Le Tour De France 2012

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Soooo, Who's excited about this years Tour...

I'm hopefully going to be able to catch all of this years Tour, as I love watching this type of racing with all its strategy, highs and lows. Got to love some fo the epic crashes aswell..

Stage 2 starts at 2.00 PM GMT

Vise > Tournai 207.5 km, eeek!
 
Not surprised to see Cavendish win, he's clearly the dominant sprinter of the bunch. Shame about Kittel though, I was really looking forward to see him sprint, but obviously not his day.

Stage 3 might just define the race this year. With it possibly being wet and windy, I'll say there's going to be eschelons breaking up throughout. And the hills at the end will make it interesting. Here's my look at it. If any of the GC riders ride conservative, they'll lose 5 minutes. It's an aggressive stage, and that's why I think Wiggo will be in trouble. Compared to Evans, he is a conservative rider, and is happy to ride mid-pack. As I think the wind will play havoc, this isn't good. As a Cadel fan, I hope this happens :sly:
 
Cav has lost some of the outright speed he used to have but he still has the strategy, positioning sense and the ability to pick the right wheel that he'll still be a threat for the green jersey, even if Team Sky are concentrating on Wiggins.

jmacca
It's an aggressive stage, and that's why I think Wiggo will be in trouble. Compared to Evans, he is a conservative rider, and is happy to ride mid-pack. As I think the wind will play havoc, this isn't good. As a Cadel fan, I hope this happens :sly:
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Evens isn't an attacking rider. If I recall correctly, he won the tour last year without ever attacking anyone. All he did was to try and stay at the front which is common sense for the GC riders.
 
daan
Cav has lost some of the outright speed he used to have but he still has the strategy, positioning sense and the ability to pick the right wheel that he'll still be a threat for the green jersey, even if Team Sky are concentrating on Wiggins.

Evens isn't an attacking rider. If I recall correctly, he won the tour last year without ever attacking anyone. All he did was to try and stay at the front which is common sense for the GC riders.
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Cav may have lost speed, but by winning yesterday's stage, he clearly has gained some endurance, doing it all by himself for the last km.

Evans last year stuck with the pack, always got with Schleck, and led the chase the day he got away. Evans relied on the time trial to win. With no Schleck or Contador, I would say his greatest worry is Wiggins this year for sure.
 
Today's stage was pretty interesting, if a little predictable. Wiggins was lucky that crash was in the last 3km, or he'd be out if the GC hunt. He really should've been nearer the front.
 
Today's stage showed that Sagan could be easily a contender for the green jersey at least this year, doing well for a rookie! Cav grabbed some decent points at the intermediate sprint, and Wiggins is still fine.

Here's the highlights of today's third stage

Also to the OP, would you consider keeping an update rankings for the GC, points, King of the Mountains as the race goes on? Would be useful 👍
 
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I think the GC should be a straight fight between Wiggo and Evans, I can't really see anyone else good enough in the time trials to challenge, without being in a huge breakaway or constantly attacking through the mountains. I think out of those 2 Wiggins should get it - he is the stronger time trialer, as the Dauphiné and the Prologue showed, so as long as he keeps within sight of Evans throughout the high mountains and stays out of trouble he will hopefully win. He looked immense through the Dauphiné

As for the green jersey, I'm hoping for Cav, but I can't really see that happening, and Sky have said they might consider an abandon to prepare for the Olympics early if he isn't in contention, which with Sagan in the form he is in at the moment could well be a possibility approaching the mountains. There really is no point in dragging himself through the mountains for no real reason when he could be focusing on his ultimate goal this year, so I think that is sensible. Therefore I'm predicting a Sagan green jersey.
 
Greipel doing well, grabbing the previous two days stages, on what you would hope to be Cav territory. Wiggins still 7 seconds back from Cancellara, can't see any movement likely whilst the peleton is still on the flat stages

Stage 4 Highlights

Stage 5 Highlights

GC:
Cancellara: 24hr 45' 32
Wiggins: +7s
Chavanel: +7s
Van Garderen: +10s
Boassen Hagen: +11s
Evans: +17s

Points:
Sagan: 155
Goss: 137
Greipel: 132
Cav: 119
Petacchi: 91

So Wiggins is doing fine, but Cav needs to win some stages if he wants green from the impressive Sagan.
 
Bring on the mountains. This is when the tour starts...
 
Sagan is a beast! 3 out of 6 so far ! He's certainly mounting a big challenge for that green jersey and Cav with certainly have his work but out! I have to agree that Cav has lost some of his speed after losing some weight and with the added fact he has not got a lead out team doing all the work for him now.

Will be interesting to how it unfolds as we head into the mountains.
 
He has lost weight for the World Championship which includes hills and he wants to be able to get over them. He usually can't climb for nothing, so he's losing weight to be able to pass those without using too much strength. He hasn't lost speed either, Lotto Belisol is just pointing out that there are weaknesses to every single sprinter when they have to work for positioning themselves instead of having a train been served on a golden platter for them.

About the Evans not attacking bit; It was actually Evans who went after Schleck last year to minimize the damage. Evans was an attacking rider last year. His mentality changed when he joined BMC and I bet he realized the new mentality proved to work.

I don't think Evans has anything to fear for this year unless he is involved in an accident of some sorts. I still think Wiggins lacks in the truly steep parts of the Tour, and I've yet to see him perform at his truly best for 3 weeks straight.

And last but not least, call me pessimistic but I'm not believing in Sagan yet. Either he is the best and biggest talent we've seen since Armstrong or this guy is running on some extra liquids. For him and the sport I truly hope it is the first, but I won't be amazed if we'd see another rider pull off a Riccardo Ricco.
 
Apparently Liquigas are talking about getting Sagan into yellow after tomorrows stage... He is only 18 seconds down or something, but for a sprinter when the finish is at the summit of a category 1 climb, that seems rather over ambitious to me.
 
Bram Turismo
And last but not least, call me pessimistic but I'm not believing in Sagan yet. Either he is the best and biggest talent we've seen since Armstrong or this guy is running on some extra liquids. For him and the sport I truly hope it is the first, but I won't be amazed if we'd see another rider pull off a Riccardo Ricco.
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I think Sagan is just going hard at the start. I think once the mountains come he'll be far less competitive, either due to ability or due to his previous efforts. As Wiggins said, things are so easy in the peloton at the start it's entirely possible to "de-train" and be in far worse condition after a week.

Regarding Cav, he's just out having fun, competing when he can but not really stressing about performance. He knows this Tour isn't his tour and he seems to accept that. Also, he really does want to put in a better effort in the mountains, even if it is as a domestique.
 
Yeah, I think Cav is just using this tour as a training exercise for the Olympics.
 
Bradley Wiggins will take the Yellow Jersey after finishing 3rd in today's stage, well ahead of the previous leader... 👍
 
Team Sky showed utter dominance today. If Wiggins can post a better time then Evans in the long TT and Team Sky keeps this performance up, things may suddenly extremely good for Wiggins.
 
Great racing from Sky today, they showed that they are the dominant team. Even if Wiggins loses the Yellow Jersey to Evans, Brad is a better TT-er so barring a major incident I think he has it in the bag.
 
Team Sky is invincible. Between Wiggins and his group of Climbers, Bossen-Hagen who does whatever he pleases on any given day, and the raw speed of Mark Cavendish, it's easy to say they are THE team to beat this year. I think Mark is out of the Green Jersey running, but I still expect him to pick up one or 2 more wins.

Because of the lack of form at Radioshack, I think Sky will hold the Team Classification all the way to the Champs-Elyse.

Sagan is looking good for the Green, but I think his luck will soon run out, and Gripel, Goss, and Cavendish will start to challenge him even harder. I somehow get the feeling that Sagan's speed isnt genuine... I was able to watch him win in California, but it wasnt that spectacular since there was noone challenging him.

BMC looked so strong, until today...
 
Well looks like this is going to be a hard fought battle between Wiggins and Evans, although Nibali is hanging on in there. I think the long time trial tomorrow will be an interesting one.
 
I'm annoyed that I'm going to miss tomorrows stage live, as I think it could decide the tour - Wiggins is a great time trialer, and he nearly caught Evans in the Dauphiné time trial despite starting 2 minutes behind, so I can see him pulling out quite an advantage that will allow him to relax slightly more in the really big mountains.

Having said that Evans is a decent time trialer himself so if he is really on form it could go the other way and he could end up in yellow going into the rest day
 
I think Wiggins can really stretch his advantage today, and just getting 45-60 seconds will make life a lot easier come the mountains.

BTW, if you can't watch the stage live, or you miss it, ITV4 do highlights every night at 7pm.
 
Unless Wiggins crashes, I think this one might be in the bag for him.

You'd say that nothing is certain yet, but Evans is no Andy Schleck who attacks and takes minutes on the opposition. Evans might attack, but he isn't an explosive attacker and I therefore expect Wiggins to be glued to Evans' wheel in the next two weeks. Even if Evans brakes free, Team Sky will be blindingly fast to rally up and start the chase.
 
And even if Evans does somehow manage to snatch the yellow jersey, Wiggins has another similar length time trial next week too to fall back on :D
 
I don't think a time trial after 3 weeks is something he can rely on. He needs the 2 minutes now, because Evans will only be able but to regain time on him during the 3rd week.
 
Race now starts, next two stages are in the Mountains... although the Alp stages don't go really high this year... only 2067m, the think the Pyrenees are the harder challenge this year.

I'm not really convinced that this stage was in the correct place of the race. Maybe it's taken the suspense out of these upcoming stages... or devils advocate could say, it forces action from those behind... then they can rest on the flat stages that takes us between to two mountain ranges...

2-4mins is nothing in the big scheme of things... those 5mins to 8 or 9 need to do something real special but this thing is far from over...
 
Good stage for Wiggins, dropping Evans by a minute and a half, so it's a british 1-2 then Nibali. Pierre Rolland excellent stage victory to add to Alp D'huez last year, two in two days for Europcar too.

EDIT: GC
Wiggins: 48h43'53
Froome: +2'13
Nibali: +2'23
Evans: +3'19
Van Der Broeck: +4'48
 
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Feeling for Chris Froome a little, he so wanted to sprint away then but he ended up dropping Wiggins instead of the rest.
 
boiltheocean
Feeling for Chris Froome a little, he so wanted to sprint away then but he ended up dropping Wiggins instead of the rest.
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Froome clearly had legs, but had to drag Wiggins home. Without that hindrance, he might have grabbed half a minute on Wiggins, but Wiggins is team leader. Looked visible frustrated in the interview.

Meanwhile, Nibali and Wiggins seem to be friends again.
 
Another good performance from Sky today. Not panicking when Evans attacked and then dropping him later on shows they have things under control, and with Froome in second overall they are in a very strong position if (heaven forbid) Wiggins has a crash.
 
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