Chasing The Tour | Stage 13

Note to self: Next Bastille Day take the day off chasing the Tour de France and go for a bike ride. Mad traffic jams, too many people to see the race, and missing 99% of the stage was our festive French National holiday. But that's sometimes the reality of the Tour de France and without these hiccups it wouldn't be the the grandest travelling show in on Earth. On a positive note, we got a bit of a treat finishing in Le Cap d'Agde which is a beautiful seaside resort town and Europe's largest naturist beach (where nudity is madetory) is just down the road. Veeral is over there right now taking photos of Andre Greipel evening out his tanlines. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and happy Bastille Day!

Stage 13 Photos

: Less that 20kms into the stage the breakaway had succeeded but were smashing it hard to increase the gap. The one thing you do not see on TV is the beginning of the stage where the riders are slapping themselves silly at 50km/hr to get in the breakaway

: Orica-GreenEDGE at the front bringing back the breakaway bunch and leading out Goss for the intermediate sprint

: The escapees near the end of their day out front

: Jurgen Van den Broeck, Cadel Evans and Nicolas Roche cresting the Mont Saint-Clair KOM first (only 1km long but very steep!)

: Even the Portuguese were out in full force on Bastille Day

: Vinokourov attacked the front group with 16kms remaining with Albasini locked on his wheel. They were caught at 2.5km to go which Sanchez countered straight after but was also caught with 1km remaining.

: With 900m to go Wiggins was in the lead with Boasson Hagen on his wheel but he couldn’t hold off Greipel and Sagan

: Greipel and Sagan drag raced each other to the finish but Greipel lunged at the precise moment to narrowly win the sprint

: Greipel gets his 3rd stage win of the 2012 Tour and moves up to 2nd place in the points classification

: Matty Goss didn’t make the front bunch and came in 93rd. That puts him in 3rd place in the points classification 29 points behind Greipel and 93 points behind Sagan

Stage 14 Preview

[rrsumm raceid=718]

http://twitter.com/ralasdair Alasdair

I thought for a Saturday, and Bastille day at that, this was a really boring day. You’d have thought they’d have moved things around so we’d get a proper mountain stage today!
http://twitter.com/ralasdair Alasdair

I thought for a Saturday, and Bastille day at that, this was a really boring day. You’d have thought they’d have moved things around so we’d get a proper mountain stage today!
Helby100

We avoided the race to day and road vonteux worth ith for sure with no crowds :)
Matty_p

Sad to read Rogers & Porte are copping it from Aussie fans for riding ‘against’ Cadel.
- Bracks_ashat
  
  This was like back in 2004 where Jens was accused of being a Judas. As he says, “my loyalty is to my team and my leader”. That’s all that matters.
- Michaelrousch
  
  Its disgusting! must be all the” ring ins” from london, now the sport is mainstream. I bet they are the same wankers wearing the afl jumpers………….embarrassed to be Australian. No doubt its the same knobs screaming that hidieous Aussie x3 Oiux3
- JBS
  
  I wonder how many of the knobs booing Rogers and Porte realise that Cadel doesn’t ride for an “Australian” team either?
  
  As much good in terms of popularity and sponsorship the nationalist teams like Sky, GreenEdge and Katusha bring to the sport, I sometimes wish they didn’t exist. I’d much prefer all teams to be pure trade teams with no nationalistic links, but that won’t happen. Support your favourite team, your favourite riders, but don’t get caught up in the patriotic bullsh@t!
  - Johnson
    
    Maybe they are educated cycling fans booing because they don’t believe that Rogers and Porte can now pace the peloton up HC climbs all the while dropping GT winners and noted climbers…
    - JBS
      
      If they were educated then they would know that booing a rider, any rider, no matter your personal opinion of them automatically qualifies for knob-hood!
      - Johnson
        
        Ricardo Ricco deserving of a boo or polite applause? What about Remy di Gregorio? Virenque? The Chicken?
        
        JBS
        
        “If you haven’t got anything good to say, don’t say anything at all” - are still very wise words.
        
        and if you want to carry on with the doping angle I suggest you head to:
        
        http://forum.cyclingnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20
        
        because you are the only one bringing it up here.
        
        Johnson
        
        Dont need to go there, I will instead close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and go “nah nah nah nah nah”
Bracks_ashat

I’m disappointed by the performances of Vino and Valverde, had some hopes at the beginning of the tour for a good GC standing, but looks like their time is over. Looks like Wiggins will be yellow in Paris.
- Drferrari
  
  Thanks because they’re no good without their jungle juice flowing through their veins!
  - SuperDom
    
    Drferrari I thought you were banned? To get in the spirit, I nuded up to read this post.
- Robert Merkel
  
  I’m more disappointed in the performance of JJ Cobo. Y’know, the guy who beat both Wiggins and Froome in the Vuelta last year? FFS, thus far the only jersey he’s looked like contending for is the invisibility jersey (sponsored by Footon-Fuji-Servetto 2010).
Justin!

Is there something weird going on with your camera/photo editing setup? You’re over-saturating the colors so much, the different color channels are bleeding out. You’re also going overboard with the Shadows/Highlights thing - you’re getting halos and such. You lose a lot of depth in the photos, that way.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Thanks for letting me know Justin. I don’t seem to be getting this on my monitor. Are you using a very high resolution monitor or special setup?
- Nic_3
  
  i’m not viewing on anything special (mac book pro circa 2009) but the colours do seem very saturated to me. I don’t see any halos or anything though, but the colours do look over saturated. This is intended as a constructive comment, certainly not a criticism - I’m loving your photos and commentary. Thank you!
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    Thanks for letting me know. I’ll check my monitor. Much of the photo editing is done in the car while going to the next stage, so often
    the brightness is turned down. I might be overcompensating.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    Thanks for letting me know. I’ll check my monitor. Much of the photo editing is done in the car while going to the next stage, so often
    the brightness is turned down. I might be overcompensating.
Thommo

In the light of the Sky results so far - what is the thinking for tactics in the Olympics ? Can Cadel/Stuey/Simon/Mick out-sky sky? Goss to the line, or an upset breakaway ???
Yep.

Anyone know anything about the blue tape across the front of a few of the Sky riders, that you can see when they have their jersey unzipped? Obviously it’s a supportive thing but what exactly is it doing? I have a far idea what it’s purpose is on the shoulders and back but across the chest is an interesting one.
- Johnson
  
  Testosterone patches