Thursday, April 18, 2024

One More Time

-

One More Time
Voeckler? Will continue to suck wheels and bleed seconds. He has been incredible in his defense of the jersey, but the end is certainly nigh.

One more time over some incredible hills.

One more chance for the Schlecks to take seconds away from Cadel. One more opportunity for them to sap the power from his legs to minimize the damage he does to them in tomorrow’s TT.

100km, three categorized climbs, 2851m vertical ascent. This stage is not as huge as last night’s, but being so short and sharp, there is still enormous potential for damage to be done.

As it stands, no one would be fully satisfied with where they are sitting on gc.

Andy is obviously happiest, and is sitting int the best position, but he would still be thinking that he might be able to hold Cadel off over a TT, not that he would definitely hold him off.

Cadel would think that her might be able to overhaul Andy, but would prefer to take some time back, and knows he can’t lose any time at all to Andy.

Frank needs to smash both Cadel and Voeckler to ensure he makes it onto the podium, particularly as he time trials poorly.

For mine tonight will be:

  1. Frank
  2. Gesink
  3. Andy.
Toby Watson
Toby Watsonhttps://www.veloveritas.co.uk
Ex-Garmin Transitions physiotherapist and soigneur Toby Watson brings you inside the squad, and shows you what it's like to be working with a top team on the biggest races in the world. Through his regular blog updates, Toby shares his sense of drama and fun that were essential parts of his job. Toby is Australian, and currently lives in Girona with his fiancee Amanda. If he has any time, he enjoys reading and running, and occasionally skiing too, when he can.

Related Articles

The Final Efforts: Stage 18 (bunchie)

The Final Efforts. We’re on the downhill slope for this race now, and the fatigue is starting to show. It’s getting tougher and tougher to chisel our heads off the pillow each morning, and the coffees are having smaller and smaller effects.

Rest Day 1… Where We’ve Been (TDF 2012), and Tyler Farrar

We’re at the first rest day already! And it feels like the race is well on it’s way to being decided. Each day I’ve spoken about what has specifically happened in the race, and my perspective on that. We shall see where things head hence in the next fortnight, but firstly, let’s look at some of my favourite bits thus far, including Tyler Farrar.

1st Chance For A Break (Preview: TDF Stage 8)

1st Chance For A Break. The Mountains have been entered and the big show has begun in earnest! Looking at this stage, one would predict it to be a day pencilled in by breakaway specialists such as Simon Gerrans, Thomas Voeckler or Thor Hushovd (had he have been racing) who have already let a good whack of time go from the race leader. In this way they’re non-threatening when they do get in a break and thus aren’t chased down.

Are we ready yet? Are we ready yet? Can we start yet?

Are we ready yet. Two days out from the start of the Tour. The whole team has arrived at the hotel, and the Show is about to begin! It's very exciting, but not much is really going on.

At Random

Cycle Hire in Mallorca – hire a bike on the island

If you're heading to Mallorca on holiday or for a training camp it makes a lot of sense to hire a bike over there rather than take your own machine to the island. I recently spent a couple of weeks in Pollença in the north east of Mallorca, on a family holiday - and for simplicity I decided to do just that. Here's how it went...

Martyn Irvine – Two Silver Medals at the Glasgow UCI Track World Cup

One of the stars of the Glasgow World Cup endurance events was Martyn Irvine. Although better known as an omnium specialist, the 27 year old took silver medals in the scratch and pursuit.

Dare We Guess?

Dare We Guess? Ok. So last night was on paper the stage that everyone expected-a breakaway that was difficult to get into, but stayed away once established. And yet it was hardly a predictable result, with a shake-up of the GC, another win to Garmin and Thor, and a request from the Schlecks that every stage please be an uphill time trial, or at worst an uphill two man teams time trial.

Scottish 10 Mile Time Trial Championships 2014 – Iain Grant Confirms his Status

On a typical four seasons in one day Scottish spring morning on the fast dual carriageways of the Irvine by-pass, Dooleys' Iain Grant reminded us all why he's Scotland's short distance king with a stunning 19 minutes and 40 seconds ride to relegate his team mate and former '10' champion, Arthur Doyle into the silver medal position, 15 seconds back and reigning champion Ben Peacock (Paisley Velo) into bronze with 19:59.