The longest stage of the race and the last chance for the sprinters before the mountains appear.
Two winners: a stage win for Søren Kragh Andersen and a surprise, he’s never won a time trial as a pro but has featured in plenty of top-10 so it was a matter of time. The next winner was Max Schachmann who finished second on the stage but first of the GC contenders and by some margin, and 40 seconds clear of Sergio Higuita, his next rival on the overall classification. The short distance of the stage, just 15km, was still long enough to see some big gaps on GC with Thibaut Pinot and Nairo Quintana losing 40 seconds.
The Route: the longest stage, 227km and a more scenic ride with less of the exposed, empty fields of recent days, we’re now into more pleasant country to ride. There’s more climbing, the first intermediate sprint is at the top of a mountain pass. The two climbs later on are more than places picked to award points for the mountains competition. The first, labelled the Côte de Trèves is the Col du Pillon to locals but nothing too tough for the sprinters. There’s a fast descent and the next climb is hard work, a fitness test for the sprinters with some 10% ramps but if anyone’s in trouble there’s 44km to the finish.
The Finish: completely flat and near-featureless for the final 5km. There’s a left turn in the final kilometre.
The Contenders: the last chance for the sprinters and a long run to the line on a wide road suits the sprint trains. This gives Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) the advantage but it’s hard to measure their relative chances. Note Sam Bennett is out, he had his finger stitched up and rode the TT but the injury is too much. There are more names, Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Cees Bol (Team Sunweb), Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) and Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) make a second wave of picks.
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Caleb Ewan, Pascal Ackermann |
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Elia Viviani, Cees Bol |
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Bouhanni, Nizzolo |
Weather: cloudy but getting warmer, a top temperature of 21°C.
TV: the finish is forecast for 4.25pm Euro time. It should be available on the same channel you watch the Tour de France and/or Eurosport.
I hate to break it: it will not be a sprint 🙁
Bora will try to keep it together for Schachman. Sunweb, Trek, QS, Israel and posibly Lotto (Gilbert?) will attempt to blow up the race with their strongmen. Race can very well end today, im not sure they will reach Apt.
Look out for the classic guys and heavier ardennes riders. Mads P needed the first stages for training and rested yesterday, Gilbert to revenge MSR?
I agree, it will be a win for the break. My money is on Thomas of Ghent.
He did a great ride yesterday, one small story is his bid to qualify as Belgium’s male rider for the Olympics time trial ahead of Victor Campenaerts.
ho many do they get… I guess we are assuming Remco gets one spot so this is for the no 2?
5 for the men’s RR, and 2 for the ITT. See: https://www.uci.org/docs/default-source/official-documents/tokyo-2020—olympic-games/liste-des-noc-qualifi-s-me-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=3bc0989c_10
assuming the whole thing goes ahead, of course.
Well as the situation evolves, I wouldn’t have too high hopes for the olympics. As of today I guess it is just as likely there won’t bee any olympics as there will.
The ‘Wolfpack’ has been taking some hits, I think they’ll be on the prowl today. This looks like perfect oportunity for Styby to bag a last win before the season gets suspended…
Fancy a break today. Nobody knows when they’ll get another chance of a hit out.
Is the start on telly? Reckon it will be eyeballs out from the gun.
not sure how you define a break, I wouldnt the winning group on stage 2 a breakaway win. I see something similar happen today regardless of wind or not.
Its still just 5 riders.
In order to have 5 starters in the RR and 2 in the ITT – 2 riders has to ride both events. This will affect team selection among the nations with favorites. Its a similar situation for the track riders
– i seem to recall that its posible to let a trackie ride a ride event and i think DK team opted to do so in either 2012 or 2016.
I expect some nations will disregard heavy rollers for the ITT without a realistic top 3 chance if the nation has a big favorite for the RR
I think some humble pie is on the menu tonight.
What a heartbreaker! I’ve seen later catches, but they’re always good. This has been a great edition of PN. Perhaps it is more so because it’s the only racing at the moment.