It’s only Wednesday and there are only eight riders within a minute of the yellow jersey. Today’s time trial will shake things up further. Remco Evenepoel wants the stage win and as much time as he can get.
Amiens – San Rouen: a series of climbs before a final ascent, the descent into town and a sprint? It’s not March but the finale had the electric feel of la Primavera.
Visma-LAB and UAE traded blows in the hills around Rouen with the Dutch team surging over the penultimate climb with Victor Campenaerts doing a lead-out downhill and into the final climb. UAE came past and Almeida led Pogačar looked ready to launch. He did and only Vingegaard could follow.
Vingegaard struggled, he looked back had to sit down and compose himself but the sight of Pogačar having to sit too seemed prompt him to rise up again and close the gap. It was a micro moment from which narratives of a close contest could be extrapolated but we’ll see what today delivers first.
The pair were caught thanks to chasing by Remco Evenepoel and Van der Poel got back on terms. On the descent Romain Grégoire got across, distancing Mattias Skjelmose and Kévin Vauquelin who chased too. Matteo Jorgenson made a couple of moves in the breathless moments.
Pogačar won the stage, easing off at the final corner to better come by Van der Poel. Vingegaard was not far off overhauling the yellow jersey too, it rare to see Van der Poel empty. For Pogačar’s 100th win it makes for a special picture… and one he’d like to recreate in Sanremo.
The Route: 33km from Caen to the countryside and back. This isn’t a technical course, it’s largely flat with few points to reward bike handling but the course is exposed in places. Today is all about who can fit the biggest chainring and get on top of it.
The race goes back via the Chemin Vert quartier, a part of Caen sometimes described with the euphemism sensible (sensitive or delicate) before a finish by monuments and next to La Prairie, the open air horse racing track, all very much in an insensitive part of the city.
The Contenders: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) has not had a sparkling start to the Tour, missing a split here, getting caught in a crash there, he’s already 58 seconds down and it’s only Wednesday. But now he’s got terrain to suit and he’s the best time trial rider in the peloton, especially as Filippo Ganna left the race already. He put over a second a kilometre into everyone in the Dauphiné time trial.
Otherwise look for the race within the race and especially what Tadej Pogačar (UAE) does. Adrift in the Dauphiné, this almost looked careless from afar as he sat up to drink and coasted downhill when others kept the chain tight. He should be close and is an outsider for the win.
Dropped yesterday, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) gets another fitness test to see if his Dauphiné form is waning while we’ll see if Primož Roglič is really here for GC.
Edoardo Affini (Visma-LAB) is a time trial specialist but a win would be an upset and the team knows this and may ask him to save himself, colleague Wout van Aert has been dropped in crunch moments so not looking likely to win as he has done before. Matteo Jorgenson should do well. But all eyes instead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) and whether he can beat Pogačar again in a time trial.
Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B) is the local and he missed out on the French TT title to Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2r) because he crashed on a corner, he’s on home roads. Luke Plapp (Jayco) sat up yesterday, presumably to save energy for today.
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Evenepoel |
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Pogačar |
Weather: sunny, 20°C and a 10km/h N wind meaning a slight headwind for the roads out of Caen and a tailwind on the way back. This should be stable for all, there won’t be much difference for the first or last rider.
TV: lanterne rouge Yevgeny Fedorov is off at 1.05pm and maillot jaune Van der Poel is due in around 5.40pm CEST.
Postcard from Caen
Caen? Today’s town is pronounced like quand, French for “when” or “what time” and a so good place to hold a time trial?
Time trials are a shrinking affair in the Tour de France. 1934 saw the format introduced for the first time when riders took part individually in a 90km timed contest. By 1939 there were five stages totalling 282km, the high point. Since then the average is 96km per tour, this figure held from the 1950 to the 1970s; it was higher in the 1980s with 124km per Tour, 110km in the 1990s.
These days the total has shrunk considerably. The chart above shows the Christian Prudhomme era. He took over as race director in 2007 but arguably 2009 onwards shows his imprint. Note the range, from 95km to 14km in three years. The average is 47km per Tour, a big reduction on past eras.
Why so? A motif of Prudhomme tours is the wish for things to go down to the wire, to be undecided as late as possible. Shorter time trials mean smaller time gaps. But there’s nuance here too as there’s been a change in the “exchange rate” of time gains in time trials and summit finishes. The mountains may often only separate the top contenders by seconds; a time trial by minutes. On the whole time trials still account for a greater percentage of the yellow jersey’s winning margin in Paris than the mountains.
Another factor is TV ratings. It’s hard to prove conclusively but it’s said time trials don’t bring in a big audience. The scenery is the same all day, riders are inscrutable behind visors and it’s harder to convey suspense in what is a remote battle.
If time trials have shrunk prologues and team time trials have become rarer. There was a good chance of a team time trial with “Paris-Nice rules” at Mûr-de-Bretagne this year. Instead we’ll see this format in the Tour for the first time at the Barcelona start next year.
A Tour without time trials seems unthinkable for now. The trend is going one way… but only because stages like today, even over 33km, count for so much.
The postcard reminds me a bit of the set of Playtime!
Caen was flattened around D-day, my French exchange there in the early 1970s saw a lot of post war reconstruction and buildings like this, in fact the main block in the postcard looks like the lycée my exchange kid went to.
As a fan of the understated and modest Vingegaard, I’m thrilled to see how his transformation into a more aggressive racer, combined with improved explosiveness and an already exceptional aerobic engine, could make him a serious contender in one day races as well, including Worlds and hilly monuments, if he chooses to pursue those. Who would have thought that only Pogacar and MvdP could outsprint Vingegaard in uphill sprints after a hard day of racing?
He’s expressed an interest in the Worlds this year, and it’d be nice to see a rival for Lombardia and more too.
I would be more of a fan of Vingegaard if he would actually start competing in those one day races. It’s one of the things I love about Pogačar (and did with Nibali e.g.), he’s not afraid to widen his horizon beyond the Tour.
to be fair to Jonas he’s had two years of disruption from bad injuries, perhaps without those we’d have seen him at the start line for Lombardia
I found that moment on the climb when he cut the effort and looked behind only to go again interesting. It kind of reminded me in a rather loose way of when I’m trying to go hard up a small climb and think I’m cooked because the top is a way off, only to realise it’s close so I push again (at nowhere near the speeds of Vinny and Pog obviously)
It may seem strange to many that a photo showing typical fifties reconstruction after war damage was attractive enough to merit a postcard, particularly as so many damaged local towns have a similar look. Concrete modernity must have been something to celebrate.
Will Onley take it easy and save himself for stages, or is a top ten GC option worth the effort?
A nice comment from Onley in a TV interview where he said something to the effect that he had spoken to his teammates saying how pleased he was to be riding with the top guys… But his team pointed out that if you keep riding with the top guys, you ARE a top guy.
Well. It’s early days but he has looked great and I hope he tests himself in the GC. If it doesn’t work I’m sure he can regroup and look for a stage.
(Concrete modernity really was something to celebrate. John Grindrod’s book “Concretopia” is excellent on the subject. This is from a UK perspective, I should say, and of course there is nuance and some poor execution).
It sounds like his priority might be a stage, then see how the GC plays out.
I’d go with JV. Test his GC credentials first. If they disappear for whatever reason (bad day, illness, crash) he can always switch to stage hunting. He can’t do it the other way around generally (unless there is one of those rare O’Connor Vuelta situations).
Somebody needs to recreate the meme:
“What a first week of the Tour, huh?”
“It’s only Wednesday, Remco!”
The time trials would be more interesting to the viewer if we got a more accurate picture of what it actually happening. How difficult would it be to have a time check every km? Technologically, isn’t that possible?
But thank goodness we no longer have 60-70 km time trials like we did when Indurain won his five TdFs! Now THAT was boring!
If you want to watch a stage in person, though, a time trial is great. You see every rider, not just a flash of more than a hundred streaking past . I went to the time trial in Cholet and really enjoyed it ( I did have a shooting stick to perch on though because it is quite a long day).
Yesterday was epic. I’m glad the police disarmed the knife man in Rouen before the peloton arrived, fingers crossed that that is a one off ‘incident’.
Agreed.
Back in the day when I was living and riding in France, my club rented a field between Cognac and Angoulème and installed a caravan with food and drink available all day.
Superb ambiance and a memorable day. (Contador v Evans).
Helped by the fact that we had ridden the course in previous weeks.
They just need to arrest the idiots with flares, I can image a rider working hard uphill not being pleased to get his lungs full of that smoke. Why don’t other spectators near them act?
I remain astounded and disappointed that the flares are not prevented. Especially here. It’s not just the lungs but the visibility for riders and vehicles.
But it’s certainly not the duty of the public to look after this.
Admittedly unfamiliar with French national law, but I’ve always advocated that interference with the Tour should be enacted as a serious crime, not just a local infraction. Too many riders have been abused by idiots. Whether flares or egotistical insertion. Such incidents erode the viewability of the Tour and its cultural influence.
(Not compensated in any way to say this.)
Maybe some flares are prevented, we only see the ones that get lit? But once lit they are hard to put out.
10-15 million go to see the Tour by the road, we should celebrate the 99.99% who do it right.
Yes, and it shows in how few incidents of interference there are given the numbers of fans roadside. What other pro sport offers so much at literally arm’s length?
I disagree here somewhat. More data isn’t always better. The race is a story and good storytelling creates suspense by judiciously withholding information until the right moment. The wait for information from the time check or finish becomes exciting, especially if it’s close.
100% agree on this one. Throw in an extra timecheck, but please leave some excitment and suspense!
Agreed. Part of what makes Amstel 2019 the best 1 day race ever, is the incongruity between what your eyes are telling you and what the numbers on the telecast are saying during the last 10km.
Very long TTs are fascinating, but nowadays the extensive use of cyclo-computers makes the exercise a different matter. It greatly facilitates pacing and prevents mistakes in managing the effort. But those mistakes would be almost unavoidable in the absence of live data. That’s why I advocate the ban of cyclo-computers in TTs.
I don’t think this is true. In the UK we do loads of time trialling with events up to 24hr. Plenty of people still go on feel and only look at data afterwards. Once you’ve been riding and racing over 10s of thousands of kilometres you just know what pace you can hold. Banning computers would just make it harder to see corners which is what a lot of riders have on the computer and put more reliance on being able to travel to the course weeks and months in advance. Which only benefits the big trams
If they are of no consequence to the performance, surely no one would have any problem banning them.
Just as easy to flip that one – if they are of no consequence to the performance then why ban them?
Seen much debate about whether Tadej Pogacer hit his limit on the steep climb yesterday and what exactly Jonas Vingegaard did. Was the slow down to simply see if there was any help coming or did he spot TP slowing and found some final reservoir of strength. Whatever it meant TP couldnt simply ride away for the win and it allowed the other riders back. What does this mean for the rest of the race? Who knows.
I have a slight inclining that Jonas Vingegaard will do well today, he seems extremely focused and rumours are that he has spent a lot of time polishing his TT. Unlike in the normal road stages kit can have a decisive influence (in days of yore Sky had the best TT kit and technical team behind it), way beyond me but have seen thoughts that Visma’s kit is better than UAE’s and certainly Quickstep’s
In what way is Visma’s kit better than Quickstep’s? I’ve heard that the Colgnago tt bike is underwhelming but would’ve thought that, with Specialized’s resources and Remco on the team, Quickstep would be technically well equipped?
Genuinely curious about this
Colnago has improved a lot. People might remember Tom Boonen having to apologise after remarks, and a previous road bike was once described by a magazine as a “watts sinkhole” after a wind tunnel test. But riders are satisfied with the current TT frame, others in the peloton jealous apparently.
It was amusing watching Pogacar check out the Visma TT bike at the Dauphine.
That was quite the humiliating backdown by Boonen!
Colnago is a big company now with financial backers and not some artisan in a workshop so he probably got “advised” to make a full retraction.
The ultimate owner/controller is one of the UAE’s ruling family and the country’s spy chief so you probably don’t want to get on the wrong side of him either.
Pogacar will be riding in the sponsors’ polka dot skinsuit not the UAE one as a result of dislodging Wellens from top spot after yesterday’s hijinks.
As I said in a previous comment, could he have knocked off the effort because he was going into the red and thought the top was a lot further away, only to realise it was quite close and he could turn up the power again for that short period in a way that he couldn’t if the top had been 400/500 metres further on?
What was interesting to me was the way that team UAE turned up last night. Wellens put in an enormous turn on the front and then Almeida turned up at just the right moment to assist Pogacar.
Visma obviously tried to monster them but they passed the test.
Lots of riders doing more unseen jobs here and there for others but Wellens has been instrumental for Pogačar in key moments. The Tour has a “best team mate” prize each week and he’s got to be on the list if not the winner so far.
It seems that over the past 30 years the best climbers across the race are often some of the best time trialists. Which i am sure has often been the case but combined with advances in aero position and preparation for TT the advantage for the bigger rider is virtually non existent and watts / kg are just as important in TT as in climbing.
Since the TDF doesn’t really have the super steep long climbs like the other 3 week races can have the small climber does not have an advantage anywhere.
Quintina type riders who cannot seem to get an aero position might as well not turn up for GC anymore.
The days of bigger and smaller riders winning GC at the TDF seem almost over.
As a larger type rider i always got a little disappointed in my amateur stage race days as the organisers always made the TT as hilly as possible and therefore the only stage that could have suited was snatched away.
“Since the TDF doesn’t really have the super steep long climbs like the other 3 week races can have…”
I suspect you’re right but would be interested in seeing the stats for this.
Would be helpful to see graphs of climb length vs average gradient, colour coded by country (or grand tour). Has anyone seen something like this? I guess the data could be pulled from Climb by Bike or a similar resource?
The current best TT GC aspiring rider seems a bit far off the mark of the best GC climbers.
What are these “super steep long climbs” in the Vuelta? Or even in the Giro with the Finestre as the only long steep climb this year. This year’s Tour has several hour long climbs.
If Pogačar and Vingegaard had a sabbatical then things could be more open to more types of riders but hard to see a Lenny Martinez or Mikel Landa type winning and even they’re better in time trials than they look.
It feels like there are more climbs in the Vuelta that have brutal ramps and/or sustained high gradients, but I could be being selective in the comparison with the Tour. Last year had Lagos de Covadonga, Picón Blanco, Cuiti Negru, Puerto de Ancares, Alto de Hazallanas and Pico Villuercas, which I think mainly have average gradients greater than the main Tour climbs this year and/or with more variability via sustained sections over >10%. And there’s the Angliru too, plus others like Los Machucos and Les Praeres. They’re not hugely long, but are obviously a different effort than super steep short climbs like yesterday. Very much an armchair analysis from me, so likely wrong! Pogačar and Vingegaard would still be better than the rest.
The Vuelta climbs can be steep… but they’re often relatively short. Covadonga is a long, Alpine style climb for the Vuelta but it’s a 35 minute job or under, Picon Blanco 25 minutes, likewise for Moncalvillo etc, it makes it subtly different. The Tour has the Madeleine, Ventoux etc as hour long efforts; which the Giro can have too with the Stelvio, Gavia etc.
This post made me think about the 4.5 hour difference in start times between the first and last rider in a TT. How much benefit do the earlier starters get from having more recovery time before the next stage? Would the extra 4(ish) hours help much?
I suppose more of a factor would be that the later starters are probably pushing themselves harder than those who start earlier. But I’m curious if a 4 hour (or so) extra rest would have any meaningful benefit for the following day.
As you say the later starters are probably racing harder, maybe 3/4 of the field today treat this as an active rest day, to get around the course without trouble and within 20% of the forecast winning time so they’re not outside the time cut.
Doesn’t it cancel out because they have 4 hours less rest before this stage?
I feel if Pogacar gets a chainring then Vingegaard should too. Pog is subjectively better in 3rd week TTs for me, and Visma will have had the magnifying glasses out for every inch of this stage.
I was hestitating here but thought with Pogačar there’s probably more room for surprise, expectations are lowered after the Dauphiné. Still think it’s hard to beat Evenepoel but if he has an off-day…
I would have rated Pogi and Vingegaard similarly too. I think in the time-trials they have both done they are close to 50-50 in who has performed better. I think there is a fair chance Vingegaard takes the yellow jersey today.
It’s really time to bring back at least one long hard TT to the Grand Tours. Would love to see one like the 60 km time trial in the Giro 2009.
Agree. Maybe not every year, but in the mix as much as the odd gravel/pave stage is would be welcome. ,Could invest in the graphics for live timing so we can see what’s happening. Or set the top 20 off in real time gap order so if there’s a catch we know its for position on GC. I don’t know – bring back the Km, but add an innovation to make it more palatable for modern tastes.
And as commented above, watching a TT live is actually very good. Especially with live stats.
garzelli was only a minute off menchov after 60km?!
yes, but it was a mountaineous TT with two long climbs in it. I would love a Grand Tour like that Giro again, proper old school course, with long +200 km stages. It would break the current pattern in GT designs and I would assume that we would not see Pogacar attacking like a madman on every single CAT 4 climb. Nobody could sustain it over 3 weeks with such a route.
Because yesterday the finish was in Rouen, Dutch tv showed Dutchman Gerrit Solleveld winning there in 1990. The race time was something like 7:45 and it turns out this stage was 301km long.
Nice:) Imagine the outcry today if we had such a stage. I wouldn’t propose having something like that in every Tour, but once every few years would be good for a change. Unfortunately the organizers tend to short explosive stages and those long maratons seem to be a thing of the past. Just 2 stages just above 200 km in this year’s Tour.
What about Almeida for today? It’s very hard to see past Remco for the win and Pog-Ving battling it out for yellow (I tend to favor Ving on this one). But Almeida is clearly on top shape, his last TT in Suisse was stellar, and probably may be one of the few days he’ll have “clearance” to ride for himself and try to grasp the top5 GC spots.
Remco justified favourite but he’s not looking great. Think Pogacar and Vingegaard could be close to him today, and I wouldn’t count out Almeida for a good ride.
Is there a limit to how many stages like yesterday you can have in a tour, if you packed the weeks with them would you not see the GC contenders fatigue and end up with a breakaway fiesta? Brad Wiggins made a good point on a well known podcast that the TDF should offer a window to all disciplines from climbers to sprinters to timetrailists to oneday specialists. What seens unusual at the moment is that the TDF winner will be a great all rounder capable of winning several of those event types against each disciplines best, something we’ve not seen for sometime. It might not be blockbuster TV but how many people realistically get to watch each stage in focus rather than a few with others on as background
Yes, there would be wins from the breakaway in stages like this in the second and third week. The breakaway got caught this time because Alpecin rode to catch it (and there were only four riders in the break).
One thought from yesterday’s stage: as our host frequently points out in the “Moment the Race Was Won” posts: “He was collecting seconds, but the race was decided by minutes.” Why did Pogacar expend all that energy to win the stage yesterday? He chased down Jorgenson at one point, and then outsprinted MvdP – to collect 6 extra seconds. Maybe it won’t matter in the end and Tadej will run away with it. However, it looks to me like Visma are working on wearing him down. and he is playing right into their hands.
If we didn’t have the evidence of last year to dispute this theory I would 100% agree.
But seriously, did Vingegaard expend less energy? I don’t think so.
Err, you’re missing the fact the Vinny expended huge amounts of energy for his third place finish.
Pogi is interested in stage wins as well as the GC.
I suppose he means Zoncolan, Angliru, Bola del Mundo… The problem with the “exchange rate” is not the TT, it is indeed that our regular Tourmalet stage or Alpe d’Huez finish normally doesn’t create gaps as big as in Coppi’s time. That’s why 9stion is inevitable (and with still many climbing kms to go) and restrict feeding rules, so that riders can’t grab calories whenever needed. That way, time gaps in mountain stages would on average increase dramatically, and balance 150km of individual TT or 30 second bonuses on flat stages. Thus making the overall race more operatic and memorable, amplifying the ladders and snakes movements and making them more frequent.
Many of the roads, particularly in the mountains, were unpaved when Coppi raced, making time-differences large. By about 1960 the roads were paved with asphalt, and the differences in the mountains could often be small. (Increasing the length of the stages would increase the time differences.) From that date until the last 15 years the race was won in the time-trials and the mountains were not decisive. ASO have found that many more people view the mountain stages comparted to other stages, and want the race decided in the mountains (preferably in week three) since this increases viewship. Hence we are unlikely to go back to having a huge amount of time-trials.
Eating/drinking water are also about safety. Allowing feeding from the car is something that was introduced after Simpson died on the mountain from heat exhaustion. We will never go back to restricting eating/drinking. And any attempt to introduce this kind of rule would likely make the organisers criminally liable for any mis-fortune.
So not true. Designated feed zone rules have always varied and continue to vary. And there’s nothing homicidal about stating that riders can only eat what they carry in their pockets from the start and what they are given in the ravitaillement areas.
Such a shame not to have Ganna and Bissegger racing today
And surprised no Tarling too. No Küng either, he’s leaving GFDJ and also his wife is due to give birth very soon.
Tarling, I think, is still recovering from the back injury at the Giro. A real blow. He’d a good early season
Ah well. That was likely this Tour. Time to attend garden again. 🙂
Fascinated to know whether Jonas V’s underperforming today is down to the efforts yesterday? Or Stage1?
If Visma came into this Tour planning to attack Pog at every turn in the first week then it very much backfired today?
Who knows what will happen in coming weeks but it’s tough to V making a minute back at this point.
I wondered that too. JV has been racing like he switched bodies with Pogacar. But it was also a flat and windy course. Matching racers who are bigger in those conditions is a tough ask for him.
Whatever the reason, it sure looks like the only way Pogi doesn’t win by several minutes would be some stroke of very bad luck. If I was Visma I would pretend he doesn’t exist and start thinking about BOTH Vingo and Jorgenson against Remco and Almeida. I think that is where the GC interest will be for the rest of the 2025 Tour. And if Pogi does have a bad day, I don’t think it will have anything to do with Visma tactics. He’s not Del Toro.
I’ve never seen Pogs display any real tactical nous. He just goes and either he’s strongest or he’s not.
That’s incredibly harsh and you’re only remembering recent years – go back to his early LBL and Lombardia wins. Tactically perfect.
I think you have to remember once you become the strongest people tactics to and around you change which makes it very hard to be tactical any longer – you always have a target on your back.
I’ve seen Pog use terrible tactics and use great tactics but nowerdays he truly knows his capabilities so tactics on all sides are out the window
JV doesn’t seem to possess the mesomorphy to perform better at his now heavier/stronger.
He’s better as a stick.
I’ve been quite impressed by JV’s willingness to attack and his competitiveness in certain sprints. He certainly looks bigger. But I wonder if that will affect his climbing at all.
Also, Pog had a meh Daupine TT. Did OK on GC.
Three observations:
– the flat, exposed course didn’t suit
– sometimes he is thrilling to watch, a “ride it like you stole” style on descents, this time it showed that he had not reconned the course
– he might have just had a jours sans too
You really think he didn’t recon the course? I’m stunned if so!
I did also think Jonas just looked uncomfortable at times as if it was a jour sans tbh which is why I leapt to the last few days taking more out of him than expected.
@Pete are you saying Jonas is heavier this year? I didn’t realise this.
I don’t wish any mishaps on anyone and will gladly take a Pog victory and some fun stages in the coming weeks but outside of that from everything I’ve seen since the start of 2024 it really just feels like Pog has opened a decisive gap on Jonas that it’s going to be very tough to close. I’m looking to the next challenger tbh. I just hope Pog’s domination that *might come in the Vuelta doesn’t bore everyone as racking up the wins to be the greatest is what I’d do if I were Pog.
https://www.reuters.com/en/vingegaard-says-he-is-stronger-than-ever-ahead-tour-de-france-2025-07-04/
Although he doesn’t admit how many kgs/lbs heavier.
This plan (to gain strength/weight) must have been decided on last year.
A lot seems to be extrapolated from this statement about him being more muscular. But yesterday morning someone on his team was asked about this and they just said words to the effect that last summer he was lacking a bit after his Basque crash and hospital stay and he is back to normal now.
Vingegaard and Jorgenson were 2nd and 3rd at the Dauphiné time trial behind Evenepoel. Ahead of Pogačar, who didn’t appear to be trying his hardest that day.
Today, Jorgenson was 11th and Vingegaard 13th.
I’m wondering what Visma changed with their preparation to get it so wrong today?
Trine knows 🙊
If Pogacar had had his own time trial skinsuit on today, would it have affected the outcome? Can they help that much?
The Tour supplied one is hardly a flapping jersey, they tailor it, it comes with a number pocket etc. But it all helps. Just listened to L’Equipe’s daily podcast and along the way clothing was cited as 5% of the aerodynamics (vs position, helmet, wheels, frame), of which the skinsuit is going to count for a lot compared to socks.
Disappointing and sad to see Vingegaard so struggling, he was visibly shaken today. (And according to an audio clip of team car communication, they probably knew quite soon it won’t be his day today.)
Still, I hope and expect him to be the second strongest rider and to offer a fight to Pogacar. It’s hard to see him taking the minute back, but he’ll at least try, and perhaps “die trying”.
3 weeks is a long time, and Pogacar has bad days too. But Vingegaard’s problem is he’s used his allowance already, one more bad day and team talks and tactics become more difficult.
Personally, I don’t want to see Visma employ an “all or nothing” approach. Vingo already has two wins and two more podiums in the Tour, and the team already has the 2025 Giro in the trophy case. I would like to see what Jorgenson, Wout and even some of their “lesser” riders can do (Kuss for a stage win?) and let Vingo follow wheels like Remco. He is likely a large step above everyone but Pog and a large step below Pog. I really don’t want to see a replay of last year where they just dragged Pog around to win a bunch of stages at a canter. Let UAE control the race if they can and give them zero assistance.
That’s not a bad shout.
Although WVA looks a shadow of himself currently so ‘seeing what he can do’ might be a little disappointing because weve already seen it far better in years past.
And Jorgenson is way too high on GC to let slip away in a break, and I assume will remain so as he builds his own GC racing portfolio.
I’m not really sure what others on Visma will show us things we haven’t already seen multiple times? Kuss is a great climber we’ve seen win stages and Grand Tours, Simon Yates likewise and most of the others.
In fact now I think about it Jorgenson is the only one maybe with Affini who I’d like to see more of solo, it’s just a bit unlikely.
I just meant not working Sky-style for Jonas, and definitely not “making the race hard” and chasing down breakaways for Pog. We all saw how that went last year and in the 2025 Dauphine.