And another short flat stage. After the start in Bergerac, we head to the East and finish in the hilly departement of the Limousin, in the beautiful town of Limoges.
78km to go
Today, we want to do it completely different: be part of the BOTD, so we don't have to chase. Becuase as the final of the stage is a bit hilly, a mass sprint will be difficult. Thomas Dekker is the one to do it, and joined by 12 others (Talabardon, Cazaux, Loosli, Docker, Mondory, Lemoine, Lequatre, Vaugrenard, Kohler, Poulhies, Ignatiev and Dekker) he takes part of the BOTD.
40km to go
But with that many decent sprinters (Mondory, Poulhies, Lequatre, Fischer) and 5 Fresh riders closing in (Rast, Ballan, Rogers, Siutsou, De Weert), Dekker know the only way to win this stage is with an attack still far before the finish. No guts, no glory!
9km to go
But with a bad legs (daily form -2) and temperatures above 30 degrees, Thomas Dekker can't hold on. With about 10km to go, he gets caught by the group of 17 (!), and when the road starts to ascend at one of the smaller hills near Limoges, he gets dropped...
Finish
The last kilometre seems to be to difficult for the sprinters in the leading group, with gradients up to 7%. So the battle for the win is between the puncheurs, and Mikhail Ignatiev makes it 2 wins in a row for the Katusha Team!
The Russian beats Alessandro Ballan and Michael Rogers in the sprint. The peloton finishes at 1'40, so no differences in the GC.
Word from the DS
Dekker simply had to try it like this. Else he would have been 5th, or 9th, or 12th..... Did a good job. Tomorrow another flat stage to Autun. The Alps are coming closer!!
Edited by dienblad on 15-08-2012 13:26
In stage 12, we have another flat classified stage from Bourges to Autun, in the Bourgogne.
36km to go
After pulling back a breakaway 2 times, the 3rd time we give this job to the other teams. And as a result, some strong riders attack out of the peloton. A group of 3 is leading at the first categorized climb of the day, the Les Roches (2.2km at 6.5%), with Yohann Offredo leading Michael Rogers and Lars Ytting Bak over the summit. '51 behind them follows the duo Alessandro Ballan-Lars Boom. The peloton follows at 4'16.
26km to go
Despite being 2 of the strongest riders of the peloton at flat roads and small hills, Ballan and Boom can't close the gap to the leading 3. At the 2nd KOTM-sprint (Les Serolles), they have lost 17 more seconds.
The peloton can forget about sprinting for the win, as it is 4'25 behind.
7km to go
Danish Lars Ytting Bak, riding for Saur - Sojasun, can't control his nerves and attacks with 7 kilometres to go. Ballan and Boom follow at '51 and the peloton at 1'34. Finally. Lotto and Omega Pharma have figured out that they need to do some work to get a stage win.... BUt it's too late.
1km to go
The last 2km are going uphill and bit and this cracks Bak. The attack costes too much energy, and he gets passed by Sky's Michael Rogers. Also Offredo can't follow the pace.
Finish
And it's the first win in over 3 years time for Aussie Michael Rogers! It's a well deserved one, as he was the smartest of the breakaway. Bak and Offredo follow at 23 seconds, and also the peloton, with Farrar winning the sprint, is given that time. All GC-contenders are present in the peloton.
Word from the DS
One day, the other teams will be smart enough to realizes that we won't chase the breakaway all day in a flat stage to let it end in a mass sprint....
And the 5th flat stage in a row. This is getting kind of boring.... 197 kilometres between Bourg-en-Bresse and Lyon, the longest stage of this Tour.
And then the game crashed, twice...... The first twice, Juan Antonio Flecha had attacked out of a 18-man breakaway and was leading with over 1 minute only 6km before the finish. The 2nd time, the peloton had caught the BOTD (yes, they did!) and was preparing for the mass sprint, 13km before the finish.
So I simulated it and the turn out for us was probably the same as it would have been without crashing: our sprinter Sagan with Sp of 82, finishing in 18th position..... Farrar won the simulated stage, his first in this Tour.
Schleck had a great start to the Tour! It looked like it was going to be a great battle with Nibali and Contador but the crash changed everything. That's not a bad thing though.
Spilak23 wrote:
Schleck had a great start to the Tour! It looked like it was going to be a great battle with Nibali and Contador but the crash changed everything. That's not a bad thing though.
After 5 boring (for the GC) flat stages, the final week of the Tour starts with a 29km flat ITT from Givors to Vienne. The route features 2 short climbs, so can be considered a bit hilly. This is the time for the better timetrialists to gain time on the pure climbers.
The best time so far is set by Astana's Roman Kreuziger (40'00), when that time is crushed by Edvald Boasson Hagen. The wearer of the maillot jaune is '36 faster: 39'24.
His time won't last long, because former TT-world champion Michael Rogers, who won the last stage, is '8 faster. The Aussie can take place in the hot seat now.
Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara, the winner of the first ITT in Millau, sets the fastest time at the first splite, and is also at the finish faster than Rogers: 38'28. Is there anyone who can beat this?
Radio Shack's Bradley Wiggins rides a good ITT, but is '25 slower than Cancellara. 2nd time so far in 38'53.
Split times at the only Intermediate:
1. Cancellara 16'49; 2. Contador +3; 3. Wiggins +8; 4. Rogers +21; 5. Nibali +24; 47. Gesink +1'18; 53. A. Schleck +1'24.
After loosing 2'30 because of the assive pile up in stage 10, Alberto Contador is determined to ride himself back in the race for yellow. And he does a great job! El Pistolero rides the 2nd time of the day, only '9 behind Cancellara!
Vincenzo Nibali lost '21 to Contador after 11 kilometres, but, more important, gained about a minute to the Monster-duo. He rides a decent 2nd half of the ITT, finishing in the 5th time at '51.
With the Giro d'Italia in his legs,Robert Gesink is struggling in the ITT. The Dutch can't find the right cadence and looses a lot of time today. He finishes in a disappointing time of 40'51 in 36th place, 2'23 behind Cancellara, 2'14 behind Contador and 1'32 behind Nibali...
The last rider to start is Andy Schleck, who knows before the start that he will loose time today. The goal is betwen 1'30 and 2'00, but he looses a bit more than that. With the 40th time (41'00), he looses 2'23 to Contador and 1'41 to Nibali.
The battle for the GC is open again.
Word from the DS
Oh my, this was a disastrous ITT from the entire team. I really don't understand, it was like everyone was riding on BMX-bikes, even good tietrialists as Terpstra finished around place 60....
But luckily Andy still has the maillot jaune, so nothing is lost.
and Gesink on the second place! 
