OT - Tour de France stage 6
If you haven't watched yet (It's rebroadcast at 8 p.m. on NBC Sports Network, formerly known as Versus), here's the layout:
On paper, it looks like a fairly conventional first-week stage.
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***SPOILERS***
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Wow, who'd have expected this? That crash was nuts. I don't know if I agree with Phil Liggett that this is fatal for Frank Schleck's chances - I think he can make up two minutes in two weeks - but that's it for Hesjdal and some others.
Peter Sagan is an animal. Has the torch been passed from Cavendish?
Schleck won't make up two minutes if Wiggins or Cadel Evans are in the lead.
If he rides the ultra-cautious way he and his brother did last year, it can't be done, but if he wants to go on the attack on the mountains, he'll have his chances to gnaw away some time.
Attacking 60km from the finish is "ultra-cautious?" Did you even watch the Tour last year? That attack on the Col d'Izoard was one of the gutsiest moves of the past 20 years, and then he doubled down by following Contador's attack on the Galibier the next day. He may have misplayed the Pyrrenees, but his race was anything but "cautious."
OK, point taken. That attack was epic. Prior to those final Alpine stages, I thought Andy missed some opportunities, though. He ended up not being able to build up enough of a lead to survive the final time trial.
He may have. The finishes on Luz Ardiden and Plateau de Beille were neutral affairs, but then today's cleaner cycling just doesn't lend itself to massive time gaps on climbs anymore. Also, Evans has grown quite a bit as a rider since his paralysis on Alpe D'Huez allowed Carlos Sastre to ride into Yellow.
...can absolutely be overcome, but there is no way that Frank can gain enough of a lead to survive the time trial on Stage 19. No one has ever accused a Schleck of concealing a motor in their bike.
Torch cannot be passed if Cavendish is around to pass it. He was in the Schleck group with Boson Hagen if I'm not mistaken. But Sagan's been a beast so he could beat Cavendish eventually.
i dont know enough about performance enhancing drugs to watch this.
Sagan was set up perfectly today. Cav wasn't there, Goss jumped early, and Greipel had a dislocated shoulder. Sagan is fast, but he's not Cavendish/Greipel fast. He's perfect for the lumpy transitional stages, but has yet to show he can win an out and out field sprint.
Looked to me like a flat straight finish and he overpowered Greipal who had a train and a slight lead.
I think he's proven he can win in a variety of ways in different finishes. He could dominate the Spring classics for years, battle Cav at tours, even win week long stage events. The kid is scary.
I would have to think that Bradley and Cadel will be keeping an eye on Frank. Additionally, the Radio Shack - Nissan team is a train wreck and may sson cease to exist. They may have a hard time doing anything to get Frank back in the race.
I wonder if Cav wasn't hurt more seriously than we're lead to believe. Was today the last "sprinter's stage" of this year's Tour?
Stages 13, 15, and 18 have lumps, but pretty good potential for the sprinters. 13 has a nasty little climb with ~20k to go, however (hello Sagan). Stage 20 is the tradition sprinters delight on the Champs as well.
Stage 20, last day, I forgot, thanks for the reminder.
What happened on the crash? It looked like a straightaway section of road, good weather . . . nothing that should have knocked out huge chunks of the peloton.
There were two crashes today, IIRC. One was small and in a heavily wooded section. It appeared to only (seriously) effect three or four riders. The rest were held up because the road was narrow/blocked. The second was larger and there were riders in the ditch on the left side of the road. That crash involved 20+ riders. I'll have to catch the NBCS show tonight for full analysis. It was hard to see, on the stream, exactly what happened.
JvS coming in several minutes down.
I hate sprint finishes, and I dislike Cavendish, specially after last years incident with Mark Renshaw headbutting an opponent and getting disqualified (edit, it was in 2010), it has been fun though but I can't wait for the climbing stages.
Very impressive win by Sagan. Greipel was sprinting hurt, Cav was not there, and Goss simply didn't have it--but Sagan's win was solid.
The idea of "passing the torch" seems absurd to me. Cavendish is not old and will be winning races for years. Sagan is not currently a pure sprinter, and it is unclear if he will limit himself to that discipline. He is good enough to win three or four of the monuments in his career; winning all five is not completely out of the question. He has enough kick to compete in sprints and to win, but notice that none of his wins came straight-up against a full sprinting field. Today was the only real bunch sprint he won, and it was against a reduced and weakened field of opponents.
Which is not to say that it wasn't spectacular. I think Sagan has a great chance to win Gold at the Olympics this year, even if Cav is right there. They'll be racing each other (with the still-young Greipel) for years. This year is just one chapter of a larger story.
RE: The crash--word on twitter is that an unnamed rider was taking off a shoe-cover, swerved, and caused the major accident. It's a random racing accident. Unfortunately, it wipes out most of the climbers who could have put Evans and Wiggins under pressure in the mountains this year. Evans and Wiggins can now ride knowing that they could cede four minutes or more to Frank Schleck or Robert Gesink and still beat them comfortably, due to the length of the time trials in the Tour this year.
The only climbers left as threats are Sammy Sanchez and Vincenzo Nibali, neither of whom are stratospheric climbers on their own. I don't see either of them dropping Evans at all, and probably not Wiggins either. Their only real advantage is that both are great descenders--but you're not going to get two or three minutes on Cadel Evans during descents.
It's a two-man race.
Fun, but highly unlikely. The Giro-Tour double is virtually impossible in cycling today, even for the best riders (see: Contador, Alberto). Hesjedal is a solid rider who had a great Giro but is unlikely to be good enough to win the Tour even on his best form. Of course, a top five finish would be sensational, and he could have done that.
The tiny glint of silver lining is that the crash excuses Garmin from having poor results for the rest of the Tour. Doesn't look like it's their year to get anything. But that Giro win covers a whole lot of negatives, if you ask me. Their season is already set.
Just curious, do any of you ride or race? Mountain, road, cx?