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Alert Cadel Evans fans. This is the most challenging stage of this year’s tour. Join us for live coverage of Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour de France.
The route runs 148 kilometers from Albertville to La Toussuire-Les Sybelles and live coverage will begin at 9pm AEST with updates throughout the stage.
The peloton will be on flat roads for the first 15 kilometers or so and from there on, it will be mostly up and down. The stage comprises two hors categorie climbs, a category 2 climb, and a category 1 climb to the finish.
This will be the stage where climbers’ legs will be tested and the yellow jersey challenged. There will be plenty of opportunities for Evans and Nibali to continue attacking Wiggins on climbs and on descents.
At the same time, Sky will have the difficult job of once again protecting the yellow jersey on this extremely challenging terrain.
After earning the polka dot jersey during yesterday’s stage, Voeckler will likely try to get himself into an early break and pick up some more valuable points to solidify his lead.
Today’s stage is the kind where a break may succeed, as it did yesterday, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some bigger names tried to get into the break with Voeckler, as they did yesterday.
Among the virtually certain things we will see, are attacks from Nibali on the descents and from Van Den Broeck on the climbs. VDB managed to pull back 30 seconds yesterday, and may be looking to chip away some more at the time of those ahead of him on GC.
At some point during tomorrow’s stage, Wiggins will likely run out of teammates. While it is possible that Froome will have the legs to stay with him until the end, Wiggins will likely be more vulnerable on the final climb to the finish, where I would expect Evans, Nibali and Van Den Broeck to attack him.
I expect Pierre Rolland to stay with the main group of climbers and launch a late attack, especially if Voeckler doesn’t make the break and isn’t feeling too great on the climbs.
I still remember Rolland’s great win on Alpe d’Huez last year, and I’m sure he’s looking for a stage win in the mountains this year as well.
This will be an exciting stage – no doubt about that!
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