I rode okay at the Worlds tonight. Rode near the front for the first half of the race before taking a breather for a while. At 41 min was a prime for a $100 bike bag. A Dent Wizard (Stover?) rolled off the front and had a nice gap. I turned to my right and asked Hairdoo if he wanted me to go. He seemed ambivalent but I thought it was silly to let the guy take the bag uncontested so I went and closed the gap. Jay went by on my right and Carlitos? on my left with Jay ultimately getting the bag I think. That short effort blew me up and I rolled around for one more lap before pulling off and watching the final four laps.
On the Tour front, the flat stages have finally come to an end. I've enjoyed them more than usual this year with no big train leading everything out, but waiting until stage 10 before reaching the mountains seems much later than normal. I'll have to investigate.
A few teams have talked about being aggressive in the mountains, most notably Discovery with their sub-par TT efforts. Let's hope the climbers come out firing. Stage 10 is fairly tough. The downside is 40 clicks from the summit of the Marie-Blanque to Pau. In my two years in the Pyrenees, I have not ridden the first mountain of the stage, the Col du Soudet. It's HC so there is not much more to say. The Marie-Blanque, however, was part of L'Etape last year. The mountain is not dramatic in terms of scenery. It is wooded for almost its entirety. The most unique feature, other than the pain it handed out, was the road sign at the summit announcing that road the Route de Fromage. Thats right, the Cheese Road. I took this photo looking back on the road up to the summit. It leveled of in the last couple hundred meters but trust me, it is steep.
Anyway, if riders are going to attack this will be the place in the hopes of holding on for the last 40km. The Marie-Blanque is not terribly difficult for the first 4-5km's. But then, if you are a mountain goat, you have your chance to hurt the leaders. The final 4km are 11.5%, 12.5%, 10.5% and 12%. If you are off you game at that point, it will be exposed and you risk losing time or at least wasting a lot of energy catching back on. We will see what happens. Let the fireworks begin.
On the Tour front, the flat stages have finally come to an end. I've enjoyed them more than usual this year with no big train leading everything out, but waiting until stage 10 before reaching the mountains seems much later than normal. I'll have to investigate.
A few teams have talked about being aggressive in the mountains, most notably Discovery with their sub-par TT efforts. Let's hope the climbers come out firing. Stage 10 is fairly tough. The downside is 40 clicks from the summit of the Marie-Blanque to Pau. In my two years in the Pyrenees, I have not ridden the first mountain of the stage, the Col du Soudet. It's HC so there is not much more to say. The Marie-Blanque, however, was part of L'Etape last year. The mountain is not dramatic in terms of scenery. It is wooded for almost its entirety. The most unique feature, other than the pain it handed out, was the road sign at the summit announcing that road the Route de Fromage. Thats right, the Cheese Road. I took this photo looking back on the road up to the summit. It leveled of in the last couple hundred meters but trust me, it is steep.
Anyway, if riders are going to attack this will be the place in the hopes of holding on for the last 40km. The Marie-Blanque is not terribly difficult for the first 4-5km's. But then, if you are a mountain goat, you have your chance to hurt the leaders. The final 4km are 11.5%, 12.5%, 10.5% and 12%. If you are off you game at that point, it will be exposed and you risk losing time or at least wasting a lot of energy catching back on. We will see what happens. Let the fireworks begin.
1 Comments:
Or let the cheese fly.
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