Stage 16 Carcassonne / Bagnères-de-Luchon - Hold On To Your Dreams

After the final rest day in Carcassonne the Tour was off to the Pyrenees for three tough mountain stages. The 237.5km route from Carcassonne to Bagnères-de-Luchon is the longest of the Tour.

The rest day in Carcassonne saw the riders let their hair down. There was lots of medieval fun to be had at France’s version of Kryal Castle. The riders swapped bicycles for heavily armoured horses for a spot of jousting. The Orica-GreenWEDGE team bus even got into a joust with a stop sign with the sign coming off second. This lead to a run on the bookies to put on omen bets for Orica-GreenWEDGE’s Michael Albasini to win the stage.

Later a  sumptuous dinner was held in the great hall of Carcassonne where riders feasted on pheasant and a haunch of venison washed down with tankards of ale before a rave party that went until dawn.

Gabriel Gate baked some Apricot and Almond Friands which would be handy in the musette bags on such a long stage. Gabs must be reading this blog and hearing my pleas has finally cooked something with butter in it. The 90g in the friands brings the Beurremetric Counter to 840g. With only a few days remaining can Gabs get it up to 1kg?

With fresh legs coming off the rest day there was a chance of a breakaway succeeding. The route got progressively hillier and after a long day in the saddle the final climb to the top of the 11.7km long ‘horse categorie’ 1,755m high Porte de Balès would have The Jensie calling for silence from the peloton. Fortunately there was a long fast descent to Bagnères-de-Luchon to placate the screaming legs.

Phil enjoyed some twitching as vultures circled high above the valleys of the Pyrenees on thermals generated by the hot air rising from the commentary box. Phil saw the vultures descend on road kill. On closer inspection the road kill  turned out to be the Sky team’s plan book discarded by the roadside.

Pyrenean vultures pick over the carcass of Sky's Tour hopes

Paul noted the valleys of the region are an ’excellent place for hay’. When he’s not admiring the dry stone walls of Yorkshire you’ll find him leading tours of hay enthusiasts to the Pyrenees to sample the region’s delights. Meanwhile Phil was excited by a banner in a small village for a ‘snail party’. Well, at least it was a change from fishing.

The Pyrenees triggered nostalgia for the now disbanded Carrots. Who would have thought there was still so much love for a team that spent more time on the road than on the road on a bike? Yet there have been many reports of the mere mention of their name having teary fans reaching for a box of kangaroos.

I’m curious about these ‘glass cranks’ the Ps talked about. It appears they cause riders to ease off pedalling up hills for fear of breaking them. That’s a bit silly having them fitted for a mountainous stage. Then again riders carry sand bags, hammers, elastic bands and an assortment of screws - and I’ll never get elliptical chainrings.

It was looking like a good day for Ooooropcar with Cereal Gotye doing his best to support Thomas Voeckler with his best Voeckler tongue impressions. A good day until Michael Rogers (Sinkoff-Taxo) got the jump on Voeckler for the butt-clenching, vom-inducing mad descent to Bagnères-de-Luchon.

What a ride for Rogers. The Aussie achieved his dream of a stage victory at the Tour to add to the two he picked up at the Giro. Paul says a race can be won uphill or can be won downhill. Rogers had a much simpler philosophy, “I was going to crash or I was going to win”.

Oh yeah, Voeckler’s tongue finished second.

Stage 14 Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule / Lyon – The great escape

It’s been two weeks since Le Tour’s Grand Départ on the I'île de Beauté. As thoughts turned to the daunting task of conquering Mont Ventoux on Sunday, today’s stage had its share of lumps and bumps on the 191km parcours.

 

Gabriel Gate made some Cervelle de Canut or Lyonnais cheese dip with herbs to go with the baguettes in the musette bags. In a pinch the riders could also use it as chamois cream being a longish stage. No butter, but this could almost be forgiven since the main ingredient is fromage frais. No movement in the Beurremetric counter which stays on 286g.

Phil and Paul couldn’t help but reflect on yesterday’s remarkable stage. Paul pondered over what might have been had Valverde (Movistar) handled his ‘mechanical incident’ differently. Well Paul, it’s like this - Valverde punctured, and unless Valverde fancied running all the way to the finish the options were pretty much restricted to a wheel change or change the wheel.

With 150km to go mark 18 brave souls broke away despite having being told by the peloton “there will be no escapes from this camp”. The mission was simple, escape from Sagan. No need for tunnels or a variety of ruses to fool the peloton, short of stealing a motorcycle they were away with only a handful caught at the sprint finish.

 

 

Jill Bear wasn't so lucky in his escape attempt

On the last climb Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenWEDGE) was out the front and another stage win for the OGEWagon was looking likely until Oooomega Farmer Quick-Stop’s Matteo Trentin pipped him at the finish. Froome Dog hung on to yellow and he looked a little happier collecting another stuffed lion in Lyon than the day before.

The 15^th stage sees the riders arrive at the ‘roof of Provence’ on the French national holiday Bastille Day. So far the French haven’t won a stage in this year’s Tour. The fact the Germans have bagged five must be shitting them right up a wall.