2008 Tour de France Stage 16 - Tuesday, July 22: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157 km

b1_

Here we go up the mountain of death!

GO CADEL. Crash and burn Stuart O'Grady grrrrr.

Capt.Injury

I think its really dangerous right now with Monfort and Cunego in a 31 group breakaway group. RIght now, they have 7 minutes on the peleton, which means both of them are now within a minute of the yellow jersey, and they both have 2 or 3 teammates in the move with them. So they can drive the pace, THis could be a very dangerous group. Forgetting Landis getting DQ, this is starting to have shades of that day back in 2006 where the other teams didn't chase down Landis till its too late.

In fact, as Cunego's group hit the bottom, they have 8 minutes on the peleton, meaning Cunego is right now the virtual yellow jersey

TheDarkLord

The yellow jersey group better start chasing the Cunego group now if they don't want to let Cunego come up the GC rankings. The Cunego group has about 7 minutes over the yellow jersey group.

whiteboytrash

Unfortunate name.

b1_

Stuart O'Grady thinks the decent of this climb will be more important than the ascent. Could be.

whiteboytrash

Anyone have thoughts on how Sylvester Szmyd will go today ?

Tyke1968

People are dropping from the peloton like political dissidents from a brutal regime as the CSC team get serious. Cunego, up ahead, is hunting Schumacher down like a Terminator, too. This could get interesting.

Copied from Guardian.

b1_

lol. Someone's a frustrated novelist.

TheDarkLord

Pozzato was driving the pace in the yellow jersey group for a while. Why? I think Cancellara has been dropped.

The Cunego group still has an over 7 minute gap over the yellow jersey group, and are 2:30 behind potato head. I think there is a fair chance that they will catch Schumacher. Whether the yellow jersey group can catch the Cunego group is another question.

b1_

CSC will power the yellow group back to the breakaway. Schumacher doesn't look invincible to me. The big breakaway group is there to aid the main players in the yellow group.

TheDarkLord

Schumacher is holding his own over the Cunego group. His lead is still around 2:30. OTOH, the yellow jersey group is gaining on the Cunego group pretty fast, with the current gap around 5:40. Interesting!

b1_

Bye bye Cunego.

edit: Ha, popovich kicking arse.

TheDarkLord

The gradient steepened big time at that hairpin bend, and off goes Cunego!

Popovych is doing quite well.

serpico7

Popo sure seems to be spending a lot of time at the front of the chase group. If he really wanted to be ready to help Cadel, shouldn't he conserving energy for when the yellow jersey group catches up?