TdF stage 8 - July 11th - Andorra la Vella - Saint Girons

kathy · TdF stage 8 - July 11th - Andorra la Vella - Saint Girons

Disappointing long descent which tapers off into nothing. Can't even see LL Sánchez having a go at that.

headwind

agreed. a waste of a stage. its only a leg softener

cadence

glamorganmorgan

leaders on GC will stick together. The only interest is if and when there is and attack/break from lesser lights.

HuwB

Ugh. That's exactly what today's stage is. A wearer down, certainly for the fans, with all day coverage.
Same fare tomorrow, too.

Almost as if this weekend has been designed to pay lip service to the Pyreneean monuments, without wanting to effect the GC in the slightest.

Makes that TTT look even more ridiculous. Sad

Bartali

We could even see a sprint finish. Pathetic parcours. Pyrenees a complete waste if time this year.

kathy

Interesting - lots of attacks and excitement so far today, but no-one's saying anything on here.

Slapshot 3

Can't see it...working flower....evans has attacked..shame he started 3 minutes back

Fontfroide

I agree with Kathy, so far plenty to keep the spectator interested. Fignon and Thierry Adam had a long argument, with even some passion showing, about the difference between the sport/racing and the spectacle. Jean-Paul Olivier (the chateau and monument guy) and Adam were into the spectacle and said it was a great day. Frenchman in front and attack of Evans. Fignon said Evans made a mistake and will get tuckered out to no effect. Both right maybe. Nice thing is I like the spectacle and the race.

I guess we will see in three hours or so.

Rather liked Hushovd's move and Hincapie's counter. That kind of thing is enough to keep me happy for a few minutes. Wiggins in the escape. He is capable of riding a bit on the flat, so who knows. Might be a good day. Of to my nap, see you after the stage is over. TV is downstairs.

Mysterion

Riis had a chance to put pressure on Astana with Cancellara in the break and he chose not to let him ride. Cancellara already has a stage win and the yellow jersey, I think it would have served Saxo better to have used Cadel to their advantage.

HuwB

CapeRoadie

HuwB

Ah well, same old scenario and the same old frightened tactics from "the rest".
More afraid of a guy fighting for third, than the guys looking to fill the podium.

Chance to make Astana work hard? Nah, sit on and kill the break for them.
The DS wusses get what they deserve.

Bartali

What's happening guys?

cyclingtv

in the break.. 2'40" gap.. 65km to go..
24. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 25h 48' 42" + 04' 10"
30. EFIMKIN Vladimir 81 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 25h 49' 08" + 04' 36"
32. ASTARLOZA Mikel 61 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 25h 49' 28" + 04' 56"
36. HINCAPIE George 74 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 25h 49' 57" + 05' 25"
39. CANCELLARA Fabian 33 TEAM SAXO BANK 25h 50' 09" + 05' 37"
40. CASAR Sandy 101 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 25h 50' 24" + 05' 52"
93. FLECHA Juan Antonio 43 RABOBANK 26h 04' 10" + 19' 38"
124. ROSSELER Sébastien 157 QUICK STEP 26h 13' 25" + 28' 53"
149. IGNATIEV Mikhail 164 TEAM KATUSHA 26h 20' 38" + 36' 06"

CapeRoadie

Wondering if Cancellara will win today... Wink

Bartali

Thanks CTV. I guess if the big Swiss gets over the next climb with a decent gap he'll take some catching on the run-in.

BTW - I rode over Col de Port a couple or so weeks ago. Lovely climb for me ... got to the top of that one first! Wink

cyclingtv

pretty much all together at the top then??

got to think that'd be the plan for the chasers..
some may pop off the front just before then..
it's a place for a good descender to give it a go..

bart.. yes we know you quite the fit bugger Wink

try not rubbing it in too much Laughing

if only

HuwB

WTF are Saxo playing at?
Trying to put the yellow onto Bertie's shoulders, is the only reason I can think of, at this stage....

headwind

cyclingtv

50km to go.. aprox 6km to the top still..

Schleck hasn't managed to break the elastic...several Astana
riders are on his wheel and, further back, more riders including
Sastre, Wiggins, Frank Schleck...

Situation
24. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 25h 48' 42" + 04' 10"
30. EFIMKIN Vladimir 81 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 25h 49' 08" + 04' 36"
32. ASTARLOZA Mikel 61 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 25h 49' 28" + 04' 56"
40. CASAR Sandy 101 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 25h 50' 24" + 05' 52"

Favourites group with Schleck and Contador at 1:15

Yellow jersey Nocentini group at 1:55

Mrs John Murphy

A day late from Saxo.

I suspect that in 20 years time when everything filters out we'll find that Riis is actually on Brunyeel's payroll.

cyclingtv

george h is in between some 25 sec? back of the break..
stepping stone? but for who?

or JB must have the goods on Riis Wink

edit: seems gh is back in the group??

Bartali

Might have been a meaningful stage if it had been a mtf.

cyclingtv

over the top.. 42 km to go

Situation
24. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 25h 48' 42" + 04' 10"
30. EFIMKIN Vladimir 81 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 25h 49' 08" + 04' 36"
32. ASTARLOZA Mikel 61 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 25h 49' 28" + 04' 56"

SC at 4" ??
GH at 1'28"??

gap to peloton .. 2'41"

is this the sanchez who is a great descender Smile

or is that samuel??

Mysterion

Mysterion

cyclingtv

thanks..
Situation
24. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 25h 48' 42" + 04' 10"
30. EFIMKIN Vladimir 81 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 25h 49' 08" + 04' 36"
32. ASTARLOZA Mikel 61 EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 25h 49' 28" + 04' 56"
40. CASAR Sandy 101 FRANCAISE DES JEUX 25h 50' 24" + 05' 52"

36. HINCAPIE George 74 TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC 25h 49' 57" + 05' 25"
now 1'39" back Wink

do big boys really go downhill faster..
someone needs to get up to george.. that would cause mayhem..

30km.. gap to the rest.. 2'51"

cyclingtv

25km.. gap 2'48"

24.8km remaining Sure enough, Hincapie is caught..

Situation
Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R La Mondiale),
Luis León Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne),
Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi),
Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux)

Favourites and yellow jersey group at 2:52

cyclingtv

20 km.. 2'39"

this break close to being away.. I'll guess yes..

CapeRoadie

Go Sanchez!

Great descent by Casar!

cyclingtv

CapeRoadie

Bartali

Very clever boy. Bluffed enough but not too much ...

kit

And LL Sanches wins! Bravo!!! Bravo!

70kmph

Thor in Green

CapeRoadie

Slapshot 3

Bugger...I changed LLS....

mayofan

nice stage. great win by luis leon, really smart

what was andy schleck doing on the col d'agnes???

and cancellara? wtf? riding for himself?

HuwB

mayofan

would have been nice to see astanas "4 leaders" bluff called as kloden rode towards yellow in paris with the astana train desperately trying to claw him and evans back.

As it was the only divided camp today was saxobank.

MAILLOT JAUNE

What an exciting Tour so far.... Evans attacking and then getting into a break today - two spectacular manoeuvres from Evans in the same tour - I didn't think it was possible! What more can we expect from him?

Actually, I am really enjoying the Tour as I do every year regardless of how fast they ride, how many attacks etc. Of course it's better when there is excitement, but jeez I think we expect too much from the cyclists sometimes.

Shame about Pererio (sp?) abandoning today - haven't heard the reason yet.

Kind of would've liked Efimkin to have won today, although he did b*gger all work in the break, but it would have given him the glory he deserved after being robbed of the stage win last year when Ricco took it and then got banned.

Nolte

have van hummell, napolitano and furlan been eliminated for hors delai, they appear on the stage results on cyclingnews but not on the overall classification. it also appear 4 riders have retired

also there is another rider missing but i can't ascertain who

Fontfroide

That stage 8? Boff (that is meant to be a French sound communication) I when is what you say when something is neither good nor bad, and not all that much of either.

But in the Tour, at least for us Tour fanboys, we sometimes have to make do with little excitements rather than big ones. No big excitements today. But several little ones, I am sure one would agree. Given it had such wonderful mountain settings, the actual racing might have been a little bit more engaging. I really have seen just about enough, already, of that Blue train, sky blue and yellow maybe, chugging along closing down the racing. Those other guys who are supposed to beat them, they ride behind. they might feel a bit embarrassed that they can't really organise an attack, barely even a little one.

Thor's move was predictable, but he pulled it off. I like that guy, and delighted he is riding for me this year on some team or other. Feels rather hard to even guess who might be spotted jersey in 10 days much less 15 or whatever.

They say Cavendish is very tired.

I guess maybe ASO designed the Tour as one of those events which has a climax, followed by a ceremonial chill out. They left all the hot stuff until the end. Still, some say the Alps are going to be surprisingly difficult. And tomorrow they do Tourmalet and Aspin, and .... then they go downhill forever, 100k or something. Maybe 70. I would have thought the other way round is more interesting for us folks.

Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Nolte

i think you've made excellent there, fontfroide

i'm not a fan of having mountain days where there's a long descent afte rhte last mountain

Boogerd_Fan

don't get it, if Evans had enough in the tank to try something after 15Km today, why didn't he make a move on climb prior to Arcalis yesterday? Same can be said for a few others.
Sigh.

kathy

kit

cyclingtv

MAILLOT JAUNE

Quote from Evans on cyclingnews:

"He was similarly unimpressed with his breakaway companions. "I get in the breakaway and they carry on like three-year olds with a tantrum, saying, ‘Err, get out of the group… they are going to chase us.’ Honestly, that is typical bike riders’ tactics. They are more than welcome to go back to the peloton if they want." "

I can't believe the hypocrisy and stupidity of him.

Well, you'd know all about tantrums Cadel.

No shit, they were using "bike riders' tactics" - I thought they would have been using tiddly wink player tactics.

What is "they are more than welcome to go back to the peloton if they want" mean? He's just said they told him to get out the group because they didn't want to be caught by the peloton.

70kmph

Fontfroide

I can see there are not many posts here. I guess it was that kind of stage.

Maybe some racing tomorrow?

The French are doing very well, makes you wonder what kind of race it is.

ATTACK!

70kmph

Final KM

Link

cadence

kathy

nzovu

kathy

nzovu

Well Andy certainly says he'll keep on attacking Very Happy

HuwB

The only thing that makes remote sense, to me, is if that was some sort of practice for one of the Alpine stages.
Jumping over to the "engine" on a final climb and hairing to the finish.
Other than that.........trying to piss off Adolf Armstrong by getting the yellow onto Bertie. Confused

cadence

The whole Astana situation reminds me of La Vie Claire.....

bianchigirl

Except Armstrong aint no Hinault.

Bored with the soap opera now - never watch 'em on TV - can we have cycling back now instead of the Armstrong Ego Wankfest?

Sorry, SuperB's link to Millar's victory in the 89 Tour just made me realise how much we've been missing since 1999

bbnaz

I am a bit bemused by all of this. I don't know what feed y'all are watching but I am watching the Versus streaming with Phil & Paul (mostly the commentary done by Paul) sans commercials and there is very little if anything mentioned of Armstrong unless he is in the immediate feed.

There was a good bike race today, sorry that it doesn't seem to be translating for the afficianados.

Superbagneres

This just in from the BBC national news: "Little-known" Luis Leon Sanchez won today's stage. Lance Armstrong is third and Bradley Wiggins fifth. Mark Cavendish lost the green jersey.

Superbagneres

kathy

MAILLOT JAUNE

Superbagneres

inputjoe

kathy

bianchigirl

These Pyreneean stages are terribly badly designed - it's rumoured that the Pyreneean stages next year will be far more exciting and form the centrepiece of the race.

Sorry, BB, I just don't see the excitement in the Blue Train and the complete lack of response to it. What did the other teams think Astana were going to do? Ride excitingly? Boss Hog's success from way back is based on neagtive, defensive riding and as soon as Armstrong announced he would be at the Tour you could have predicted what would happen - this is their one, albeit successful, tactic. The only option is to attack but we see a 99-05 mentality settling over the peloton - not wanting to attack from too far out in fear of losing a bigger prize later on. And this mentality is entirely aided by a parcours that really doesn't promote attacking, whatever Jeff Bernard and the organisers would like us to think.

Fine for it still to be a suspensful race come Ventoux - but surely not at the expense of sending us all to sleep for the precedding 2 weeks?

I hope/pray that things get mixed up - that Contador tries another attack on the Tourmalet and stays clear of Armstrong and his goons as they chase him down (what an edifying spectacle that always is Rolling Eyes

), that the Schlecks play a one two, that the Astana bloodbags get caught in traffic, that Armstrong gets caught out by the lack of radio communication, that Evans makes an attack that actually sticks - I hope and pray for all these things but see only a Blue Train crushing the life out of the race all the way to Paris....

glamorganmorgan

The stages in the Pyrenees are badly designed or well designed, depending on your point of view. The race profile is designed to keep the main riders together(ish) until the penultimiate stage of the race. From my point if view it is keeping Armstrong in the frame, which is not what I want.

stage 9 is described as more of a stage for breakaway specialists than for climbers. What a waste of a wonderful mountain!!
stage 13 is quite hard and may surprise people, 15 is a mountain top finish

16 will be quiet because 17 is quite hard, but will they take it steadily because 18 is the TT?
then 20 is Mont Ventoux. It is almost as though the race starts next Friday, nearly 2 weeks into the race. That can't be right.

mr shifter

bianchigirl

Agreed, glam, whatever happened to taking time when you could? There's chess on wheels and then there's calculating everything to the point where you disappear up your own arse in a puff of yellow chalk dust Rolling Eyes

Hopefully Prudhomme will learn his lesson and reappraise the mountain stages for next year. I appreciate he has to balance commercial interests with the size of the race with not making it too hard and therefore be seen to be encouraging doping but the Pyrenees might as well not have been in the race this year.

glamorganmorgan

Stage 7 was ok, but should be one of a trio of testing stages. instead we get 8 and 9 Confused

TDL

Bartali

Slapshot 3

unfortunately we can debate this till next year, fundamentaly with the exception of a couple of stages this years parcours is rubbish, today is a prime example of it, in the Pyrenees, two climbs Col d'aspin and the Tourmalet 70km from the finish....wtf is Prudhomme playing at. Yeah we want to see less pressure on them to dope but come on.

It's stunningly obvious that the Giro and the Tour have been designed around one man and even the Giro wasn't staid enough for him. He's turned 2009 into a joke

CapeRoadie

ASO's parcourse seems to be paying off in terms of French victoire.

mr shifter

Superbagneres

Slapshot 3

KarenP