2011 Le Tour De France - Follow all the Highs & Lows here.

First topic message reminder :

Running from Saturday July 2nd to Sunday July 24th 2011, the 98th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,430.5 kilometres.

These stages have the following profiles:
•10 flat stages,
•6 mountain stages and 4 summit finishes,
•3 medium mountain stages,
•1 individual time-trial stage (42.5 km).
•1 team time-trial stage (23 km).


Stage 21: Créteil - Paris Champs-Élysées 95 km

I hope Cadel Evans get his wish... and the sun is out today on the Champs-Élysées.


Current Overall Standings:

01: 141/Cadel EVANS/BMC/83h45'20''/0'00''

02: 011/Andy SCHLECK/LEO/83h46'54''/1'34''

03: 018/Frank SCHLECK/LEO/83h47'50''/2'30''

04: 181/Thomas VOECKLER/EUC/83h48'40''/3'20''

05: 001/Alberto CONTADOR/SBS/83h49'17''/3'57''

06: 021/Samuel SANCHEZ/EUS/83h50'15''/4'55''

07: 161/Damiano CUNEGO/LAM/83h51'25''/6'05''

08: 091/Ivan BASSO/LIQ/83h52'43''/7'23''

09: 052/Tom DANIELSON/GRM/83h53'35''/8'15''

10: 108/Jean-Christophe PERAUD/ALM/83h55'31''/10'11''

dummy_half,

Yes, take your point about Voeckler; still rather hoping he might get a podium - more sentiment than reason?? I understand from Rolland's interview that Tommy told him to go - I think he knew that he was going to lose yellow and felt that at least his winger could try for the stage win.

Again - on relfection your call on Frank is probably correct, but I still admire their overall strategy - if Andy's effort on Thusday had been a total failure then Frank (who had an easy ride) would have been perfecly placed to benefit. Hence my comment about the cheek of asking Cadel to help them out!! The TT will I suspect include a margin of luck (if there are weather variations) and depend on who recovers fastest from two gruelling days. I'll be out for the live coverage but hope to catch the highlights later.

It was France's first stage win of the Tour so the decision was correct.

Nore Staat wrote:It was France's first stage win of the Tour so the decision was correct.

But of course...it was correct! (please excuse the stereotype)

That was such a gutsy win too. A lot happened yesterday in that epic struggle to the finish. Rolland will feature in years to come - for sure.

Another great stage yesterday ...reckon Evans did enough by keeping the time gap back from Andy S at 57 , and will now take the race today.

But Andy will give everything he has to hold on to the yellow and after the efforts they've both put in over the last couple of days I guess it will come down to who has got something left in the tank.

I fancy Evans by 12 seconds...

Brilliant ride from Cadel....!!

So, he'll be wearing yellow into Paris. The greatest day in Australian cycling.

Cadel's best ITT for several years - he really went out there and won the race. Many congratulations for several days of good aggressive riding.

I thought the Eurosport commentators were harsh on Andy, who had a pretty good TT by his normal standards, losing only just over a minute to Contador and about 30s to Cancellara. Could have been enough on another day with Evans not in such sensational form.

Linebreaker - Are you getting that public holiday on Monday then?

I wish dummy_half...maybe the PM will make a special announcement tomorrow?

I was a bit out with my 12 seconds! Evans was brilliant today and Andy really had no chance of holding him off.
He'll be gutted to be 2nd for the third year running but he has plenty of years left to get a win...this was Cadel's year and he made sure of it today.
Though I reckon he actually won it over the last 3 days where he made sure Andy couldn't get an unassailable lead.

Well done Cadel

Alfie

Yes, the chase down of Andy on the Galibier is what put Cadel into the position to win the Tour - had he waited much longer the gap to the yellow jersey would have been too great to just rely on the TT to turn it round, and Cadel would have had to go on the attack on l'Alpe d'Huez. Would have certainly drained him for today, and could have ended up being counter-productive (i.e. attack too hard and crack before the summit).

I thought a 57 second gap at the start would leave a hair's breadth between Andy and Cadel at the end - your 12 second prediction certainly seemed more likely to mw that the minute and a half that actually happened.

The same TT course was used in the Dauphine, and Cadel was 1.07 faster today than last month - very impressive especially considering the effort that has gone into the last 4 days of racing.

All over now and Cadel is Officially the first Australian to win the Tour

And Cavendish has bagged the Green in style with another sprint win...

Nice result all round for Anglo-Australians

alfie wrote:All over now and Cadel is Officially the first Australian to win the Tour

And Cavendish has bagged the Green in style with another sprint win...

Nice result all round for Anglo-Australians

A great result for them both. It is a fabulous moment in Australian sporting history.

Paris looked as grande as ever too! Long live the Tour!

Great to see Cadel win after two runner up spots.

Also very impressed with Mark Cavendish - not only his riding skills but his post tour comments - has a lot of great things to say about his team, which goes to making a successful recipe for sure.

It's pretty easy to say nice things after you've won, although Cav can't always manage it.

As for his team, bearing in mind that the other 8 guys (including wasting a few extremely talented GC guys) are there to get him to the finish.

For me HTCs complete disregard for the overall does spoil things a little. There was a time when you'd get heroic lone breakaways and small groups staying away on the flat stages every now and again. Now you've got HTC super rouleurs who've been sat at the back and holding on the cars for the hilly stages nullifying every flat stage.

djlovesyou wrote:It's pretty easy to say nice things after you've won, although Cav can't always manage it.

As for his team, bearing in mind that the other 8 guys (including wasting a few extremely talented GC guys) are there to get him to the finish.

For me HTCs complete disregard for the overall does spoil things a little. There was a time when you'd get heroic lone breakaways and small groups staying away on the flat stages every now and again. Now you've got HTC super rouleurs who've been sat at the back and holding on the cars for the hilly stages nullifying every flat stage.

What a miserable assessment - it's always so easy to be small minded and negative about an achievement, and even the comissaires seem entirely satisfied that this whole "hanging onto cars"thing is rubbish. The TdF showcases epic performance at several levels - Cadel Evans winning at last, Voeckler hanging on to the yellow jersey against the apparent odds, Andy Schleck's solo breakaway and Cav's green jersey to name a few. Sure, there are things to worry about but I suspect all the HTC team actually signed on to support the team; remember that Leopard Trek had 2 riders who dropped back to help Andy S - personally I find it odd that the TdF is a team race and that talented riders give up the chance of individual achievement but that's the way the race is run and presumably all those who take part accept that. If you can't accept that, perhaps leave it alone for the enjoyment of those who do!

I never said I didn't enjoy the race. I just don't enjoy the absolute monopoly HTC has on flat stages. They used to be interesting sometimes unpredictable, but now they're incredibly dull.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a USA victory for the green jersey this year.

Was elated on Saturday that Cadel did it! I thought Sunday's slow ride through the streets before the action started was absolutely wonderful and very moving.

Maybe if the Schlecks had not been so obsessed with watching Contador for 3 weeks they might have been a little further ahead on time.

I always liked lone breakaways, particularly the "crazy" ones! How about banning the earpieces?

Anyway, fantastic Tour and having had the chance to ride the two Etapes (slowly), I can compare my miserable performance with these superhumans so am even more in awe of them.

Really good race this year - Evans had a brilliant Tour and well deserved the Yellow (all the same it would have been nice to see Schleck win it for his long attack, that sort of ride needs to be encouraged)
Great perfomance as well by Voeckler to hold on for so long - both times he's had yellow he's done the jersey justice.

Looks like Rolland can time trial a bit when he has to - with his riding in the mountains and Voeckler's display this year France might have a chance to worry the other GC contenders next year... but of course those two will likely be watched more closely next time out.

Great to see Cav get green - 20 sprint finishes in 4 tours and no green jerseywould be getting very silly. It would be nice if he got the respect he deserves in the UK for being such a dominant sprinter but for a lot of people cycling barely exists as a sport.

I also enjoyed Contador giving the spectator a well deserved slap - some of the "fans" there must drive the riders mad with how they carry on.

Snoop

Agree with a lot of what you say. Unfortunately, the way racing goes in the mountains now, it is difficult for the main favourites to gain big chunks of time by attacking - Andy's 2 minutes + was a pretty good effort considering the main contenders chased as a group (noting that Evans was forced to do most of the work) and never let the lead spin out to much over 4 minutes even at the base of the Galibier.

The only real disappointments were that the flat stages were too tightly controlled (hence the 7 sprint finishes, when only 4 or 5 were expected), reducing the chance of a break away victory, and that the Pyrennees stages were ridden too conservatively by most of the contenders.

Any of Cadel, Andy Schleck or Voeckler would have been worthy winners this year.

dummy_half wrote:Snoop

Agree with a lot of what you say. Unfortunately, the way racing goes in the mountains now, it is difficult for the main favourites to gain big chunks of time by attacking - Andy's 2 minutes + was a pretty good effort considering the main contenders chased as a group (noting that Evans was forced to do most of the work) and never let the lead spin out to much over 4 minutes even at the base of the Galibier.

I do agree with this, I'd just love to see a return to the old days really. The hope I had with Schleck was that if he'd won by doing that sort of longer attack, it might encourage other riders down a bit on time to gamble on attacks to gain places rather than just ride to preserve their position - I suspect in reality though it probably wouldn't have made any difference and most of them would keep riding the %s rather than take a risk.

dummy_half wrote:The only real disappointments were that the flat stages were too tightly controlled (hence the 7 sprint finishes, when only 4 or 5 were expected), reducing the chance of a break away victory, and that the Pyrennees stages were ridden too conservatively by most of the contenders.

Fair point - it is something the Tour needs to look hard at. Teams have got far better at controlling the race over all in fact, hence the GC riders usually don't gamble and on the flat the sprinters' teams are too well trained and too well informed of what is happening to let breaks get away. I'm not sure what there is to be done about it, beyond trying to throw in a cobbles stage every few seasons. I think what would make a difference is clamping down on the electronics - everyone in the race knows exactly what is happening at every moment.

dummy_half wrote:Any of Cadel, Andy Schleck or Voeckler would have been worthy winners this year.

Completely agree - this is a large part of what made it a good year, not just a deserving winner but that he beat riders who also would have been deserving winners.