July 2, Stage 1: Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts - Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers

ednwireland

here it is stage 1 of the tour





The Tour starts with a road stage rather than the traditional prologue time trial and with an uphill finish too. The day starts in unusual fashion as well, with the riders parading over the Passage du Gois, which disappears under the high tide. When underway, the riders initially follow the coast, where the wind could have an impact, before heading inland to Les Herbiers and the finish on the Mont des Alouettes, where classics powerhouses such as Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd will be pitted against puncheurs like Philippe Gilbert.

Details -
Distance: 191.5 km
Highest point: 257m
Category: Flat

ROK ON

Gilbert ftw, but am very worried about the dodgy hair do.

mloc123

I liked the prologue for the last couple of years, pity

montac

Profile of last kilometers

Passage du Gois Mont des Alouettes - 191.5 km

Looking at the last km, Thor Hushovd may also be in with a shout if it comes to a mass gallop, but a Gilbert break in the last km does look very likely!

karlmyson

Gilbert all the way. I don;t think he's done anything except win every race he's been in for the past few months

ednwireland

ok no-one wants these threads , i'll leave it to someone else

Inquitus

ednwireland wrote: »

ok no-one wants these threads , i'll leave it to someone else

The threads a good idea, just not much excitement likely to come of todays stage, last 50km is the only thing of note! Roll on the Team Time Trial tomorrow!

corny

Bit of a problem for Roche out the back with his team around him. Doesn't look like he hit the deck anyway.

Edit: Back on now.

alibabba

Didn't see anything with roche there ?

ednwireland

Inquitus wrote: »

The threads a good idea, just not much excitement likely to come of todays stage, last 50km is the only thing of note! Roll on the Team Time Trial tomorrow!

only messing nice to see most of the stage on itv4 though

kennyb3

Ouch some fall for that Omega rider

ednwireland

kennyb3 wrote: »

Ouch some fall for that Omega rider

still confused after seeing th replays ws trying to figure out how he fell off

cav making amess of the sprint (still got 5pts)

Lumen

ednwireland wrote: »

still confused after seeing th replays ws trying to figure out how he fell off

He didn't see the speed bump and hit it with only the right hand on the bars. Bars were forced up, all weight on right hand pushes wheel violently to one side causing crash.

ednwireland

couldnt see the speedbump -neither did he (assumed it was) thanks


gap plummeting now

love the skoda tour de france advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI2mCONkoro

ednwireland

contador in the 2nd group 30s down :eek:

Hermy

Go Evans!!!

Hermy

Another timpiste

ThisRegard

Great last 10k.

ednwireland

another crash in the chasers

Colmo52

Gilbert takes it.

ednwireland

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh pure class from gilbert

cancellara goes too early

cadel went too late

contador 1min 22s down schleck wiggins in that group

kilns

I may be wrong but I think Roche came in with the first group

ben.schlomo

ednwireland wrote: »

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh pure class from gilbert

cancellara goes too early

cadel went too late

contador 1min 22s down schleck wiggins in that group

Glad i did Evans at 25/1 outright for Le Tour now . Good end to stage, plan was brilliantly executed.

ThisRegard

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Glad i did Evans at 25/1 outright for Le Tour now . Good end to stage, plan was brilliantly executed.

Which plan was that, pay a stunt man to take the favourites down !

Colmo52

Roche came in 19th @6

Bottleopener

TG4 just said Roche:19th place @6seconds.

Hermy

kilns wrote: »

I may be wrong but I think Roche came in with the first group

If my Irish is any good he came in 19th???

nomadic

Cracking stage, Carnage!

Great to see Contador get caught out too far back in the pack.

ednwireland

kilns wrote: »

I may be wrong but I think Roche came in with the first group

19th according to letour.fr glad to see him avoiding the crashes

happytramp

Any sign of Andy Schleck?

ben.schlomo

ThisRegard wrote: »

Which plan was that, pay a stunt man to take the favourites down !

Gilberts plan to win the stage i meant.

Colmo52

nomadic wrote: »

Cracking stage, Carnage!

Great to see Contador get caught out too far back in the pack.

A Schleck, Wiggins & S Sanchez were too.

Inquitus

Gadret dropped 2 mins, that should snuff out any doubt about who AG2R ride for...

Great start for Nico.

nomadic

Colmo52 wrote: »

A Schleck, Wiggins & S Sanchez were too.

A bolllox, I though it was Andy in the front group. Twas big bro.

elduggo

Colmo52 wrote: »

A Schleck, Wiggins & S Sanchez were too.

Sanchez was. Schleck and Wiggins looked to get caught behind the second crash. That was within 3km so both will get the same time as the majority of the front group.

niceonetom

happytramp wrote: »

Any sign of Andy Schleck?

He came in with Contador's group @1:29 but according to twitter he was with the front group but went down with Wiggins et al within the last 3km so he'll get the same time as Thor. Frank was in the front group too so Leopard will be happy.

Contador losing 1:30 on the forst day is good news for the race. Even if he is the strongest man in the race he'll have to work to get that back and his team will suffer more than some others.

Great return for Roche too. I think he was basically right along side (or a row or two in from) the Astana rider who the crash started with - a couple of bike lengths further back an his GC ambitions would have taken a serious knock today but no, he was up there. I think that's called making your own luck.

I trust we all noticed Gadret dangling?

The Big Easy

Both Schlecks, Wiggins and Cunnego are all in the six second group.

TinyExplosions

elduggo wrote: »

Sanchez was. Schleck and Wiggins looked to get caught behind the second crash. That was within 3km so both will get the same time as the majority of the front group.

Yup, Schleck and Wiggins should get 6" as the crash was within 3k, contador is over a minute back though -great news for Evans!

happytramp

So all in all a great start to the race. Hopefully Roche won't lose too much time in the TTT tomorrow.

The Big Easy

Only really Contador and Sanchez out of the big favourites who lost out. Also Kreuziger if you count him as a favourite, he is one of the favourites for the white jersey though.

Sundy

happytramp wrote: »

So all in all a great start to the race. Hopefully Roche won't lose too much time in the TTT tomorrow.

Think they said on Eurosport that the max any team should lose is 1'10

happytramp

Sundy wrote: »

Think they said on Eurosport that the max any team should lose is 1'10

Oh yeah, you're right. I think I heard the stage was planned specifically to stop any large time gaps opening up too early.

Inquitus

AG2R finished 49 secs down on winners HTC in a similar length TTT in the Giro as a guide. Max deficit was 1:19.

happytramp

They've given everyone not in the first crash +6 seconds. Seems a little unfair to someone like Sanchez who didn't crash and gets +1.20 while someone like Wiggins does crash and comes in at +6.

niceonetom

happytramp wrote: »

They've given everyone not in the first crash +6 seconds. Seems a little unfair to someone like Sanchez who didn't crash and gets +1.20 while someone like Wiggins does crash and comes in at +6.

That's the 3km rule. Sanchez got caught behind the crash 8km out and that's his own fault/bad luck. Wiggins and A. Schleck got taken down with 2 to go and are covered. C'est la vie (or at least ces sont les regles).

Seems like we'll have a few more mental gymnastics to do over the course of this tour. As well as wondering whether Alberto is really there or not we'll all have to get used to factoring 1:13 into the gaps between him and the rest of the GC contenders.

I've really been struggling to get excited about this tour, but today's stage gives me some hope.

morana

happytramp wrote: »

They've given everyone not in the first crash +6 seconds. Seems a little unfair to someone like Sanchez who didn't crash and gets +1.20 while someone like Wiggins does crash and comes in at +6.

its just where it happened. inside 3km you get the same time as the leader. They went down at 9km.

it was a bit chaotic with all of the crashes but its great to see Gilbert do what he did. I am worried about the hair though......Think Nico is struggling though, hopefully he comes around

JacksonHeightsOwn

balls

i thought Wiggins was with Contador, but he was only involved int he second crash closer to the finish!!!!

not that i dislike Wiggins or anything, but we all know how strong that f**ker is in the TT's

mind you, i think Nico has the beating of him in the hills

this is going to be an epic tour, i can feel it

Daithi BC

Thor gets to wear the polka dot jersey tomorrow. Can't imagine he's had that too many times before.