Incredible from Andy - shut a lot of people up with that display, me included. Gritty fucking riding from Cadel Evans driving the group up solo like that.
Alberto getting shelled out the back - been a few years since that’s happened in the Tour. I think I recall Rasmussen getting the upper hand on him when he (Contador) was coming up, but he’s pretty much reigned supreme since.
Yes, Evans’s pursuit was spectacular. He saw no one would help him, so he gritted his teeth and took matters into his own hands. Even with a Contador weakened, it still takes a lot to make him crack, but Evans did it.
Andy’s move was just brilliant. Stage victory, and now an incipient, major threat to the GC.
Can’t wait for tomorrow.
Assuming no changes in the timings on tomorrow’s stage. Where does it end again?
Cuddles is going to need one tonight.
He was royally pissed when no one would work with him on the flat before the final climb. I would love to know what he said when he sat up at the front of the peloton, turned around and just gave a WTF look. I though he was going to start punching people like in the Giro last year 
…and why wouldn’t they work with him? All the elite guys were there–and with support–don’t any of them want to be on the podium in Paris?
Andy’s move was gutsy–no doubt–but if those guys had have worked together he would have been caught.
Cadel aside, it didn’t look like the contenders had it in them to put a serious shift in towards the end. Certainly on the Galibier it was survival mode. Frank Schleck looked comfortable I guess, but hes’ not going to lift a finger. Voeckler was hanging on like grim death, it was un jour sans for Alberto, Sanchez was out the back etc. Andy Schleck just put the hurt on everyone.
It’s far from sewn up though, big big stage tomorrow and then the ITT. How deep did Andy Schleck go today for instance - surely he’ll be following wheels tomorrow? Cadel still right in the mix.
At the back Cav came in a few minutes outside the limit - fortunately for him it was in the company of 89 others 
Docked 20 points though in the green jersey comp.
And this, for mine, is the quote which sums up Andy’s attack yesterday.
By means of analogy, I always like to remind people that, in the absence of competition even an ugly woman seems beautiful. And that’s what Andy Schleck was able to achieve yesterday - a 60km break with very little competition for a substantial portion of it.
I was doing my maths and I had worked out that by the end of the final descent of the day into Briancon, Andy’s gap was 2:40 onto the Voeckler bunch. There was a screaming headwind with about 10km of flat plus another screaming headwind with about 10km of false flat.
By any measure, by any yardstick, that 2:40 time gap SHOULD have been reduced, it SHOULD have been maintained at the very least. However, the chase Peloton had large numbers and Voeckler in particular gave up the chase. He was visibly telling his remaining man to not trade turns. Evans concurrently was studiously avoiding turns himself into the headwind because of the monster climb ahead and he wanted to stay as fresh as possible. During that section of headwind flat and headwind false flat, Andy’s lead jumped from 2:40 out to 4:15.
By the end of the climb it had fallen back to 2:15 and that says it all. Andy Schleck exercised an almost faultless gamble yesterday. It’s inconceivable to me how that gangly, spindly spaghetti armed guy was able to take time out of the Peloton on the headwind flat section. My view is that Evan’s needed a stronger team like Armstrong used to have during the US Postal days. Evans could have put 4 men on the front and ordered them to sacrifice themselves after Briancon, but that didn’t happen and he had just one guy who was mixing turns with 3 Euskatel guys who simply had no speed.
Kudos to Andy however. The lack of competition made him look like a beautiful woman, if you know what I mean.
And Evans gained about 2 minutes on Galibier. In other words, what AS gained on the 2nd climb he about lost on the third. Where he actually made the difference was on the flat. Seems incredible but it always seems to happen. I guess it’s like the way if you give a job to one man in particular it will get done but if you say “one of you guys has to do this job” no one will. I guess to be fair to Cuddles, as you say above, you would think the gap should have been maintained and no doubt that was his strategy. Nonetheless I feel like it’s multiple deja vu: there are just so many times I have watched him sit in a bunch as an attacker rides away, while he looks at everyone around him and is surprised that they won’t help.
The bottom line is don’t let a major GC Contender get away on a monster mountain stage if your strategy requires an assumption that your fellow GC Contenders will surely do your chase work for you. Cadel should have jumped too when Andy originally did. Who knows? They BOTH might have got away. Or, he might have brought him back. Doing nothing was not an option, it seems to me. The final results would indicate there wasn’t much ticker left back in the bunch.
Nonetheless, people are talking up Andy’s ride yesterday like it was some monster ride from Charley Gaul in 1958 or something - which by the way, Charley pegged back 16 minutes that day. My memory recalls Michael Rasmussen doing a similar solo ride in his final Tour before he got punted by Rabobank. Claudio Chiapucci did a similar ride to Miguel Indurain in 1992 into Italy. It’s not THAT uncommon, but to be fair, it never happened during the Armstrong or Contador winning years.
I think it is just Cuddles’ mentality to take the staid option. And that’s why he comes second or third or thereabouts so often.
Now that we got that pedantry out of the way.
Gee. Thanks.
I care even less about why you liked 2003 than I do about what “purists” think. There’s nothing more irritating than “purists” no matter what the subject or interest.
Which again, is another opinion. And given that your opinion is that “purists” bug the shit out of you, and given that you’re clearly getting irriated by opinions which don’t match yours - perhaps you should be less forthcoming with your opinions and start appreciating those of others?
You’re the only person who has mentioned being irritated in this thread my friend. Psychologists call that projection. Seriously, where in your last post did you discuss the topic of this thread, at all? Even after I gave you an opportunity to discuss 2003?
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I got to thinking about that moment where Cadel Evans was clearly exasperated with the lack of chase after passing Briancon, and I was reminded of why we never once saw Miguel Indurain in that position. Especially into a headwind chasing a dangerous breakaway. And the reason? Big Mig was so strong, so amazingly strong that he could go to the front in a group like the Plasticene Peloton yesterday and NOBODY would be able to hold his wheel - save for three or 4. That’s why you always saw Big Mig in 4 or 5 man breaks - always. Anytime he wanted, he could put the hammer down and smash the opposition.
As beat up as Voeckler looked, does anyone think he’s got a chance to just ride others’ wheels as necessary yet again tomorrow?
If there is still “honour” amongst the Peloton (for whatever that is worth) then don’t be surprised to see Thomas Voeckler helping Cadel Evans at every opportunity tomorrow - if only to keep mixing turns and helping Evans to keep the tempo high. My estimation of Thomas Voeckler is that he’s the sort of “honourable guy” who would do that, given that Evans clearly doesn’t have any help on the high mountains.
I would also note that yesterday, for the rest of Andy Schleck’s career, is the last time that you will EVER see the peloton let Andy Schleck get away in the Mountains again.
It seems to me that now he’s advertised that he can do it, he’s fired his bolt as it were and he’ll never be allowed to do it again. Which means that he has to improve the rest of his arsenal I rather think because this is probably the only time he’ll come close to winning a Grand Tour with yesterday’s tactic.
Yep, I agree. That’s also part of the reason why I still rate Phil Anderson more highly. Anderson and Phillipe Gilbert are almost identical in their riding style and their riding capabilities. It might sound dreadfully lacking in patriotism, but if it comes down to a one day Championship race in which Gilbert is up against all these GC guys (including Evans)? I’m gonna be cheering for Gilbert every day of the week. For mine, Gilbert absolutely defines the quintessential formidable attacking professional cyclist - as did Phil Anderson.
As much as Cadel Evans is still firmly in the hunt, if you take out his Stage 4 win, you’re right… he’s more conservative than Maggie Thatcher.
But I gotta give him credit where it’s due… Australia is the flattest continent on Planet Earth. They were playing up above 2,500m yesterday. Australians aren’t used to those sorts of altitudes.
Even Stage 4 (and also Stage 16, where he gapped other contenders) he only went aggressive when it was “in the bag” and he was in a position where he would either win a few seconds or not lose any. I think someone (may have been you, BBF) said earlier that tours aren’t won, they are not lost. I think “not losing” gets you a place in the top ten or even the top five. It’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient. There will almost certainly be someone who not only manages to “not lose” but also on at least one stage, wins. Ths is where Cadel’s strategy falls down.
Have you seen the rumours that Gilbert may be joining BMC next year?
Indeed. You’d have to think he’s getting offered some seriously big money right now - possibly the biggest money in the history of the sport.
A few years ago it was Tom Boonen getting the rock star sized contracts. With hindsight, snorting a truckload of coke the night he won his 3rd Paris-Roubaix wasn’t a good career move, it seems.
Epic, epic stage. Clearly planned, because Leopard had two guys up in the break. AS probably realized that a) they definitely wouldn’t let him or anyone else get away on the last climb of the day, so b) they probably wouldn’t let him get away even if he did go earlier, but there was at least the outside possibility they’d figure, ‘look at the idiot go charging off, 60km from the finish, we’ll catch him later - someone will start the chase’.
And no one did. Amazing.
He definitely won back a lot of fans. You have to wonder if he’ll have anything left today - but really, it’s a relatively short stage, even with the climbs and brutal finish.
It’s definitely coming down to the time trial.
Oh, and Bertie is absolutely, positively, fork-in-'em done. Cooked. When it really mattered, he went backwards. So now we know what happens when he goes off the juice.
But he had a move in him today on the Telegraphe! Andy Shleck and Evans with him, Frank Shleck not. And Voekler is still hanging on. God, does that guy have guts.
I don’t know much about cycling, but I love this race.
(Thor Hushovd is my hero, btw – finding a way to win two stages with what appears to be his mix of not-quite-top-notch-anywhere skills is just brilliant. Classy rider.)
Alberto showing some pride here. As is Voeckler - the Galibier looms!