Stage 16

Frihed89 said:

15.5 KM, the last 13.8 KM at an average 7.9% grade.

A question for the experts and the rest of us:

How much time can the winner "make up" here between the other top contenders on this TT?

By then we will know if Voeckler is for real or not. But as it stands now, there's 1-2 minutes between Armstrong and the other "contenders".

The gap will probably be quite a bit wider than it is right now. Tomorrow's stage 12 ending in La Mongie includes Tourmalet and other climbs. They're just now getting into the Pyrenees on Friday. The stage today was not quite there, but tomorrow will be the big time. It's where the Tour begins, many riders say, and it's probably where a few more riders will bail out if it's hot.

There are a lot of climbs between tomorrow and stage 16. Lance thinks that the Tour will be decided before the Alps, which will be where stage 16 is, L'Alpe d'Huez. So apparently he expects the gap to be very wide by then.

Those smaller gaps you refer to now could easily be blown away up Alpe d'Huez, but the gaps will probably be much wider. We shall see. You better not wait until d'Huez if you want to see some big time mountain attacks and breakaways. There will be plenty of action in between.

Furthermore, Lance says the stage the day after Alpe d'Huez is harder. I'll have to take a close look at that stage to see what he's talking about. In other words, Alpe D'Huez is being over hyped.

I agree, but i would really like someone to answer my question for just that reason. Can an Ullrich grind out a 3 minute victory margin for example?

In my limited experience i have never seen a stage like this before. Perhaps a pure mountain rider could grind out a big margin and throw the Tour into confusion. I am thinking about people like Sastre and Virenque, never podium threats, but pure mountain riders.

Too bad Marco didn't live to do this one.