July 14, Stage 12: Cugnaux - Luz-Ardiden 209km

mahoo

interesting to see how the odds have changed from yesterday. A schleck still favourite at 11/10 . evans still 3/1. contador out to 9/2. F schleck in to 5/1 and basso in to 16/1..

Today confirmed for me that Frank is in much better shape than andy this year. thought the same in the tour of switzerland but thought andy might be taking it easy.
cant write off contador yet. you have to allow him a bad day. but with the giro in the legs and the falls i'm not sure if he'll even make the top 3.
Evans would be favourite in my book now, although he's going to have one bad day in the mountains im sure. depends how bad..
Basso is looking like a good dark horse. comfortable today. quiet year. who knows! podium place
Frank is looking good but his ITT is so **** i cant see him beating evans, unless evans has a really bad day in the mountains. which is possible. soooo...
God damn it. its wide open. and i love it ... thankfully im not a betting man

TinyExplosions

leftism wrote: »

Does anyone else think Frank is a better overall GC prospect than Andy? I know its only the first proper mountain stage but he looked much stronger.

I wonder about that.... it could be that Frank was sent up the road yesterday to test Contadors legs -they were doing a few "Frank attacks", "Andy attacks" 1-2's and it could be that they sent him up the road to see what response there'd be (if any). He didn't put in a huge amount of time, and could be very useful to Andy's cause in the days to come.

IIRC, Leopard have always been certain that Andy is the leader and GC man, and Frank is there to help.

lukester

I thought it was pretty obvious that Frank was just sent up the road as a tactical move, hoping Contador would follow. The Schlecks have used that tactic before in an attempt to wear Contador down. Andy is undoubtedly their main GC contender.

Impressed by Basso yesterday, although not convinced he can put any time into Andy Schleck on a climb.

Voeckler was hugely impressive- didn't expect him to hold onto yellow yesterday. He's near the top of my man-crush list. As is Szmyd.

antomagoo

Great photo from yesterdays stage, can imagine Rolland saying "We did it", while Voeckler thinking "Thank f#*k thats over"

Chips Lovell

Frank Schleck has never been a GC man for a three week Tour. He hasn't been able go well every day and invariably has a few bad ones. He's also even worse than the brother at the time trials.

ROK ON

I was hugely impressed with the domestique (Rolland) that stayed with Voeckler all the way to they top. He looked completely at ease. Of all the final bunch, he looked by far and away the most comfortable.
Great day by Europcar.

tunguska

Whopper stage yesterday. Schleck boys should've attacked on Tourmalet though, they left it way too late. Is Contador just playing Possum?