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Tour de France Stage 12: Montpellier-Mt.Ventoux 184KM **Spoilers**
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13-07-2016 6:10pm#1So a relatively flat stage with a bit of a lump at the end... Bastille day and France expects a French winner however in true French style they,ll more then likely be left disappointed and crying into their wine and camembert as the race hits one of the most historic climbs on the Tour. Ventoux has seen death and tragedy with British rider Tom Simpson and epic battles to the finish between legends doped up riders such as Armstrong & Pantani. With poor weather forecasted for Thursday and strong winds the finish line maybe moved back down the mountain into the forested area. This could be the day where Quintana finally attacks Froome and on this years race might even hold him off to take the stage win however it looks like Quintana has very little support and on Wednesdays stage Froome was on fire narrowly loosing out on the stage win and putting more time into the little colombian
**Howling winds have shortened the decisive climbing stage up the exposed flanks of Mont Ventoux on Thursday at the Tour de France.
Organizers determined that the gale-force winds would be too dangerous for racing, so the finish has been moved from the summit at 1,912 meters to the Chalet Reynard, located about 6.5km lower on the mountain at 1,417 meters, shortening the 21.8km climb by one-third.**The easterly direction of travel across the Rhône Valley leaves the peloton at risk of a buffeting. The race takes the classic approach via Bedoin, 22km before the summit. The action kicks off when the race reaches the hairpin bend at Saint-Ésteve where the race disappears into the forest. For nearly 10km the road pitches up at nearly 10 per cent and it will atomise the peloton. The drafting effect all but disappears on the steep but inconsistent gradient and the race becomes a battle of engines. When the road emerges at Chalet Reynard it’s into the landscape for which the climb is famous: the exposed white limestone for the final 6km. The gradients pitch up to about 10 per cent in the final 1.5km from the Tom Simpson memorial onwards. It’s the context that lends Mont Ventoux, the hardest climb in France, extra teeth this year. The day after is the crucial Ardèche TT and the route planner Thierry Gouvenou is banking on riders paying for the effort they put in here. The problem is that Ventoux is so hard, dosing one’s effort is an academic exercise.
Two things could happen: the GC riders are forced into a huge fight on the slopes of Ventoux, or they treat the approach as conservatively as they can and allow a big break to get away and contest the finish. The big teams’ logic could be that it’s better to let the Ventoux and the yellow jersey pass for now and start clawing back the deficit in the Ardèche and the succession of climbs in the Alps. But whatever the strategy, it’s Ventoux on Bastille Day. It’s going to be a crucial day.
Bernard Thevenet: Ventoux is long, hot and hard, and you get two possibilities on a stage like this. Either a break goes away and you get two races, a fight between the break and a fight for the GC riders, or they’ll chase the break down. Ventoux is such a mythical climb so everybody wants to win there. It’s the kind of climb where a rider can win the Tour, although it’s more likely several will lose it here. When I won here, in 1972, we came up the other side, from Malaucène.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-12/
TV Times
Eurosport - 1pm
ITV 4 - 2pm
TnaG - 13:1013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY-PW1BCwSI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD-CjcwwU_wComments
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and what does 120km/h look like on ventoux
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dastardly00 wrote: »All you do is copy & paste the URL address and it automatically embeds (the magic of Boards)
ah right:o0 -
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPwAIo0fseM
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