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95th Tour de France - Australia's year!

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I know Cadel is good in the time trial sections but has he any credentials as a climber?
 
Thanks chops a must

Hope his team can pull up their socks too to help him get across the line in Paris.
 
dutchie said:
I know Cadel is good in the time trial sections but has he any credentials as a climber?
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About 10 years ago he was kid just going from being a world ranked mtn biker (about 2nd in the world) to starting road racing. On the 2nd last stage of the Tour of Tasmania he just rode away from Neil Stephens up the 20km Mt Wellington climb to win the tour. Neil Stephens was a hardened professional racing for the Once team, who had won stages in the Tour de France and was a top ranked domestique, being the 2nd/3rd best climber on the ONCE team trying to help, people like Zulle and others to win the Tour. And Cadel as a kid just rode away from him. Yes, he can climb. He was second in the Tour de France last year, you don't do that without being one of the best climbers in the world.
 
looking forward to tonight. be interested to see how his team handles it. the russian guy is crucial.
go cadel!
 
Originally Posted by dutchie
I know Cadel is good in the time trial sections but has he any credentials as a climber?
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Nice reply Refined Silver. I thought this thread would be mainly for enthusiasts who know a little about the sport.

As stated, lets hope Cadel's team can give him some assistance in the mountains because if they don't other teams in serious contention will make it hard for Cadel as they continually send other riders up the road which Cadel will have to cover.

A little other local knowledge is that when in Melbourne Cadel trains with quite a few other competitive cyclists down at Geelong and surrounds.
 
Yes thanks Refined Silver for that info.


ColB said:
I thought this thread would be mainly for enthusiasts who know a little about the sport.
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Le Tour is certainly more interesting when there is an Aussie as favourite (we are all more willing to forgo sleep).

It would be good if the commentators would give more info about the current 2nd , 3rd, 4th etc positioned riders, compared to the race leader,as the race progresses.
 
Important stages over the next 3 nights.

CSC will no doubt attack on the first climb tonight and try to isolate Cadel for the finishing climb, I imagine they will attack him pretty hard over the next few days as they know they will need a buffer going into the T/T.

Going to be tired at work this week
 
The good and not so good last night. Not sure if that was the start of the end for Cadel or he was happy to pass the yellow jersey to someone else. He is not looking that strong compared to the other 5 GC riders in the race.

Nice to see an Aussie win a mountain stage. Here is simon gerrans blog,
http://www.simongerrans.com/
 
Not really sure if he wanted to hand over the yellow the way he did last night, while it takes the pressure off his team a bit he has now also opened the door for a few others.

CSC are going to be hard to beat but they do need at least a minute on Cadel for the T/T, imagine they will isolate & attack him pretty hard again on the next 2 stages to try and seriously crack him.

Cadels team has been pathetic and it could cost him the tour, no support whatsoever. Compare this to the CSC team who are willing to smash themselves for the team leaders, CSC are riding an awesome race but will it be enough?
 
Wow! What a ride by Simon Gerrans!! With a rest day today, he could well do it again on the next stage... looks like we have a budding future champ to take over from Cadel after all! Simon certainly has the ideal compact, but powerfully built light body frame suited for attacking mountain stages. I would be willing to bet that Cadel weighs around 10-15kg more, which is a big handicap going up those monster mountains and probably why he always runs out of steam towards the end of the big climb stages. However, Cadel's more "beefy" build is the best of the leading bunch for time trialling, where that extra body weight and strength gives him relatively more speed and power over the flat time trial stages. It would be nice for Cadel if they included just one more time trial stage in the Tour!!)

With regard to how Simon blew away his competition at the top of the mountain, apparently the local mountain that he trains on near Mansfield, VIC, has some 20% inclines - so last nights 8-9% grades near the top were relatively "easy" for him. The thing that REALLY impressed me was his ability to ATTACK and breakaway from the start and maintain it all the way like he did - something that I don't remember Cadel ever doing in the Tour.

So, even if Cadel was unable to realise the dream this year (I now have the feeling that if he doesn't make it this time, he might never get such a chance again - for me, his body build just doesn't seem to have what it takes to REALLY attack and tame the decisive monster peaks), there is renewed hope for Aussie cycling's future in the Tour. Here's hoping Simon manages to steer clear of "The Dark Side" and any major accident injuries and develops into our future great mountain hope. Who knows, two years from now, Cadel might be riding support for Simon!!

Go you Aussies! :aus:


AJ
 
Great win for Gerrans. Menchov showed his colours last night and if it wasn't for that crash in the last few Km's he may well have been in yellow. CSC are still the team to beat and they just punished Cadel and exposed his lack of team mates, especially Popovych who was brought in as the big name recruit to support Cadel. Who knows, maybe he's run out of juice since leaving Discovery.
 

Aussie, Simon Gerrans is 64kg, Cadel Evans is 68kg according to a quick Google search. Whilst it was great to see Simon win that stage, remember he is still almost an hour behind Cadel in the overall GC.

Lets not be too quick to write Cadel off after last nights performance. I think you'll see a pretty gritty determination from Cadel not to let anyone that matters put any significant time into him in the next couple of hill stages.

You're spot on in terms of Cadel having no support. Its going to be a huge challenge for him.

He will cover every move!!! (Be positive, positive, positive)

Least we get some sleep tonight!!:sleeping:
 

Gerrans is a bloody good rider but he is a long way away from Evans pedigree.
Gerrans is a long way away from even riding with Evans peers let alone being able to attach them. Remember he won on a solo breakaway because he is an hour behind. He still lost 10 minutes to Cadel & Co in the last 11 km climb.

Kind of puts it in perspective.
 

Given Gerrans is under no pressure GC-wise, I wonder if he might now be a potential contender for the "King of the Mountains" jersey? Here are the current "Climber" standings after his great win the other night.

POS No. Name Team Points

1 115 Bernhard KOHL GST 85
2 117 Sebastian LANG GST 60
3 024 Egoi MARTINEZ EUS 50
4 086 Simon GERRANS C.A 50
5 017 Frank SCHLECK CSC 46
6 102 Jose Luis ARRIETA ALM 40
7 149 Thomas VOECKLER BTL 39
8 199 Danny PATE TSL 37
9 011 Carlos SASTRE CSC 35
10 131 Denis MENCHOV RAB 34

Could he be a chance if his *stunned* team management now realise his actual potential and give HIM the full team support (rather than Credit Agracole's Alexandre Botcharov who is now nearly 10 mins behind in the G.C. and absolutely no chance IMO) and the green light to attack again in the last two mountain stages?

It would be great to have two Aussies to focus on coming in to the final stages eh?

:aus:

AJ
 
Aussiejeff said:
Given Gerrans is under no pressure GC-wise, I wonder if he might now be a potential contender for the "King of the Mountains" jersey? Here are the current "Climber" standings after his great win the other night.
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In short no.

As good as Gerrans win was (I was cheering - nearly woke the neighbourhood up) he was only given that sort of latitude because he wasn't a threat to anyone. He is now close enough to the KOM leaders that he becomes a threat so I think he'll find it hard to get in a breakaway like that again.

Atm I don't think Gerrans can match it in the mountains with the true climbers, hence his being so far behind in the GC.
 
That looked good for Cadel he rode away from Menchov on the decent. As well as Vande Velde cracking and losing a lot of time.

Anyone see that young guy go over the edge!! Nasty

Tomorrows stage is going to go right off.
 
Trembling Hand said:
That looked good for Cadel he rode away from Menchov on the decent. As well as Vande Velde cracking and losing a lot of time.

Anyone see that young guy go over the edge!! Nasty

Tomorrows stage is going to go right off.
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Yeh that young South African was the first over the mountain and was set for a great finish, he is lucky he wasn't seriously hurt could have been much worse if he had gone over one of those sheer drops. If I was a spectator I would have gone down into that valley and claimed myself a nice ride..

Cadel had a great result, put over a minute and a half on the russian on the over all standings. His down hill riding was superb. He has another tough day ahead of him tomorrow and if he is still in the same position that he is in now than he will be almost unstoppable going into the final stages.

Fingers crossed for tomorrows stage.
 
Hardest day in the Tour coming up. Last day in the mtns. A mtn top finish on one of the hardest climbs. Three major climbs for the day. Some of Cadel's closest rivals will need 3 minutes lead over him going into the final time-trial to win the tour.

His biggest danger is being isolated too early, its nearly impossible to race 3 vs 1 against say CSC as they take turns to attack and the other two sit on you while you chase and then they attack. His biggest asset is that its the last day in the mtns, he doesn't have to save anything, but can give it everything. Also being the last mtn stage hopefully there will be enough others around racing for the stage win, that he is not totally alone.
 

At last, Cadel's main support rider Popovych actually showed some form too so one would hope he can finally earn his keep and hang in with Cadel right through tonight's three climbs. Cadel showed some true grit last night to shadow team Schleck - I mean, Team CSC . Fingers x'ed he gets Poppas' 110% support for the big one tonight!

Poor Simon Gerrans appears to have "peaked" when he surprisingly won the previous stage! He was nowhere to be seen last night... his rather lacklustre performance after the rest day raised not one mention from the SBS commentators during the race itself. In the end, he managed to place a lowly 134th out of the remaining 151 Tour riders - coming home a whopping 32 minutes behind the winner - at the tail of the "autobus"! Hopefully he can perform better tonight....

Go :aus:

AJ
 
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