TdF'16 Stage 05 0706 Discussion Thread. Spoiler!
No rest day until next Monday. Until then, the riders face:
wed 0706: mountain stage, 130 miles
Thu 0707: hilly sprinter stage, 115 miles
Fri 0708: mountain stage, 100 miles
Sat 0709: mountain stage, 110 miles
Sun 0710: mountain stage, 110 miles.
for Wednesday, the first quarter is a false flat, complemented by a nice downhill for the second quarter.
Then, if you think your front-yard fireworks show was anything, then get ready - this second half has plenty to scare the neighbor's dogs.
The third quarter is a long climb up to Puy Mary to a high mountain pass, Pas de Peyrol.
There will be a gain in elevation of roughly 1,000 yards over those 30 miles. The final approach looks wicked.
The overall contenders have needed to be up close to the end of each sprinter stage, but the sprinters will not be anywhere close at this summit, and for the final quarter of this stage.
Following this pinnacle, there is the descent, then two more annoying climbs, and a short run-in to the finish.
This is the first mountian stage, and there are plenty more, but this geography does offer hope to a breakaway. This is unlikely to be so for any GC contenders: if anyone broke away, there would be at least three teams chasing, and coalescing a pack on the downhills - so, trying a grand breakaway would merely serve to tire a GC contender while bringing along some rivals.
So, there may not be fireworks to rival the official downtown show.
One outside possibility would be teams cooperatively working to grind down Team Sky; one team can attack, and the remainder can wait for Sky to do the heavy work responding.
If teams share this attacking, and Sky is left to lead a response, then Sky/Froome can be "isolated."
We will see. Froome is obviously heavily favored, and as last year showed, it takes a lot to wear out the one-two combination of Froome-plus-strong team (although no Porte this year). Starting early to target Sky/Froome might be good advice this year. It could work, since there continues to be a deep pool of GC contenders - knock on wood, no one has exited yet.
No rest day until next Monday. Until then, the riders face:
wed 0706: mountain stage, 130 miles
Thu 0707: hilly sprinter stage, 115 miles
Fri 0708: mountain stage, 100 miles
Sat 0709: mountain stage, 110 miles
Sun 0710: mountain stage, 110 miles.
for Wednesday, the first quarter is a false flat, complemented by a nice downhill for the second quarter.
Then, if you think your front-yard fireworks show was anything, then get ready - this second half has plenty to scare the neighbor's dogs.
The third quarter is a long climb up to Puy Mary to a high mountain pass, Pas de Peyrol.
There will be a gain in elevation of roughly 1,000 yards over those 30 miles. The final approach looks wicked.
The overall contenders have needed to be up close to the end of each sprinter stage, but the sprinters will not be anywhere close at this summit, and for the final quarter of this stage.
Following this pinnacle, there is the descent, then two more annoying climbs, and a short run-in to the finish.
This is the first mountian stage, and there are plenty more, but this geography does offer hope to a breakaway. This is unlikely to be so for any GC contenders: if anyone broke away, there would be at least three teams chasing, and coalescing a pack on the downhills - so, trying a grand breakaway would merely serve to tire a GC contender while bringing along some rivals.
So, there may not be fireworks to rival the official downtown show.
One outside possibility would be teams cooperatively working to grind down Team Sky; one team can attack, and the remainder can wait for Sky to do the heavy work responding.
If teams share this attacking, and Sky is left to lead a response, then Sky/Froome can be "isolated."
We will see. Froome is obviously heavily favored, and as last year showed, it takes a lot to wear out the one-two combination of Froome-plus-strong team (although no Porte this year). Starting early to target Sky/Froome might be good advice this year. It could work, since there continues to be a deep pool of GC contenders - knock on wood, no one has exited yet.