The suspense has gone out the window for the yellow jersey but it should be close for the stage win.
High Five: Tadej Pogačar tried not to win, or at least his UAE team didn’t mow down the breakaway. Soudal-Quickstep did this instead, the idea was try and soften up Jonas Vingegaard. It was a rare move that couldn’t fail because if he toppled Vingegaard then second place overall awaited, if not then he was still in third place given nobody threatens his podium spot; João Almeida is eight minutes behind. He tried two moves and got caught and countered.
Jonas Vingegaard was still keen to keep Evenepoel at bay and so he towed Tadej Pogačar across to the day’s breakaway survivors Enric Mas and Richard Carapaz, the former starting to look ready for the Vuelta and the latter now 30 points ahead in the mountains competition so no need to worry about today’s second category climb. Pogačar finished it off with a sprint in the final metres and dropped Vingegaard for his fifth stage win.
The Route: 33km and hard work with an uphill start out of Monaco to Beausoleil where Ineos have their local service course. It’s via a series of hairpins to La Turbie and if it’s not steep it’s eight kilometres uphill, plenty can be done in the TT tuck.
Then across to the Col d’Eze before tackling the steep road that climbs up to the Haute Corniche road.
Next comes the corniche descent, later the same as used by Paris-Nice for the now classic final Nice-Nice stage but in a time trial some stress as it’s fast and how much to use the TT position or brake? The difference is that instead of dropping down into the finish there’s still three kilometres to go, it’s out along the sea front Promenade des Anglais before turning back towards the line.
The Contenders: six stage wins for Tadej Pogačar (UAE)? He’s been talking up this stage and there’s local bragging rights for it. But what if he’s not ahead by the Col d’Eze or just has a slim lead, is it worth risking it?
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) won the Beaujolais TT but only by 12 seconds and today has more climbing. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) is a contender if he can have a good day because he might climb faster than Evenepoel to establish a lead.
It’s not easy looking beyond the three podium players. This isn’t a course for specialist rouleurs, besides Stefan Küng has gone home. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B) did a good ride in the previous TT and is handy on short climbs but a win would be a shock. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) would like a much flatter course. Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull) is a specialist but also seems tired. Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) could be a contender but hasn’t looked like the force of recent years.
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Evenepoel, Pogačar |
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Vingegaard |
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WVA, Almeida, Vauquelin |
Weather: cloudy and 28°C with an on-shore wind.
TV: reverse GC order so lanterne rouge Davide Ballerini is off at 2.40pm and Tadej Pogačar goes at 6.45pm.
Postcard from 1989
The last time the Tour de France ended with a time trial was 1989. Instead of the usual parade turning into a sprint, a time trial was held between the old royal palace of Versailles and the capital. It made perfect sense as this was the 200th anniversary of the French revolution. It was even better on the day as Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 58 seconds to take back the yellow jersey by eight seconds, the closest winning margin.
But if the race is famous for the narrow margin, this was only the end, the coda, the conclusion of three weeks of action. Many cite 1989 as the best edition of the race and it’s a subjective claim, feel free to pick 1964 or 1987 or others. It was all that happened before that was thrilling. There’s a book to be written rather than a postcard but both LeMond and Fignon were on the comeback from injury, both kept swapping the race lead throughout and if it ended in a duel third the previous year’s winner Pedro Delgado was closing in after a disastrous start. The revolutionary theme mattered too, it gave the race and festivities added depth.
1989 was the year when “tri bars” made their debut. Imported from the new sport of triathlon, these handlebar extensions became famous because of LeMond who won the Rennes time trial and then the Paris final stage with them but for the record he wasn’t the first to use them, the 7-Eleven team started the prologue with them with British rider Sean Yates. Fignon was beaten in part by these bars but adopted them later in the season…
If you take out Vingegaard the result of this Tour is not too different to the Giro with Evenopoel close to 500 seconds behind. Pogacar has twice won the Tour without the team to do so. This year he had the team and it shows.
If you want some fun, check Pogacar’s 2020 UAE team. Fabio Aru was on it, somehow.
Conversely, Vinny twice won the Tour with a team to do so. This year he didn’t have the team and it shows (although he also didn’t quite have the legs).
Yeah, Vingegaard’s wins have been more a team effort then Pogacars.
Just like to thank Mr Ring for the continued fine previews.
Vingegaard had much stronger opposition.
I want jonas abrehamson to win
Actually looking forward to this final stage because of what and where it is. never been able to say that before.
The 1989 tour leads changed hands on the last stage but i can recall at least one other where it changed hands on i think the 2nd last stage when Cadel Evans overcame Andy Schlek.
Plus a couple where cadel Evans did not overcome the deficient.
Much is sewn up but A Yates leads Rodriguez by a mere second. A place worth fighting for even if both teams don’t need to count the UIC points.
There is so little to fight for. So strange to be missing the usually unremarkable Champs stage. Kind of an odd tour with lots of fireworks but not much drama.
Sorry to labor a point @The Other Craig.
(I’m partly replying to the above but also your comment yesterday)
You’re obvs entitled to your opinion.
I just firmly think you’ve got this wrong – because…
That is EVERY Tour.
Except maybe two or three in the last three decades?
Almost every Tour is decided before the final week.
And if not then, then 99% before the final weekend.
Only two or three Tours in recent memory that have any drama on the final weekend.
2019
2020
2011
And (in a sense) all of those come in eras between great champions, which is usually when the best races happen, so no surprise there – even if 2019 flattered to deceive. (Maybe 2018 also, but Geraint never looked troubled.)
Outside of that 2024 follows the pattern of the vast majority of Tours but with fireworks in the first 2/3s that far exceed most Tours plus it’s now part of sequence of Tours with a rivalry that’s fast approaching legendary status, again elevating above other Tours. I see it as another step in the P/V story where P’s hit back leaving us all eager to see what happens next year, a narrative that’s an extremely rare occurrence in recent Tour history.
I do sympathise with your point of view though, when Pog crumbled last year the air went out of the Tour quickly, but soon after you remember how good the opening was and how far it was above most normal Tours. Right now we’re just in the shadow of a few predictable stages but when that passes, 2024 is obviously in the GOOD category and everyone’s got their fingers crossed for a GREAT Tour between P/V either next time or the one after.
Obviously actually getting that might be unlikely (especially in cycling!!) but that’s sport. It’s pretty rare to ever get the perfect storm of rivals, narrative, performance, drama…
But we shouldn’t dismiss this Tour as below par when we’ve endured the drudgery of multiple snooze fests in the 00’s and 10’s.
I just think either:
a) your standards are too high.
b) you’re clouded by Roglic support currently!
c) you don’t like stage racing that much.
**All of which are fair enough**
You’re unlucky to support Roglic atm, he never really stood a chance this year with or without a crash, P/V are miles ahead, and likely Remco now also. He’s missed his opportunity to win Yellow and Red Bull will either need luck or another rider if they want a win.
If you prefer classics, also fair enough, I drive people made here saying how much I loathe MSR, so it’s fine to have horses for courses!
& re standards, you’d be right and I actually agree – the hit to miss ratio during the cycling season isn’t what it should be and all our standards are too low – but in the current context this was still a good TDF.
As for V coming back next year…
P’s performance this year would’ve beaten V last year if you believe the numbers being quoted by everyone include Visma, so I’m not convinced V’s awful injuries held him back as much as assumed. I have a feeling we might get a few years of P dominance now and the hope for a GREAT Tour in the coming years will need to be postponed till P’s level wanes.
But who knows…
Wow, that was comprehensive! I love stage racing, and the rider I support is Vingegaard. I think my original post was poorly written; I didn’t mean it was a dull Tour, it was far from that. What I meant was that it is dull when one athlete is head and shoulders above the rest, as both Pogi and MVDP have been this year. We have watched a lot of “dead rubber” kms this year. It can be enjoyable to see a great individual performance, but it can also remove the drama. I actually thought stage 20 was pretty good because even though it became obvious that Pogi would likely win again, it wasn’t clear whether QS towing him to the win would also help Remco, who I thought before the tour started would be nowhere near the podium. Also, it was great to see EF and Carapaz rewarded for their efforts to light up the race on so many occasions. Although I don’t see Roglic as a serious threat to the likes of Pogi, it will be interesting to see how Bora and QS affect the P/V rivalry going forward.
“It can be enjoyable to see a great individual performance, but it can also remove the drama”
Got to say I totally agree with that.
Amen. If u are into drama and a true fight for the podium, this years Tour was immensely boring, but if u enjoy the spectacle of a truly star, then there was much to watch. A copy of the Giro and maybe also what we will see in Spain later.
/
I’d always favour drama and tension over witnessing literally incredible performances (IMHO). “Dead rubber kms” is a great way to explain it.
Despite the lack of GC tension there were still some great individual stages and moments:
– Stage 1 (I was certain Bardet and van den Broek would be caught… lovely celebration when they crosse the line and delighted for Bardet to wear yellow)
– Stage 5: Cavendish sprinting/positioning masterclass to finally win his 35th
– Stage 9: gravel mayhem.
– Stage 11: Vingegaard clawing back and beating Pog in the sprint (adding some spice and intrigue to the GC fight, albeit fleetingly)
– Carapaz and (especially) Campanaerts victories
I do hope Pog doesn’t absolutely crush the competition all the time, especially if this means that breakaways have no chance (otherwise we’ll never see the 2-for-1 stages that we love so much). Let’s see…
I’m not convinced Pogi is not using something, I know they get tested, but money talks and UAE has plenty…
Re: 1989 HTH do you show up to a prologue late?!? Also, ISTR that Guimard and Fignon considered tribars but discarded them because they would violate some obscure rule (3 points of contact?) They tried them in another race where they were ruled illegal.
Re: 2023. That TT last year triggered all sorts of bad memories, given how much previous this sport has. But if that CN article the other day showing how aero is important even in the mountains is roughly correct, perhaps I was a bit harsh. Still skeptical about CO rebreathing though.
Re: 2024. Pog fan here, but this has been a bit OTT. I understand respecting the competition and the race itself, but at some point it’s getting on rubbing it in.
Science says that over 20 kilometers per hour drag becomes significant, so given the speeds they go uphill aero does play a part even in the mountains.
P.S. At times Pog is an “opportunistic killer” you cannot expect him to give up his pray when it lays helpless before him. 😉
Science says that over 20 kilometers per hour drag becomes significant, so given the speeds they go uphill aero does play a part even in the mountains.
At times Pog is an “opportunistic killer” you cannot expect him to give up his pray when it lays helpless before him. 😉
So what is he supposed to do? The team didn’t ride for the stage win, ( well, not for Pog) , but it would have been unbelievably arrogant not to mark the two podium placers in some kind of condescending, ‘let’s relax, we can’t be beaten’ scenario….only Jonas and Remco were not signing from that song sheet, thankfully.
The break didn’t make it, partly because the two survivors attacked each other rather than cooperating to stabilise and then fighting it out it the barrier section. Let’s face it, Carapaz has form in that department. That left the door open, and JV shut it, decisively.
And as TP says ‘ I’m paid to win’. ( not to hand out victories like consolation prizes).
Thank you, TDK, for this. I, too, have a vague recollection of Fignon saying about this three points of contact rule.
Given events of ‘22 and ‘23 it’s understandable why Pog would want to take every opportunity to show dominance over Jonas. May look like rubbing it in but it needs to be looked as a long running rivalry. Planting small seeds of doubt for next years Tour.
Pogi and remco didn’t show any respect for Jonas and his injuries and they showed it publicly, I stop watching right then
I’m intrigued to know what form of ‘respect’ would you like them to show in a race? Pedalling with one foot instead of two?
@Tom: +1. As much as I wanted JV to win (because I cannot support a team backed by the uae) in my view, racing hard is the greatest form of respect. Sitting back and soft pedalling is disdainful, arrogant and demeaning to your opponents.
Whilst Nice has welcomed the Tour and the atmosphere at the Depart was fantastic yesterday, not everyone is so keen and the inhabitants of Eze who will be cut off from the world from 09:00 to 20:00 are a little grumpy. The local restaurants are going to stay closed for the day because of the absence of tourists. The route has a little sting in the middle on the climb up to the col, which although short has some ramps which my Garmin flatteringly said were 14% but in reality were about 11%. The descent off the col will be fast and the road surface is by no means perfect with drain covers and patched tarmac. At least it will be cooler than yesterday and even cloudy. Although the Tour may have lacked excitement at the sharp end, it has had some nice cameos, from Cavendish, Bardet and Girmay. Also in an unsettled and uneasy world, watching yesterday was a moment of escapism and showed how much the Tour can bring people from all over the world together to watch a great sporting spectacle.
„There’s a book to be written rather than a postcard…”
For anybody who is now hooked, the book “Three Weeks, Eight Seconds: The Epic Tour de France of 1989” by Nige Tassell already exists.
It‘s either pretty bad (review on podiumcafe.com) or quite good (goodreads ratings).
So, I don’t know.
The biography by Laurent Fignon touches the topic obviously and is really good (own impression plus review on this site).
I’ll wait for inrng’s book. Looking forward to that read!
Exactly, there’s still a book to be written 😉
Can you get on with it then please?!!
lol
I understand why Monaco is the starting point for this TT – money talks, BUT a more spectator and TV friendly route would have surly been a bumpy loop out along the Corniche with a return up and over or even through the Esterel with a finish in Nice. Tough, minimal disruption, fair and wonderful scenery to boot. Maybe next time!
Pogacar has proven himself head and shoulders above the competition, and is going to be a well deserved winner. Other WT teams are going to have to think long and hard on the riders and tactics needed next year if Pogacar and his team are to be beaten!
It’s where Pogacar lives
I think history will be kind to this tour de force by Tadej Pogačar.
He’s pulled off a legendary double – I wouldn’t rule him out of making it a triple with the Olympic and/or worlds.
Why a ‘triple’ with those extras?
Worlds title seems to be assured. Here’s the UCI description of the course;
The Men Elite road race will start in Winterthur and cover a distance of 273.9km, with an elevation of 4,470m. It will finish with seven laps of a 27km final circuit (elevation: 501m) in and around Zurich. The main difficulties on the course will be the climbs of Kyburg (1.2km with an average gradient of 12% and a maximum gradient of 16%), Zürichbergstrasse (1.1km with an average gradient of 8% and a maximum gradient of 15%) and Witikon (2.3km with an average gradient of 5.7% and a maximum gradient of 9%).
– all of which seems tailor-made for Pogacar.
It’s the Olympics that could be a reach. Its gentle rolling course is going to leave many more contenders in place on the loops around Montmartre. Even with the bizarre distribution of teams and tail of minor cycling nation’s uncompetitive riders plus a team of Mezgec, Mohoric and Tratnik alongside, Pogacar is going to be challenged by Evenepoel, Matthews, Bettiol, Pedersen, Tarling and more.
Surely the true Triple, holy trinity whatever is the never-before-even-thought-possible La Vuelta – le Tour – il Giro ??! The guy just seems to enjoy his racing so much he could do this. And give the UCI strength to allow an armband flash of the rojo – jaune – rosa on Pogacar’s jersey sleeve forever more.
It’s been a privilege to watch this genius at work. And not just Mr Ring who deserves as much praise and our thanks.
Nice last paragraph @plurien – I concur
Vingegaard is not riding the Vuelta this year and Remco will pass it as well, so it is TP’s for the taking. He will have Del Toro instead of Ayuso so no real loss there.
He should easily win 10 stages and the GC with a 10+ minute margin.
Only Gianetti rained on the parade saying at the finish; ‘No he (Pogacar) will not ride the Vuelta. He is a man, not a toy to be played with till it’s broken’
I wish they would reconsider.
Anyone… at… UAE… listening …?
I hope not. It’ll be the Giro all over again. Even Gianetti said that a 1-man show will kill both his own team and general interest in Pro cycling.
I doubt Almeida’s real chance of winning, but for cycling as a sport I fully understand why UAE will likely try him out as their captain.
I’ll watch the Vuelta without TP. I’ll not watch one minute if its a Giro re-run.
Well, if they’re not, Vinny should go for it. He missed out last year due to team tactics and a Vuelta – another GT – isn’t to be sniffed at. Can’t see anyone beating him if Pog isn’t there – certainly not Mas!
Got to agree on the last. We are watching a 1 in many decades (possibly a century) phenom at play (while others look decidedly hard at work in his wake). This has been a rare year for cycling in terms of achievement, and it’s surely not over yet.
Sit back and enjoy. One day far off, in our dotages, we’ll be telling the young ‘uns about the marvels we saw.
There is not much to enjoy. Pogi may be a wunderkid, but it ruins the races..
Hi Rigi. Can understand your view but cannot agree. As much as I wanted JV to win, it was a great TdF with so many fantastic stages and winners.
I’m pretty sure Pog will do the Vuelta. Almeida ducked the question Yesterday and he knows he will be shunted down the hierarchy. My guess is that Pog will copy the Giro performance with much the same margin. Neither Jonas nor Remco will be there, and Rog is no match for even a 95% Pog.
Why not now?
/
As I understood it Almeida just commented on the UAE roster for the Vuelta still being in the air. His boss has been very clear that TP is not riding and that the Team (i.e. Almeida) deserves their own chance. I’ve earlier written that I don’t think he (Almeida) can win and that there may be a small opening still for TP, but it will require Gianetti to backtrack his comments and commitments, and I think that unlikely.
Pogačar has said he’s not doing it, he’s been on the road and doing altitude training camps from well before the Giro to now with little time at home. Now he’s got the Olympics coming up… but a break after that and then training for the Worlds.
The only thing for UAE is whether Ayuso races, normally not but now with his Tour exit this might change, parts of the Spanish media say it’s possible although how much insight this is based on, who knows.
I keep thinking this is a very strange moment for cycling.
Things change quick and we go from ‘Bernal will win eight tours’ to knowing he’ll likely never get another, but the numbers Pog and to an extent Vin are reported to have been doing (and it seems on fairly good authority given both Pog and Visma team have tentatively confirmed them) are so impressive that it leaves everyone in a bit of a fix for the near future?
Ineos have felt poorly managed for a while but even with all their money what do they do next?
Red Bull are new kids on the block, but how the hell do they compete with Pog in the short term?
You have multiple well funded teams currently who all feel like they’ll be at a loss for a number of years to compete with this level unless there are further crashes/bad luck.
Also the whole next generation of riders: Ayuso, Cian, Remco, Rodriguez are all excellent but to go from being an excellent rider to being able to put out a 7.2-3w/kg for 40mins (when normalised to sea level) is such a giant leap that it’s fairly conceivable that none of them will ever reach that level? I’m not fully convinced Jonas will get to Pog’s 2024 level either.
If I were at any other team than UAE and Visma, I’d be pretty panicked to know what to do next? I realise you can say this for any generation, but I don’t think any rider has had this level of talent/dominance at a single moment going back to maybe Contador in 2009? Admittedly that quickly disappeared so may answer my own question… but before then I guess it would’ve been Ulrich in 1997 then Indurain and Greg Lemond before that. Interesting to see what happens next.
In a way I feel most sorry for Roglic and Remco, as Roglic probably should’ve nabbed his Tour in 2020, and Remco in any other generation would’ve also cruised to a Tour with his talent but it now seems feasible that both will have the bad luck of being caught between generations (Rog between Froome&Pog, Remco between Pog&whoever comes next) and both will now be lucky to come away with a single Tour win.
As something of a passive INEOS supporter I concur with you description about the poor team management, post Brailsford. The recent team selection explains the problem more than words could ever do. Disagreement’s over roles even before the Tour started were a clear indication of weak management and a self entitled rider. Pogacar is a wonderful rider, of that there can be little doubt. He also has a strong all round team at his service, with riders in reserve. Money is not everything, but INEOS, in my view need to pension off some of their ageing or non performing roster asap and enter the transfer market with renewed energy and vigor. Is Rodriquez the new team leader? I think not given his present trajectory and level.
So, it has to be back to the drawing board. New staff and riders including someone with tactical vision and nous. It’s a tough sport. INEOS need to make some difficult staffing decisions quickly, or simply become just another also ran.
I don’t believe Radcliff would want his money spent on also rans!
Didn’t Brailsford essentially build the current team? How long has he been gone? I don’t think any level of superior “management “ could have wrung much better results out of this current Ineos squad. It’s bad talent identification and the fact that they don’t have the deepest pockets and can’t easily buy the best young riders (Ayuso, Del Toro) like in the past (Bernal, Dombrowski lol). Also project Pidcock Tdf hasn’t worked which has set them back since I assume his contract ensures a Tour start every year. Maybe they go with project Tarling Tdf next.
nah, i don’t think it’s been mismanaged. more a case of terrible luck.
the plan was clearly to have froome ride into a 5th tour win while mentoring and passing leadership to bernal. after froomes catastrophic and tragic injury ended his career about 3 years early, bernal was pushed ahead a little too early.
then bad became worse with bernals nearly (probably) career ending injury. so an entire team and 5-10 year plan unraveled fast. maybe they should have given up on bernal earlier, but they made the moral choice to give him 100% support and see if he could recover.
Agree. A team with a reputation for ruthlessness has shown remarkable commitment towards riders that became liabilities through no fault of their own. I can think of teams that would have unloaded them presto.
If I was involved in any WT team other than Visma I would be thinking one thing for the TDF – Sprinter. Only Vingegaard can compete with Pogacar and even then, only if he does everything right and Pogacar everything wrong. Then I guess you’d have to wait to see what program Pogacar was on and send your GC hopeful to whichever race he wasn’t doing.
Evenepoel is a slightly interesting one. Its all about prep and doing everything right now. How sure are we that Quick Step know what they’re doing? Everyone else in their team has fallen by the wayside over recent seasons. They are also rans now in the races they used to dominate. We see riders changing teams now and improving massively (the Laporte effect). If Evenepoel went to Ineos or Red Bull could he have a similar transformation?
“Only Vingegaard can compete with Pogacar and even then, only if he does everything right and Pogacar everything wrong.”
Sorry, that’s just utter rubbish.
Pogi’s 7+ w/kg may be impressive, but they will also lessen interest in cycling. Look at the recruitment here in Italy and (probably) in Germany, France, Spain as well.
INRNG, thank you for the daily coverage, and for sharing your excellent postcard collection. For years now, you’ve been the first thing I read each morning for three special weeks in July. You put in the miles for us. I appreciate it so much.
Why would Pogačar not / attempt ride the Vuelta?
I think the main challenge will be that his teammates (Ayuso and/or Almeida) will want their chance to compete for GC, and there will be sn agreement in the team. But who knows what may happen.
Ayuso will not ride the Vuelta (rumour is that he is slowly getting fed up being a sideshow to circus TP), but they may give Almeida a shot at it. I doubt he can win but UAE will likely provide a decent team for him. Only unknown is that TP may reconsider and go for the treble, in which case UAE will go all-in.
And Ayuso is right. He is a team leader in his own right. To me he is a huge, huge, huge talent. Maybe the best of the coming years. His problem is not his talent or his sporting ability. His problems lie in other aspects: foremost his nationality, that Movistar is in this weird place etc.
Agree with everything. Movistar is a slow-moving Spanish train wreck, and has been for years.
Should go to Ineos. Guaranteed a ride, speaks fantastic English, has support riders. Even then, hard to see him getting a Tour podium, let alone winning
He’s egotistical enough, he just want to be the best even when his competitors are not near his level
Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg?
Mauro Gianetti said on Italian TV that Pogi would not race the Vuelta, and he also repeated his earlier points about UAE as a team and the risk of a one-man show. I think it would be tempting to field Pogi in Spain, but at the risk of internal UAE grumbling.
1989 was inferior in every way to 1987 or 1977, because with Delgado out of the contest from the beginning, it was largely only a 2-man thing. The best stage races are more choral. And then 1989 was made very ugly by being decided by a technical device.
The only good thing was avoiding the boring Champs-Elysées parade. I hope ASO doesn’t go back to it. The best possible last day for the Tour is Roubaix-Paris, crossing Arenberg and all the other classic cobbled sections. A fine last revenge and opportunity for the daring and the rouleurs over the climbers, with a possibility to turn the GC upside down. Spectacular and much safer than done in the first week.
On “technical devices”: I have a vague memory that Lemond once said that any aero gains from the bars were cancelled out by the helmet he was wearing – which, it subsequently turned out, was very un-aero.
Or have I made this up?
The helmet was tested later and yes, not much use as it didn’t form a good fairing with the shoulders. From memory of reading something on this as well a cap turned backwards might have worked better?
The mention of Ballerini as Lanterne rouge makes me wonder: could Cavendish, currently second to last, manage to go quickly enough to keep within the time limit while losing over a minute to Ballerini in order to finish as lanterne rouge?
Cav could actually go into the lead on the TT, theoretically, and sit on the throne. Which would be delightful. Do they even have The Throne in the Tour?
No Cavendish appearance in the hot seat but as he finished well over a minute behind Ballerini it looks like he has “won” the lanterne rouge!
Time cut for an ITT stage is 33% so there’s plenty of time to play with.
Some quality lollygagging for the crowds has secured Cavendish last place by 25 seconds.
I hope that Ballerini was asked if he was okay with that before the stage, as getting the lanterne rouge would have given him inflated appearance fees at crits, which would have been a good reward for Cavendish to let a hard working domestique keep.
Vastly more egregious that Cavendish did not gift the Lanterne Rouge to his own teammate than that Pogacar did not gift the last mountain stage to his arch rival.
I don’t think Cav was even thinking about the lanterne rouge; more that he wanted to celebrate his final tour outing.
If Ballerini really wanted the LR he could’ve just ridden slower?
Has anyone else mentioned the very welcome reduced number of large scale bunch pile-ups this year (or so it has appeared to me)?
It’s been notable, probably helped by the way bigger time gaps occurred earlier but a factor among others.
Similarly the crowd control issues have been a lot better, reportedly very big crowds but just a handful of idiots stood out rather than anything worse.
Classy pun there, Mr Ring. ‘Stood out’. Nice
I think putting the virtual finish line at 5km on some stages might have helped with this, allowing the GC teams to get out of the way and let the sprint teams take over with enough road left.
I think this has been a below average Tour – yes we have had some special moments with Bardet, Cav, Girmay, Campanaerts, Carapaz but this is the Tour and those special moments are guaranteed every single year. The GC has been uncompetitive since the beginning and I personally would much rather watch a race than a procession. 4/10
Funny to see Sean Kelly call it like is on Eurosport right now and say he was disappointed by the lack of a GC battle before Orla immediately get back on message and brand it a ‘magnificent’ Tour
I don’t recall a lot of talk about about the GC being uncompetetive when Jonas chased down Pogacar, and beat him in a sprint (for the first time?) on stage 11.
That also happen to be the sole interesting GC moment in the entire race. I used to root for TP, but he is starting to annoy me. Unfair, I know and not his fault, but for the Tour it is unfortunate if we end up in the Merckx/Armstrong type of races again.
I don’t remember Armstrong attacking each stage, and certainly not winning six stages during a race.
Pogacar is different breed to your Indurains, Armstrongs and Froomes. (And I am part of the minority rooting for Froome, even, liking him much more than a Nibali, Contador on Quintana of your choice.) He don’t destroy the field in chrono and he don’t defend using a train of super-domestiques. He attacks, he makes the race, he even joins an odd sprint finish, he is capable of protecting himself during windy flat stages and he is the best classics rider in the peloton.
This was a vintage TdF edition, the best of 21st century so far, plausibly.
I’m not sure it’s the best Tour of this century to date but to me it’s great to see the race won by a racer rather than a GC science project optimised for Hors Cat. mountains and time trials, and kept under wraps the rest of the season.
It’s not Pogacar’s fault Bernal crashed and never recovered, nor that Vingegaard fell in Itzulia. 2024 is/was a single Tour in a single year.
I guess we just look at it from different angles. I (being half Swedish, half German) have no “national” rider to root for, so I look for a competitive race. I guess that if you are Slovenian or just consider TP the second coming of someting, it was a sort of great Tour, but seeing him do the same trick again and again on a climb after using up his team, is just as boring as re-watching Armstrong doing more or less nothing.
This was – by far – the most boring Tour since the days of LA.
Pogi is a different breed indeed, but if you look at the TdF as a competition rather than a one-man freak show, then its difficult to find the “vintage” …
I am neither Slovenian nor a huge fan of TP. (I liked Froome as much as TP, for example, and if anything, JV grew more on me during this race than TP, showing a human face, after all.)
Tour as a race… which TdF was a race, during last decade? The one when Pinot did his knee? 2022 with Granon? Sure. (Since Wiggins, at least, no other TdF was a better GC race than this, imho.)
But this Tour was ripe with other stories. Not only the return of Pogacar and Vingegaard (both had a lot to prove and both did it).
Of course, to each his own, de gustibus non est disputandum. I was pleased with the race, but perhaps I did not expect TdF to be a great GC drama in the first place – it rarely is.
Still, Pogacar and Vingegaard probably serve the strongest rivalry since Coppi and Bartali – what more do we want?
@Fra
(I don’t now why I cannot answer your comment directly, but it may be the way the blog is managing comments).
Points taken. And I’m certainly neither a TP-hater, nor can I say that all earlier races were all more fun.
My main point is that we have rarely (if ever) seen a rider this dominant, leaving even top-riders as Remco and Vingegaard in the dust, and ending with a 20 minute gap to 4th place (biggest gap from 1. to 4th since..?). So even the podium was more or less settled early., and each riders abilities and likely attacks pretty predictable. Only real surprise and really interesting stage was IMHO Vingegaards win. And much as I admire a rider like TPs ability to provide the “kick” and surge ahead as clockwork, it doesn’t really add anything to the race when you see it for the umptieth time.
But as you say – to each his own. We will likely look for different things in the race.
+100 Fra.
This has been my total confusion with all comments above!
Everyone saying they want a competitive Tour, a race for yellow, a race till the final stage, no procession etc etc – I understand their reasons and agree it would be nice but…
It pretty much never happens! Like once in a blue moon!
If that’s what you want from the Tour you must be miserable most years? And this years Tour was far more competitive till the last week than the vast majority, similar to last years.
As for Pog’s dominance – that’s also not the greatest argument as it’s also regular occurrence in the TDF – Vin dominated by the end last year, Froome dominated a fair few, Nibali dominated his, Contador dominated his second, Armstrong likewise a few and similar Ulrich and Indurain.
I wish it wasn’t the case but the truth is if you want a competitive summer that isn’t dominated by a single participant then maybe cycling at the Tour isn’t the sport for you!
@oldDAVE
While I see your point(s), I beg to differ on some of them. The last 5+ tours were all significantly more competitive than this one. Ye, Vingegaard won the last two with good margins, but he actually lost more stages to TP, and even wonderboy-Bernal only won with slim margins comparede to this year. TP crushed everybody when he wanted (except perhaps the single stage Vingegaard won), and with ease. And that even after an even moren crushing Giro victory.
Its obvious that each and every one of us are looking at different things in the Tour, but I will question how many outside a hard core of afficionados will tune in to a repeat of this kind of UAE/TP control if it carries on for the next 2-4-6-8 GTs. Time will show.
@Thomas… It’s not even that clear Pog would be a favourite in 2025. Up until now, Vingegaard was considered the stronger GT rider (fewer weak days, better peak numbers, stronger in warm weather, stronger at altitude / long climbs). With hindsight, perhaps it was just him hitting his peak sooner (he is almost two years older). + JV’s stronger team of yesteryears.
But still, his preparation was severely hit (to use another bad pun). He did beat Pogacar twice and I’d take the liberty to claim he lost just once in direct GT confrontation (2024).
Perhaps Pog would indeed prove himself better. But it’s hardly foregone conclusion.
***
Our perceptions of sporting events are conceived in a narrative context of sorts – we don’t see some kind of abstracted, plain information, but a complex image (a moving image – enriched by the aspect of time). I struggle to circumvent the word “story”, but indeed, a TdF is a narrative and it’s up to us how we narrate the story of the race.
For me, JV was the favourite to win, while Mr. Pogacar rode the Giro as a preemptive measure – because – sic! – he didn’t win a Grand Tour since 2021. (!) It seems we forgot that caveat, blinded by the superficial glow of his stardom. He won with a canter, seemingly easily, but does it reduce his success? Meanwhile, Mr.Vingegaard showed a profoundly human face, with great dignity and rather moving balancing on the edge between self confidence of champions and gradual reconciling with more and more inevitable defeat. Maybe it wasn’t that good sporting drama, but it was strong theatre.
In many ways, this TdF was a story of a struggle agains odds – Vingegaard, Pogacar, Cavendish, Girmay, the French stage winners, Bardet… or a certain Flemish kid’s belated rite of passage; and the race itself, perhaps.
I absolutely enjoyed the last stage, even though I don’t like TTs. But finaly we were spared the usual unbearable crap of the boring Parisian criterium! Even if the race would accomplish only this, it would have been a triumph. 😉
Pogi is not racing as Armstrong – if anything he is more a Merckx-style cannibal. But i will agree that he is killing the race as a race.
People said that of Merckx and yet they continued to watch year after year after year. I so wanted JV to win again, would that have made it boring (3 in a row) not at all. I take joy in all the “small” winners – Girmay, Campanaerts, Stage 1 -so many wonderful moments to enjoy alongside JV coming second and TP ripping up the field. I love cycling.
I’m with you
The 1989 tour is -to me- only infamous as entertainment, because it is a good story in hindsight and because it was one of those sporting events where the outside world/ideologies trump the sporting rules/fairness/decency and people got cheated out of their rights to satisfy emotions or ideologies or plans, which always makes a good story.
To give an example outside of cycling: like for example Hamilton got cheated out of his last world championship in f1, simply because some people up high in f1 hate him and what he stands for.
Or some people in 1989 just loved the idea of having again an american winner of the tour de france (think of all that possible MONEYfinally to be made) and even more important to most to not have Fignon win or in a wider sense a french rider win (the same got repeated with armstrong a bit further down the road or with froome, who both had their doping offenses squashed simply out of monetary, ideological reasons, because business trumps sport every time for most people).
The bars should have never been allowed to be ridden in that 1989 time trial. The rules of the day might not make sense in hindsight (or maybe not even on the day) but they are the rules. And if you bend them at will, everybody loses.
When I say, that the 1989 tour is not really compelling as a sporting contest and only remembered and revered because of the entertainment stories, this does not mean, that this is a bad thing – if you want to make a holllywood movie or write a novel or a thriller. For that it is perfect. And should be used there. But this is not to be confused with sport or a good sporting contest. That people confuse these things is a problem.
Because entertainment always wins out over sport. Or over everything. Because it is, physically, the thing, that is the easiest for us and that suits us the most. Then somebody notices this, wants to use this to make money and power with it and starts to sell us entertainment as sport („we got to tell „stories“, guys! Keep the people „engaged“). And before you can blink, humanity has lost one more facette of itself, is ever more streamlined and we lose the ability to sit through 5 hours of bonecrushing boredom while watching 150 people ride a bike on a straight street. And this matters.
Because we need these abilities in a wider human sense. We need these cognitive abilities. And it happens with everything. They take everything we do and are and use us, as if we are just batteries, there to be plugged in to produce something for them. We do not eat anymore, we „engage“ with our food. We go to „happenings“ and have „interactions“. Everything gets accommodated to be used by someone, including us.
And we lose the ability to even know, if we like something. Someone tells us this is good, so we „engage“. Well, we shrug, it at least made us not feel, that the time moves slowly. At least we were occupied. Someone tells us the stories of the 1989 tour and they are good stories, for sure – and so we forget, that sporting excellence is something different than entertainment excellence. And before you can blink riders do not get paid anymore for riding races, but for being good entertainers. Because we forgot, that entertainment is not sport.
We are told to lean back and just let it wash over us, passively. To not care so much. Boom, another facette of us lost – and we don‘t even notice it, because, just like a magician, they distract us with good stories, that they know our brain can not help but to like, when they do their vanishing trick to make the world step by step one bit poorer.
It is (therefore) imperative, that we have and maintain the emotional and social discipline to understand the world around us. Life isn‘t supposed to be „easy“ all the time and per se. If it would be, we would miss out on almost everything. We KNOW that. So why do we not have the emotional discipline to refuse those selling us this easy-crap? Why can we not be strong enough to say: „yes, the 1989 tour had great human stories – but from a sporting point of view it was not really great or compelling“ and just withstand these two separate states of being? Why do we have to mush these together into the lowest common denominator and say „the tour 1989 was „great“? Why do we lack the emotional discipline?
It is this lack of discipline, this laziness, this unwillingness to be uncomfortable (or: to grow and to learn to reap fruits from that uncomfortableness and thus turning it into comfort), that compels all of us (me included), that makes us so easy prey for everyone willing to use it/us. I just don’t understand why we are so willing prey, why we do not put up more of a fight? Why we do not prize ourselves, our integrity, our being „more“, higher? And to that whole complex belongs also the understanding to know what is sport and what is entertainment. Because it matters. And while the 1989 tour was great entertainment in hindsight, when all the stories got out of it and were told, it was not of a very high sporting value.
Why not have a username so your unimportant rambles can be ignored more easily? I suggest TLDR, but others are available.
Groundbreaking idea! Thanks so much!! I think I will use „Steve“…
With your German quote marks, I hope, so we know who to avoid. I’m not the only Steve on here, though after a decade or more. I’m not changing my ID.
And thanks to INRNG , not only for the always great coverage, but for deleting this clown’s genuinely offensive comments after the sad recent death of Andre Drege.
Yeah, such great moderation! Allowing you to label the input of others „unimportant“ and ramblings“, calling people „clowns“! So civilized! So respectful!
I am not surprised, that you think it is your right to talk like that.
That things are hurtful does not make them untrue.
And no worries, you can go on freely insulting me to your heart’s desire, I won‘t read it or reply, it is just not interesting or important.
Plenty of dodgy unsubstantiated ‘facts’ there.
I watched the 1989 Tour at the time and it was clearly a great Tour then as the GC lead swapped back and forth. No hindsight was required to make it a great sporting event.
Hamilton cheated out of a F1 title?? Nice try, no cigar.
What’s today’s time cut? If one of the big favourites does 40 mins and it’s 25% which is normal for a time trial then there’s a lot who’ll be kicked out and won’t finish the tour…
33%. Bit late now but https://inrng.com/tour/ has all the race info
In that situation, I imagine the commissaires would be forgiving/lenient towards the slower TTists.
I’m hoping that the esteemed Mr Ring can enlighten us to what the heck is going on at FDJ. Is it really just lack of funds or does the management need a good shake up?
What exactly do you mean? In the tour? Or in general?
Lenny Martinez rides a great, a really great season for his 21 years (and talks just as good). He is on 4or 5 wins, I think. Küng was 3rd in Flanders, 5th in Paris-Roubaix. Nothing wrong with that. Yes, Gaudu with just 1 win should do better, the same with Madouas, who was 6th in Amstel and 7th in LBL. But aside from that I do not really see how they should do better?
Even in the „small“ french races many big teams ride these days. And many small teams have changed their business models to become feeder teams of the world tour teams, looking to get 1 or 2 great riders from far away in order to sell these on later and not so much being teams from a region or nation.
So the whole environment has changed, making wins even more difficult than before. And so it isn‘t very realistic to think, that Groupama-FDJ can win in these „smaller“ races as easily before. And a win in the tour is a big ask for them. They are not one of the wild card teams, who sometimes get through by simply being underrated and they are not a rich team, that can buy the talent. They have to nurture their riders, do their best and hope. And I for my part hope they do keep on doing that for a long, long time.
Success can be measured in many ways. It can be winning a race. Or it can be 106th in a race, but knowing you have nurtured everyone of your riders to the best of their abilities. And you have done it in a way, that does not damage them as a human being. Knowing, that for decades to come you thus have secured the tradition and love for cycling tradition to prosper, because these riders will one day leave your team and will be using what you have lived and experienced with them.
Of course a team like Groupama-FDJ can win a Tour-stage. It can happen, sometimes the stars align this way. But the stars have to align for that. And anyway: a win in a race is not the only thing people ride bicycles in races for. Peter Sagan (for example) knew/knows that.
They don’t really have any star riders to begin since Pinot has retired, you can see why they dined out on the “merci Thibaut” theme.
They’ve had a tough Tour but so many other teams have too (Movistar, Cofidis, Bahrain, Lidl-Trek to name just other WorldTeams). It’s a subject to explore more but if you don’t have Pogačar-Vingegaard-Evenepoel or a top sprinter, it’s been very hard to get a result, you need a grand tour contender to go stage hunting and if it works with Carapaz, Simon Yates shows even that isn’t a guarantee.
They’re doing a lot right with the feeder team which has brought on Lenny Martinez and Laurence Pithie… but they’re leaving. Romain Grégoire is staying but perhaps not a rider for the Tour although being French on a French team he’s likely to be busy every July.
So FDJ have the same problems as Lotto, where riders are off to earn bigger salaries with the wealthier WT teams.
Gaudu has been a disappointment (his best day at the Tour was on the gravel stage which is mind blowing) and throwing Lenny Martinez in to the Tour at the last moment recked of desperation. Something is amiss with preparation by the sounds of it.
They’ve had 9 race victories this year (not including NC wins) and Martinez has 5 of them.(maybe they should have got rid of Gaudu and kept Démare)
It is becoming a lot like European soccer where a few rich teams pick out the outstanding guys, but even so, it really is a shame that things seem so off at FDJ.
Once again many thanks for three weeks of consistent insight, background and analysis. By far the best blog on (male) pro cycling, for years and years!
Niche category… but thanks
Newcomer to the blog (only discovered it this year), but fully agree. By far the best procycling blog I’ve come across.
A bright spot in a (very) disappointing Tour.
I should have worn the inrng jersey today to honor the blog.
In my defense, it was too hot for that, had to wear something more heat oriented.
Brilliant Tour, loved every minute of it.
Merci bien, ‘Hugo’ du Velo
🥇🚴🏻♂️
Great photo of Fignon trying the aero bars. Can’t believe that this isn’t something shown more often – so rich with meaning.
On the point of who was the first – I am pretty sure that it was someone from 7-Eleven (Phinney maybe) but not in the TDF. It was in the Tour de Trump! LeMond was riding for Coors Light in that race (when they had an affiliation with his ADR team – ADR was a sub-sponsor on the jersey when he raced with Coors Light in the US and Corrs Light was a sub-sponsor on the ADR jersey when we was riding in Europe).
I threw away my old Winning Magazine collection so can’t find a picture to verify but I remember there being one. 7-Eleven used the one piece triangular bars (like the original ones that Mike Scott developed for Ironman).
Correct – ypour memory serves well.
The guy in question was interviewed by ITV during their lookback at the 1989 Tour. Dag Otto Lauritzen if I remember correctly. He claimed that’s where Lemond got the idea from.
At the age of 20:
1st in GC at the 2019 Volta ao Algarve
1st in GC at the 2019 Tour of California
3rd in GC at the 2019 Vuleta Espana (with 3 stage wins)
This is reminiscent of Greg Lemond: Incredible physiological capabilities from a young age.
Thanks Inrng for an amazing coverage again!
Also thanks for the previews. I liked the post cards this year, a good guide to the Tour and also the the land where it is happening.
I guess it is inevitable that the “Merckxian” comparisons will come round again, so I thought it would be interesting to compare Pogačar with where Merckx was at a similar point in his career. Which I’d put as immediately after the 1970 Tour de France – essentially mid way through each rider’s sixth season as a pro.
Just comparing palmarès, they are remarkably similar. If anything, I think Pogačar just shades it as a stage racer; and Merckx just shades it as a rider of one day events. But here’s the comparison of major wins; Merckx up to July 1970 and Pogačar up to July 2024.
Grand Tours:
————
Merckx (4)
Tour de France: 2 participations
2 wins
14 stage wins
2 Mountains jerseys
1 Points Jersey
Giro: 4 participations
2 wins,1 top 10, one DSQ
12 stage wins
1 Mountains jersey
1 Points jersey
Pogačar (4)
Tour de France – 5 participations
3 wins, 2 * 2nd
17 stage wins
2 Mountains classifications
Giro D’Italia – 1 particpation
1 win
6 stage wins
1 Mountains classification
Vuelta – 1 participation
1 * 3rd overall
3 stage wins
So Merckx has 6 grand tour participations, 4 victories, 26 stage wins and five other jerseys. Pogačar has 7 participations, 4 victories, 26 stage wins, three other jerseys, and has never finished a grand tour off the podium.
Other stage races
——————
Merckx
Paris Nice – 2
Catalunya – 1
Romandie – 1
Pogačar
Paris – Nice – 1
Tirreno-Adriatico – 2
Catalunya – 1
Pretty well equal there.
Championships
—————
Merckx
1 Road championship (plus 1 as an amateur)
Pogačar
1 * 3rd (+ 1 * 3rd at the Olympics)
You can see why Pogačar wants to tackle the World Road Championship – probably the most significant victory not yet on his palmarès!
Monuments
———–
Merckx (7)
MSR – 3
Flanders – 1
Roubaix – 2
Liège – 1
Pogačar (6)
Flanders – 1
Liège – 2
Lombardy – 3
Merckx wins here, both in number and breadth, but it is close. He would of course go on to complete the set of all five monuments with two wins at the Tour of Lombardy. Milan San Remo looks a possibility for Pogačar, allowing for the old axiom “the easiest classic to finish, the hardest to win”. But what about Paris-Roubaix: can he win it, and would he risk a season or a bad crash to do so?
Other classics
————–
Merckx (4)
Flèche Wallone – 2
Ghent Wevelgem – 2
Pogačar (4)
Strade Bianche – 2
Amstel – 1
Flèche Wallone – 1
I’m promoting Strade Bianche to a classic status, which I think is justified given the prestige list of winners and importance it is given. So pretty much equal here.
It is remarkably close between them – they even have the same number of Grand Tour stage wins as each other. The same number of Grand Tour victories, lesser stage races, lesser classics. Merckx just shades it by having one a World Title, and one more monument. But it is genuinely close.
Now the $64,000 question: Will Pogačar 2025 – 2029 match Merckx 1971 – 1975?
A good list (but note that in the past sometimes Flèche was the big Sunday special and Liège the midweek warm-up)
Also it’s something to expand on soon but once Pogačar wins a race he needs a new challenge. So if he wins Sanremo he might not try it again (or he might feel he has to do it by attacking on the Cipressa, like Strade Bianche this year where he went from even further out); so he might not rack up as many multiple wins because he is after other goals. And once the list is done the risk is he’s bored.
Indeed. Though to set against the boredom factor will be how much pressure he is under from his team – he might have other ideas, but you wonder how happy they’d be if, for example, those other ideas involved skipping the Tour de France?
(Merckx did it once, to do the Vuelta-Giro double in 1973 and then not ride the Tour).
But accepting all that, I found it remarkable just how close their palmarès are – up to this, basically mid point, of their respective careers.
From this point forward, how does one prepare to face Pogacar in the TdF WITHOUT a Giro in his legs?
Indeed, we can wish for healthier rivals but he will be fresher too.
It’s only one change but the massive difference in calories consumed during a race is having an effect, riders are not as broken by the end of a grand tour as they were just five years ago. It’s anecdotal but one said they even sleep more normally in the third week now when in the past there was the paradox of being so fatigued but not sleeping so well, of wanting to lie in bed but finding it hard to drift off. This suggests internal imbalances may not be so pronounced now.
It’s hard to see lots opting for the Giro-Tour double though but already teams are thinking about both races, even if they should send better riders to the Giro because they’ll have opportunities that may not exist in the Tour.
I’m surprised that eating plenty took so long to catch on.
It does seem perverse doesn’t it. Its took the sport nearly 130 years to realise you need to eat a lot when you’re very active.
There’s eating and there’s eating. Balance calories is not so new especially with power metres to measure the effort. But it’s all about uptake and absorption
More from 2022 if people want it at https://inrng.com/2022/09/the-calorie-revolution/ although even that is dated as there are few treats in a musette any more and “upto 120g” of carbs per hour is no longer the ceiling but almost the standard.
Stray thought from Victor Campenaerts’ win the other day: I was shocked at just how muscular and strong he looked. I’d even use the word Robust. Very unusual thing to see a pro cyclist (and a successful one at that!) with that amount of musculature. It was good to see…