Tour Down Under Stage 4

Sky will once again be defending the general classification lead that Geraint Thomas has over Tom-Jelte Slagter which is a slim 5 seconds. In a race where seconds determine placing in almost the top 30 riders the gc won't be shaken up today with Stage 5 to Old Willunga Hill still looking like the decisive stage. Today's race will be another chance for the sprinters and could be the day that Greipel wins his 13th TDU stage and becomes the first rider to have done so in the 15th edition of the race. The 126.5km stage begins in Modbury and contains just one big climb, Kersbrook Road on Humbug Scrub, after just 30kms but after that there are undulating roads but nothing dramatic. The final few kms are almost dead flat and will see Greipel, Goss and Kittel fighting it out for the win. Orica-GreenEdge has had a disappointing return to the TDU after Simon Gerrans overall win in last years edition and Goss looks good after finishing second on yesterday's stage. Last year Óscar Freire won the sprint but in 2010 it was Greipel who won in the Barossa Valley town.
 

Geraint Thomas leads the overall, climbers and sprint classifications but could lose his sprinters jersey to one of the fast men. The gc shouldn't really change at the pointy end but with Jack Bobridge tied for points in the KOM he may just try to take the lead in the polka classification. With Thomas wearing the ochre jersey, Bobridge will wear the Kom jersey and Slagter should be in the points jersey. This gives Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) a day in the young riders jersey or if Slagter wears the young riders jersey, Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Merida) will be in the blue points jersey. GreenEdge will have some joy with Simon Clarke in the aggressive rider jersey and RadioShack Leopard will once again be leading the team classification, continuing their team form from last year when they won the classification.

Course Map 

Course Profile

 

2013 Australian Men’s Road Nationals Preview

The Australian nationals are always one of the first races of the year let alone national championships on the calendar. New Zealand also tends to hold early January national championships so that the competition is fierce and contains the top national riders, following Australia’s lead. With the major cycling races taking place in Europe to fly back for a national race in June when the majority of other nationals are held while preparing for the Tour de France would be for many cyclists untenable. Therefore with the Bay Series and Sun Tour in early Jan the Australian riders use the two early events to build for the nationals and the first UCI World Tour, Tour Down Under event of the year. The summer cycling calendar is now a packed affair with the Sun Tour but this allows for riders to arrive at the nationals in to form with some racing in their legs after the Christmas break.

UCI World Championships Men's Road Race Route

Courtesy of UCI

2012 Vuelta de España Preview

The return of Alberto to Grand Tour racing has many excited but it is not a foregone conclusion that the Spaniard will finish in Madrid atop the podium. The GC contenders in 2012 are of a high calibre and they will pose individual threats to Contador winning the race. Two riders who finished on the podium last year return as do past winners of the Vuelta. The favourites for the race this year as Juanjo Cobo, Chris Froome, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Igor Anton, Joaquím Rodríguez, Andrew Talanksy and Robert Gesink although behind these riders are a second tier of favourites who look more likely to challenge for stage wins than the red jersey.

Froome is coming into the Vuelta in 2012 as a known force. In 2011 he was able to deflect attention from himself onto Wiggins if necessary as he riding in support of his teammate. This year will be a different story as Froome finished second behind Wiggins at Le Tour de France and bagged a bronze medal In the ITT at the London Olympics. Froome’s ability to time trial will be detrimental to Contador's attempt at winning the GC. Froome can match the Spaniards climbing prowess as well as his time trialling so it could come down to seconds in Madrid.

2012 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian Start list

Defending champion Philippe Gilbert has decided to skip the 2012 edition of the 2012 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian and his BMC team will now be lead by Greg Van Avermaet. Past winners of the race in the this years edition include the 2010 winner Luis Leon Sanchez, 2008 winner Alejandro Valverde and the 2006 winner Xavier Florencio. 

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Full start list after the jump

Stage 12 Mountains

Stage 12 is a 226km race from Saint Jean-De-Maurienne to Annonay-Davézieux which has two Cat 1 climbs. Saint Jean-De-Maurienne will be known to the peloton after the ride through the valley of the River Arc during Stage 11. The town had been part of Piedmont under the House of Savoy but now has been French since 1859 and seen its share of cycling. From the town the peloton will head north-west to the Col du Grand Cucheron which will be ascended for a fourth time in the Tour. First included in the 1972 Tour it has appeared again in 1983 and 1998 and has the honour of Eddy Merckx being the first to summit the mountain. The 12.5kms climb in 2012 will come after just 20kms of the race and its average gradient is 6.5%. The steepest average part of the climb is 9.8% during the ninth km of the climb. The riders will quickly descend from the Cucheron down to Pontcharra before heading up the Col du Granier. Will a long flat finish to the stage attacks look more likely to eventuate and succeed on the Granier.

The Col du Granier made its first appearance at the 1947 Tour and has been included 16 times throughout the Tour’s history. Last seen in the 1998 edition it is a shorter climb than the Col du Grand Cucheron but is still a Cat 1 climb due to its steep second half. In 2012 the Granier will be 9.7kms long at an average of 8.6% making it one of the steepest climbs in the Tour this year. In the last two kilometres the average gradient in over 10% and will be a test of the entire peloton. This will be a tough climb as the second climb of the day and coming after Stage 11 which includes two HC climbs and a Cat 1 climb. The Granier is being attacked from the east this year and has not hosted such an approach since 1972 when Lucien Van Impe was the first rider over the summit. Van Impe was the king of the mountains that year and also took out Stage 12 just two days before. Once again the Granier will not host a summit finish as it has not done so previously but has been included alongside other bigger summits in the Alps.

An attack looks likely on the Col du Granier as from the summit at 1134m’s the rest of the stage is mostly flat until a 336m Cat 3 climb with 18.5kms left to race the only real obstacle. There is an intermediate sprint point at 153kms but its seems unlikely to be contested by the sprinters who would be struggling behind the GC men up the Col du Granier. Therefore if Evans or Nibali really want to take time off Wiggins and possibly move into yellow, a long breakaway may be necessary. That would include a long flat escape before a 200m climb in elevation in the final 20kms.The race will past just north of Grenoble on the mostly downhill ride into Annonay-Davézieux and sees the Tour take another trip south as it heads to the Mediterranean and gives the sprinters a chance at a stage win. This will be the last chance that GC riders can look to make up time in the Alps before they are said goodbye to once again. The GC men and mountain goats have a chance again at glory on Stage 14 as the Tour turns north and into the Pyrenees where Cat 1 climbs are again the order of the day. Once the peloton reaches the Pyrenees expect some serious fireworks as the GC men look to move up the overall before the Stage 19 ITT when they know they could lose minutes to Wiggins, Evans and Froome.

Stage Profile and Cat 1 Profiles

Saint Jean-De-Maurienne to Annonay-Davézieux 226km

©ASO 

Col du Grand Cucheron (12.5km @ 6.5%)

©ASO 

Col du Granier (9.7km @8.6%)

©ASO 

Profiles courtesy of ASO @ letour.fr

Stage 11: Albertville to La Toussuire-Les-Sybelles 148km

During Stage 11 the Tour will ascend four categorised climbs of which two are hors catergorie or HC. The first of the HC climbs is the imposing Col de la Madeleine which is a 25.3km climb that reaches to 2000 meters and has an average gradient of 6.2% when approached from the north. On several sections that climb averages up to 9.5% gradient and will surely test the GC men early on. While for the sprinters it will be the beginning of a day that will they will dread but keep Paris in mind to get through the pain. The climb up the Madeleine begins after only 14.5kms on what looks certain to be a day on which Vincenzo Nibali and Cadel Evans really test the strength of Team Sky and the resolve of Wiggins.

The last time the Col de la Madeleine featured at the Tour was in 2010 when the French rider Anthony Charteau was the first over the summit on Stage Nine. Charteau went onto win the climbers classification that year and his teammate Thomas Voeckler, who will be wearing the maillot pois in today’s stage, may just emulate his countryman and try to increase his lead in that classification. In the 2010 Tour, Evans was wearing yellow on the Madeleine suffering the effects of a crash on the previous stage in which he fractured his left elbow. Evans was dropped and his Tour was over. Once again the Madeleine will be crucial to the overall hopes of Evans but with three more climbs in the stage alone, it won't be the last roll of the dice for the BMC rider.

Col de la Madeleine 2000m - (25.3km @ 6.2%)

©ASO

The next climb the peloton will encounter comes after 70kms of racing with the Madeleine said ‘au revoir‘to once again. With Madeleine gone, the race flattens out all too quickly for some with the days sprints points on offer. There is an intermediate sprint point at the base of the Col de la Croix de Fer at 70kms into the stage. From there the sprinters will suffer until the finish at La Toussuire. This HC Mountain is only 22.4kms in length but has an average gradient of 6.9% and its summit is 2,067 meters. The first rider to crest the Col de la Croix de Fer will be awarded the Souvenir Henri Desgrange as the Croix de Fer is the highest point of the 2012 Tour. The award is a tribute to the founder of the race and is awarded to the rider who is first over the highest point of the Tour as well as €5000. The last time this HC climb was included in the Tour was during Stage 17 of the 2008 Tour which finished at Alpe d’Huez. The winner of the Souvenir Henri Desgrange that year was Peter Velits. Once the riders crest the second HC climb of the stage they will descend to Les Chambons and from there, they will begin to climb again.

Col de la Croix Fer 2067m (22.4km @ 6.9%)

©ASO 

The Cat 2 climb Col du Mollard will seem to be a minor blemish after the first two climbs and is a little bump on the descent from the Croix de Fer to Saint Jean-De-Maurienne which is 604m above sea level and hosts the depart of Stage 12. The final climb of the day is the 18km climb up the Cat 1 La Toussuire and will be the first alpine summit of the 2012 Tour. The climb is just 67m higher than the Col du Mollard but its average gradient of 6.1% is actually lesser than the 6.8% of the Mollard. This will be the second appearance of La Toussuire in the Tour after it debuted in the 2006 Tour. Michael Rasmussen won that day over Carlos Sastre on a stage that also rode over the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Mollard. Floyd Landis looked to have thrown away any attempt at the overall as he finished 23rd on the stage and dropped out of the top ten. Óscar Pereiro rode himself into yellow after finishing third in the stage, just two seconds ahead of Cadel Evans and all but secured yellow. The Climb has appeared in the Critérium de Dauphiné twice since then and the last time the Dauphiné went up La Toussuire, Bradley Wiggins was also in yellow, as he will be today.

                          

Col du Mollard 1638m (5.7km @ 6.8%)

©ASO 

La Toussuire 1705m (18km @ 6.1%)

©ASO 

Wiggins may concede yellow today knowing he has the superior the ITT among the top ten which would also see him skip the yellow jersey press conferences. Wiggins is growing into the role of wearing the yellow jersey along with the pressure and responsibilities that come with it. However he has broken the record for most consecutive days spent in yellow by a British rider and is second in British riders to have worn yellow and equal 113th overall with four days in the jersey. It is still a long way to Paris and handing the jersey over to Froome may just help Wiggins recharge mid-Tour and enable him to come out and attack his rivals In the Pyrenees to ensure that heading into the Stage 19 ITT he is holding a substantial time gap over them. This way, Sky is still in charge of yellow and Froome gets a chance to audition himself for a future, or alternative, GC winner for Sky.

At only 148kms the stage looks likely to be explosive. The Tour director Christian Prudhomme has begun to favour the shorter alpine stages in which the GC men are forced to come out an attack with such stages no longer characterised by 200kms of rolling terrain before one final massive climb. Of the 148kms, the four categorised climbs together will equate to 71.4km which will certainly test the legs of the peloton. After the ascent of the Mollard there could be a new virtual leader on the road who will go on to put real time into Wiggins up La Toussuire. This may end up being Froome if Sky allows him to make his own attacks which could also alleviate any pressure from Wiggins. Either way there will be attacks or breakaway attempts in a stage that promises fireworks and GC shakeup that the 2012 Tour is yet to really experience.

Stage Profile

Stage and mountain profiles all courtesy of ASO at letour.fr