team Sky wins the stage.
Geez team Sky rather ominously destroyed the peloton, they had Rodgers,Porte,Froome & Wiggins in the last 5km and everyone else was isolated.
Lets hope that having Yellow now Sky have to control the Peloton every day and they might spend all their petrol tickets a bit early otherwise Wiggins is going to romp this in :(

GC after the Stage is
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 34:21:20
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:16
4 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:00:32
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:54

And yet Wiggins finished behind Evans, struggling to hold on at times in the last climb. Day 1 in the mountains, a medium mountain at that, doesn't mean the others in BMC won't have a good day on the more serious climbs and that Sky will always be at the front. I think the way things panned out last night was a win for Cadel. For everything Sky threw at him he led the final drive to the line and Wiggins couldn't get past, nearly falling off at times. This stage was never going to be the making of the winner, but it had the potential to dictate some who won't win. Frank Schleck, Valverde are going to struggle now regardless of how good they are in week 3.

[dedja]

Wiggins doesn't have the resiliency of Cadel who made a little statement last night without claiming any time.

Sure, wiggins has got an advantage in the TT, but its one thing to do a great TT at start of the tour as opposed to posting a great time at the end after some gruelling mountain stages.

Cadel had done it before whilst Wiggins claims he can do it ... I'd back the guy who has the runs on the board any day.