At first
this may look like a typical breakaway stage half way through the Tour de
France, but after Monday’s time trial a lot of riders now need to attack Team
Sky if they want to get on the podium. That means that even though a strong
break might get away, it’s not very unlikely that Evans, Nibali, Van den Broeck
etc. will try something on Col du Grand Colombier (Category HC, 17,4 km with
7,1%). Well, let’s hope they will!
Favorites:
Anyway. Let’s
say a break makes it to the line, who would be in it? It’s not really a stage
for the polka dot jersey hunters like Chris Anker Sørensen and David Moncoutie.
Well you can get 20 points on Grand Colombier, but not a lot on other climbs,
so it’s definitely much more clever to save some energy and give a real go on
stages like tomorrow with three times as many points on the menu. Another thing
against David Moncoutie is that with Remy De Gregorio out of the race,
Moncoutie is now the only Cofidis rider able to stay with Rein Taaramae in the
mountains. This could end his dreams for the jersey the way I see it.
Col du Grand Colombier - Top with 40 km to go. |
Another guy
this finish is almost tailor made for is Alejandro Valverde. Tons of bad luck
has sent him out of the GC fight for good and therefore he can now focus on
getting a stage win. He is 10,46 minutes after Bradley Wiggins in the overall
classification and even though nobody will allow him to get away with 5 minutes
or so he still have very good chances the way I see it. Valverde should be strong
enough to stay with the favorites on the climbs and if it comes back together
he will also be the fastest on the line - no doubt about that. He could also
put a team mate in the early break and then try to attack in the middle of the
stage. Team Sky won’t waste any unnecessary energy on pulling back a rider 10
minutes down and with help from a team mate Alejandro Valverde could make a big
number on this stage. Valverde knows he has nothing left to do in the GC so he
will be almost desperate to get away with a least a stage win from this Tour.
Winner
pick: Alejandro Valverde
Joker: Thomas
Voeckler
My joker is Pieter Weening.
ReplyDeleteBTW: Nice previews. I read them every day. :-)
Thanks! Very much obliged! Good joker in Weening. Him, Alba and Gerro have green light to try something. Showed he was strong the other day.
ReplyDeleteYup! And he said on Dutch TV that he really likes this particular stage ;-)
ReplyDelete