The winning moment? If Tadej Pogačar took the yellow jersey after just Stage 4, hopes of a contest were rekindled on Stage 11 Le Lioran when Jonas Vingegaard won. They were calmed on the first day in the Pyrenees to the Pla d’Adet, then extinguished the next day on the climb the Plateau de Beille. If not the winning moment this second day in the Pyrenees set up a dominant victory.
Pogačar’s imperious results will wow some and bore others and that’s fine, there are different ways to enjoy the sport. If the final result lacked suspense the daily battles to slip the UAE team’s stranglehold were gripping and many stages offered some of the best racing so far this season.
We can’t start the review in Rimini, we’ll go to Nice instead. Because in March both Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel were both caught out by Matteo Jorgenson, two “invincibles” undone in Paris-Nice.
Weeks later came disaster in the collective crashes in the Basque Country and Dwars Door Vlaanderen that left many injured and in rehab, but not Pogačar because he preparing for the Giro. Crashes like this make you wonder if teams only satisfied by major wins will retain stars for the grand tours and monuments even more.
It was in spring that the sounds from Pogačar’s entourage changed, the Giro was no longer the prime mission with anything in July as a bonus. Instead Giro-Tour double talk got loud, and long before the Trofeo Senza Fine was raised. Pogačar breezed the Giro, the route was eased and nobody apart from Antonio Tiberi could or would attack him. The result was six stages and almost ten minutes on the next rider.
With hindsight June counted too. Roglič won the Critérium du Dauphiné, just. We didn’t see it but Covid was back in bunch. Pogačar mentioned he caught it in June. Evenepoel didn’t mention it but apparently he was in his pre-Tour camp hotel room for days after the Dauphiné. Perhaps this gave them added immunity for July, or just meant their Covid karma was used up in June rather than July?
Here’s the chart of the GC standings over the 21 stages. Sometimes this can look like tangled wiring but 2024’s version has just four lines because the others in the top-10 were racing hard yet never weighing on the race. The lines hardly overlap and fall away from Pogačar at every big rendez-vous, Remco Evenepoel’s Beaujolais time trial win a rare inflection.
Roglič is included if only to show that finishes where he might have hoped to pick up bonuses saw him lose out so we can only speculate as to what might have been if it wasn’t for Alexey Lutsenko and that traffic divider in La Sauvetat-sur-Lede. A contest for the third place perhaps but to ask for more feels greedy.
Le Lioran saw the “tipping point theory” gain traction: Pogačar would start to fade and Vingegaard was on the up. Pogačar’s attack on the Puy Mary saw him away although never alone given the crowds. Only Vingegaard floated across on the next climb and then won the stage. The turning point? Pogačar looked pale and it seemed less a reversal of fortunes and more a quirk to see him lose a sprint. Vingegaard needed more than the four second time bonus advantage.
The hypothesis took a hit on the first day in the Pyrenees when Pogačar took 39 seconds on the climb to Pla d’Adet. Still subscribers could claim the upper slopes were not so steep and that Vingegaard maybe just had a bad day.
The Plateau de Beille settled things. Visma-LAB worked hard all day and you could tell a Vingegaard attack was coming. Once Matteo Jorgenson could do no more the Dane went with 10km to go, standing on the pedals for 18 strokes. Pogačar followed, seated. The others were gone, as if written out of the script. Vingegaard hardly asked Pogačar for a turn and this had the effect of keeping Evenepoel at bay. With 5km to to Pogačar made a quick acceleration and was gone, taking a minute by the finish line. Goodbye and goodnight.
The hierarchy established it was then entrenched. Superdévoluy was the exception that proved the rule, a judder as here Evenepoel took time on Pogačar and Vingegaard but just ten seconds. This was no roller coaster contest of ups and downs.
The dominance continued. Visma’s plans for Vingegaard over the Bonette pivoted to a Jorgenson stage win but they were caught trying to ride two horses and Pogačar rode down a four minute lead on the climb to Isola 2000. The next day to La Couillole saw Pogačar broadcast UAE would take it easier, only for Soudal-Quickstep to chase and so what else could Pogačar do but out-sprint Vingegaard? The gaps only widened in the final time trial where the 1-2-3 results on the day reflected the podium, a sixth stage win for Pogačar and a six minute winning margin.
The Verdict
A dominant performance where Pogačar has improved after his sacking in Combloux and the Col de la Loze last year, such that even a fully fit Vingegaard must find it hard to plot a path to victory next July. He’s bound to try and Evenepoel is keen to return too but all the rest must be wondering what to do.
Fourth place went to João Almeida, the first of four sherpas in the top-10 and he was 10 minutes behind Evenepoel. The best challenger was Carlos Rodriguez, six minutes down on Almeida and 7th overall.
This edition doesn’t pass the “DVD test” where once upon a time you’d buy the video highlights – and even a DVD player – to soak it up again and again over winter. This time things worked out so one way and there was little contest on the GC. The podium order was settled and the rest of the top-10 felt incidental.
Yet it was full of blockbuster moments and for hours at a time. This was a rewarding race to watch live in full rather than the evening highlights because the action came in the duration, hours of relentless battle to get into the breakaways.
The daily battle for many of the stages was great. Who had Agen-Pau down as a barnstormer when the route came out? We got romance and pathos, Romain Bardet taking the yellow jersey in his last Tour, Biniam Girmay’s first Tour win, Vingegaard in tears at his come-back stage win, and Mark Cavendish of course. The Tour is obviously the biggest bike race going, it’s what this brings that makes it the best. Most of the top riders are there, they’re in peak shape and racing hard just to get in the breakaway.
Not every day was a barnstormer. The sprint stages are becoming a structural problem if nobody attacks. The race can still satisfy roadside crowds and these off-days allow riders to regenerate, reculer pour mieux sauter but an active recovery ride does not make for great viewing. This blog’s daily previews gently steer readers to tune in late but that’s hardly something the organisers and participants can suggest.
It’s not easy to remedy, France’s geography means everything to the left of the line traced from from Biarritz to Strasbourg is more or less flat. The Troyes gravel worked, the GC contenders taking part in the action only to leave the win to the break. France has plenty of other off-road options if the organisers need them.
The 2025 Tour de France starts in the North and should visit Brittany meaning they might employ pavés or ribins, and maybe a team time trial with “Paris-Nice” rules with an uphill finish at, say, Mûr-de-Bretagne.
Reprising the DVD test again, to rewatch is to know Pogačar keeps winning but each day this wasn’t a given. Four minutes starting the climb to Isola 2000? It was only well into the climb that the result started to feel inevitable with Pogačar harvesting riders up the road like some demented threshing machine. Still most mountain stages often lacked the “two for the price of one” contests with the breakaway reeled in. UAE went in looking very strong, a podium clean sweep was possible but instead they finished fourth and sixth, in part because Adam Yates and João Almeida were always riding for their leader and not themselves.
The Tour had its annual doping hearings. Each July the best rider has to account for their performances as parts of the the media evoke “doubts” and “questions”, but little else. The questions are formulaic, seem to happen every July and come in particular once the GC hierarchy is established. They are invariably directed at the race leader, anyone else with a transformational performance during the race seems spared. As such it feels like ritual rather than enquiry. Yes record performances and 7W/kg for 40 minutes ought to invite questions and debate but it’s almost a Rorschach test where what people see can inform us more about their state than the sport. Your blogger is left guessing rather than sitting in fist-clenched certainty.
Talking of spoilsports and uncertainty, Covid. To labour the point made before, it’s no longer a health emergency but it is contagious and can be ruinous for athletes, a Damoclean protein spike waiting to fall at random. In the end it didn’t reshape the race but it did contribute to Ineos and others having a discreet time.
The mountains competition was the opposite of recent years where we’d seen a lively contest between riders quashed late in the third week by a GC rider taking the jersey on their way to the overall win. This time Richard Carapaz took the jersey off Tadej Pogačar, no mean feat and he ends up as a worthy winner who thrived this Tour and aided by clever team work. Jonas Abrahamsen needs to be mentioned too for his indefatigable antics in the first half of the race, Uno-X are still the only team in the race without a stage win but they brought plenty by trying.
Carapaz makes for an instructive exemplar, a grand tour contender now almost in a cameo role. Bardet pulled this off too. Simon Yates, Enric Mas and Jai Hindley are similar but without a result which shows even this class of rider can’t guarantee results.
For all the dominance by UAE there was still room for surprise and the little guys. Anthony Turgis won a stage, Arkéa-B&B Hotels got their first ever too thanks to Kévin Vauquelin. Biniam Girmay was no revelation but he himself said he started out as Gerben Thijssen’s leadout but a mix-up in the approach to Turin saw him grab the opportunity to win. He took two more and with it the green jersey in a contest that was validated by Jasper Philipsen’s late challenge and given a scare by Girmay’s crash in Nîmes. The sprint shock was Mark Cavendish in Saint-Vulbas but the result was convincing, if it was hard to see him doing it suddenly with 200m to it seemed irresistible.
For Pogačar what next? The Worlds and no Vuelta, no Olympics either. He and his team are in search of new challenges, winning Milan-Sanremo is one but famously elusive and Paris-Roubaix features too but not yet as his team will want him back at the Tour and without too many extra kilos please. Peter Sagan’s career is interesting, the thrill of fresh challenges soon gave way to delivering for sponsors, with each passing year you could see him turn from thrill seeker to corporate mannequin as sponsors expected a cobbled classic and the green jersey. Monday’s Le Monde suggests Pogačar has 12 million reasons a year not to retire yet but even that may not retain him if the fun fades.
Was Vingegaard missing form? He said he was producing some of his best numbers although this was at the finish line, informed by saccadic glances from his bike computer rather than poring over power files. His team said he was lacking some muscle which made him less explosive when he needed to jump. He is bound to want to come back and with a stronger team in support too given all their bad luck must be used up soon.
Can Evenepoel improve on his third place? To ask this is to set a new question no sooner after he answered the one about being able to handle multiple mountain stages in the third week. Beating both Pogačar and Vingegaard looks out of reach today but he’s now able to look ahead and imagine what a perfect preparation would look like. No crash in April, no crash-diet in June, no Covid, stronger team mates and he can hope for more.
Finally while it’s all done and dusted, the sense of wanting it all to start again. The 2025 Tour de France route presentation is on Tuesday 29 October but before then the Olympics and the Tour de France Femmes. A long summer in France will do instead.
Amen. Thanks for the great job throughout. Vive le tour, vive le cyclisme.
Who needs a DVD player? This review will more than suffice. I don’t think I even have the right cable to connect a dvd player to our monitor….
I know the top 10 was incidental, as you say, but I still enjoyed seeing what future contenders might do–Jorgenson, for example.
Girmay was the highlight for me of the whole thing. His first stage win was a joy to watch.
Count me bummed that Pogacar will not ride the olympics road race….
Paris without Pogačar is a surprise. It might be due to frustration with the Slovenian selectors, it was odd they didn’t go with Zigart who is the national champ but haven’t read about the national policy. Plus if it was a marginal call between her and other, you’d think you’d want to keep one of your country’s best hopes of a medal in any sport on your side given selection is office politics and sport.
Cue “saccadic’ jumping up google’s trending list
Thank you for this, and for all your great coverage!
…and to perform those sudden, direct both-eye glances in concert with his circadian rythyms!
A really good piece with a little spring in it‘s step. Sorry for this flat phrase, I just can‘t think of a better description of what I mean. It just swings in a nice, purposeful way, leading you from a to b, so that you follow it‘s path effortlessly when you read it.
I think I mean: It has it’s own inherent rhythm and this rhythm makes sense. Which is rarer than one should think. And really satisfying to read.
I know we dont have the knowledge of Jonas Vinegegaard’s doctors but to have gone from intensive care to 2nd in the tour in a matter of weeks was more than impressive and his reaction at Le Lioran showed how deep down the hurt was. We cant know if there are long term effects, I have seen speculation about scarring on the lungs, who knows. I wonder if the whole episode will spur him onto to greater efforts next time and if Tadej Pogacer’s motivation might not be quite as strong, the margins here are tiny. Somehow I cant see Tadej Pogacer putting himself through the same levels of pain as Cav rode through simply to finish the tour at 38 years old (has anyone won both the yellow jersey & lanterne rouge?).
Might ASO consider a more Remco “friendly” course, a TTT plus a longish flat TT. It would mitigate against any of the contender’s teams simply picking 5 mountain goats and 2 rouleurs for the flat and perhaps give him an advantage. Will he be at Red Bull next year?
A word must go to both Cav & Geraint Thomas (surely his last TdF too) the last representatives of a unique era in British cycling. Whatever the criticisms, the achievements have been outstanding. The riders following on might not have the same level of talent but the sight of British (in its widest sense) riders at the TdF even on French teams is now hardly worthy of mention, did I read there were more brits than Italians?
Jacky Durand wore Yellow in 95 and was Lanterne Rouge in 99.
Of the potential double winners, Chris Froome is the most likely currently – he just needs to get picked to ride!
Geraint has contract for nxt year also, think that will be his final Tour.
Maybe, he looked lost this time (perhaps that was an Ineos thing) and said he didnt really know what he was doing in the race. I would have thought a final tilt at Roubaix might be a better option though perhaps years of training for GTs means that isnt realistic
Well, he said himself on social media that it was likely to be his last ever Tour. Clearly the Giro-Tour double didn’t go so well for him in the second half.
Much as I like and admire Geraint Thomas’s achievements and longevity, I’m not sure what his use or aim was in doing the Tour after the Giro.
Nostalgia? A last hurrah…… unless he does it again next year!
Ineos were a bit nothing overall although covid played its oart, in mitigation.
Let’s face it… Ineos was a clear disaster. (Imho worse than Bora, Lidl and Decathlon.) Rodriguez was invisible, bordering flop (and even harming his stock as a potential GC contender, probably?) and other than that (and Kwiatkowski in one break), there was no Ineos to be seen the whole race.
Pidcock got 2nd on the gravel stage, but then succumbed to Covid.
(Your general point is right – maybe forgetting Pidcock is proof of their general invisibility).
I don’t forget Pidcock (one of my favourite riders), the thing is for him and his level, second is not enough.
I think this Tour showed just how tough it is to win at this level, even for really top riders. (In addition, much as I admire Pidcock, he’s not a prolific winner on the road. His palmarès are definitely quality over quantity – I think only five road wins in four seasons, but amongst them the Amstel Gold Race, the Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France, Strade Bianchi and Flèche Brabançonne).
There were a number of quality riders who, for one reason or another, didn’t get much to add to their Wiki page out of this Tour – Van Der Poel, Wout van Aert, Simon Yates amongst them. They may have had other goals of course (MVDP and WvA particularly) but it shows just how hard it is to win (and how good Carapaz was!)
Seeing their lead DS Steve Cummings left at home on the eve of the race was a big deal, especially as there are still competing versions of why this happened.
If it’s a clash of personalities that strikes me as the kind of thing that Brailsford would have done a good job of resolving. Maybe it was his decision actually, I don’t know. But they seem to lack leadership since he stepped back and also with the loss of Nico Portal RIP. I also wonder if Ratcliffe pays the cash but doesn’t inspire the staff. Pure speculation on my part based on a hunch! I’m sure PhDs could be written on the psychodynamics of sports teams, for whatever reason Ineos seems to have lost their mojo big time.
Coming back to the comparison between Pogačar and Merckx from the previous post comments; and Paris – Roubaix:
Only 6 riders since the war have won both Paris Roubaix and the Tour; and only two in the same season: Merckx in 1970 and Hinault in 1981. Hinault remains the last Tour winner to have also won Paris Roubaix. Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas were both in the top 10, sprinting for 2nd, in 2014 and are probably the only Tour winners (past or future) to have also figured as plausible winners of Paris Roubaix this century.
So you can see the attraction, but how much would UAE wish to devote to what could be a somewhat uncertain project? One untimely puncture ruins a season, whereas concentrate on the Tour and the odds on some form of success are surely much higher and the PR rewards greater – for a rider like Pogačar, even a relative “failure” might include a podium and a couple of stage wins. And right now there is also the small issue of a certain MVDP (and WvA) standing in the path of a Paris – Roubaix victory.
I wonder if the Vuelta provides a possible route? He surely has to win that race too; I wonder if a season could start with a cobbled spring, a summer break, but with the Vuelta as a redemption in case the spring goes wrong? It seems hard to imagine he could aim to win Paris – Roubaix and then the Tour in the same season – though I suppose the counter argument is that this is Pogačar …
Sorry you think Pog might do ParisRoubaix skip the Tour and do the Vuelta instead?? I nearly spat out my corn flakes reading this! There is no way that Pog is skipping the Tour…
Even if he were miles past his best, should he be considered capable of winning the Vuelta and PR then he’s likely capable of winning the Tour and will want/be obliged to ride it. The Tour is the Tour.
Also quite a few riders hate the Vuelta, Geraint Thomas was scathing on his podcast – barren flats, drab accommodation, little media exposure, off season beckoning – I doubt the pull is that great to a showman like Pog outside of the record.
No, I think you slightly misread me – I was more making the point of how hard it would be for him to base a season round winning Paris Roubaix given the draw of the Tour (and likely pressure from his team). An all out spring and then come back for the Vuelta would be one way of doing it, but it feels unlikely for the reasons you say.
That said, I’m sure he will want to have a serious attempt at winning it at some point in his career.
Good sense, but look how everybody was saying Pogi was doing the Giro only ’cause he wouldn’t beat Vingo at the TDF. Before that, everybody was also saying that he’d just never race the Giro as it was going to kill his TDF chances…
Personally, I thought that Pogi knew that he had little chances anyway *if* Visma was still able to pull a Combloux. Wasn’t that so (as many indeed expected after some minor antidoping event and sponsorship issues last year), his chances were going to be determined by the road and his own ability to manage, or even “tame”, so to say, a set of circumstances – which he did excellently.
Knowing since the very start of the season (or since the previous TDF) that some aspects were going to be out of his control anyway, he broadened the range, raised the bar and rolled the dice.
Which he might do for Roubaix, too. Not sure about when, just hope it’s not left for too late.
I’m sure he’ll want to win Roubaix one day, he’s a Magpie jewel collector type, he wants to win everything and have the most glittering Palmares. He’s still so young, he can win a couple more Tours then start racing Roubaix for experience and have plenty of time to win it in four or five years time.
“It seems hard to imagine he could aim to win Paris – Roubaix and then the Tour in the same season – though I suppose the counter argument is that this is Pogačar”
Sonny Colbrelli is the same height and listed as 8 kilos heavier according to Wiki. Should Pog need to bulk up a bit to win Roubaix (which I doubt) then I dunno, seems possible? Pog’s been in form over the required timescale too, this season he’s seemingly been peaking for 6 months…
At the Giro, I don’t think Pogi was at peak. If he really is from another planet talent wise, he peaked for the spring, then took small step back and rebuilt for Giro, then small step back and rebuilt for the TdF.
Now he’s taking step back and let’s see how he is in the fall.
Superb review of a great event, balanced and co. The Rorschach test analogy is profound – I won’t forget this edition, but that’s more because of me rather than because of the race, isn’t it? 🙂 (Watched parts with my son, seven years old, who rooted for Pog, for some obscure reason… after stage two he also always wanted to know “where is Kevin” and wondered why Mr. Vauquelin don’t go for the GC. Anyway, six stages for Pog were barely enough for my son’s taste and so the Tour was – barely – a clear success here. 🙂 )
For me, the most striking aspect of this race was Vingegaard’s humanity, both in triumph and in defeat. He certainly won a new admirer. On the other hand I found certain classic riders rather lacking – esp. Mr. MvdP. Just supporting the Disaster is under his level, and not by a notch.
(As an occassional casual Alpinist) I also love the “sherpa” analogy… because Sherpas were often the real heroes of pioneering expeditions (Pasang Kikuli et al.)
I agree – I really respect Jonas and how he rode. He was obviously really upset at losing and he didn’t hold back his emotions, but he was a great sport about it. Plus, he battled until the very last stage.
Lots of respect.
I also respect MvDP for riding to support Jasper, it shows that even the world’s best need to ride without being front and centre and to hide their egos. ALSO, it is great training for his upcoming schedule. He has to attempt to defend worlds on a hilly course I think, right? Plus, will he go for the Olympics too?
A superb summary review to top off a wonderful commentary of the tour.
Thank you Inrng.
Vingegaard rode a bit better than I was expecting considering his trauma. On the other hand Pogacar has become a bit more ruthless. Stage 15 was the most memorable as it was big on both vertical and horizontal metres and was ridden very hard.
Time to look ahead to the Vuelta!
Great summary and thanks also for the daily updates, essential reading. My takeaways (not that original): Pog: incredible and I enjoyed watching just for the sake of witnessing such excelence; Vin: super gutsy; Remco: impressive (but still a bit hard to love). Some of the individual stages should feature in the year’s highlights, the gravel stage was great and I really enjoyed Bardet’s win as well. Another year to wait….sigh
One thing on Evenepoel, on French TV he came across as warmer than he sometimes does in English interviews. He was joking, self-deprecating and straight-talking, almost as if he was the host of the TV. He’s near-fluent in English and can often give interesting answers but just seems more tense. Now not to exaggerate the differences, but he almost felt like part of the furniture back stage at the Tour and it was probably the first time a lot of people in France heard from him and it would have come across well.
I can’t comment on his French Vs English speaking personae but I certainly thought he seemed more relaxed, playful even, in interviews. I think his fear of failure was a huge deal for him in this race and he has definitively proven that he is a genuine GT contender, even against the two greatest rivals of his day. Of course now the pressure will be on him to take a Tour win, which I think is possible but requires maybe a different team, flatter parcours and some good luck going his way. I would love to know what Prudhomme and Gouvenou are thinking right now, probably they hope for a Mano a Mano in the mountains two horse race of a fully fit Vingegaard and Pogačar next year, but can they rely on that? Will they design a more Evenepoel friendly parcours? Would Pogačar just out-perform him on every terrain anyway?
I think he’s learnt a lot personally from TP. Certainly it was noticeable how he seemed to be glued to him after virtually every stage, you could see him relaxing more as the Tour went on .
It’s funny how this all works out, I remember taking a bit of a disliking for Nibali at first, as a new cycling fan, he always seemed a little harsh and difficult during interviews in English. Then I watched some interviews in Italian and his demeanour speaking in his native tongue was completely different and I grew to really like him because of that.
Anyways, while I’m here, just to echo the numerous posts already. A heartfelt thanks for all your work on here. Unfortunately, due to work I’ve not been able to follow the tours as much as I have done in the past, but reading this blog with a coffee on my morning break has kept me as informed as I’d have ever needed to be.
Thanks for that, it’s good to be reminded that many riders aren’t speaking their first language. I will try to keep a more open mind with him in future! He did ride very well I thought.
I thought he came across well in English interviews too – he’s certainly far more fluent that a lot of native speakers and what he has to say is often interesting and not sanitised by media training (which he no doubt has had a lot of and is expert in using if he chooses). However, he still makes the odd stupid comment (the ‘balls’ one being the one this Tour). There are a lot of things he and his team (whichever that will be) can improve while a course that has even slightly less high mountain climbing/more TTing will also boost his chances so there’s reason to think that he can challenge for yellow in the coming years. And there’s no doubt he will be willing to put in the work and make the sacrifices. So if Ineos want a ready-made GT challenger – and a big upgrade on their current ones (Rodriguez and Bernal – at least for now), they better spash the cash!
This is an outrageously good round up. Every narrative, key event and even moan from this comment section gets an even handed and thoughtful nod.
I agree with every word and particularly enjoyed the comparison between live watch/dvd replay. Thank you as always for the incredible coverage.
I’ll remember this post for a long time – now I’m off to reread the back issues and carbohydrate revolution post of 2022! Rarely does the ‘fine wine’ line feel appropriate but this blog it’s the norm…
Not sure if this topic has already been commented on across this year’s Tour comments but aside from a great race, my primary disappointment was with the tour specific jerseys. Visma’s Tour specific jersey was a shocker (in fact I thought their whole bike/kit/helmet combo was very average). Guarantee that won’t be a collectors favourite in 10 years time. Last years wasn’t much better either. I would have thought, dialing-down the yellow to acceptable levels and dialing-up the black would have been a simple win – keeping the killer bees vibe. Jayco green/orange Tour get-up wasn’t overly inspiring and the Alpecin black acid-wash jeans look is definitely an acquired taste. IMHO the DSM white looked sharp and the Decathlon galaxy jersey is a huge improvement from their brown shorts era (noting that this was changed well before the Tour). Maybe I am getting old but the peloton overall didn’t look that stylish this year. These are the big issues!
It’s interesting how the kit people buy from various brands has a certain aesthetic while pro cycling kit still feels like it’s 1996 with blocks of primary colours and large sponsor logos.
The actual value of having giant lettering on the kit is not what it is, or rather some teams can almost manage without it and having stylish kit without big corporate branding but which is still recognisable is almost better, if you see a jersey and colour and think Visma or Soudal instead of read it then you’ve really won in terms of design. For a cycling analogy, if you see a celeste painted frame it doesn’t need big decals to tell you it’s a Bianchi but this takes time to establish, longer than some sponsors will stay in the sport.
Kits have been remarkably bad recently.
They’re always a little rubbish but recently there hasn’t been a single one that’s vaguely decent outside of EF, and even if EF’s kit isn’t as good this year it’s still a country mile ahead of the rest – maybe Decathlon and last years Alpecin were alright, but Decathlon’s comes after their AG2R/Citreon iteration was probably the last great kit.
Similar with CanyonsSRAM in womens peloton, their 2022/23 kits were both all time hall of famers. There’s a few okay jersey’s in the continental ranks, DNA a few years ago, Delko a few years ago.
Overall cycling jersey’s are a horror show – it’s like lack of imagination inc.
the Arkea kit they wore at the teams presentation was excellent, I was disappointed they didn’t race it!
If only cycling had taken off in the USA during the nineties and fast food vendors had seen it as a potential sportswashing opportunity to promote decent nutrition- the entire peleton could have been in red and white, with occasional dashes of yellow. Even illiterates could have figured that out, assuming they weren’t colourblind
I’d by and In and Out Burger jersey in an instant.
I too could not get warm with most kits. But: I always liked for example the old blue Movistar kit -it had such a clean, dynamic look to it-and I absolutely appreciated the „classic“ Ag2r kit of blue, white, brown, so I probably am a minority.
What seems lacking to me is an idea behind a look: What do we want to look like and why? What do I like (because chance is, that others like it, too)? It seems the thinking is mainly „how can we look memorable/cool/get on tik tok/a meme?
Most of the kits this tour gave me headache. And they are really, really bad to spot during the race, because they are in a strange way similar and there is almost no calm on any kit.
Agree, JV’s kit does not work for TV viewers, it might look ok in person but not on screen. Bring back Kermit green for the Points jersey.
I definitely agree with this. The old green jersey was really easy to spot on TV but this new one is almost like camouflage.
I’ve grown to like the new forest green points jersey, not ASOs fault that teams then came up with a load of bluish/greyish jerseys that have almost identical colour temperature to it and therefore look similar from a distance, especially from the helicopter where they have a vague tarmaccy appearance. The change to the shade of green does leave a big hole in the colour palette of the Peloton , surprising that no team has opted for a lime or apple green theme, which apparently is on trend in street fashion this year.
The DSM kit is the nicest in the peloton at the moment, I think. It has a bit of a Coop-Mercier vibe to it with the coloured vertical stripes on white.
I think sublimation printing ruined cycle jersey design. Before sublimation printing, they largely had to weave the colour into the fabric of the jersey. And that had to be simpler. Meaning it needed much better design – use of colours particularly – to make something nice. Use of printing or chain-stitching finer details had to be limited.
When sublimation printing came along, it allowed people to come up with any old rubbish in their computer and splat it on a jersey. While, initially, we still saw some great designs (e.g. the Sammontana Bianchi jersey) – the designers from before were still around I guess – it devolved more and more into over-complex, cluttered crap that just ends up looking like a blancmange at distance. Striking design that works at distance is mostly gone.
EF maybe is one that managed to make good use of printing and aways stand out. Mostly by picking a distinctive colour. Still, much of the design work in their jerseys is largely wasted on invisible-at-distance printed detail-clutter.
DSM-Firmerich is one of the few that stands out recently in terms of simple, striking design. The Bora-Hansgrohe Tour jersey from ’22 was also a nice, simple-and-striking design.
I collect jerseys, and it is noticeable how downhill jersey designs went from the late 80s. 70s maybe the high point?
Semi retired Designer here ( in several areas).
CAD has been a curse in disguise. It speeds up the process, which may sound good, but actually means that the designer needs to spend less time thinking and trialling aspects and concepts. It removes one from the hands on measuring, colouring , focussing which non screen based practice entails ( mixing a colour on a palette bears no resemblance to choosing on a screen spectrum).
Plus of course, the screen does not show you a reality, it smooths and blurs into a different sort of vision. Some programmes will even ‘correct ‘ mistakes so that they look okay on the screen or in the plan, but in reality are still wrong ( memorably happened to an associate who let the programme adjust the staircase to fit the design, but unfortunately could not re configure the actual, existing building where it was supposed to fit).
Oh I forgot, on details, glued flocking was common in the 70s – before printing came along (early 80s? ??). Before flocking it was generally chain stitching, and even sewing on different colour patches onto the base jersey (e.g. the “gan” sponsor panels on the pink-sleeved ’76 gan-mercier jerseys – the “gan” itself might have been flocked onto the panel, I don’t remember, I’d have to go home and find the jersey and check 😉 ).
There are retailers like Magliamo and 2Velo (Serbia – so unfortunately customs charges for us EU denizens) still making great jerseys (wool, chain stitching, etc.).
Oh, a few notable striking designs from the sublimation printing era would be the Acqua & Sapone zebra jersey, the Mapei jerseys, La Vie Claire (except the version where they plastered a printed black sponsor panel over it), Toshiba 1990.
But the vast majority from the sublimation printing era are bland, cluttered and poor design. And the better ones skew towards the 80s and early 90s – presumably a combination of designers still remembering how to do striking designs + computers still being very limited.
Very interesting.
I thought, that the reason for the current bland, helpless kits is probably due to a technical process or a special fabric, that is in use right now, so it is interesting to read this.
The kits these days all look so superficial, flimsy. Depthless. I also don‘t get what all are on about the ef kit? To me the only thing they do, is using a unique color? Aside from that I do not see why their design should be so good (maybe there is something else on the shirt, but on tv at least it is not visible). Astana does the same, with their unique color, but nobody says their kits are great (but by now, solely by default, because the other kits became so bad, astana’s kit really became one of the good ones in the peloton!).But tastes differ.
I don’t know why it should be so difficult to design good cycling kits? You‘d think the minimum requirement for a sport, that has many participants and works mostly over tv are:
– visibility, meaning: is my design so recognizable and clear, that people recognize it in every situation?
– made for tv, meaning, does it translate well over tv?
– uniqueness, meaning: will other teams have similar kits?
– bike suitability, meaning: does it look good, when the rider is on his bike?
Plus I am sure, that on top of that, there are a few basic rules for design, sewing etc, that have to be applied for clothes, which are used on a fast moving object.
Then, if you have these bases covered, you can play around a bit, if you want, I guess and then that’s that. It can not be this difficult?
But there seems to be only confusion. It is such a shame, because it can really ruin watching a race, if you always have to strain your eyes to see who is who. And on the other hand: seeing a pro rider in a kit, that suits him well, is such a satisfying thing, it totally enhances the sporting aspect.
I will always fondly remember the liquigas kit, when Sagan and Nibali wore it. I usually hate these colors. And it looked really odd, when worn without bike. But when the riders were on their bike? All that changed. It became dynamic and it suited riding a bike so well, that the riders looked like slick, smooth pros by default.
What also happened in this tour: Because it was so difficult to make out what team a rider belongs to, because of the blurry kits, I then realized again, that, riders still have no visible numbers to identify them with, if you look at them from the front. So the fiasco of the kits made me notice another thing, that is not handled very clever. Double jeopardy! If the teams would have done their job well, I wouldn‘t have even noticed the numbers-thing.
++++1!
Why launch a new kit if it makes a team almost indistinguishable from the other uninspiring kits??
An important thing to remember regarding the terribleness of modern cycling kit is how utterly awful the actual kit itself is. Regardless of the design. The overly long shorts, overly long sleeves, no collar and enormously long socks/overshoes combination is absolutely horrendous and would look so with the addition of any design. And this is before we discuss aero helmets. Look at footage of Cancellara, Gilbert and Boonen from 10-15 years back and they look much better in the kit of that day. And its not because Saxo, Quick Step or Lotto had particularly well designed logo.
Couldn’t agree more. I also thought this was the all-time high for not being able to tell who was who. When I saw VLAB’s change kit I couldn’t believe how samey-same it was to the rest of the peloton!
Does anyone know the last time someone won 12 GT stages in a callender year, or what the record is? My google skills aren’t coming up with anything.
In 1979 Freddy Maertens won 13 stages… of the Vuelta and in a year when there were 20 stages, 19 + a prologue.
1977. He also won 7 stages of the Giro that year, so 20 grand tour stages in a season.
And he didn’t even finish that Giro.
He had also won 8 stages in the tour in 76, so he won 28 grand Tour stages in 12 months (July 76 to June 77, Vuelta was in April in those days)
Excellent summary, very enjoyable to read. Some wonderful moments and a couple of “dull” stages which coincided with my days off aghh. Loved seeing Victor win. A pleasure to witness Tadej’s talents and JV not being such a cold fish I thought he was. Once again a reminder of how beautiful a country France is.
Thanks for your talented efforts INRNG.
I fondly remember the day when Pogi told Adam Yates to attack …. everybody wondering what was happening and the Visma guys kind of frozen in wonder.
… and then when I saw that “interview” where Adam Yates comes in from the race and says: “He told me attack! I said WHAT? I can’t attack! I’m not here to attack I’m here for leadout!” almost crying and certainly laughing … I really enjoyed that and it made Adam Yates much more human and sympathic to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Ut9BfCmMI&t=446s
Plus it’s an anti-history to the race radio bickering… since they were in the crowds of people, they couldn’t hear the radio and they had to shout to communicate between them. A matter of improvisation.
Very good indeed!
As dominant a performance as you could ever wish to see. In some ways I think more dominant than the Giro. The time gaps in the top 10 outside the podium are enormous. The way he ‘recovered’ from the day Vingo beat him does trouble me a little. We know how Armstrong in particular used to do that. Everything we know would suggest he should have been clinging on by the last few stages, but that was his strongest point across the 6 weeks of the Giro and Tour.
To pull him from the Olympics seems odd too. He is no doubt tired but he is also by some distance, across all but absolutely pan flat terrain, the strongest cyclist in the world right now.
He pulled himself away because of a conflict with the Federation and Olympic Comittee as Zigart wasn’t selected despite excellent national results. Which could be even worse for his antidoping future… After Le Lioran he had two favourable days, I’m more troubled by instant recovery with big performances the day after a big effort. But we’re living a peculiar era, it’s not only this year and not only Pogačar, we’ve even been seeing more perplexing things. Whatever.
Oh come on – He bonked that day, slowed down to limit his energy output and ensure he got the bonus summit seconds, tried to recover a little on the descent but didn’t have the zip to beat JV in the sprint to the line.
It wasn’t like he had a horrible bad day and got beaten by minutes. It were just centimeters in a sprint cause he missed some gels.
So why would you make a big thing about some miraculous comeback which didn’t actually happen?
‘The way he ‘recovered’ from the day Vingo beat him does trouble me a little. We know how Armstrong in particular used to do that.’
It also happens to nearly everyone else. Me included.
Thank you for the excellent summary, and the daily previews. My key takeaways are quite similar: An utterly dominant performance by TP (which bored me, not so much because it settled the GC battle, but rather because of stage wins on stages 14, 15 and 19, 20, 21; however, it is not an athlete’s duty to entertain everybody), an impresssive show of resilience and character from JV, unexpected consistency from RE (sadly, again devalued by childish trash talk), and lots of heart-warming moments (Bardet, Vauquelin, Girmay, Cavendish, Turgis, Campenaerts, and some more).
One sentiment I can’t agree with is the idea that a JV win in the coming years would be a huge surprise. Yes, reaching TP’s 2024 level looks like a big ask, but it is not only JV who might have to achieve this for the win in 2025 but also TP himself. This post, as well as many other comments, seem to take this as a given. To me, it is a rather bold assumption.
Finally, as for the “annual doping hearings”, I feel it doesn’t help anybody if superficial observations feed into wild speculations in internet forums. This year’s debates showed a bit more restraint than those in 2023 (when even our valued host couldn’t resist producing a graph, https://inrng.com/2023/07/tour-de-france-2023-review/; sorry, I am still disappointed with this), which is a welcome development. Having said that, the fact that TP got off rather lightly smacks of double standards and confirmation bias. I am hoping for an equally level-headed response when TP next loses a race that he wants to win, but I probably shouldn’t hold my breath.
Looking forward to the Olypmics and the Worlds now. To me, the latter is always the pinnacle of season, and more so than the GTs. While I am not a big fan of the TP fans, I must say that the world champion stripes would be a fitting reward for an outstanding season.
….and yet, rather than superficial observations we have the data that tells us the level of performance was extraordinary. Derek Gee’s level was that of a tour winner a few years ago, here he’s an also ran. I don’t have the cynicism I (rightly) had in the 90s and 00s but I’d like a bit more of a clue of where this amazing jump in performance has come from. Tyre widths and aero gains don’t give you watts. I’m an absolute Pogi fan so I don’t want to believe anything other than we have a supreme talent but then again..
Yeah. Derek Gee. I went from rooting for him at the Giro to gradually raising my eyebrows well over the rooftop.
Great post! Agree with everything. Especially that there seem to be some double standards regarding the doping ghosts. Maybe people just need to believe more in the smiling nice guy from Slovenia that the in the rest of the field? I dunno.
It’s just that you can see that he’s a better cyclist irrespective of the watts (he won races where watts aren’t enough, he won races having less watts or form than rivals etc.), so you know that even if he was caught doping, he’s simply *not* a case of flying donkey. I think that nobody is expecting him to be riding cleaner than fresh water or cleaner than anybody else or whatever. I hope nobody is that naif anymore, at least. However, it must also be said that his supergregari didn’t simply become such as soon as they were hired in his team, given that their performances look quite consistent with their CV elsewhere, and UAE in more general terms doesn’t seem a place where you get a special “extra” boost, rather a “buy ’em all” kind of situation – which is a terrible issue in itself, of course, but of a different kind.
First my sincere thanks to our host INRNG for blogging every stage of the Tour, and adding to our enjoyment and anticipation. Thank you INRNG.
I enjoyed this Tour immensely. Pogacar’s outstanding performance was fascinating in its execution and athletic brilliance. His decisive attacks left his best opponent’s simply floundering in his wake and eventually deciding that even trying to follow these attacks was folly. His TT ability simply emphasized the point of his outstanding excellence and will require some reconsideration of the old model that the TdF is won in either the mountains or TTs.
A couple of younger riders showing potential – I am not brave enough to name them publicly! They will probably need to consider changing teams to be given a future opportunity.
Thank you again INRNG for adding something special and extra to a great event.
I shifted my attitude towards Vingo, too. The PDB stage was epic thanks to his racing, rather than Pogi’s.
OTOH I was slightly disappointed by his 3rd week.
Once the direct confrontation had proven useless, I nearly expected some “going down in flames, but with blazing guns” big move. But I guess Visma (or he himslef) needed badly that 2nd place, or – even worse – that they might be happy to win if Pogi crashed out or the likes.
Maybe there weren’t many occasions either. The Côte d’Azur stages showed indeed that the legs were back there big time, unlike what had happened on the Bonnette or Barcelonette days, when he’s surely excused even with hindsight. Yet, given that Nice was an ITT, this leaves us only with one stage to try some crazy long range attack. A tough call, no doubt, although as a cycling fan one always hopes for that sort of showdown beyond the usual athletical arm wrestling.
You know I craved more excitement, but as a JV fan I understood why he didn’t do it. I think he felt like it would likely be a suicide mission, and Remco was looking really dangerous for a while. I think that he ultimately played it as well as he could, and the fact that he was able to beat Remco in the last week was enough of a victory, especially knowing that Pogi was untouchable.
This is the first tour I recall wondering if 10+ tour appearances will become very rare?
Almost all the stage winners mention how much time away from home they spent prepping.
Multiple weeks at altitude camps away from family, living very measured for 10-12 years can’t be sustainable.
$12m/year for Tadej sounds enticing to carry on but this lifestyle and media scrutiny wears a man out. I can’t see him going on if his fun meter breaks well before his trophy case is packed.
The most surprising thing for me was that Vingegaard (and Evenepoel) was so much better than the rest. I guess he was nearly back to his best, hard as that is to believe.
COVID seemed to play a significant part in this tour again. Whem Pog said he had it just before the Tour thought this would limit him as a it would have effected his prep. But in reality it acted as a vaccine, giving immunity, when others, including some in his team were having to drop out due to it. He had the freesdom to not worry about ‘G’ still being in the peleton with COVID and Pog was not waring a mask. Vin on the other hand was and would have been stressed about this. A small win.
Could this be an additional marginal gain. Get a COVID and Flu vaccine 2 weeks before the TdF starts to make sure you dont get it in the race. It would be legal and give a selective advantage.
@Sam G A Covid jab doesn’t stop you getting Covid. A flu jab doesn’t stop you getting flu. So no, that’s not the best idea.
@SamG. Sorry to put a downer on your comments, BUT most of the masks on display at the TdF were as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Not a good idea to recommend the jaba either. Of our regular riding group of seven, one had a heart attack and died on the bike one week after the jab and another suffered myocarditis one week after the jab and is still unable to ride. A frightening and sad statistic.
My personal view is that any rider Covid positive should have been removed from the Tour immediately for the rider and others safety.
It was interesting that some commentators were concerned about roundabouts, pinch points and compressions amongst other nonsense, but kept well clear of the elephant in the room!
Slightly off topic but with thoughts turning to what Pog achieves next, does anyone with a longer memory and better research skills than mine know when people started referring to Giro/Tour/Worlds as The Triple Crown? Was it called that when Roche did it? When Merckx did it? I’m aware it’s a term that turns up in lots of sports and that it started with English horse racing (Newmarket/Epsom/Doncaster), but when did people start saying it in Cycling?
My hunch is that Pogačar fancies trying to be the first rider ever to do it twice, the parcours of the next three world champs favour him apparently.
In horse racing there was a Triple Crown attempt in 2012; Camelot, won the 2,000 Guineas, then The Derby – and surprisingly went to Doncaster for the St Leger over the extended 1m6f…….and was turned over by the outsider Encke – who the following year tested positive for anabolic steroids…..along with 21 of his stablemates……
There’s also a triple crown in rugby – contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales – ie the ‘home nations’ – during the Six Nations competion (also includes France and Italy). Not that I know a lot as I’m not much of a rugby fan. But if one of theose teams beats all three other teams, they win the triple crown.
The Damoclean protein spike was the highlight for me, truly the Dickens of cycling blogs!
The reported rate of myocarditis or pericarditis post vaccine is around 5 per million so it is the most tragically unfortunate riding group to have two cases among seven. Those are terrible odds.
A rule to remove any rider who is positive for Covid is hard to justify unless you are also going to mandate testing of symptomatic riders for all the other respiratory viruses that could make a rider ill. A multiplex PCR swab can cover around 15 different respiratory viruses, many of which cause more severe symptoms than the virus causing COVID-19. Most countries have now changed the rules for quarantining in workplaces following positive tests.
There isn’t any good evidence that covid – whether “back then” or today – is ruinous for fit, healthy young men. Yes, it can be a dose at times; as can other viruses. There is absolutely no good evidence however of more severe PVFS with covid than for other common viruses.
Please inrng, stop listening to the (small minority of) covid hysterics. They were given (too much) free rein for years – they have no answers, no plan for living. They’re ascientific doomers.
I’d rather avoid arguments about virology and epidemiology and that especially includes calling others hysterics.
In our cycling team (men 25-65 years), we had 3 extremely severe covid-19 cased out of 103 members, in 2020. So I will certainly disagree that “back then” it was all fun and games. It’s more beneign now of course.
I have nothing to say about Covid.
What struck me about the tour was how the top three all massively overperformed: Pogačar (I’m riding in Slovenia this week so will make an effort with the accent) rode like a god, Vingegaard was outstanding given his terrible crash, and Evenepoel was far better than in his other GTs, even the one he won. Sad about Roglič, but based on his season so far and the early stages, he did seem to be heading for fourth at best.
What does this mean for the GT riders outside the three teams: Martínez, Rodriguez and the rest? I’m holding out for some luck, finally, for TGH who I firmly believe has another big result in him.
Speaking of gravel – done – dusted, I’ve long wanted to see an abbreviated version of Paris-Roubaix run on the last day of the TdF. It could upend the GC in a way the ITT never does. This would have been the year to do it, too, as the Champs finish was off the cards. But alas, Christian Prudhomme never returns my calls (mainly because I never make them).
Another idea of mine is a Downhill ITT off the top of Alpe d’Huez, just to find out who the best descender is…. pad the corners, eliminate the time cut, how good would it be?
(Thanks, I’ll see myself out)
I’m not against something like that – or even a Gravel/pave ITT….
GTs are far too skewed in favour of climbers, and become just a w/kg test……Why not add something to test the all round abilities of riders?
Too many of them are technically woeful, but get by because they have big engines…..it doesn’t make them good cyclists, just super fit athletes.
First thx to mr Inrng for a enjoyable and competent blog! I only discovered it last year but it has become my must-read before any stage now. 🙂
This years Tour? Very different from what I hoped (and expected). I hoped (in hindsight naively) that Pogacar would be tired after the Giro and JV and RE slightly less in form, so we could have a 4-5-6 man GC fight. No such thing of course. But smal gems nevertheless. Carapaz recognizing he had nothing to offer to the GC so he went stage-hunting, Cavendish #35, JV hunting Pog down and beating him in Le Lioran etc.
But honestly – the GC fight was horribly boring. 19 minutes (!) from Pog to 4th place and even further down to any real competitors outside top3 and their teams. Yawn.
And looking ahead. If Pog’s reported wattage is accurate (and legit..), what are the other teams (than UAE/VisLab and QS) to do? Stage-hunting and sprinters? Will any team be able to convince any GC-rider to aim for the Tour? And not only looking at wattage, but also the overall UAE-team. They can control any climb and calibrate it to Pog to an extend that the race doesn’t really matter any more. Maybe Pob himself will tire out before the broad interest.
I don’t get much this “the GC fight was boring” point… it’s been four years now it’s like that, and at least we’re having a red hot fight for the top spots. Of course, most of it was over after stage 15, just as last year it was over after stage 16, but it was very open until the very day before. And, very important, someone even felt, Vingegaard and Visma among them, that 2nd place was still at risk, i.e., often a 3-way fight. Not a silly detail.
2022 was better, of course, yet both 2023 and 2024 were clearly better than 2021 which was over before it got to its halfway point. Even if there was a lot of guys “only” 5 minutes back in GC and no matter how hard Vingo and Carapaz were going to keep Pogi’s wheel during the third week. Which was a much more boring show than this year’s Alpine stages, by the way. What about 2020? Oh yeah, that last ITT was extremely emotional. The rest was a total snooze fest.
And do we remember 2016, 2017, 2018…? They were sooo close with the 4th place 2 to 4 minutes back from the yellow jersey, but:
1) you never had the sensation anybody really tried to overturn things
2) you couldn’t even hope for much because the terrain was poor
3) in fact, nobody did try anyway
4) you felt that the winner built up his victory on a specific differential in little ITTs rather than on *anything else*
So we had poor racing among poor competition and close to no realistic expectation at all. Heck, *that* was boring.
(People more keen on cycling politics might also suspect since the very first moment that the whole stuff was due to backstage ops rather than to any serious sporting contest, but this is sheer conspiracy theory, of course, just adding up to the feeling of general nonsense).
Historically, we can also compare the current situation with other past trends, when the TDF’s GC stood still for stage after stage after stage until some final fireworks. A couple of editions regarded as very good ones:
– 2011, barely any serious contest until *stage 18*. Total action, three stages. Compelling, huh, but hey, we’ve had this year at least *7 stages* of serious catfight before relative strengths set it out
– 2009, nothing at all until Verbier, *stage 15*, then Le Gran Bornand, an ITT and probably the most boring Ventoux ever.
Not to speak of dead editions like 2010 or 2012…
And I could say a word or two about the 2019 coitus interruptus, Nibali closing the 2014 TDF on st. 13, 2008 being a one-stage-TDF, 1999-2006 being a farce, and what about the Rasmussen-Cassani case in 2007 etc.
Seriously, it looks like people started to watch the TDF this year for the first time… or sheer boredom would have pushed them all away long before, indeed. “This is the TDF”, guys and gals, and at its best. Some years ago I’d have told you watch the Giro or watch the Classics, now I can only suggest to learn and appreciate the sport differently from a horse race.
Thanks gabriele, I always enjoy and appreciate your thoughtful comments… routinely the most insightful here (sorry this sounds sarcastic but it isn’t!).
I can see why many found the GC battle underwhelming in the end but it seems like over expectations and/or amnesia are standard for grand tour viewers
I certainly don’t view the “old” Tour with a tint of nostalgia. Very often the GC has been just as boring as this year. But 22 and 23 where significantly more exiting – at least until Pog ran out of options in both.
The problem with this years tour was that it very soon became predictable. Except for Le Lioran there was no real surprises on the way the GC was handled. Pog would set a range of ridiculous Strava records, after using up his team, without even looking tired. So even though it may sound somewhat unfair, Pog is slowly becoming a smiling version of Armstrong, with a better kick and a grotesque advantage in watts.
Agree with most, except for the Armstrong analogy. Their personalities, racing style and versality are as day and night. And I’m saying this even as one who is getting more and more bored with TP.
I fail to see 2023 as significantly more exciting, and, to me, it even left a deeper taste of lingering doubts, be it only of technical nature, as Combloux looked a true outlier not only checked against the rest but also compared to Vingo’s other performances that same year during the same TDF, both before and after that ITT. Of course, one can find some kind of explication for it all, but anyway it takes away from the contest as a whole. However, to me 2023 was broadly in the same category as 2024, i.e., a very good TDF but not best ever, say more or less there with 2013, 2014 or 2019, but surely below 2015 or 2022.
Combloux an outlier (and hence “troubling”) but TP beating ascend records with *minutes*? not the least?
I had – and have – some doubts about JV, but I have to say that TP’s season is the most troubling I’ve seen for a long, long time.
-> gabriele
At least until Courchevel, 23 was a rather open race. Vingo in front after two good stages, but Pog winning the rest of the direct heads-on and clawing back the early lead Vingo had. Combloux may have been an outlier but it was also not Pog’s best stage and it showed both in his ridning and in the results. At least not nearly as suspicious as Pog’s seeming unlimited ability this year. Are those two guys clean? No clue and I have no evidence to prove them wrong, other that Stravas that are close to unreal.
The whole “record” thing makes little sense but it’s a debate we’ve already had here. However, what I meant is that Pogačar can be an absolute generational champion or “just” a “boosted” great cyclist, but his performance are consistent. Combloux was not consistent with the performance difference previously expressed. It could be a case of Tadej having a bad day and underperforming – only, it wasn’t (number-wise at least). This TDF OTOH broadly made sense, how things ended up tended to be coherent on what happened on the road once mutual strengths became apparent. If anything, the (little and relative) “surprises” might be deemed Le Lioran when JV came back strong (rational explications above) or the Dane looking stronger than Remco in the Côte d’Azul once the latter had proven clearly stronger on the stages of Barcelonette and Bonette.
@gabriele,
TP underperformed the Combloux stage with about 1 minute (I’ll locate the source asap), and was visibly under more strain than earlier ITTs. So i’m not sure how much of an outlier it was for JV in the end. But never mind.
And it’s worth noting that Pogacar outclimbed Pantani by minutes, on a significantly heavier bike (Pantani’s win predated the 6.8kg rule, he had a ~6.5kg bike – possibly lighter; and Pog’s Colnago is known to be heavy, over 7kg, so prob 0.5kg or more between them). Also, if the comment I’ve read is correct, Pog’s finish was a hundred metres or so past Pantani’s.
One rider in the top 8 not on UAE, QS or VLAB: Carlos Rodriguez, 7th place, 25:04 back.
“Pogačar harvesting riders up the road like some demented threshing machine.”
Such a creative metaphor! Other writers might have settled for a mundane “mowed down”.
Hola. Very good and insightful summary, as always.
A pleasure to read Inrng.
Forwarding to La Vuelta, with UAE listing Yates, Almeida and Ayuso, how do you think del Toro will ride?
Thank you for all your work,
Francisco
It’s almost a surprise to see del Toro riding the Vuelta as he’s had a busy season with World Tour racing already and some very good performances. So anything in the Vuelta is a bonus. As he’ll be a helper to others who have been promised leadership, the goal for him is putting together two or more weeks of racing but we’ll see where he sits in the team, presumably a key rider already for the big stages.
Thanks for the reply. I also was not expecting it, but Pogacar also rode the Vuelta in his first year at UAE. Although the team´s depth now is much higher. Can’t wait for the mountain stages. He was listed to ride the Giro del Apenninno, do you happen to know why didn´t he raced it?
Regardos,
Yeah yeah, but what about the relegations, whats the standings after the tour?
Not much change, I updated my tables on Tuesday and Astana and Arkéa in trouble. Will do a post on this soon to show how things are.
Cav’s win was magical, but I couldn’t help thinking that Astana wasn’t getting many points in the gruppetto!
A winning margin of 360 secs after 30200 secs of cycling equates to about 1/10th of a second in a 10sec 100m, so about on par for professional superiority. Though Pogacar might do better if he chopped his tufts off.
Linking to the Daily Wail – for shame!
I enjoyed the Tour – but I always do. It’s Grande and there is always tremendous detail if you look for it.
My take aways are;
– awe at Tadej Pogačar’s performance which I am very pleased to witness
– seeing Vingegaard lose makes him easier to like – he’s won and lost with dignity
– pleased to see Remco Consistently excellent
– surprise at Mark Cavendish’s victory and amazement at the strength of my emotions in response to it – I think he carries the last drops British nationalistic relation in me
– deep gratitude and regard to @inrng for outstanding cycling journalism, and to the community here for adding width to the discussions.
Vive le Tour!!!
AND… I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the 2025 rematch between Tadej-Jonas-Remco… I can’t be the only one.
Remco will be stronger, Tadej might have overcooked himself winning San Remo-Roubaix-Flander-LBL-Strade Bianche and the Giro. Jonas hopefully can have a safer spring….
Imagine if Tadej wins 5 Monuments next year?
Tadaj can win anything he (and UAE) wants. As Geraint Thomas said, the only reason he is not doing the Vuelta is out of “respect” to his team. He could win it as easy as anything, even as a training exercise. Whatever Tadai is doing (or taking), its enough to crush any field in any race.
Well said.
This reminded me of 2022 – back then, I thought Pogacar still had a chance entering Hautacam, because after all, isn’t he the guy who destroyed the field (including Vingegaard) for three minutes on the Romme/Colombiere? Of course, looking at it coldly, Pogacar did not drop Vingegaard once in 2022, but it was still exciting at the time.
Much like this year – many expected Vingegaard to pull a Combloux, or a Granon, or a Hautacam out of his hat – but an objective look should have made it clear that he was looking less and less strong as the race went on, which you might expect given his abbreviated prep.
Still – nothing wrong with a sporting event that’s exciting in the moment, even if the end result was, in retrospect, nailed-on.
thanks for this lovely summary and more widely thank you for all the work that you put into this blog which I’ve been enjoying for years. The quality never seems to dip, it really is rather magical.
Great recap as always Mr. Inrng and THANK YOU for another great July. Every summer I can’t wait to launch into the annual Inrng-Tdf reviews and daily stage updates/recaps.
Am I the only one who refuses to watch ITT highlights because the riders look like darth vader? I HATE these helmets. Why don’t we just put the riders in a bubble?
Reassure yourself that since Visma started using *that* helmet they haven’t won a time trial, not even a national championships.
I would like trial a rule saying if you want to wear a fairing – because that is what they are, there is no extra protection from being bigger – then have a clear visor so that spectators and viewers can see the facial expressions.
Haha yes, very good point. I bet there is a rule about fairings or a substantive rule about aero advantages etc.
Also, logically, Cav’s final send off TdF shot will be him wearing a ridiculous bowl on his head… he finished mid-low pack…. What was the point of the wonky-Vader-fairing helmet anyways?!?
Sorry, that is all.
Looking back on it now I think there’s a case for saying Pogacar narrowly missing the central road furniture on stage five was the moment the race was won…
Getting into speculation but did think of the gravel stage again and imagined if he’d punctured, lost time and then had to regain it in the mountains how he would have done.
No Olympic Games Preview? Please….
My 19 year old niece aks me for a good article about it & only INRNG is worth for it
Probably not for the time trials, hard to write more than Evenepoel vs Ineos (Tarling, Ganna, Sheffield) and think Tarling wins because the course is so flat and Dygert vs the field with a strong chance of a Dutch medal.
Yes, hard to see anything other than a repeat of the Worlds top-3 from last year. The order, who knows. Despite being a Brit, I’d very much like to see Ganna win it. Ideally we’d have seen WvA in the mix, but I’m uncertain of his form.
I have thoughts about the Olympic Road Races – anticipating glorious chaos – so hope to a see a preview of that.
Tarling-wow. Interesting one
Really an event where one should be on spot
Anyway thx!!