Stage 15 Overview, Picks and Comment

First time in this year's Tour that the riders go above 2500 feet in altitude. They're headed to Italy over the Alps and will hit a category 1 and an hors category climb on their 183KM journey.

This is where the real shakeout will happen.

Abandons today will include Thor Hushovd, Robbie Mc Ewen and even Mark Cavendish.

You will see a major attack from George Hincapie as someone from Team Columbia has to take over the torch for the team.

And you'll see Cadel Evans either reel in Big George or take an even more commanding lead.

The wildcard in all this is Christian Vandevelde. He could pull a Floyd Landis (sas drugs) and create some real drama for the rest of the race.

Speaking of rest, we're off on Monday and then Tuesday is back out of Italy and north toward Alpe d'Huez.

Cool and the gang!

SPOILER - Winner of Stage 13 in Nimes

With 10KM to go, the breakaway ended and Terpstra was caught after being on the attack for 172KM.

After the capture, the teams put on a furious pace to the finish line. They were moving along fine when at about 8KM, Sylvain Chavanel attacked and opened a lead of 150 meters. He was caught at the 3KM mark.

Team Columbia then took over the pacemaking for a bit and then QuickStep and Milram came front.

Only one KM away, it's a morass of wheels and riders and different colored jerseys at the front.

And with so much confusion at the front, and such a fantastic speed, who but Robbie Mc Ewen could blast ahead for the win? I'll tell you who! Mark Cavendish!

The Englishman has won his FOURTH stage of the 2008 Tour de France.

Here are the top 10 of the 182km stage from Narbonne to Nimes:
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) COL - 182km in 4h25’42"
2. Robbie McEwen (AUS) SIL
3. Roman Feillu (FRA) AGR
4. Heinrich Haussler (GER) GST
5. Oscar Freire (ESP) RAB
6. Thor Hushovd (NOR) C.A
7. Leonardo Duque (COL) COF
8. Erik Zabel (GER) MRM
9. Julian Dean (NZL) TSL
10. Sebastian Chavanel (FRA) FDJ

According to letour,

Cavendish is making this sprinting game look easy. He was blocked in the middle of the bunch with 500m to go but when he opened it up, there was no one who could get close. Stage win number four for the Columbia rider!

More info in the next post.

120KM into Stage 13

We're about three hours into Stage 13 and the two riders in the breakaway are losing their advantage quickly. It's down to around two minutes (after a high of more than nine minutes) and the peloton looks poised to catch them.

Again, this stage isn't chock full of climbs...it's got a lot of flat...and that spells out a nearly certain bunch sprint at the end.

Some people on race radio are speculating that Mark Cavendish could win this stage again. I'm guessing that it will be the aim of Thor Hushovd and Robbie Mc Ewen to do everything in their power to ensure that doesn't happen.

Switching now to SPOILER mode. See you at 9PM tonight. Oh, I'll get the Saab word of the day for you in a moment.

Stage 12 Overview, Picks and Comment

With 11 stages in the books, here's how the next stage shapes up.

It's a 168.5KM blast along the bottom of France. With few climbs (just one category 4 to even mention), this stage is really going to be fast. It's almost all downhill and should feature a massive sprint near the end.

With Thor Husovd riding well (finishing 13th in stage 11) and Robbie Mc Ewen yet to be heard from, I'm CERTAIN that these two will battle it out in a sprint for the ages.

The stage runs Lavelanet all the way to Narbonne.

In Cycle Sport America Magazine, they say,

A flat transition stage takes the peloton away from the Pyrenees to the mediterranean.

Simple. True. Fast. Fun.

We're more than halfway through the 2008 Tour de France. Coming soon is Alpe d'Huez and other fun stuff. I'm having a blast. I hope you are too.

SPOILER - 153KM into Stage 9 - Riders Dropped

At 153KM, the first of two category 1 climbs begins. The mountain - the col de Peyresourde - has been part of the Tour de France 59 times before.

The climb has an average gradient of 7.1% and goes for 13KM.

During today's ascent of the Peyresourde, some notables have been dropped including Eisel, Mark Cavendish and Robbie Mc Ewen.

Which is a bummer because I left Eisel in for my fantasy squad today. Blast!

More shortly.

SPOILER - 2KM to go - 33MPH!

The peloton has caught the breakaway and Team Columbia is setting the pace at 33MPH. QuickStep is now leading at 33.6MPH.

RIGHT HAND TURN!

Middle of the pack is slowed almost to a stop. Long way to go to the finish. No crashes.

HUGE acceleration after the turn. They're on the finishing straight. All the sprinters are in line.

SPOILER - Leaders with 6K to go

There are two leaders about 0:20 ahead of the peloton with about 6KM to go.

Sprinters are getting anxious because the roads are wet and they don't want to crash in the finishing straight.

Hard right-hand turn at 1KM to go. I'll let you know if there's major carnage in that turn.

Team Columbia is out front right now pulling back the two breakaway riders. Behind them are Mc Ewen, Hushovd and others.

Stage 8 Picks

Tomorrow's stage 8 is flatter and will be a sprint finish. I would choose Thor Hushovd to win, but Robbie Mc Ewen has got to get himself some points, so he's my choice for the stage winner.

Tune in tomorrow night and find out.

Until then...

Picks - my thoughts on Stage 5

With the longest stage of the Tour de France happening today (already over by the time I type this), I'm firmly in the camp of the sprinters.

My choices for top five in today's stage are...

Thor Hushovd
Robbie Mc Ewen
George Hincapie
Mark Cavendish
Cadel Evans
Will Frischkorn

Now you'll have to wait while I watch the stage and see how right I was.

Back shortly.