POST your top 3 for the l'Alpe d'huez time trial

13001

C'mon guys, who do you think will win the time trial in L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday?

My top 3?

1) Armstrong 38'15
2) Mancebo at 25"
3) Ullrich at 1'05

thugpreacha

Well, here are the records:
37'35 - Marco Pantani, 1997 (fastest)
38'01 - Lance Armstrong, 2001
39'45 - Miguel Indurain, 1991
41'50 - Laurent Fignon, 1989
48'00 - Bernard Hinault/Greg Lemond, 1986

And I think that U.S. Postal will have three of the top five, with Armstrong, Rubiera, and Azevedo As for breaking Pantanis record? Not this year.

steve

I could be broken this year, remember this year its a 13km TT and not mountian top finish at the end of a 200km stage.

1) Armstrong
2) Ullrich
3) Basso

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Steve

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gntlmn

1. Armstrong
2. Basso
3. Andreas Klöden

I think Virenque will already have the KOM cinched. He won't need to go all out on this one.

gntlmn

Oops, typo. Sorry, Klodie.

musette

LA
Mayo
Heras

I think Mayo and Heras will be forced by their DS to try and win the stage, even at the expense of killing themselves during such stage and doing poorly on the Thursday stage (since they have no GC hopes any more). There's nothing really wrong with them that I can tell physically, so I think they will still do well and finish 2nd and third (although not necessarily in the order of Mayo/Heras).

Going up a mountain in ITT requires more than being just a good climber, like Basso, so Basso might be within the top 5, but not necessarily beat Mayo or Heras.

13001

I found some other 'record times' - not sure if they're correct:

1) 37'35 - Pantani 97
2) 38'01 - Armstrong 01
3) 38'23 - Ullrich 97
4) 39'02 - Virenque 97
5) 39'06 - Mayo 03
...

sopas

Are you sure Indurain beat the record in 1991? In any case I think he climbed faster when he was second in 1995 one minute behind Pantani. What was the time of Pantani in 1995?

By the way, Fausto Coppi's time in 1952 was 45:22. This was the record for the next 36 years until the 1990's in which many riders began doing it faster.

sopas

I found some more times. Here is an updated list of Alpe d'Huez times:

39:06 - Mayo 2003
38:01 - Armstrong 2001
39:02 - Virenque 1997
38:23 - Ullrich 1997
37:35 - Pantani 1997 (current record)
39:30 - Riis 1995
39:28 - Indurain/Zulle 1995
38:04 - Pantani 1995
38:00 - Pantani 1994
39:45 - Indurain, 1991
41:50 - Fignon 1989
48:00 - Hinault/Lemond 1986
45:22 - Coppi 1952

mattp71

I'm gonna go on a limb and vote for some people who havn't done much in this years tour yet except lose time. As someone else pointed out, it's a 14km effort, not a 214km effort, so that changes things.

1) Armstrong
2) Basso
3) Heras
4) G. Simoni
5) Leipheimer
6) Ullrich

I figure the last 4 guys got to do at least something in the tour.

gntlmn

It's too bad the temperature and wind speed are not also listed here. It would be so much more meaningful.

tcklyde

Ullrich looked a lot better today, a lot more focused. But, based on what we've seen so far, I can't see how somebody could call anyone but Armstrong in first.

1. Armstrong
2. Ullrich
3. Leipheimer

We'll have to see how well Basso can TT on this stage. I'm also hoping for a good showing from Jens Voigt. He's been riding so well!

__________________
Harry