Mayo out?

limerickman

I don't believe that all hope is gone for Mayo.
Obviously he would like to be closer to overall GC at this stage.
However, we can take it as read that he will attack in the Pyrennees this week.
I think that it is imperative that those who are goig for GC try to stay with Mayo when he goes - because go he will.

Do I think he will get to the podium ?
It's possible.
I think JU and TH and IM and anyone with pretensions of overall
GC need to attack LA and USPS like their lives depended on it.

gntlmn

http://www.bicycling.com/tourdefran...86,-251,00.html

Take a look at the profile for Wednesday's stage, which turns out to also be the longest stage of the Tour. I don't know if we will have a shakeout that day, but it doesn't look all that flat either, does it?

I guess you might say I'm looking forward so much to the Pyrenees that I don't want to miss anything that might give me a few clues ahead of time as to how it's going to turn out. Don't forget to tune in on Wednesday.

RyanS77

I seriously doubt that Mayo can be a real threat to the GC. True he did have an extremely successful mtn TT in the Dauphine Libere, but he may have peaked to early. Mayo will probably get a stage win, but I bet LA is real close on his wheel. If LA is as strong as he seems, no one will beat him. Only time will tell.

limerickman

It certainly isn't flat - nine climbs three 4 cats, 4 three cats, one 2nd cat and
one first cat.
Puy Mary has a 17% gradient on it (climbed it on Sunday as part of the Etape).
Tomorrow is a serious day.

musette

Mayo's probably going to try for stage wins at La Mongie and the Alpe d'Huez ITT. Recently, cyclingnews reported: "Iban Mayo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) is hoping to give the Basque fans something to cheer about on Friday in the 12th stage that finishes in La Mongie. Mayo, who lost around five and a half minutes to his GC rivals in stages 3 and 4 said, 'If I could choose, I would choose to win at La Mongie. For me, for the team and for the thousands of Basque fans that accompany us so closely and who are right now preparing themselves for another invasion, it would be incredible. But it will be tough, because many people want to win this stage.'"

Mayo has a chance at La Mongie, but I think LA or Heras will win it. If Heras, LA won't lose more than 15 seconds.

limerickman

Did you see the state of Mayo today ?
He was in serious trouble going up the Puy Mary.

keydates

Yeah, but he still managed to get 11th. Still, I think he's lost too much time to be a big threat to the other GC contenders.

musette

At other points, he did have two mechanical problems and he to be paced back to the peloton by his teammates. That must not have helped Mayo to settle into the stage dynamics.

limerickman

We had 7.5 hours live coverage of the entire stage here in Europe and Mayo
looked pretty tired to me.
Botero looked tired too.