McEwen could get eliminated tonight?!

Interesting insight on cyclingnews.com

"Claude Criquielion, one of the Lotto-Domo team directors, is concerned
that Robbie McEwen could be eliminated during tomorrow's Alpe d'Huez
time trial. With the time limit set at 33% and a winning time for the
15.5 km uphill test expected to be around 40 minutes, McEwen will have
to finish within 13 minutes of the victor. "That means that he will
have to give full gas from the first metres," said Criquielion. "

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...l04/jul20news2

Just doing a rough calculation.

On stage 12 Castelsarrasin - La Mongie, there was 27.5 km of climbing
with an average gradient of around 6.6%. Robbie ended up being 27
minutes behined Basso and Armstrong.

Alpe d'Huez goes for 13.8 km at 7.9%. The overall distance is 15.5 km.
That distance is about have that of the climbing done on stage 12 and
therefore matches up with the 13 minutes Claude Criquielion is
predicting.

Obviously Robbie would have been taking it sort of easily on stage 12
just to make the time limit. But in this case, we have a steeper
mountain and the front runners will be going all-out all the way up.

I hope he makes it okay.


--
jazmo