Stage 14: Saturday, July 16 169 km Saint-Gaudens → Plateau de Beille
 

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contador puts the hurt on here, gaining 15-40 seconds over his nearest rivals, essentially forcing all other gc contenders to fight for 2nd and 3rd.
the beginning of the end for everyone else's top podium step aspirations. so many changes in gradient to mess up any chance of rhythm on the last climb alone.

This is real the real sort out will happen.

I dont know why I see Thor and the gilbert finishing with them or going alone for the stage again.

I dont know why I see the yellow jersey man finishing with the GC guys w/o big problems.

I do believe that is the beginning of the end of the leopard team and the schlecks eventho they look ok they arent that strong either. So probably they will be riding all by themselves by the last 3 climbs.

Hope contador have friends tomorrow because he will need them, at this point if i was him and feeling not good to win I would help somebody else, everybody can win but the polidor bros :D

I imagine basso doing some magical move to leave the Polidor bros in troubles from now on.

Lets see what happens again :)

Interesting statistic from Wiki

Plateau de Beille has been the finish-line for a Tour de France-stage four times—1998, 2002, 2004—including stage 14 of the 2007 Tour. All four
times the stage winner has gone on to win the Tour—Lance Armstrong (2002 & 2004), Marco Pantani (1998) and Alberto Contador (2007)

I think the only thing for sure about this stage is that we'll have a better look at who might actually place after it's over...

The top end of the field looks pretty even to this point, it will be interesting to see who cracks.

Say ba-bye Andy. Contador will dominate.

a simply vicious day with the descents as hair-raising as the ascents. i pray
all the riders make it through without incident. wish the rest day followed here
instead of after stage 15; think it would make for more animated racing on this
stage. gonna be a lotta wheelsucking with the last climb being 16.5 km. how far out does
contador go on the attack? guess here is around 5km left to the finish...

There's a 10.8% section about 4k from the finish where Contador might go if he can, or if he hasn't by then. He likes the steep stuff.

^^ perfect. if the knee is good, it's ciao baby time...

Contador is going to lose more time and will look for an excuse to withdraw to save face. The Schleks will try their 1/2 again. Evans and Basso will be right up there.

Evans is in the best place. He just has to keep the time gaps down as he's the best TT'er of the contenders. Basso and the rest need to put time into him.

contador may lose time but methinx *as a multiple gt winner* he has a ton of pride and would prefer to try for a win in one of the alps stages vs quitting and making excuses. he doesn't strike me as a quitter. not with the medical condition. not with the armstrong mind games. not just because he's down 2 mins to his main rivals and he's spent from the giro.

Contador will lose time again unless one of this teammates is able to keep with them at least part of the way of the HC climb. And Contador's team sucks this year and that's being nice. He will have no friends on stage 14.

those spaniards stick together. waay more than the french dudes or the italians. beware the spanish climbing mafia...

Does anyone have an extra "suitcase of courage", as Paul Sherwen might say? I have a feeling that Contador is in a lot of pain and he's really going to have to dig deep here.

It should be a very exciting stage.

Leopard Trek or BMC is going to hit that final climb HARD. It will put everyone in the pain train, and leave the top10 to 15 guys of the Tour. I expect Voeckler, even though he is super strong this year, to be dropped (but maybe not lose enough time to lose the jersey yet). I also expect Contador to be dropped again. He has no team, his butt hurts, his knee hurts, he's done for Podium hopes with the strength of the Schlecks and Cadel this year.

so tommy v's chances on keeping the maillot jaune? i think he keeps it, but just barely-by 15 seconds or less

If contador is ok with his knee, he will attack...he's been laying low in the mountains so far but does not look like he's in trouble, or suffering or in pain. So I wouldn't write him off even if he's 4 minutes back...he moved into 7th place and all it takes it one big mountain stage. It's really so sad about Soler...we need another hot colombian climber. Watch Basso...he's looking very good.

Methinks Cap'n Bifteck finishes with the rest of the pretenders and Tommy V.

Some team will push the pace and strip support away going up Agnes. Could well be Leopard-Trek, though if Contador feels good, it could be Saxo-Bank. Voeckler will get spit out there, catch back on before the final climb, and then lose a good chunk there.

I'd love to see one of those guys that runs alongside the riders on a climb carrying a suitcase with "COURAGE" written on it, pretending to hand it off to them like it was a feed zone.

That's pretty good. If I ever get to watch the Tour in person, I'll do it for you.

Looks like a replay of stage 12 Leopard Trek going to the fornt...although a touch earlier.

I hope he can do it, but today is just too hard. He had a good run. If he loses a lot of time today he can get into another break later on and try for a stage win.

Did the Schlecks rub off on Jens or what?