Tour De France 2011

Andy Schleck is going to win the tour...

It's a somewhat technical TT course. Evans is more powerful and could get 58 seconds in the 40k.

Especially if it rains :)

So, will Cav make the time cut?

Who?

all in play for TT tomorrow

We'll be there.

more smug

It was a massive group i think.

Yep

Fucking awesome day today. I decided to ride up the Alpe and check out the fan-based carnage. Got there pretty early so got pretty sunburnt and slightly drunk well before the others in our group arrived. Loads of people - it's like riding up Ditchling Beacon on L2B day but longer and steeper and hotter and noisier and..

Yeah, anyway. Go Cadel.

Saw Jens and big George and Ten Dam rode past no-handed waving at all the Dutch fans opposite us. Great stuff.

Fuck I love France.

The Glandon is terrifying.
dramatic climb, and resembles a scottish highland pass approaching the col from the north, you are confronted with what looks like a cliff face, mental gradient up, the drop down to bourg d'O.. simply breath taking..

@ Hippy - on the road down from Izoard to Briancon there is a turning to a dead end village called les fonts. Take it and have the most beautiful ride ever. First part of the climb is gravel, then it plateaus and it's a flat roll to the village/hamlet where the river starts. awesome stuff

had a great day in the C&H today. brilliant stage,brilliant tour. have ended supporting Evans after the Schlecks wet the bed and Cadel put in that immense day yesterday.

start times are up

http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/2872

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3710361/Cav-has-the-Mark-of-a-champion.html#

So other than LMNH anywhere central likely to have this ontoday?

Can someone tell me what the cumulative ascent was on stage 19?

(Sorry am searching but squatting outside QLD state library borrowing their internet and the connection is a bit dodgy)

I'd love to see Cuddles win... He quietly gets on with the job, no drama, no waving TV cameras away... Yesterday's stage was fantastic, so many, er, twists and turns of fortune during the day...

It's damp here today. This will hopefully suit Cadel more than the blouse-wearing duo.

Can someone tell me what the cumulative ascent was on stage 19?

(Sorry am searching but squatting outside QLD state library borrowing their internet and the connection is a bit dodgy)

Stage started at 800m-ish... You do the math...
Telegraphe 1566m
Galibier 2556m
Alpe d'Huez 1850m

Galibier is 2645m

Those are altitude levels no? Presumably they didn't descent to sea level between each climb?

They went through the tunnel though.

I was thinking summit finish

1,566m - 732m = 834m
2,566m - 1,434m = 1,132m
1,850m - 723, = 1,127m
Sum = 3,093m total ascent over the 3 major climbs. Not including any little dips on the way up or hummocks along the rest of the course. Near enough for me. Thanks

Is there anyway that the winner could go unknown on to the last stage in Paris? Or is that more of a parade around Paris?

traditionally is a parade and spring at the end, but you never know if they really need it

The race has finished since 1975 with laps of the Champs-Élysées. This stage rarely challenges the leader because it is flat and the leader usually has too much time in hand to be denied. But in 1987, Pedro Delgado broke away on the Champs to challenge the 40-second lead held by Stephen Roche. He and Roche finished in the peloton and Roche won the Tour. In 1989 the last stage was a time trial. Greg LeMond overtook Laurent Fignon to win by eight seconds, the closest margin in the Tour's history. In 2008 hippy won the Tour by gaining 45min on the peloton.

wikipedia

hippy, stop drinking do early!!

1,566m - 732m = 834m
2,566m - 1,434m = 1,132m
1,850m - 723, = 1,127m
Sum = 3,093m total ascent over the 3 major climbs. Not including any little dips on the way up or hummocks along the rest of the course. Near enough for me. Thanks

Add in the Croix de Fer (at 2000 metres, with the ascent starting at 723 m) and you've got the Marmotte course.