A mountain time trial. We seemed to witness one yesterday and a repeat result looks likely.
Hautacam’s razor: has Tadej Pogačar won the Tour de France? No, he must reach Paris. It’s just the most obvious outcome now. It’s hard to see the plot twist where Jonas Vingegaard gets back four minutes and then defends this; or any rider further down the GC is allowed to take more time and keeps that. Of course an accident could change things but anybody in the business of predicting this should suggest which stage it’ll occur and how.
With today’s stage going to the location of a James Bond film shot, it’s as if 007 has blown up the villain’s lair halfway into the film, it all feels like a bit of a spoiler. We can’t begrudge Pogačar but the suspense has been punctured.
He had help from others. A 50 rider breakaway included Ineos Carlos Rodriguez so EF and Uno-X chased; then Visma-LAB tried to test Pogačar on the Col du Soulor only for them to implode. Perhaps it was worth trying but the results were cruel, at times they succeeded in ejecting their team mates. Whatever the “Plan” they keep referring to has been it did not survive contact with their rival.
On the early ramps of Hautacam Pogačar got a lead-out from Jhonatan Narvaez and without getting out of the saddle rode away. Jonas Vingegaard could only partially match the acceleration in part, picking up speed but not enough to stay with his rival. It was so early on the climb that for a few minutes it looked wise to hold back but soon the Dane’s body language was telling, his head dipping, the pedal stroke slowing. He’d lose two minutes, with Floran Lipowitz closing in at the finish.
There’s still sport to be had. The contest for third place looks tight, Florian Lipowitz is riding well enough to give Red Bull management doubts about signing Remco Evenepoel, or at least they ought to have some by now. We got a scrappy contest with Lipowitz, Evenepoel, Oscar Onley, Tobias Halland Johannessen and Kévin Vauquelin all in a podium race and, THJ exempted, white jersey contenders too. But this is a hard sell.
The Route: just 10.9km but with some details. The start has a flat road leading into a small unmarked climb and then a descent and some twisting roads to Estarvielle where the road begins climbing.
Soon after is the right turn on to the Col de Peyresourde with the first time check. On the way up there’s a steep section through the village of Loudervielle but otherwise this is the steady part of the course up the pass and then taking the right turn to Peyragudes, all on a regular road where the slope eases to 6%.
The finish is only 400m long but it’s the Altiport runway, 14.4% average and reaching 19.5% about a third of the way in. Riders need to save something for here as hold at the same pace as the previous kilometres will make it this section feel long, being able to sprint up can gain time.
This is a very specialist effort, there hasn’t been a mountain time trial in the Tour since 2004. The 2023 Giro had Monte Lussari but there were 10km to the foot of the climb, today has 3km. So while modelling a ride up a climb with few distractions ought to be simple, there aren’t many precedents to copy from for coaching staff.
The Contenders: Tadej Pogačar (UAE) is the obvious pick. When thinking about this day ahead of the race it looked most suited to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) with the Dane not having to worry about trying to follow and match the explosive moves of his Slovenian tormentor but his form, yesterday and the Caen time trial alike suggests he’ll be the runner-up. Still to paraphrase Greg LeMond from 1989, “if he has a bad day and I have a good one“, it’s possible, just. It’s hard to imagine another rider out-climbing both of them.
Note the time cut is 33% today, normally it’s 25% in ASO time trials but it was adjusted before the start of the race. Some sprinters will have to go all out, this is no active rest day.
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Pogačar |
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Vingegaard |
Weather: 25°C and sunny.
TV: Matteo Vercher starts at 1.10pm and Tadej Pogačar starts at 5.05pm CEST. He starts two minutes behind Vingegaard.
Postcard from Luchon
Luchon is at the foot of the Col de Peyresourde, down the other side that is tackled today. But before Luchon, you can turn left to climb the Col de Balès, also known as the Port de Balès. It’s almost 20km up to the pass at 5.5%.
The novelty of the Balès is that it is a relatively new climb. For years it was just a service road for ski lifts and a forestry track. But in 2006 it was tarmacked on the south side to make a full road. Some might lament the pastures and open spaces becoming a highway but the relatively good news is that few have reason to drive over the pass, it’s no shortcut. So it’s there for cycling.
Much of the impetus for this came from François Fortassin, a local politician who died in 2017. He started out as the mayor of Sarp, a village at the start of the Port de Balès and became a sénateur, sitting in the French parliament’s upper chamber. Thanks to influence at the top and the bottom he managed to get the road over the pass reclassified a route départmentale, an official local road. This confers a legal status on the road and defined obligations in terms of gradient, surface and signage and why all roads in France feel the same as they’re made to defined standards.
The Tour came over the pass in 2007 to celebrate this. It was no accident as Fortassin was cycling fan and presided over the “Association des sénateurs amis du Tour de France”, the “friends of the Tour de France” group of senators. This group has been quietly influential, a network of top politicians in support of the Tour de France. And by extension close to the Tour’s organisers ASO. This is where things get tricky as politicians don’t want to be in the pocket of a company but they’re keen to be linked to the party every July which is enjoyed by millions… but also entwined with roadworks, the police and all the tiers of local government in France. This works both ways, politicians linking up with all sorts of agencies but also giving ASO a network of political contacts and access. So just as Fortassin paved the way to open a road, the Tour gets a path into power too.
I don’t know, watching Lipowitz et al could be interesting. I’m curious who might have a chance of winning the Tour after the earth has crossed the 1.5 degree threshold officially…
Any idea roughly what a winning time will be today?
Moncoutié won an ITT climbing to Peyragudes in 2010, but it was five km longer. His time was 33:07. Pog and McNulty hold the KOM for the climb on Strava at 20:53 for the 7.5km climb. I’ll guess Pog wins in under 25 minutes.
600m climb VAM 1800, 20 mins, plus 3km flat, 25 sounds about right, maybe 24:30
When I first saw this stage my estimate was that someone like Pog could go under 25 minutes. So even with a 33% allowance that would make the time cut around 33 minutes, which seems really tough. This is going to be a hard day for Milan et al
Is 3km too short for a bike swap?
Ronan discusses the TT strategies here https://escapecollective.com/optimising-for-the-tour-de-france-mountain-time-trial/
“This post is for paying subscribers only”
Yes, because it’s not flat and there are corners as well. There are still gains to do the first part on a TT bike but they’d be lost in braking, swapping bikes and having to accelerate again. The consensus seems to be not to swap but to tweak the road bike.
The Port de Bales is a fantastic climb but the descent to Sarp is even more epic. I believe this is where Thibaut Pinot’s descending yips first became evident in public?
Yes, beautiful climb. When I did it, the descent to Sarp had recently been given a top dressing of stone chippings…was enough to give me the descending yips too!
Lipowitz looks like the coming man at the moment.
Does the ITT to La Planche des Belles Filles from the 2020 Tour not count as a mountain TT?
I believe inrng was referring to something like a pure mountain TT. That stage had some 30km of flat/rolling hills before the climb…
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/2020/stage-20/info/profiles
Exactly, an uphill finish but lots of regular riding to get there. Same for Combloux or Sallanches-Megève before, not a straight uphill climb but with more etc.
Rodriquez being in the break meant another fast and furious run to the climbs, and in 30C that obviously meant the plans for the day all went to pot and we were left with another junior style racing of teams blowing up, teams chasing their own guys etc until one guy raced away to win.
If Visma know Vingegaard is not 100%, then their tactics make no sense. I suspect Visma have tried to get Vingegaard more like Pogacar with a strong “kick” and be more “aggresive” have messed things up – Mrs Vingegaard’s “Cassandra” proclamation seems to ring true.
Barring misfortune, Pogacar can follow wheels to Paris (not that that is like him) and be the winner of the GC. Others can fight for the podium positions, top 10 etc which the media will follow now with increased interest, but the current situation is something that the race organizers must have dreaded happening. Maybe soon we’lll have 2 weeks of racing like the first 10 days this year.
Thijs Zonneveld noticed the same thing: Vingegaard now can follow Pogačar on the shorter, explosive climbs, but seemingly at his former strength, his endurance in long, hard stages and time trials with fatigue.
I agree with your comment about Vingegaard. I think they should go back to a less explosive Jonas. They should aim to have Vingaard get dropped by the initial acceleration and then tempo back to Pogi’s wheel. This is what they did so well in 2023.
Completely agree, and get him back to his lighter mesomorphy. Just as boxers fool around with weight before realizing they had it right to begin with.
Good question.
Brings to mind the discourse around Pogacar’s crash and what counts as a “racing incident”
This was meant to be a reply to waldo above
Typo Jhonatan Narvaez
Tell his parents 😉
Brilliant! Hahaha! 😉
I presume the h was put there to let it be pronounced in Spanish more like the English would without the h? ‘J’ followed by a vowel is a guttural g-like sound that doesn’t exist in English but comparable to the Dutch ‘g’. If I hear native English speaker pronounce those words they typically use something more akin to an ‘h’.
It’s a variant of Jonathan often seen in Latin America, eg for cycling see Jhonatan Restrepo too.
Lipowitz or Evenepoel to take second place today, though I had Vingegaard starting to chip away at Pogacar’s lead yesterday. The armchair unexpert.
I was dreading a day where they all followed each other, with Tadej trying an attack quite late and Jonas just about following him …. so, I was wrong too, yesterday was more spectacular, but got us the result we all have seen before.
Yeah, I think Visma planned for Vingegaard to start taking back time heresy. At least, I think that was the idea. Wear Tadej down over the first 10 days by wasting energy in big attacks that gained little time.
But, Tadej launching from the bottom of the Hautacam…The differences in performance from 2 years ago until now are striking.
Monte Lussari was two years ago.
It was interesting to note how much things have changed yesterday. Generally through the time I have been watching the Tour (since 1997) mountain stages have been a race of attrition where there would be a moto watching riders getting dropped one by one out of the back of the lead group. And if the top man attacked everyone immediately jumped on their wheel and stayed there until they couldn’t. When Pogacar blasted off yesterday (it was like one of them rocket launches where bits peel off living the main pod) via Narvaez only Vingegaard made any attempt to follow, and quickly realised he couldn’t. The rest know to even attempt to go with him involves dipping way into the red and risking the kind of blow up that involves a painful crawl to the line. So really nobody is even attempting to beat him, because it’s impossible. There are a lot of big mountains this year and Pogacar has already won 3 stages. He could easily top his haul from last year.
In my mind they used to think about attacking with about 2 km to go to thr top … then they started having a think with about 6 km to go.
Now they blast off from the bottom of the climb. What didn’t work for Carapaz worked like a treat for Pogacar
Have a look at Hautacam 2000. Armstrong launched from a pretty similar spot to Pogacar yesterday and flattened everyone bar Oxtoa who just clung on to win the stage having started the climb 10 minutes ahead of LA. Whatever you think about those days it was and still is thrilling to watch.
I think the same thing happened here. The top man attacked and everyone clinged to his wheel until they couldn’t. That lasted about half a second.
I wonder if this will be Jonas Vingegaard’s last race? Given he has won it twice doesnt seem much point in going on.
Visma were very poor collectively, where was WvA? Thoughts must be turning to transfers, Oscar Onley?
As Inrng said is it really worth Red Bull paying out for Remco when they already have a German rider who looks as if he can win GTs
Kevin Vauquelin did better than many predicted, still dont see he can ever win the race so why are Ineos interested? Ineos were poor again yesterday but then so were most of the teams
We’ll see for Vingegaard. He’s caught in a difficult place, still better than all the riders in the race… except for one so he gets the glare of the limelight of being dropped all the time.
Just as when Pogačar got crushed in the 2023 Tour and needed to reset and focus on the Giro instead, the chances of Vingegaard doing the Giro next year now look higher. For Pogačar the Combloux TT defeat was a defining moment, it lead to several changes in the team. It’s hard to see that for Vingegaard, as if he’s been optimised already and the current version is hard to improve.
Both are slated to ride the Vuelta.
If today is a repeat of yesterday then I dont see how JV can come back. His wife clearly feels it is all too much, he has earnt enough money to not have to work properly again, why not retire to rural Denmark to concentrate on his family? Difficult to see where the motivation can come from, especially with next generation already snapping around his heels. To misuse a quote from British politics “you were the future once”.
Well, there’s the Giro and Vuelta to win before retirement
My view (not worth much I know) is that if Vingegaard gets crushed here he will still go to the Vuelta (for another likely 2nd place). After that he will try to win the Giro and Vuelta (when Pogi isn’t there) over the next few seasons, but he won’t quit immediately. He will come to accept his place as the second best GC rider in the Peloton.
Maybe Jonas will take up gravel racing in his 30s, LOL.
Gravel seems to be a glide path several former, “2nd tier”, WT pros have segued into, after they’re no longer sufficiently competitive in WT road racing.
Did NOT mean to imply Jonas is “2nd tier” !! :embarrassed:
Was commenting on majority of WT racers who are not in top-20 or so.
He’s 28 , so theres still plenty to offer. The point of being a professional athlete and the motivation is clearly very different to the rest of us. As long as he doesnt go on beyond his declining ability like Froome….Jonas Vingegaard is the second best rider in the world, he good keep winning races where Pogacar isnt involved…..Giro/Vuelta double maybe
Tom Dumoulin packed it in at a similar age, he was seen as the rider likely to dominate cycling after his Giro win but it never happened and he decided it wasnt worth the stress. There are always younger and hungrier riders wanting to push you aside
You seem to have decided, but we’ll see. There’s always been a tendency to write off Vingegaard – I remember after his first Tour win listening to a Never Strays Far podcast where Boulting, Millar and Kennaugh all agreed he’d definitely never win another Grand Tour.
As they were arguing then, I think there’s always been a belief that ‘his heart isn’t really in’. Which I guess comes from his personality off the bike, lack of media, apparent introversion etc. But you don’t get to be the second best stage racer in the world if you’re not working incredibly hard, and very committed. Maybe that’ll change now, but I don’t think any of us know.
I think it’s a question of his motivation. He’s already reached his peak, and it’s likely all downhill from here. He doesn’t seem to love the attention, and I can see him leaving long before the end of his abilities. Being a pro cyclist is increasingly a pretty terrible way to live, and he has young children.
A slightly different fall the day before yesterday, and Vinny wins his 3rd TDF.
There’s just too much uncertainty in the TDF to pack it in just because you can beat No. 1 in a head to head contest.
Chances of TP catching JV. He took minutes over the climb yesterday…
I was wondering that too. I think it is a very long short. It would require an amazing Pogi day and a very poor Jonas day.
Visma-LAB got some of that Mike Tyson quote: “Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face.”
I knew this one but still find it hilarious! Thanks!
A rather more “direct” version of the saying “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”!
There’s a non-negligible chance that Pogacar wins the green jersey given the remaining parcours. Only one potential sprint stage left (Stage 16, and given the way every day is being raced, that’s not nailed-on) and while there’s some early intermediate sprints, a few will be eliminated by breakaways. Whereas Pog has another 5 mountain finishes (including today) that he could score highly on.
Something to keep the interest up if the yellow jersey is considered done.
if he wins too many jerseys I’m sure the organisers will change the rules to maintain interest in the other competitions – both for audience and participants
They could change the rules so he has to wear them all on top of each other. That will slow him down on hot climbing days like yesterday!
I am not sure that I agree. For people like me, seeing Pogi attempting to win the green jersey is the thing which is creating interest in the competition. Otherwise we have J.Milan coasting to the win without a contest.
By the way, I still think it is a very very unlikely Pogi can win it. But if green is in range in the Paris stage, I am sure that Pogi will go for it.
Lipowitz having a great race, and surely has great potential, but suggesting that RedBull shouldn’t hire Remco because they have Florian? Remco gives you a proven winner in world championships, monuments, classics, GT stages, GC.
GC?
Is he going to be paid to win classics or signing on as a Tour contender? Hiring Roglič has helped up their game but also shows a tendency to pay big for riders and now with Lipowitz who would they back as their lead rider for next July? The German could go to the Giro for experience but both will want or just deserve ultimate leadership soon.
The problem the other GC teams have is that, after Pogi (and Jonas), there are no real GC candidates to “go big” for. Decathalon may have the best strategy by missing the next generation and going all-in for Seixas.
You don’t think Isaac del Toro (age 21), with another couple years maturing, could develop into a strong GC racer?
I think only poor tactics prevented him from winning Giro outright. Unclear whether the tactical mistake was made by UAE’s DS or from del Toro.
Regardless, del Toro’s probably being paid handsomely by UAE; would be hard to pry him away.
Different topic: seems Remco’s market value and bargaining strength may be diminished after this TdF. Even 3rd & podium now seems threatened & risky.
The most recent analogue to today’s stage might be Stage 15 from the 2016 Giro? A 10.8km TT, won by Alexander Foliforov, with Steven Kruijswijk finishing on the same time.
Definitely, and a crazy result for Gazprom with Firsanov in 4th as well after kicking up a minor storm through the Italian spring.
Oscar Onley is having a brilliant TfF so far. The rest of the stages suggest he can progress up the GC from here..maybe a top 4/5? He’s a young rider on a good trajectory so far. I wonder what his next step will be, assume
A bold prediction:
This will be Vingo’s last season.
1) He’s riding against a rider that breaks evey single outlier in pro racing, and who – unlike every other rider in the world – seem to be able to do a 7-8-9 month season without a single bad day.
2) Vingo got his two Tours under his belt now. Unless the Slovenian crashes out, he will never win another one. Young hungry riders will come up fast in the shadow of the Slovenian.
3) He has made enough money to retire without problems.
4) The crash last year almost killed his career (and himself).
5) He has small kids – and a wife who is less and less happy with his job.
6) He has stated himself that it for him is not a job for life – or even far in to the 30ies.
Why not stop now? Let the Slovenian run with the next 4 tours unoppsed and watch it from home or as commentator on Danish TV.
Having endlessly one’s calorie intake, diet and weight monitored must be a pretty miserable experience. He looks alarmingly thin and, even if it benefits power to weight, it must limit stamina, morale and medium-term resistance. At least in retirement he will at least be able to relish his wife’s – or his own – home cooking, Danish pastries too.
I think two more seasons. A Giro-Vuelta year and one more shot at the Tour in 2027
I think Jonas likes cycling enough to want to continue for another year-or-two. And I think he will want to win the Giro and the Vuelta before he finishes.
Perhaps more of a pie in the sky prediction?
Plenty more GTs for him to win – the Vuelta and Giro are no doubt on his radar – and the Tour is not out of the question as nobody knows the future.
Maybe…. I understand the points, and it does indeed seem to me that Vingo is not really happy. Its difficult to pinpoint but the “spring” in his ride is somehow not there any longer.
That said, he is still the only rider to challenge Pog in a GC the last 5 years. And he is only a wrong turn or another bad descision from an increasingly crash-prone Pog to be the man to beat going to Paris.
And for pro-cycling it would be bad if Vingo left. It’s bad enough now watching Gianetti’s horror-show but imagine it without the only rider to at least try to fight the horror…
Fully agree, and a think that a yonger Vingo would stay in, even if the chance was that slim. But as an introvert with a growing family, why risk health or even life and spend countless hours just to repeat what you have already achieved? And even if you win on the back of a hypothetical Slovenian crash, how would that rate?
“increasingly crash-prone” seems a bit off. What makes you say that? The crash the other day was certainly not due to his own fault. He’s not had many other crashes either.
I’m not sure that inattention absolves TP of responsibility fot his tumble, but I suppose it’s down to your pov.
In any case, on the strength of the performance to Peytegaudes, it seems the fall has only added to his performance.
Gianetti’s horror-show – https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTIzMzgyNzY0MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzUzNzEwMzE@._V1_.jpg
Folks I am a self proclaimed big GC contender but I can’t beat Tadej and everyone knows it. If I do win the big one its because Tadej wasn’t there and everyone knows it! I am snookered. Anyone got any suggestions to flatter my 3 week sized ego?
What’s the time lag between planning each Tour, is next years route already inked in? I ask because the tour has been known to try and shake things up in times of a dominant rider. No one should begrudge a generational talent but it doesn’t drawn in the general audience if the result is seen as a foregone conlusion before the contest starts. Cycling fans will appreciate the wins for what they are and to be able to say they remembered watching them, but there aren’t enough of us for the advertisers to splash out the big money
Normally the next year’s route is in place, at least the outlines, by now if not with 15 months to go. But this year things are running a bit late, a lot of work went into the course design with all the hills and twists in the first week, safety planning and even rewriting the Toulouse stage.
But for the audience, some people tune in for the contest but a lot of people come to see the best in action. It’s anecdotal, we’ll have to see TV audiences* but a lot of people who don’t watch cycling (or golf) come to see the big name winning, we’ve seen this in other sports whether it’s Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Nadal on clay courts, Usain Bolt, you name it when an athlete almost outgrows their sport many people can tune in too. For now Pogačar doesn’t seem to have star status, he’s not a global name. For now he fronts for a Slovenian honey brand, not Nike and there are ex-pros who have more followers than him on Instagram etc.
* or see last year’s Giro which was a formality for Pogačar with 20 days in pink… but got increased audiences.
The other problem is “what tweaks should be made”. Pogi can time-trial, is the best climber, is the best puncheur, can position in the cross-winds, has superb endurance, and is good at most other things. It isn’t like you can actually design a sane anti-Pogi course.
I’d be up for watching* a grand tour with 21 sprint stages. Not sure anyone else would though!
(*At reasonable prices. Since prices in the UK have recently become unreasonable I might not be watching any more grand tours after the end of this season no matter what the parcours.)
That’s maybe a bit extreme but I like your moxy! I’d certainly be up for 21 stages at least designed like the Toulouse stage and could never understand those who decried the changes to Paris-Nice about ten years ago when they explicitly aimed for eight days of Classics as a stage race. That made for a fascinating race on paper as far as I could see and it certainly delivered.
Certainly not me. I’d probably prefer Pogacar – or Vingegaard or basically anyone bar Evenepoel – winning all 21 stages… to ANY sprint stage. 🙂
You could give Remco a chance with some 90s TTs.
Going on Rodriquez’s present level and under-performance, INEOS needs quickly to be on the look out for a genuine GC contender. Not easy in the present market I know, but really, the current INEOS tour squad looks rather inadequate. To put it mildly.
It was foreshadowed on Gerraint Thomas’ podcast that the CPA might push for it, but we have confirmation now: The time cut has been extended yet further, from 33% to 40%.
I find it amazing that even among the top 0.000001% of cyclists in the world the difference in W/kg they can sustain for a half hour is that big.
Merlier and Mezgec are saved by the change. Everyone else makes it anyway.
OH NO, hold on, I still had Plapp’s time in the calculator. Reinders, Demare, Girmay, Schmid and Boivin all also saved.
It was a mistake. The time cut is there for a reason. Merlier is perhaps the fastest, but he should be out of the race, because he is clearly unable to race it.
I’m pretty sure some of those sprinters knew exactly the tempo they had to sustain.
Mezgec told slovenian media he asks his friend what the winning time will be and goes from there.
Crikey, all this Retirment talk. Vinegared looses one TDF and then now for the next one he appears heading for 2nd again. Has he indicated he wants to retire because otherwise i can’t see it. Only 2 years ago he seemed the new king and many were saying POG couldn’t beat him in the tdf.
Why would he retire i don’t see it at all. He has not achieved nearly as much as he can. He won some one day races but there must be many he has not. I don’t think he has ever one a big one day race (or even placed highly) and the new look Vingegaard looks much more likely than the old to get good results. I,m not sure he has won any of the other 3 week races.
He has so much more he can achieve or at least aim for. He may be coming 2nd but he seems to be riding well to me.
I,m not sure POG should do the Vuelta. He has a lot of good teammates that need their chance for themselves and the team dynamics. It would help with team retention so that some of the good riders are willing to be domestiques in the races POG does do. When the other riders do get a chance without POG its almost everyone for themselves because they all chase the crumbs from the few big races left.
I’d forgotten Pogacar was supposed to be down for the Vuelta. I was wondering earlier today whether Almeida’s ribs would have recovered in time for UAE to have the headache of deciding whether he or Ayuso would get Vuelta leadership – or have them as joint leaders which could be highly amusing for onlookers but probably a bit of a nightmare for the team – but if Pogacar does decide to turn up then that’d be moot.
No, not himself directly. But – at least to Danish media – indirectly. Mainly reflecting over the crash last year.
All VLAB really needs to do here is chuck those gosh-awful darth vader helmets; then everyone, riders and fans alike, would be happier.
No mention of Roglic’s introduction of the ankle sock? Talk of the town here. His compatriot taking away all GC excitement and Dutch GC options being back at the dark days of the early 2010s, when Rob Ruijgh (remember him?) defended the national honour might have something to do with that.
It’s sadly the most notable thing he’s done in the Tour so far, even if he’s riding high on GC but not in front of the cameras.
But culturally interesting because he can get away with these things, like showing up at the early season with hairy legs. Road cycling is otherwise a very conformist sport and activity, a 21 year old neo-pro probably would not dare try this.
Also notable – he’s stayed upright!
Does yesterday tell us anything definitive about Jorgenson? That was awful to watch him fall apart, but I feel like it was also foreseeable. Does this mean Visma’s hope for him as a grand tour leader is misplaced?
And was Trine Hansen right about Visma playing too many cards? Simon yates was kaputt yesterday. After effects of his stage win? Not that it would have helped much if at all if he had been fresh.
And do Visma now play those extra cards more forcefully now, going for stages over 2nd place/podium?
Simon pulled very hard on the first climb, which cooked Jorgenson. I think it was reasonable that he struggled after that pull.
Nothing that Visma did yesterday or the days before had any impact on the result. It remains to be seen if Jorg can become a serious gc leader. Getting blown up chasing Pog is a tough measuring stick.
“He starts two minutes behind Vingegaard.” An ominous way to wrap up the preview.
Well, if it’s the day after the day after a crash that often hurts, I’d love to have seen what Pogacar might have done today if he hadn’t crashed.
Who needs a TT bike when you’ve got Tadej on a road bike !?
Hautacam’s Razor is one of the most awesome things I’ve seen on this blog in a very long time – the use of language is always brilliant but this one is just “chef’s kiss” levels of awesome 🤩
That also made me laugh the moment I opened the article. Pure class.
One thing that this Tour is highlighting is that barring misfortune, Pog will likely remove all chance for the top step of the podium in whatever GTs he signs up to ride for the foreseeable future. It would therefore behoove teams to have a plan for three years from now, when it might start to open up again (god I pray it does, at least), plus the races that Pog/Jonas skip. UAE seem to be set up four riders deep, but I can’t think of another team that looks set for the future, unless you count Decathlon with Seixas. If I was running a team I would do everything I could to either steal a UAE rider or find the next junior superstar. As for Remco, he is clearly a valuable asset but seems unlikely to win the Tour soon, if ever. Red Bull should back up the Brinks truck to Lipowitz’s front door, if Ineos don’t beat them to it.
Horses be hooved; “it behoves teams…”
Jv looked like a clown yesterday with that contraption on his head, aero gains my backside!! He should have rode his road bike with a cap on backwards! and poor Remco being ground into dust trying make a Tour winner, post race interview he looked dumb struck.