TDF: stage 4 - Cambrai Reims

ednwireland

guessing there wont be much action after today ! this thread will probably disappear without a trace

Champagne's plains

Arguably the easiest stage on this year’s route, these 153.5km take the race into the heart of Champagne country to finish in the beautiful cathedral city of Reims.

While not as flat as previous stages, there are no significant lumps and it’s a relatively short distance. That means that there’s barely time for any breakaway riders to build a useful advantage before the sprinters’ teams will gather to chase them down.

A possible complicating factor is the wind on Champagne’s exposed plains, but it would have to be some breeze to trouble the peloton enough to lead to a split. Nevertheless, if it is windy you can expect the riders to be nervous. Ultimately, that’s likely to mean that crashes are a bigger threat to the favourites than the formation of echelons.

Lumen

Removed "NO SPOILERS" from the thread title, as it's a bit ambiguous/confusing.

There is, of course, no need to use spoiler tags to obscure spoilers on stage-specific threads.

michaelm

Don't know why I didn't think of this before and I'm sure many of you have but just in case.... I usually get to see the last hour or so each day but only have TG4 and despite having reasonable conversational Irish have to admit am lost with the commentary and hence lose out on a lot of what'a going on. Until today that is! - my broadband is good enough for audio but pic quality is very poor so using Eurosport online I can once again listen to Kelly's wonderful interjections with the excellent pic quality from TG4 - Bliss!

ednwireland

Dimitri Champion (Fra) Ag2r
Francis De Greef (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
Nicolas Vogondy (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom
Inaki Isasi (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
Iban Mayoz (Spa) Footon-Servetto

no chance of this lot staying away !
and a crash just for a change
Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) takes a spill

k_d

hows roche going?

austinbyrne21

Anyone got a link to a Eurosport stream like yesterday? That was just ideal!

Dodge

k_d wrote: »

hows roche going?

He'll be trying to do nothing today. Like pretty much every other leading rider (and yeah, at this stage I think we can call him a leading rider)

My prediction is Cav to win the sprint easily enough.

Murph100

Free live Eurosport link here, not mega pic quality but fine for free !

http://www.fromsport.com/v-0/0/150/v-15003.html

austinbyrne21

Murph100 wrote: »

Free live Eurosport link here, not mega pic quality but fine for free !

http://www.fromsport.com/v-0/0/150/v-15003.html

That's great, thanks a million!

glanman

I would be thinking Cav too today, hard to see beyond him today. The breakaway is is less than 2 mins ahead and not really building anything. This is the first real sprint stage, especially after they lost one on sunday, so they will be all out for this.

Just a thought, as Cav dominated so much last season, will competing teams try something different to try beat his dominance if left until the last 500m??

ednwireland

glanman wrote: »

Just a thought, as Cav dominated so much last season, will competing teams try something different to try beat his dominance if left until the last 500m??

nah just wait for him to fall off and hope he doesnt take you with him :rolleyes:

Dodge

Apparently there's 9 round abouts in the last 5kms with 2 that are basically 90 degree right hand turns.

Could be a chance for someone to go off pursuit style and hope the peleton is too worried about all these bends.

Probably only Cancellera could do that though in fairness

SomeFool

Millar maybe?

NickDrake

SomeFool wrote: »

Millar maybe?

Not a hope

SomeFool

Great great finish, well done Petacchi

ednwireland

what stage will cav go home ? really off form there, green gone at this point i would think

oops great win from petacchi life in the old dog yet

Liamo08

Yeah great finish from Petacchi. Cavendish really didn't have it at the end there.

Dodge

Jaysus, Cav looked cooked there. Hushovd was tracking him and looked amazed to see the rest of them fly past

Great sprint by Petacchi

IM0

cav chokes, ends up looking like an amateur :eek:

speaking of which anyone notice the spectstor muscling into the peloton about 5k out :eek:
rewind and check it out!

Raedwald

Really good work by Petacchi there.

Cav didn't look to happy at all coming over the finish, seemed to be looking at his pedals as well.

glanman

cav had nothing at all when it was put up to him to go by himself... did he take too much out of himself yesterday by pushing too much? Petachi has more raw speed than anyone else, cant see him winning green though as Thor has too much of a lead already and can do more in general racing.

Murph100

The second Renshaw pulled aside Cav looked almost startled, looked around and then started pedaling, and gave up really quickly, Hushovd didn't seem to have the legs either.

Well done to Petacchi, lets hope its just ' life ' in the old dog and not something else.

IM0

Raedwald wrote: »

Cav didn't look to happy at all coming over the finish, seemed to be looking at his pedals as well.

I think he was wondering where his legs went.

bbosco

me@ucd wrote: »

I think he was wondering where his legs went.

At least Thor has an excuse after a big day yesterday and having lost out from following Cavendish's wheel in the sprint today, which was a perfectly good tactic in theory.

barrabus

lots of schadenfreude here.
I suspect rumours of Cav's demise are greatly exaggerated.
He has made an utter balls of a couple of stage finishes recently knocking over colleagues and has been widely criticised in the process, whether you like or loathe him you;d have to agree that it is bound to have softened his edge.

bbosco

I can't speak for anyone else, but I am indifferent to Cavendish (and pretty much all pro cyclists) as a personality and have no great desire to see him either succeed or fail. I think it's worth discussing however why such a phenomenally fast and powerful sprinter, given a good lead out, came up so short. No schadenfreude from me

papac

I wonder if the argy bargy with Hushovd in the last km might have done for Cav's concentration. He is bound to be a bit nervy after recent events.

I wouldn't write Cav off for a Stage win or two either- Green jersey is beyond him now imo.Bookies are laughing all the way to the bank.

Petacchi had serious legs today alright. Thor for green though I'd say.

Dodge

bbosco wrote: »

I can't speak for anyone else, but I am indifferent to Cavendish (and pretty much all pro cyclists) as a personality and have no great desire to see him either succeed or fail. I think it's worth discussing however why such a phenomenally fast and powerful sprinter, given a good lead out, came up so short. No schadenfreude from me

Same here. I like Hushovd just because he isn't the archtypal sprinter and I always like these types winning green than the out & out sprinters like Cav or Petacchi.

Diarmuid

Felt sorry for Farrar today. I'd say he would have been top two today if it wasn't for the fall.

ROK ON

Apart from the final minute of today stage, these flat stages are interminably boring.
Classics, cobble, Stade Bianche, Hills, mid mountains or high mountains.
That's what cycling is about. I can't wait until we see some big successful breaks again. Races need excitement - an exciting 30 seconds of a sprint just isn't enough. Bring back the mayhem, carnage and suffering.

Diarmuid

ROK ON wrote: »

That's what cycling is about.

unless you're a sprinter

cantalach

ROK ON wrote: »

Classics, cobble, Stade Bianche, Hills, mid mountains or high mountains. That's what cycling is about. I can't wait until we see some big successful breaks again. Races need excitement - an exciting 30 seconds of a sprint just isn't enough. Bring back the mayhem, carnage and suffering.

Yes, absolutely! The Giro is often much more entertaining than the Tour as a spectacle. The first week of this Tour has added a good dash of this Giro-style craziness and, for me, it's been all the better for it!

Raam

ROK ON wrote: »

Classics, cobble, Stade Bianche, Hills, mid mountains or high mountains.
That's what cycling is about.

Wind and rain too

Although, you did says classics, and that's what the early northern ones are full of.

spyderski

Just saw Cav on Sky news. Threw his bike on the ground, got into team bus then f**ked his helmet out the door in the middle of the bus. Bit of advice Cav, if your gonna throw the toys out of the pram, don't do it when TV cameras (esp. Sky ones) are around - you just look like a spoilt idiot.

Dodge

ROK ON wrote: »

Apart from the final minute of today stage, these flat stages are interminably boring.
Classics, cobble, Stade Bianche, Hills, mid mountains or high mountains.
That's what cycling is about. I can't wait until we see some big successful breaks again. Races need excitement - an exciting 30 seconds of a sprint just isn't enough. Bring back the mayhem, carnage and suffering.

Can't have it every day fellah or they'd all be carted off. Need the cople of quiter days so they can recouperate

on_the_nickel

Cav is giving me the impression he is suffering from same affliction Tom Boonen had a few years ago, if you know what I mean, nudge nudge.

ednwireland

on_the_nickel wrote: »

Cav is giving me the impression he is suffering from same affliction Tom Boonen had a few years ago, if you know what I mean, nudge nudge.

not winning ?

papac

Link to (foreign talking) vid of Cavs hissy fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2nDhJ6Wp8

bbosco

There's something kind of pathetic about those team flunkies going round picking up after him.

ROK ON

The Cav situation is simple.
The guy won so much last year that it would be bery difficult to achieve that this year.
He has a smaller train and some other athletes have a bit more strength and form.
This is the ebb ad flow that is natural. Nothing more.

Sure he acts that prick, but what 25 year old doesn't.
I hope his team and those around him recognise this year for what it is, a lull.
He will be back.
FWIW. I think he should murder himself to try and take a placing before the mountains. If he does then get off the bike. Relax for rest of July and come back fighting fit for the Worlds.

Lumen

papac wrote: »

Link to (foreign talking) vid of Cavs hissy fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2nDhJ6Wp8

That's not a bike toss. This is a bike toss.

bagus

Cavendish is a cocky arrogant childish spoilt brat.
Every time something doesn't go his way he lets himself down. Even when things are going his way he's the same (victory salute in Tour of Romandie)

I feel sorry for Stephen and Sean when the british eurosport commentators are banging on about him and they have to hold their tongue.

Moflojo

I think the words of the great Peter Kay are appropriate here:

"What a knobhead."

ThisRegard

His strop started before he even got over the finish line yesterday, you could see it start as soon as he was passed and he gave up far too easily, imo of course.

Dodge

ThisRegard wrote: »

His strop started before he even got over the finish line yesterday, you could see it start as soon as he was passed and he gave up far too easily, imo of course.

Well I think he was already so far behind in the green jersey standings that there's no point sprinting for 6th-10 place for him. Its either win or bust

I don't mind his cockiness either

buffalo

papac wrote: »

Link to (foreign talking) vid of Cavs hissy fit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2nDhJ6Wp8

Better angle at http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/Tour/100707_TDF_rit4_Cavendish_reacties#
Just click the top left small image.