Tour de France 2016, July 9, Stage 8: Pau / Bagnères-de-Luchon *SPOILERS*

Melodeon

Date: Saturday 9th July
Type: Mountains
Distance: 184Km
Start/Finish: Pau / Bagnères-de-Luchon


Stage Map:



Stage Profile:



The 3 major climbs:







Finale:



The General Classification after Stage 7:



Preview (© http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/):

Nowhere stands out as an obvious place to attack today, which is why the climbers will be licking their lips. Traditionally they are the masters of surprise. But four big climbs, all with a hatful of King of the Mountains points at the top, means they will attack.

This is also a day when the favourites have to stay in control. They cannot let anything get too out of hand. A climber on the rampage could spell disaster to their plans, because there aren’t enough kilometres for all-rounders to gain time back. This has the potential to be a real seesaw stage.

Pau is one of the most visited places in Tour de France history. It currently stands at number three in the Tour starts and finishes table, with 60 appearances. The leaders are Paris, of course, and Bordeaux. There’s a steady slog south-east up to Lourdes, then the riders head south up the Luz Valley and the Gorge de Luz to the foot of the Col du Tourmalet. Then anything could happen.

The finish is also very traditional. Bagnères-de-Luchon is just behind Pau in the Tour’s league table with 51 appearances. The reason the two towns appear so often is they lie on a great racing line. As well as the climbs featured today it’s possible to squeeze the Col du Soulor, Col d’Aubisque and the Col d’Aspin into a stage between Pau and Bagnères-de- Luchon.

Race leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) goes into the stage with a sizeable five-minute and 50-second advantage over second-placed Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange). Van Avermaet’s performance in the previous stage was a surprise, as no-one had expected him to gain time in the general classification. Can he hang onto yellow for another day?

Aside from Van Avermaet’s lead, the rest of the top 10 overall is densely packed, with just a handful of seconds separating the likes of Yates, defending champion Chris Froome (Sky), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Fabio Aru (Astana). That could all change.

LIVE TV:
TG4 - 1.10pm
Eurosport 1 - 1.00pm
ITV4 - 2.00pm

HIGHLIGHTS:
TG4 - 8.50pm
Eurosport 2 - 8.30pm
ITV4 - 7.00pm

LE TOUR BY LEMONDE:
Eurosport 1 - 12.00am

Inquitus

It looks like a day where we'll lose people from the GC Contendor list but we won't see any big gaps at the sharp end with the first MTF at Arcalis the following day. Definitely looks like one for the break tomorrow, pick a decent climber who's 5mins odd down on the GC group imo.

Valverde 11/1
Costa 12/1
Froome 12/1
Quintana 15/1
Majka 16/1
Martin 17/1
Bardet 20/1
Purito 22/1
Aru 25/1
Pantano 28/1
Plaza 28/1
Porte 33/1
Alaphilippe 40/1
Zakarin 40/1
Pozzivivo 50/1
Rolland 50/1
Yates 66/1

Boscoirl

Will they hit the Tourmalet before the coverage starts tomorrow?

Inquitus

Boscoirl wrote: »

Will they hit the Tourmalet before the coverage starts tomorrow?

Looking at the coverage start time, stage start time etc. etc. it looks like it should be live from the bottom of the Tourmalet onwards.

Melodeon

The schedule has them at the Sprint at the bottom of Tourmalet at or around 2.00pm local time.
So, 1.00pm here in Ireland.

Eurosport coverage is scheduled to begin at 1.00pm, but it probably depends how much folk dancing Ashley and Juan Antonio have to do before we go live on the road, I suppose.

retalivity

Theyre well ahead of schedule, been a very fast first 50+km

PINOT, JEANNESSON AND MAJKA IN THE LEAD
Three riders in the lead: Pinot, Jeannesson and Majka. Less than 50 riders are left in the group of the favourites led by Vassil Kiryienka.

EDIT: GVA dropped already on the tourmalet

Darkglasses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSw3L46B46A

154 pound rider weight limit :eek: Not too strong then

dastardly00

Come on give us the live coverage please!!!

dragratchet

honest to christ. listening to these two dopes while the tourmalet is being climbed :mad:

retalivity

dragratchet wrote: »

honest to christ. listening to these two dopes while the tourmalet is being climbed :mad:

I cant hear anything over Ashley's trousers

Boscoirl

Live on tg4 now

funnights74

Boscoirl wrote: »

Live on tg4 now

Bloody hell eurosport, 10 seconds live and they cut to ads :-(((

Dice75

retalivity wrote: »

Theyre well ahead of schedule, been a very fast first 50+km



EDIT: GVA dropped already on the tourmalet

Be nice if that stayed away - backed Majka & Pinot today

Boscoirl

Apparently Dan has been targeting today

Fingers crossed!

crazy_kenny

Looks like Team Sky going to boss it

donfers

apaphillipe off the back already, no doubt who is team leader now


thought the french young riders like barguil and himself were ego-driven numbskulls yesterday attacking off the front of the peloton when Nibali and company were 5 minutes up the road

....talk about wasting your energy unnecessarily.

dastardly00

Having Tony Martin in the breakaway might be of some advantage later on for Dan.

Lusk_Doyle

donfers wrote: »

apaphillipe off the back already, no doubt who is team leader now


thought the french young riders like barguil and himself were ego-driven numbskulls yesterday attacking off the front of the peloton when Nibali and company were 5 minutes up the road

....talk about wasting your energy unnecessarily.

The impetuessness of youth!

pelevin

They may be making silly errors but it's just racing though & they're giving it a go! Don't agree with criticising them as egotistical idiots. Have a go & perhaps learn from it beats the hell out of mature do-nothing conservatism from ones so young in my book! Where would the interest be if riders didn't attack every now & then?!

dastardly00

dragratchet wrote: »

honest to christ. listening to these two dopes while the tourmalet is being climbed :mad:

Yeah I always had the suspicion that Ashley was taking EPO alright :eek: :pac:

Darkglasses

Downloading my new computer games from Steam so giving ITV4's coverage a go. Not bad at all so far

crazy_kenny

Bit harsh on Cummins that Nibali got most aggressive rider from yesterday I think.

neris

Tennis.. poxy fupin tennis.. in a bar and they wont turn on eurosport coz some fecker wants to watch poxy wimbledon

pelevin

neris wrote: »

Tennis.. poxy fupin tennis.. in a bar and they wont turn on eurosport coz some fecker wants to watch poxy wimbledon

Go mental.

Brian?

Darkglasses wrote: »

Downloading my new computer games from Steam so giving ITV4's coverage a go. Not bad at all so far

Who's commentating?

StevieGriff

Brian? wrote: »

Who's commentating?

Ned Boulting and David Millar.

gordongekko

Yeats in virtual yellow now

pelevin

If Dan won the stage are there bonus seconds that could put him into yellow?

REBELSAFC

Morkov abandons so Bennett is back in the Lantern Rouge....Go Sam

StevieGriff

pelevin wrote: »

If Dan won the stage are there bonus seconds that could put him into yellow?

Yeah, bonuses for first 3. 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

dastardly00

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Morkov abandons so Bennett is back in the Lantern Rouge....Go Sam

Fair play to Morkov for hanging on for so long. His body must be in bits.