Velominati Super Prestige: Tour de France 2012, Stage 11
During the 1969 Tour de France, Felice Gimondi and Ray Poulidor were fined for taking a ride from a lorry up the Tourmalet. What about Merkcx? Well, he was towing the lorry.
Its an old joke, but like any good joke, it stays funny no matter how many times you hear it. I bet it’s even funnier if you know what a lorry is. I knew a girl named Lori once – wasn’t funny at all – though she would give a ride to anyone who asked, so I’m assuming that’s the joke.
Merckx decimated the 1969 Tour in a way we haven’t seen in ages. On July 15 of that year, The Prophet started the day with an almost unassailable lead of somewhere around 8 minutes. Not enough, obviously. So it was, then, that his rivals’ tails wagged at the sight of him flustering with his gears near the top of the Tourmalet. A mechanical, obviously, sure to cost him loads of time. In fact, he was just moving Sur La Plaque into my personal favorite gear for climbing – the 53×17. They wouldn’t see him again that day and four hours later, his solo effort would net him another 8 minutes’ lead.
If anyone at this Tour de France wants to beat Bradley Wiggins, they’re going to have to set aside the in-vogue last-mountain attack or start putting a lot more stock in poisn’d entrails, eyes of newt, and wool of bat. Unless their strategic plan involves deliberately crashing the entirety of Team Sky or having them all come down with a synchronized sniffle, they’re going to have to start riding their bikes hard from a lot farther out than the 5km banner.
Stage 11 is the test, even though Stage 10 is also a test and may already prove me right or wrong (it will be one of those, I’m sure of it). But Stage 11 sees the finish to La Toussuire where Floyd Landis cracked and lost a mountain of time before regaining it the next day and subsequently testing positive for beer-induced testosterone. Its not a very steep climb, but its hard enough to suck if you blow up. It won’t be hard enough to drop an in-form Wiggins, so Nibali and/or Evans will have to hit the road a lot sooner than the last climb if they’re going to start making inroads. And if my boy Fränkie Schleck wants a chance at the win, he should probably start the stage today.
It’s time to ride with the breath of a cannibal.
You know the drill: get your picks in by the time the countdown clock goes to zero for a chance to win a pair of fizik R3 road shoes and two pair of DeFeet socks.
If they get Nibali back then Evans and TVG can throw the sucker punch, assuming they have the legs.
Froome gone – now it’s mano a mano
Cadel will go @ 5k. Froome looks baked!
Actually to his credit, Froome has stayed on the wheel of that group – he did show in the Vuelta he could recover very well.
@Harminator
Umm. Cadel will crack at 5k? Froome looks great!
@Harminator
Gold! Got to love bicycle racing, eh?
All over now… Evans gone.
Froome has cracked Wiggins !
And here it is… Froome is the strongest rider, and now he has to wait…
Following the ticker this looks damn awesome. I wish I wasn’t missing this.
Some urgent team orders there to send him back. He did a massive acceleration as they caught th egroup of Nibali and VDB and left Wiggins without a wheel to follow.
Now Nibali needs to put the boot in…..
@LA Dave
Vroome letting everyone know that he is actually the strongest rider in the race, although he also just let Nibbles know that Wiggo is baked. Some fireworks to come after the stage. 1986 all over again.
I don’t understand why some people areassaying this tour is boring. Every stage the break is totally burying themselves and the GC is well alight!
”
@Buck Rogers
“Slaying the Twigglet?”
@Adrian Man, doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it? I wonder if Twigglet has promised Vroome that he’ll work for him next year yet?
Let’s not ignore that ride Rolland has put in,fell on the last descent, picked himself up and chased down like a madman risking leg and limb, and has now rode away from the breakaway on la Toussuire, not a bad days work.
FUCKING AWESOME STAGE!!!!
Loved the mutal pat-on-the-back between Nibbles and Wiggo. Newfound respect between the two, and certainly from me.
Crap, I had one and two backwards. Is it too late to change?
@Buck Rogers
i just wonder whether Vroome will be using Twiggo’s postcards as his port-a-potty later……
Great ride by Froome. Could have won the stage…and could possibly have been in yellow?… the Pyranees are going to be very interesting.
Same story for Teejay and Cadel at BMC. He looked like he could have easily stayed with the wiggins group.
One thing for sure…my VSP is cooked.
@Adrian
+1 great point…I’ve been too focused on the GC story. Amazing ride by Rolland. Wish I had picked him!
Any know who was in fourth and fifth?
Only guessed 2 of the top 5.
@Cyclops
I know the feeling. I was feeling pretty frickin’ smart an hour or so ago with Chris Anker Sørensen and Daniel Martin in the break. Shame on me for betting against the French. I’m loving Pinot! Shows a lot of grit.
@Buck Rogers
nibbles and wiggo
Vive la France et Rolland! Mai mon chapeau is off and held respectfully over my heart for Froome. Guts, loyalty, and class.
Why the fuck did I pick Schleck?
JVDB and Nibs
FANTASTIC STAGE. So awesome.
Provisional results show Noel taking the win for the R3’s and DeFeet socks over huwge in a tie. These results are being classified as provisional as I want to validate the the tie-breaking logic is working as expected before making the official result.
Noel, great picks, but don’t celebrate yet; there is a possibility of a reversal.
Provisional Race Results
1. ROLLAND Pierre
2. PINOT Thibaut
3. FROOME Christopher
4. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen
5. NIBALI Vincenzo
Provisional VSP Results
1. Noel (9 points)
2. huwge (9 points)
3. Trobs (8 points)
4. napolinige (6 points)
5. Bianchi Denti (6 points)
6. Lukas (6 points)
7. Marcus (5 points)
8. brett (5 points)
9. Gianni (5 points)
10. Mikael Liddy (5 points)
11. TOM.NELS2120 (5 points)
12. TomC (5 points)
13. Tobin (5 points)
14. velomihotti (5 points)
15. el gato (5 points)
16. niksch (5 points)
17. xyxax (5 points)
18. Islandbike (5 points)
19. versio (4 points)
20. Daccordi Rider (3 points)
21. nico (3 points)
22. mouse (3 points)
23. SimonH (3 points)
24. Adrian (3 points)
25. Buck Rogers (3 points)
26. drewPjohnson (3 points)
27. mxlmax (3 points)
28. seemunkee (3 points)
29. Erk (3 points)
30. Rev.C.Mac (3 points)
31. Smithers (3 points)
32. il ciclista medio (3 points)
33. Emile (3 points)
34. puddles (2 points)
35. Kah (2 points)
36. Duende (2 points)
37. The Fish (2 points)
38. Steampunk (2 points)
39. G’phant (2 points)
40. Paul Seip (2 points)
41. eightzero (1 points)
42. geoff gummer (1 points)
43. Ankush (1 points)
44. scaler911 (1 points)
45. King Clydesdale (1 points)
46. Oli (1 points)
47. Harminator (1 points)
48. frank (1 points)
49. Simon (0 points)
50. Joe Davis (0 points)
51. LA Dave (0 points)
52. RedRanger (0 points)
53. Tartan1749 (0 points)
54. Benny (0 points)
55. godsight (0 points)
56. minion (0 points)
57. Aidas (0 points)
58. Ramos (0 points)
59. Dave (0 points)
60. the Engine (0 points)
61. snoov (0 points)
62. Giles (0 points)
63. R00tdown (0 points)
64. DerHoggz (0 points)
65. Two Ball Billy (0 points)
66. Sauterelle (0 points)
67. Alex (0 points)
68. itburns (0 points)
69. DR5150 (0 points)
70. Marko (0 points)
71. RayElVis (0 points)
72. CanuckChuck (0 points)
73. wiscot (0 points)
74. The Oracle (0 points)
75. Deakus (0 points)
76. Cyclops (0 points)
77. Anais Ninja (0 points)
78. Xyverz (0 points)
79. Fausto (0 points)
80. razmaspaz (0 points)
81. Ron (0 points)
82. meursault (0 points)
83. ralph (0 points)
84. Nate (0 points)
85. Bill (0 points)
86. brianc (0 points)
87. VeloVita (0 points)
88. tony macaroni (0 points)
89. Souleur (0 points)
90. sgt (0 points)
91. San Tonio (0 points)
92. Joshua C. (0 points)
93. MJ Moquin (0 points)
94. Chappy McPappystackings (0 points)
95. Lee Woolston (0 points)
96. BillB (0 points)
97. Mikel Pearce (0 points)
98. Chris (0 points)
99. cal (0 points)
100. sprider (0 points)
101. stickyjumper (0 points)
102. ramenvelo (0 points)
103. ed o (0 points)
104. imakecircles (0 points)
105. ten B (0 points)
106. graham d.m. (0 points)
107. ChrisO (0 points)
108. sthilzy (0 points)
109. prbadlegs (0 points)
110. Skinnyphat (0 points)
111. mcsqueak (0 points)
112. Mason (0 points)
113. Blah (0 points)
114. Alex (0 points)
115. moondance (0 points)
116. anotherdownunder (0 points)
117. Dr C (0 points)
Shattered to see Cadel get dropped at the end, great team riding from the Sky train.
Absolutely amazing ride from Rolland, shame he got held up earlier in the week.
@frank I take it we only got points for riders in the right slots & not picking ones in the top 5 but in the wrong spot?
BRUTALITY out there. Loved dat.
@Mikael Liddy
That is only GTs not stages.
Man, what happened to poor Menchov? My overall VSP took a hit today as well.
@DerHoggz fair enough, I was basing expectations on the same set up as the one day races.
@Buck Rogers last reports he was 5 mins down before the last climb.
@Mikael Liddy
Correct, Stage VSP’s don’t get bonus points; just straight scoring all the way across. Should have clarified that in the article. Its the same as it was with the Giro.
Congratulations (provisional) to Noel. Those are some sweet shoes!
@frank
Bugger, was feeling some consolation at having 4 of the top 5 in there…
Wow! That was great and so close to a pair of shoes to me. Well done to who ever gets them!
Unfortunately I only caught the last climb and missed most of Rolland’s heroics. Grande Nibali! Love how he attacks! Sad to see Evans blow, maybe he’ll come back??
I should’ve gone for Nibbles and not Cuddles ;-)
I’m watching RAI Sport 2 which is showing the Cronodiscesa di San Remo from the ’87 Giro. As a Nibali fan I call for the reinstatement of this type of stage!
Result confirmed, Noel wins the R3’s and two pairs of DeFeet socks. Congratulations, mate!
[vsp_results id=”20312″]
[/vsp_results]
For the record, the tie-breaker goes to the contestent to enter their picks earlier when there is a tie. Noel entered the picks about three hours before huwge and therefor takes the win.
It pays to enter the event earlier rather than waiting until the last second.
@Mikael Liddy
Yeah, I think he JUST finished. Actually he came in 14:15 down on the stage winner. Guess he will not be top five this year. Bummer. Also bummed to see Roche come in over six minutes down and fall out of the top ten.
Frank: do we get bonus points for naming riders anywhere in top 5? and does this contribute any to overall GC?
thanks man, i know there is alot of work behind the scene
scratch that Frank, i read up the result
thanks again
@LA Dave
Wow, right…he did crash, huh? With everything going on I did in fact forget that!
well, hard day for Cuddles, blew like a cheap date in las vegas
my man Jurgen may pull it out though
Gaahhh!!!
Damn team orders. I really believe Froome would have had a shot at the win, and I might have had a shot at some shiny R3’s!
Congrats Noel – great picks!
Fracking zero points. Unbelievable. It’s been a while since I posted a donut. On top of that, fucking Not Quite Good Enough Cadel showed up today, making for an all-around dark day for my VSP aspirations. I’ve got real concerns that Cadel might not be in the final five when all is said and done, much less able to battle back into the second spot.
And all this after sending @wiscot a gloating email last night. Serves me right for opening up my big fat mouth.