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Tour de France 2012: Live Stage 16 updates and blog

18th July, 2012
Tour de France Overall Standings
Rider, Team, Time, Gaps
1. WIGGINS Bradley, SKY PROCYCLING, 68h 33’ 21″
2. FROOME Christopher, SKY PRO CYCLING, 68h 35’ 26″+ 02′ 05″
3. NIBALI Vincenzo, LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE, 68h 35’ 44″ + 02′ 23″
4. EVANS Cadel, BMC RACING, 68h 36’ 40″ + 03′ 19″
5. VAN DEN BROEK Jurgen, OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK-STEP, 68h 38’ 09″ + 04′ 48″
6. ZUBELDIA Haimar, RADIOSHACK-NISSAN, 68h 39’ 36″ + 06′ 15″
7. VAN GADREREN Tejay, BMC RACING, 68h 40’ 18″ + 06′ 57″
8. BRAJKOVIC Janez, ASTANA, 68h 40’ 51″ + 07′ 30″
9. ROLLAND Pierre, EUROPCAR, 68h 41’ 52″ + 08′ 31″
10. PINOT Thibaut, FDJ-BIG MAT, 68h 42’ 12″ + 08′ 51″
Tour de France 2012 (Poster by Chungkong)
Roar Guru
18th July, 2012
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Please join us for live blogging of stage 16 of the 2012 Tour de France. Live coverage will begin from 8:30PM with full coverage from 10PM AEST.

The final rest day is over and we enter the business end of the race – and what a way to restart proceedings.

It is being referred to in some quarters as ‘The Circle of Death’, which as melodramatic as it might first appear you only need to have a look at the course profile to get an understanding of where the term was coined.

Starting with the Col d’Aubisque, moving to the Col du Tourmalet, then the Col d’Aspin and finally the Col de Peyresourde the riders will climb nearly 7000 meters of vertical elevation across the course of this 197km stage.

It is quite simply, massive. Not simply from the sheer amount of climbing, but also in terms of shaping the general classification.

If Vincenzo Nibali or Cadel Evans have any designs of moving higher up the GC then today is one of the few remaining mountain stages when they might look to put Bradley Wiggins and his Sky armada under pressure.

For Evans, it’s not curtains (Cadel may be accused of many things, however a quitter has never been one) but he is running out of opportunities to claw back time.

In his favour would be memories of how Wiggins performed in the final week of the 2011 Vuelta a Espana – fading and eventually being forced to concede the position of team leader to Chris Froome.

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Cadel has been in this position before, he knows what his body is capable of and he knows how well and what he needs to do to recover.

Today will be a test to see if Wiggins has learned from the mistakes of last year, as although Brad has dominated the minor stage races this year none of them have run for three weeks.

Prepare yourselves for what will certainly be an entertaining day of racing. Incredible Pyrenean scenary notwithstanding!

Please, join me from 8:30PM for live blogging of stage 16 of the 2012 Tour de France.

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