Tour De France 2014 Stage 8: Tomblaine - Gererdmer La Mauselaine

[monty1104]

Last night saw some arguably poor tactical work by Sagan and by Team BMC. Tejay Van Garderen went down about 16km from the finish. A couple of team mates went back to help him, but Daniel Oss pushed the pace at the from of the peleton, trying to help Greg Van Avermaet gain stage honours. You'd think that in a situation like that, Oss might've dropped back to help Tejay, and certainly wouldn't push the pace, making it hard for Tejay to rejoin. Mind boggling. Now to Sagan. He and Van Avermaet had a very small gap over the peleton at the top of the final climb. They decided to push on. Sagan was never going to get enough time to win the yellow jersey, so he (and Van Avermaet for that matter) would've been much better served by conserving the energy in the peleton and sprinting for the stage win. In the end, Sagan finished second in a photo finish, with Matteo Trentin winning.

Current Jersey Leaders
Yellow: Vincenzo Nibali (AST)
White: Peter Sagan (CAN) worn by Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQ)
Green: Peter Sagan (CAN)
Polkadot: Cyril Lemoine (COF)
Team: Astana

• Km 142.0 - Col de la Croix des Moinats (891 m)7.6 kilometre-long climb at 6% - category 2

• Km 150.0 - Col de Grosse Pierre (901 m)3 kilometre-long climb at 7.5% - category 2

• Km 161.0 - Côte de La Mauselaine1.8 kilometre-long climb at 10.3% - category 3

General Classification after Stage 7
ITA 1 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) 29:57:04
DEN 2 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 2
SVK 3 SAGAN, Peter (CANNONDALE) + 44
POL 4 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP) + 50
BEL 5 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen (LOTTO BELISOL) + 1:45
FRA 6 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO BELISOL)
AUS 7 PORTE, Richie (SKY) + 1:54
USA 8 TALANSKY, Andrew (GARMIN SHARP) + 2:05
ESP 9 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) + 2:11
FRA 10 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE)

Tonight sees the first real "mountain" stage. While we don't take in any really big mountains, we have three tough climbs all in the last 25km of the stage. This is definitely a stage where the big GC guys will just be marking each other, testing each other out to see how well they are riding. I wouldn't expect a big move on this stage. Contador may have a crack on the final climb to try and get 15sec or so back from Nibali, but this is a stage where someone who is a few minutes back on the GC but is a good climber could have a crack. My tip is Pierre Rolland.

Watch out for: Blel Kadri, Cyril Lemoine and maybe even Tiago Machado to make the breakaway and battle it out for KOTM points.

Conversation regarding past cases of PED use or innuendo surrounding current riders will not be tolerated. This thread is specifically about Stage 8 of the 2014 Tour de France, so let's keep it that way.

 

[ben_1301]

Don't feel the short steep climbs will suit Rolland, If the break doesn't get up this will be a battle between Valverde, Kwiatkowski, Contador with Nibali just trailing. Hoping Purito has been hiding some form at the back there, but I doubt it.

 

[monty1104]

Don't feel the short steep climbs will suit Rolland, If the break doesn't get up this will be a battle between Valverde, Kwiatkowski, Contador with Nibali just trailing. Hoping Purito has been hiding some form at the back there, but I doubt it.

I think Rolland will attack early and none of the GC riders will mark him. Once he's away, he is hard to catch.

Having said that, my predicting skills are horrible, so I'm likely to be wrong

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

Paul, Phil, this is SBS - you can say they're stopping for a piss.

 

[Vader]

Paul, Phil, this is SBS - you can say they're stopping for a piss.

SBS/Australia aren't the only network taking the feed.

 

[Vader]

Today's breakaway is very unusual - 3 riders (not unusual), none of which are from the wildcard entry teams!

 

[monty1104]

Today's breakaway is very unusual - 3 riders (not unusual), none of which are from the wildcard entry teams!

What's even more unusual is I got a prediction right. Kadri made the break.

 

[monty1104]

FWIW, I dont like these drink vests. I'm sure it makes it safer and easier, but we will no longer be amazed at how many bottles a rider can take on board.

 

[Vader]

And then there were 5 in the break, including IAM Racing.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Nice tart by Gabriel today
Lovely weather
Let's have more carnage

 

[monty1104]

Looks as though the break will get this. Chavanel or Kadri to win from here I think, but would love it if Yates got there.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Bit of a snooze fest

 

[Vader]

Bit of a snooze fest

Should get a bit more interesting when the road tilts skywards, starting 16km before the finish.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Should get a bit more interesting when the road tilts skywards, starting 16km before the finish.

Agree -sprint was fun

 

[blue gunslinger]

Of course rain might liven it up

 

[Blue and Silver]

Cannot wait for our first real climb.

Should be good

 

[monty1104]

Trolldj FTW!

 

[Belnakor]

Should get a bit more interesting when the road tilts skywards, starting 16km before the finish.

Will definately be interesting to see what happens in the breakaway when they hit the first climb

 

[Blue and Silver]

Any climbers in the break? Or are they going to see their lead evaporate?

 

[blue gunslinger]

Any climbers in the break? Or are they going to see their lead evaporate?

That was definitely rain

 

[monty1104]

Any climbers in the break? Or are they going to see their lead evaporate?

Lead will drop. Chavanel can climb. Kadri can climb.

 

[blue gunslinger]

Yellow skier???

 

[monty1104]

Dunno about you guys, but * I miss seeing Sylvester Szmyd just sitting on the front of the peleton on a climb.

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

Breakaway didn't last long when they hit the uphill bit. Chavenel busts it wide open and Kadri rides away.

 

[monty1104]

I don't know why there's such a big deal being made about having 2 Kings from USA riding. We have 2 Schlecks from Luxembourg riding on the same team, and 2 Feillus from France riding on the same team, yet they manage to make mistakes and make a fuss over the two guys with the same name riding on different teams.