you're doing well dev, don't give up now with paris is in sight!

looks to have breakaway potential with those early climbs making it hard for sprint teams to control

however with kittel's dominance there are a lot of sprinters still looking to get something out of this tour and it would be risky to bank everything on the Champs-Elysee. Griepel, Bouhanni, Kristoff, Groenewegen (though lottoNL won't be doing much chasing as they've lost a lot of riders), EBH has had a couple of close 2nds... there's still no shortage of teams interested in bringing it back for a sprint, it just depends how everyone's legs are but i don't see why the sprinter's teams will be any weaker than the breakaway riders. most of those sprinters are among the more capable fast men at getting over mountains and its the same for everyone anyway - the fastest guys should still win a sprint, just everyone is a bit slower than they were 21 days ago

I normally would never say this, but I hope the break gets caught tomorrow.

Hoping to see Greipel pull out a win. Given the form he's shown so far, this doesn't seem likely, but maybe he's been saving himself.

(Hang in there, Dev. Two more days!)

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Hmm. Half the teams are winless because Sunweb and QS have won half the stages. Sky only needs to control things until a break goes and then they can just tempo their way to the end and try to keep Froome fresh and safe.

I am guessing a big group of 20+ goes up the road looking for a stage win. Every team without a stage win is going to work their butts off to get a guy or two up the road. I don't see Sunweb pulling things back because of the stage length and the motivation of the break. Even better for Sky if most of the sprinters make the split. Let those guys duke it out in the sprint and Sky rolls in 20 minutes later without the crazy sprint train nonsense and possible crashes.

This stage has the makings of a real snoozer. The only interesting twist would be watching the mini team tactics in the break. nobody will have the numbers to control anything so they should be beating each other up pretty well in the last 30-40 k, similar to the stage that Rolland won in the Giro.

Let's face it, for those hoping sky gets taken down, the only thing we can hope for is froome to have multiple mechanicals in the tt

There's always the potential for crosswinds to make things interesting, particularly in that part of France on a Mistral day! Let's hope so!

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´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX

I am writing this from the team bus, we are ahead of the riders

The riders are in good spirits but exhausted. Last night after dinner they needed to get away from the circus like atmosphere, so they all went out to the team bus and drank coffee.

This morning we were driving to the start and the argon CEO and I ride the back of the bus while the guys are up front.
But Fabio was nice enough to come to the back and share his thoughts on his new bike with the Argon CEO. The hour ride to the start went by in seconds.

He has developed a touch of bronchitis. It probably started the day he took
yellow with all the media, and he felt he was pretty chilled. He is also down to really low weight so right at that edge. We joked that his mother is going to fatten him up in a few days. A few physiological markers confirm what you see on the course in terms of his ability to respond to some of the Attacks.

Wow, this is nice service from inside the team Astana bus! Way to go Marcag. I was thinking that maybe Aru just did not have enough miles in his legs to endure the 3 weeks, but him getting sick makes a ton of sense on the day after he won yellow. Would have loved to see him having gone full throttle on the climb to Izoard! Losing Fuglsang was really bad too. Any talk of Fuglsang at the Vuelta?

Dev

It looks like 20 riderers up the road with 6 min gap and the only GC guys is Mollema. So we can expect sprinter teams to chase this down and Sky and other GC guys can just take it easy and roll in many minutes after the sprinter mayhem. I guess the real question is whether any of the GC guys and their teams collaborate with a sprinter team counter attack. The dynamics of today could be interesting. With Mollema in the break is Contador still going to try to do something AGAIN like a cockroach that you cannot really kill? The guy keeps getting hammered (either hitting the deck or getting clobbered by his opponents) but gets up the next day to launch more stupidity. Maybe he will play domestique for Degenkolb.

I just checked the Salon en Provence weather and no major blowing wind with current wind at 18 kph and 30C with wind projected to die down over the evening.

I love this guy deGent.....in the break again. Would love to see him win a stage:

At km 88, Jan Bakelants (AG2R-La Mondiale), Daniele Bennati (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Ben Swift (UAE), Rudy Molard (FDJ), Michael Albasini and Jens Keukeleire (Orica), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), Gianluca Brambilla (Quick Step), Robert Kiserlovski (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt and Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Nikias Arndt (Sunweb), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Lilian Calmejane, Sylvain Chavanel and Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Elie Gesbert, Romain Hardy and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Oscaro) have 8 minutes lead after 88km of racing.

I'll take Swift. He escaped Sky and deserves a win.

He apparently came into the tour in peek shape. As did Jakob. He actually ride Izoard a few weeks back with Luchenko. But shit happens

There is only one person that knows for sure who the Vuelta team is and it's Fofonov and while I asked him point blank you can imagine how much he shared.

But based on tidbits of info from people, and this is 1000% speculation, I bet and probably hope more than anything we see him in mintreal

Later I will post a video from the bus if us arriving at the finish line. It is pretty friggin narrow at points. No way the peoloton fits

Hope this works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADeIDULfRDA

It did, that's awesome!

But was it high enough for the Orica bus to fit?

Funny story but a couple of weeks ago I was riding with a bunch of guys from Australia that work for a company that builds motor homes, and specifically the ones that Orica uses. One of them who was with us said he would be there in the team car for one of the late stages...I think 18. Can't remember his name though.

Edvald!
Cost me the least to be on my team, has earned me the most of my squad!
Perhaps the only shining part of my selections.....*sigh*

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Anne Barnes
ABBikefit, Ltd
FIST/SICI/FIST DOWN DEEP
X/Y Coordinator
abbikefit@gmail.com

I am writing this from the team bus, we are ahead of the riders

The riders are in good spirits but exhausted.

They're exhausted? Dev's been posting about the Tour for weeks here on Slowtwitch. If anyone has the right to complain about exhaustion it is him, not those who just had to race their bikes...

I envy your being there on the bus and so close to the action.

LOL I trained for 10 years of posting on ST to get through this TdF posting spree. I got the equivalent of a posting related hematocrit boost last nite to get through the last three stages so ready to go for the final push.

Awesome to see Dimension Data win a stage after Cavendish's crash!!!

It's a tough job but someone has to do it :-)

I know Astana gets no love on ST for obvious reasons, but spend time with the people, the docs, the riders, the mechanics, see the testers come a dozen times in a few days, listen to the stories from other teams and you see things very differently.

Had beers with Vino. Nicest guy once you get past the tough outer veneer. I committed a major faux pas in my questions and I got a good laugh from the guys.

It's been an experience!

Finally for Edvald :-)

What would I give for an evening with beers with Vino to ask him 3 questions...so can you ask them at the team bus?

1. That crazy attack into Gap with Lance and Beloki chasing when Beloki went down and Lance went cross country...was that planned or spontaneous
2. London Olympics 2012, same thing....did he plan his attack or was it all "on instinct
3. So tell us about your foray into age group tris

Dev

"LIKE"

I was at the 500 meter mark before today's finish. EBH was hurting, but you could tell he had it. The guys were really flying at the end. As we were watching on the big screen, you could tell the winner would come from the breakaway as the gap widened. The only downside is that it was damn hot and humid today...must have been a long one after yesterday! BTW, I was kind of hoping for rain tomorrow in Marseille to make things interesting, but it looks like it's going to be another hot one...time to break out more sunscreen...:(

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

A fantastic ride of the Boss ..

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___/\___/\___/\___ the s u r f b o a r d of the K u r p f a l z is the r o a d b i k e .. oSo >>

If he is there tomorrow morning I will speak to him about #1 and #2.
We talked a lot about #3 and to be honest I didn't sense tri was a big thing for him. I do think he wants to develop it at home
I wanted to u[load pic of them but ST won't allow