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Just a nice easy Sunday group ride ;-).
Cyclingnews.com: “38.4km of climbing and an average gradient of 7.96% - that also adds up to plenty of pain!”
Yes it is… hopefully no one cracks too bad. My slow butt climbed up a couple 8%'s for just .5 mile each… those nearly killed me!!! lol I guess that is why they are pros.
None of the climb are very long, , so people can chase back on the descent. I think this stage is much less devastating than having 2 really long climbs. I think th eheat and the cumulative fatigue will make this stage tough, but it may not even be the toughtest stage in this years tour.
cyclingnews is way off…38.4km at just under 8%…
not in the pyrenees…not in the Alpes either…that would be steeper than the alpe d’huez and more than twice the distance.
I don’t know any pass like this in France.
if you gain 8m every 100m for 38km you get a pass at 3000m or so and there are none in France (not with pave roads anyway)
My concern is that I see 6 opportunities for disaster. 6 tough climbs. A big problem here is that if something does go wrong: Mechnical, physiological, crash, etc. There is going to be a very minimal opportunity to recover.
This is a brute. A great opportunity to lose the race. It will be an absolute epic to watch. Awesome.
Best of luck to Armstrong and all the others.
Doesn’t matter how tough it is. The only way LA isn’t going to win is if someone breaks his legs. And I mean both of them, not just one.
If the entire Discovery team drops out of the tour on the first climb, he’d probably still win. Its ridiculous how far ahead the guy is in overall conditioning. I was hoping for a race this year, but its been one of the most boring tours ever.
Francois, I believe that are talking about 38.4km climbing in total for the whole stage at ~8%… 
Basso and Ullrich will pay for their effort today on that profile, Lance is just on a whole different planet. I can’t wait, should be fun.
Dave in VA
Man, I’m thinking L.A.'s fitness is so far superior to the others that, on horsepower, he’s got it. It is the looming specter of luck that is frightening. So much is riding on tomorrow.
It apparently did not make much difference that his team got left behind. Still, you’d like to see a couple blue and white jerseys with him to the finish.
Do you think there was a lot of bitching at his team for getting dropped after the race?
I bet Vino is bitching more than Lance. Notice who put in the effort to reel him back in after his final escape? Two of his TEAMMATES.
ah, ok, now that makes sense…but they will have to be careful when they get too close to the sun…what melts first? carbon or alu?
I know everyone is blasting Kloden and Ullrich for chasing down Vino but I don’t think it really mattered, Vino was not strong enough today; in fact, I think Vino should reevaluate his goals and role on the team and work for Jan. Kloden has been a slave for Jan and because of his efforts, Jan has a serious shot at the podium (and Kloden is still ahead of Vino in the GC). I personally think Vino is hurting Jan and has gone against team orders from day one of the Tour. Vino has is own agenda, at times I applaud him for his courage but at others I think he is just selfish.
Dave in VA
I personally think Vino is hurting Jan and has gone against team orders from day one of the Tour. Vino has is own agenda, at times I applaud him for his courage but at others I think he is just selfish.
I think one thing that makes this stage less horrific is that the maximum altitude is not so bad. the peaks are about 1,000m lower than some in the alps, so there’s a bit more oxygen to go around and a bit less temperature change. Also, the hardest one on this stage looks like maybe peyresourde and it is relatively a lot less crppling than some other stuff.
I think a stage or two of this years giro would be comparable to this stage and perhaps harder. Any combination of Stelvio and/or Mortirolo and/or Gavia with anything else would be pretty annoying. Same for la vuelta. El Angliru combined with anything (even riding to the shop and back) would be a tricky day
Nowadays, the tour in particular seems to avoid some of the barbaric climbs they could do. Some of them are not spectator friendly, poor surface, poor access etc but it’s a shame we don’t get to see them. I don’t even know what ‘Luz Saint Sauveur to Pic du Midi’ is, but based on its profile, I’d love to see it. Col de la bonette the hard way would be fun to watch as well.
Then again, it’s a bit like comparing cindy crawford and elle mcpherson, either one would get the job done…
Agreed. Vino’s current tactics
Hurt Himself
Hurt his team
Help Disco and Lance
He’s getting noticed. Maybe that’s his goal as he shops for a new contract. But what he’s displaying is an ability for awful tactics. Good thinkin.
I don’t think it was planned this way, but one possible scenerio now is that on Saturday’s stage, T-Moble put out a massive effort on the part of three riders, while Discovery was able to sit back and conserve a bit as a team. Lance was content for most of the stage to just mark any moves and not be the aggressor until the finish line was in sight, so he didn’t really need his team on Satruday. Now for Sunday, I think that Jan is a tough cookie and will bounce back in good form, but Vino and Kloden will be hurting, Basso will be strong as usual. Now with the rest of his team a bit more rested then the others, they could be set to lead a blistering pace on Sunday’s stage to totally blow open the race. We’ll find out in a couple of hours.
I’m with you, and I’d go even further to say the “let the team rest” on the first day in the moutains (both times) was planned. Armstrong has the fitness to match the other contenders (ahem) the first day, while the rest of Team Disco rests. On the subsequent days, Disco is fresh and, well, we saw what happened last week.
Good bye Basso, Vino, Ullrich, et al. See you in a few days.