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TdF Stage 18 - Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde
Long 'flat' day today but a 4th cat climb 10km from the finish may mix things up. Chance for Goss to finally win a stage? Will Lotto/Sky/Liquigas bother to chase down a breakaway for their guys or will it all go the way of Monday?
My team:
Wiggins
Froome
Sagan
Hinault
Jeandesboz
Vichot
Simon
Boeckmans
Impey
Hoping for one of my three disappointing french DSs to get in the break and actually do something for once and for a sprint finish without Goss/Griepel.
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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42 comments
Until you pointed him out, I didn't even notice him......BOOST, I have him in my purist and the guy i'm chasing for top premium purist 22 points ahead of me doesn't have him
Sagan(for Nibali)
(for C.Sorensen)
Boassen Hagen
VanGarderen
Kessiakoff
Izagirre
Pinot
Edet
Vichot
Impey(for Albasini)
Can't see anyone brining this break back as all the sprinters teams(Sky,Greenedge,Lotto) have people in it.Unless Liquigas want it for Sagan of course...
Popovych (RNT), Arashiro (EUC), Millar (GRS), Fouchard (COF), Boasson Hagen (SKY), Hansen (LTB), Vanendert (LTB), Boeckmans (VCD), Paolini (KAT), Roy (FDJ), Costa (MOV), Kroon (STB), Nuyens (STB), Vinokourov (AST), Albasini (OGE) and Gretsch (ARG).
Got no-one in the break, Roy....I just took him out last night
Katusha and OPQ looking to shut the break down seeing as they have no-one in it. Looks like a hard day for the break as every team wants a guy in it.
Breaks been away for 12km and only have a 40 second gap which is shrinking rather than growing.
Simon in the break for me, he's been poor so far, I expected much more from him, Jeandesboz and Vichot but they let me down.
Vichot has been a waste of space, but last year he helped me win a stage (no prize unfortunatley) so I kept him in as a lucky charm, which worked yesterday I suppose. I should have had Izagirre from the beginning though. Would have got me 60 more points at least. I think to be fair the Giro knackered Vichot. He's only about 24 and he's ridden 2 Grand Tours back-to-back. I can see him winning more breakaways in the future.
Simon's picked up a few points when I've had him.
The best FDJ DS has been Pinot who has been great for me. Put him in before stage 7 so he's earnt me a lot of points. I can also see him winning more breakaways in the future and maybe challenging for GC if he moves to SKY.
Agreed, Vichot has been poor but he won a stage of the CdD so thought he may be in form, either way he's been too cheap/pointless to ditch so he's stuck there, Jeandesboz has scored a few points but is similar, stuck there as their are other people that needed transferring out first. Simon has got me a few points but not what I'd hoped for but I've had Izagirre for most of the tour, only ditched him after Wednesday thinking he'd be knackered.
Pinot has been great but I picked him two stages too late missing his big break and the day Rolland won (thinking he'd had his day and wouldn't do anything else). I can't see him moving anywhere yet but surely with the quality of French riders coming though one of the French teams needs to get serious and try for the GC. All of them (Saur, FDJ, Europcar, Cofidis) seem to bring a guy that can manage on his own and maybe top 20/30 GC but they never work for him, Coppel being a prime example. They all concentrate on stage wins picking aggresive do or die riders, not consistent climbers.
If FDJ or Europcar got their act together and really tried to push one of Rolland/Pinot onto the next level I reckon they could be on the podium next year. Their only flaw is time trialling.
NO, this break is not good for me.
I took two of them out of my stage hunting team and also the guy 22 points ahead in the premium purist has a guy in the break
At the 23km mark, Perez, Pineau, Simon, Morkov, Sprick and Fofonov are 40" ahead of the peloton.
I've written off today in order to have a decent team for Sat and Sun - Hinault could be a good call tho'...
I think it was last year's Vuelta or Giro where Nibali was coasting for the win, someone, possible Rui Costa(?), tried to get the jump on the 5 Liquigas guys and Sagan won the stage as he was the only one who'd spotted it. He got a bollocking from Nibali too
I think either a small peloton sprint or breakaway win today, I really can't see Lotto chasing today if they're not confident of getting Griepel over the hill and Greenedge haven't wanted to work because they've had no confidence in Goss for the last couple of weeks. I went for Sagan/Hinault as they were up there on the last similar stage and are more likely to get over the bumps than some of the out and out sprinters.
Pretty sure it is going to be a mass sprint today, its only a little lump of a Cat 4. So expect all the big sprinters teams to be working hard, Including Sky.
I have a funny feeling that Liquigas will push it up the climb with Sagan and then go away on the downhill, a bit like they did in another tour and took away 5 guys to win.
Sorry, this is a long cut and paste about Sorensen
Sorensen still plans to race...
We saw Chris Anker Sorensen really having a good go in the Pyrenees. He was 24th in stage 17 and second in stage 16 but he rode most of yesterday's stage with blood dripping from a wound on his left hand. We asked Saxo Bank's Nick Gates what happened yesterday... did he put his hand in his spokes?
“Yeah," said the directeur sportif, "a newspaper had been thrown out for a rider to put down his jersey for a descent and it went into Chris’ wheel. He tried to rip it out and he got his fingers stuck in the spokes. He’s not in a good way. He had micro-surgery on two fingers last night at the hospital and they’re now patching him up again to see if they can get the green light so he can race. He’s still in a lot of pain but he’s going to have a crack and see if he can race.”
More on Sorensen's injuries...
LeTour.fr asked Nick Gates about the treatment of Sorensen's wound: what did they have to do? Were there fingertips missing or what exactly is the wound?
“Basically his small finger was ground down to the bone all the way up the side. They stuck a splint on there and that’ll get him through until the end of the Tour and on Monday or Tuesday he’ll have to go to a hospital and get it really fixed up. He’s a tough guy! The way he got through the stage.
“The accident happened on a really fast part of the race and they couldn’t dress the wound properly. There was no option. He had to defend his position on GC and he did that really well. He’s held 14th overall so he’s at least happy with that.”
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