lotek 

Images ©:www.letour.fr

godspiral

last 70k can be done solo... looks like 20k of 10% grades (eyeballing) -- insane.

SunSwingsLow

sick

Now I know its TT the day before...How expended will the GC contenders be from a TT and then into a nut buster like this.

SunSwingsLow

Nice illustrations...you can see where some of the contenders would make their attacks depending on how steep they like it.

godspiral

ty botto,

When was the last time a rider walked his bike up a hill section?

maalea

The Koppenberg



And they try to run up it.

https://www.grahamwatson.com/2002/kop...ppen/cover.jpg

Bullseye

wow, this stage is quite nasty.

-bullseye

reef58

Fireworks today!!!

Richard

Jinker

Rasmussen keeps yellow again? Will he make serious time on the other GC contenders?

reef58

No he wont make serious time on the other GC's. He will be attacked relentlessly tomorrow. Astana, Valverde, Maybe even Disco. Man this is gonna be good.

Richard

FrankBattle 

I can't wait!!!

It's great too as the Mrs. is away. I can wake up to Versus and just veg in bed until the coverage is over .. then I go biking. This is going to be heaven.

Devil

Prediction: Contador.

SunSwingsLow

God I hope so...he did look good in the steeps. And that move he put on the field to gap Pop was nothing short of explosive.

godspiral

I'd look for the spanish guys that went slow in the TT: Mayo, sastre, most likely ... maybe valverde

SunSwingsLow

As if this stage couldnt get any better....With todays TT result everything just got WAY BETTER.

Jinker

I've thought that Rabobank has shown that they can do a pretty decent job of protecting their man. If they can keep him from getting the Moreau treatment before the base of the first HC climb, and assuming that Rasmussen didn't burn himself out today, why couldn't he put a couple minutes on the field?

Who's shown that they're a stronger climber than Rasmussen?

Devil

In this Tour? Contador, Evans, Kloeden and Mayo.

There is a huge difference between breaking away early in a stage when nobody considers you a threat and attacking the main group of contenders and leaving them behind.

reef58

By virtue of the fact they let him go off on a breakaway like he does every year you assume he is the best climber. If that were the case the same thing could be said about Gerdemann and Soler. Actually Soler was being cased, but stayed away. The GC guys were not chasing Rasmussen. I bet now they wish the had.

Richard

reef58

Vino is climbing out of the hole. He has his hands on the edge. He is getting ready to pull himself up. Someone better step on his hands tomorrow and beat him back down into the hole.

Richard

godspiral

Breakaways up steep climbs with steep downhills in between are totally different than flat stage breakaways. On steep hills you're not fighting the wind (going much slower), so youre not expending more energy compared to chasers. I can see your point that there is a mix of wouldnt and couldn't in stage 8, but I think there was a lot more couldn't in that mix.

I think its more likely that he drops kloeden/evans than gets dropped by them, and won't let mayo/sastre get the yellow on the mountains.

reef58

Same as every year. Some riders can't keep up. Rasmussen himself has been dropped on many climbs. Rabobank is a strong team, but they will be shelled pretty quickly tomorrow if the stage goes like I expect. Rasmussen will have to cover a lot of attacks. It is very tiring to do that. If he manages not to lose time tomorrow hats off to him. If he gains time on everyone tomorrow then I think the battle for the top podium spot is over barring the catastrophic.

Richard

ericcox

Looking at Stage 8, with just over 10.5K to go (final climb had started) Rasmussen had 4:45 on group of favorites with Moreau, Mayo, Contador et. al. By the top, he had lost an additional 2 minutes to Mayo (Mayo finished 2:48 back). Rest of the GC guys were another 20-30 seconds back of that. Now Rasmussen had been on a breakaway for quite some time, but he definitely did not put additional time into the GC contenders on the last climb on Stage 8 -- they took a bit back in spite of the constant attacks / regroupings / general failure to work together.

I'm not sure what will happen tomorrow; I think Rasmussen will probably not lose a lot of time. I do not look for him to gain however. But then, I thought he would lose yellow today.

bac

Vino has already stated his intentions:

https://https://www.velonews.com/tour2...s/12858.0.html

... Brad

daytonian

"I suffered through a hard week. I really suffered," said Vinokourov. "But the Tour is long. Today was important to try to regain some ground in the GC. My legs have been back for the past two days. This win gives me great motivation. The Tour isn't over. I lost a lot of time in the Alps. We'll see what the tactics are [Sunday in the Pyrénées]. What I can say now is that I will attack".

It's this stuff that's gonna hurt Kloden. If Vino goes on one of his "attacks" that will easily be covered by Evans, Rass, and Contador then Kloden will be relegated to sitting on someones wheel.

Helmet Head

[tt]
General classification after stage 13

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 58.46.39
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 1.00
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 2.31
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 2.34
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.37
6 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana 4.23
7 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 4.45
8 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 5.07
9 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 5.10
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 5.29
...
15 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 7.37
[/tt]
Vino has two other Astana guys in the top 10. It will be interesting to see if Kloden will be allowed to race, or if they will use him to rip up the peloton and isolate Cadel and Ras. Horner and Menchov are going to have to get a good night's sleep, because they are having a helluva day tomorrow. Actually, Horner has already said that when it's down to 10 guys, Cadel is on his own. On his own with at least 3 Astana guys and 3 Disco guys (LL, Canti, Popo).