2012 Le Tour De France

[RustyCage]

✸ 3,479 kilometers / 22 teams / 198 riders ✸



9 new stage towns. 9 flat stages. 5 mountain stages - two with a summit finish. 2 individual time-trial stages. 1 prologue.
+ 4 promising intermediate mountain stages - one with a summit finish.

[RustyCage]

follow it live here:

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/

[woodublieve12]

how many blokes will finish the race legally???

[RustyCage]

Cancellara's 5th win on opening day

Fabian Cancellara has become the second rider in history to take the yellow jersey for a fifth time on the opening day of the race (equalling Bernard Hinault's efforts). His first victory at the Tour was in Liege in 2004... he's since won the TT at the start of the Tour in London (2007), Monaco (2009), Rotterdam (2010) and Liege - again - in 2012.

[Cambridge Clarrie]

how many blokes will finish the race legally???

zero - they're all on it...

[brod]

The top 10 on GC overnight was as follows:
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 0:07:13
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:07
3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:10
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 0:00:11
6 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
7 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Argos - Shimano 0:00:12
8 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:13
9 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team
10 Andriy Grivko (Ukr) Astana Pro Team 0:00:15

Cadel was 13th (17 sec)

[brod]

Stage 1 is well and truly underway and another thing that you dont see in every sporting event comes into play....the breakaway are forced to wait at a railway crossing for over a minute..bad luck, play on

[am Bays]

Interesting last night that Cavendish didn't even try to contest the sprint finish. I reckon Matt White's prediction is spot on, I expect Cavendish to pull out* of the Tour just before the Pyranees. Will give him two weeks to freshen up for the Olympic Road race.

I believe Sagan is a monty for the Green jersey after his Tour de Suisse form.

[Grahaml]

Interesting last night that Cavendish didn't even try to contest the sprint finish. I reckon Matt White's prediction is spot on, I expect Cavendish to pull out* of the Tour just before the Pyranees. Will give him two weeks to freshen up for the Olympic Road race.

I believe Sagan is a monty for the Green jersey after his Tour de Suisse form.

I agree that Cavendish will pull out of the tour early, but last night's stage wasn't one for him. He'd have contested it if he could get up with the leaders. A run into the finish like that is tough on the pure sprinters like Cavendish and Goss and it was no surprise to me how it finished. Especially the way the peloton flew near the end.

Sagan is no monty for the green. He was only contesting the sprint against Cancellara who lead it out. Any half decent sprinter would have won that stage in that position. Tonight could be a totally different story.

[am Bays]

I agree that Cavendish will pull out of the tour early, but last night's stage wasn't one for him. He'd have contested it if he could get up with the leaders. A run into the finish like that is tough on the pure sprinters like Cavendish and Goss and it was no surprise to me how it finished. Especially the way the peloton flew near the end.

Sagan is no monty for the green. He was only contesting the sprint against Cancellara who lead it out. Any half decent sprinter would have won that stage in that position. Tonight could be a totally different story.

I agree it wasn't amde for him but last year in a similar stage (Montpellier, which Cadel won) he had a crack for a bit, last night didn't even bother to have a crack.

[Sploosh]

It seems the SBS coverage goes from the pre-amble and "postcards" section to suddenly 30 minutes into the race. That's 2nights in a row it's happened. If they have to show their irrelevant cooking sections for contract purposes,why the hell can't they start coverage in Adelaide earlier? It's ridiculous that we have to watch cooking, yet miss the start.

[dedja]

it's been the same format for years ... get used to Gabriel Gate

[Grahaml]

I agree that Cavendish will pull out of the tour early, but last night's stage wasn't one for him. He'd have contested it if he could get up with the leaders. A run into the finish like that is tough on the pure sprinters like Cavendish and Goss and it was no surprise to me how it finished. Especially the way the peloton flew near the end.

Sagan is no monty for the green. He was only contesting the sprint against Cancellara who lead it out. Any half decent sprinter would have won that stage in that position. Tonight could be a totally different story.

I agree it wasn't amde for him but last year in a similar stage (Montpellier, which Cadel won) he had a crack for a bit, last night didn't even bother to have a crack.

Each stage unfolds differently. The last 20km last night were furiously fast. Once that uphill started it could easily be he couldn't keep up, once you lose contact that's it, might as well cruise home and fight another day.

Simply, Cavendish not contesting the stage win is no indication at all of his green jersey ambitions. If he isn't there to win green, he's there to win stages. To not contest either when he could is a waste of a rider on a GC chasing team. Notably in the intermediate, a better finish for the sprinters, it was Goss, Cavendish and Greipel. Perhaps Sagan is a chance (he's really a rough green chance, not a "monty") because there are more unusual finishes this year than others with a few classics type finishes. Not all will suit Sagan but they might present the chance to get points when the pure sprinters aren't up there. If that happens though, Gilbert will be around the place too.

it's been the same format for years ... get used to Gabriel Gate

I like those segments. I'll happily watch every race from the start but to be honest, the first half of a stage tends to play out the same. If something strange does happen, they'll show a replay later anyway. But the chance to see some of the cuisine and sights is always nice.

[RustyCage]

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

[Grahaml]

Sagan contested the intermediate and handily beaten by the guys who also contested it. Renshaw and Petacchi didn't even give it a crack. Demonstrates clearly where Sagan sits in the heirarchy of sprinters I think. His play on the green is to have a few good finishes on the hillier days and have Cavendish take a few wins then pull out. There might even be more than 1 sprinter do the same thing. I think though, that strategy is a very unlikely one. He'll be hoping the breakaways don't win on the days the GC and sprinter teams don't need to chase and then will be mixing with guys like Gilbert. As I said, he's still a rough chance.

[Mop Up]

Tonight could be very interesting.... those Hills at the end are tough to judge, no one seems able to work out if it will favour the sprinters who can climb hills like Sagan, Giilbert and Goss or if it's more for the punchy climbers like Gerrans, Chavanel, EBH.

Interesting to note GreenEdge have talked about their chances in this stage for 3 weeks, came to France a day earlier to suss he finish, and overnight still talking up Goss' chances. Yet everything I read he is hardly mentioned.

I think some people are over estimating the last climb, its 700m and they will be approaching it at 65km/h, they will be halfway up it before they gotta start pumping so hopefully Gossy can take the win.

Him or EBH and I will be happy

[Grahaml]

I think some people are over estimating the last climb, its 700m and they will be approaching it at 65km/h, they will be halfway up it before they gotta start pumping so hopefully Gossy can take the win.

Ordinarily a climb like that wouldn't cause any trouble for the main sprinters, but there will be breaks earlier trying to get away from the pack over the last few smaller climbs and the sprinters will be working overtime just to keep up. When they get to the final sprint the guys like Cavendish will have worked harder than normal and to sprint on a climb like that suits Sagan and Gilbert more. I think Cav et al are a chance, but I agree with the consensus that it'll take the edge off him. In pro cycling, an edge is all a rival needs.

[Mop Up]

Yeah completely agree sprinters like Cav, Pettachi etc have no hope here, was thinking those in between sprinters like Sagan and Goss.

Will be interesting to see if any breaks can get away.

I've got my dosh on Brajkovic and EBH.

[whufc]

For the punters out there is Gerrans @ $19 and Goss @ $46 to win tonights 3rd stage any value.

[pels]

Hopefully we see an action packed last 20km and maybe some GC contenders have a bit of a go
and try and get some time on Wiggins in particular