The breakaway world championships. The transition stages have been better than the mountain stages this year and today should be a lively day.
If you want to watch note the earlier finish of the stage today, timed so you can stay and watch the Tour de France Femmes which starts begins its traverse of France this evening.
Ça Plagne pour Arensman: the abbreviated course saw Primož Roglič on the attack on the Col du Pré, if he could take two minutes on everyone he’d be on the podium, and his team mate Florian Lipowitz could take the white jersey. Only he never got two minutes and, luckily for Red Bull, Lipowitz managed to stay in white without the help from team mates otherwise there would be some questions to answer.
In the third week you can see all sorts of races. Uno-X got to work on the Col du Pré to distance Kévin Vauquelin and winch Tobias Johannessen up the overall classification. Decathlon-Ag2r later toiled to help Felix Gall leapfrog Roglič who got caught and dropped for his early raid.
Thymen Arensman attacked on the early slopes to La Plagne and Tadej Pogačar closed him down with Jonas Vingegaard on his wheel. It happened again. Third time lucky and Arensman got a gap, never more than 30 seconds. He was away and climbing faster than anyone but partly because of what was going on behind.
Gall tried to pull in moments but faded. So Pogačar did most of the work up the climb, and always with Vingegaard in his wheel. Soon only Oscar Onley and Florian Lipowitz were left with the pair, then Onley cracked in the streets of La Plagne which incentivised Florian Lipowitz to move to the front to distance his rival for the podium and white jersey for good.
Psychologists have a concept called “loss aversion“. Here it looked like Pogačar wanted to win the stage but did not want to risk losing it to Vingegaard. So the more the yellow jersey pulled on the front on this long climb, the more energy he was expending compared to Vingegaard. Better to let Arensman win than risk being beaten by Vingegaard. In the finish the Dane won their sprint, just two seconds behind Arensman. This wasn’t a heist for the Dutchman, but he did profit from others marking each other.
For Vingegaard this was only the third time he finished ahead of Pogačar this Tour and the other two occasions were anecdotal on the sprint stages to Dunkerque and Laval. They crossed the line with the same time but the Dane got a six second time bonus while his arch rival got four and this was the first time gain for Vingegaard on Pogačar too.
The Route: 184km and 2,900m of vertical gain. There’s an unmarked uphill start out of Nantua and soon after the Col de la Croix de Serra begins. But it’s not really one mountain pass, rather a collection of roads that lead to the pass. It’s awkward terrain with places for riders to launch, ramps to sap speed and flat portions. The descent is different, a regular drop to the town of Saint Claude with some fast bends and fresh tarmac.
The Valfin climb is a big road and even gradient for the most part and the road keeps climbing well beyond it. After this the roads feel open and without any traps passing pastures of cows that make Comté cheese. And a village called Les Chauvins where locals presumably only support French riders passing through.
There’s a fast descent into the spa town of Salins. The Dauphiné came here in 2023 when Jonas Vingegaard won the stage, surging on the climb. This time it’s a key point but the finish is further away. It’s a steep forest backroad and starts hard with some 10-12% at the start and it carries on climbing past the KoM point.
The climb out of Longeville doesn’t sound like much at 5.5% but it’s 6-7% most of the way up for 2.7km and with some hairpins at the start, almost the last chance for a climber unsure about their sprint…
The Finish: …but there’s an unmarked climb out of Sombacour with 14km to go, almost 3km at 4% and with 7% along the way, a last launchpad for anyone doubting their sprint. Then it’s across flat roads to Pontarlier and an out-of-town finish on big roads.
The Contenders: the breakaway world championships and open to many. The uphill start is hard, 12km of climbing so prohibitive for most sprinters but otherwise it feels easier to list those who won’t win than those who can.
Matej Mohorič (Bahrain) won third week stage of the Tour in 2023 that used some of the same roads but he’s been discreet so a hard pick but all the better to go under the radar.
Visma-LAB get to race for themselves. Wout van Aert‘s looked strong but he’s fallen out of the caste of invincibles. Victor Campenaerts is riding well and packs a sprint if he needs it too. Tim Wellens (UAE) can respond too, Jhonatan Narvaez as well.
Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) has been in form all Tour and an contender. Ben Healy (EF) too with Neilson Powless a contender too. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) has to go in the same paragraph too.
Luke Plapp (Jayco) has a chance. It’s hard for the sprinters but if a move doesn’t go early, then by virtue of staying on the wheels Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) could make it but hard to see, likewise Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuncink). Max Schachmann (Soudal-Quickstep) is suited too.
Tudor’s Marc Hirschi has been almost invisible but this ought to suit while Julian Alaphilippe is capable of winning a stage for real.
The régionaux de l’étape are Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Clément Berthet (Decathlon-Ag2r) with the former more likely to win even if the latter is more local. Grégoire has had this day in mind for some time… but so have all the names cited and more, including team mate Valentin Madouas.
 |
Simmons, Healy, Abrahamsen, Campenaerts |
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Wellens, Plapp, WvA, Mohorič, Grégoire |
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Laurance, Romeo, Alaphilippe |
Weather: 23°C and sunshine but with the chance of thunder and a downpour.
TV: KM0 is at 12.15pm the finish is forecast for 4.20pm CEST. Tune in from the start to watch the world championship of breakaway racing as ever team throws what they’ve got to get a result.
Then you can watch the start of the Tour de France Femmes later with KM0 at 5.40pm and the finish of Stage 1 in Plumelec at 7.30pm.
Postcard from Saint-Claude
This town sits amid the Jura mountains at a point where several rivers flow converge from different canyons and the water once provided power for various mills. This helped two industries flourish: gem polishing and wooden tobacco pipe manufacturing. As you can imagine these have seen better days. The same for the photography shop in town given how smartphones have displaced the photography business. This shop, a Kodak sign hanging outside, has a cycling connection as it belongs to Alexis Vuillermoz’s mother Nicole.
Vuillermoz started out as a mountain biker and rose up the ranks winning French and European titles. He was sponsored by Spanish brand BH which at the time supplied the Saur-Sojasun road team and he got an opening to join them in 2012, the same year his father died. He rode the Tour de France for the following year but the team folded late in the season leaving him without a job.
Ag2r were among the teams to say non, their budget for the following year was used up. That was until a local businessman called Daniel Germond heard about this. He approached Ag2r La Mondiale team saying if they recruited Vuillermoz then he’d cover the wage for the first year. It wasn’t the first deal between them as Germond, a former athlete and postman who’d started a technology company that flourished, had backed it when it was the Chazal team before.
The deal was done for 2014 and it worked out well with Vuillermoz winning the Mûr-de-Bretagne stage at the Tour de France in 2015 and staying several years with the team. Germond later remarked “I’m glad I paid the first year of his contract and not today’s as his value has soared“.
A puncheur, his speciality was sharp uphill efforts, earning the nickname “Pikachu” for his lightning attacks, and a yellow helmet at the time. It got him a podium at the Flèche Wallonne. On longer climbs he had a unique breathing style, gobbling for air like a fish out of water.
Vuillermoz was lucky to find a backer willing to help him. Personal sponsors like this have played a part in the past, especially if a rider could bring a sponsor with them rather than just cover the wage.
It’s still a thing at the top, a star name will bring sponsors with them like Evenepoel with Specialized or Van der Poel with Canyon but that’s more a rich-get-richer scenario where big brands deal with star riders rather than supporting long shots. But Germond’s generosity must have felt all the more rewarding.
“ And a village called Les Chauvins where locals presumably only support French riders passing through.”
Ha, well played.
Doing the recon ride it came to mind that what if no French riders had won a stage by now? And the coverage this could create at times… but solved now.
Chauvinism comes from the Napoleonic general chauvin, known for his excessive patriotic zeal and devotion to the Bonapartist cause. ( You probably know this already)
“Ça Plagne pour Arensman” – is Inner Ring channelling his inner Plastic Bertrand? 🙂
I am the king of the divan.
Two big stage wins and Mont Ventoux seemed possible given the way he was riding but presumably too tired by the work to get to the foot of the mountain.
Could be the heat as well! Though he did the most work going to Ventoux.
Weird weird stage.
The INRNG take makes sense but it really didn’t feel like that at the time. Was oddly depressing to watch, something I almost never feel watching cycling.
+1
This Tour has been somewhat anti-climactic. Pogacar has won four stages but, some will say, could have won four more. Superbagneres, Ventoux, Col de La Loze and La Plagne were all within touching distance for the presumptive Tour winner. But whether it was conservatism, illness, tiredness, unwillingness to lose or whatever, none of those wins materialised and all fell to those more prepared to invest an “all or nothing” effort. Similarly things can be said about Visma in general, it seems to me. Did Jonas ever really go completely do or die? Not in my eyes. He has been a beaten man since Hautacam, the only time Tadej really invested on an “all in” effort himself, and the rest has just been window dressing and token efforts to show willing. Lipowitz and Onley are a glimpse of an, as yet, unfolding future but even there it ended with the damp squib of Onley losing the wheel. So not a vitange Tour in my eyes. More a fait accompli.
@Rimbrakes The ITV coverage was just cringeworthy. The pretty useless Ned Boulting kept on going on about Arensmen’s time being up any moment when Pg goes, then when he didn’t it was ‘Pog is leaving it late for a big attack ti take the stage’. Not once did he say that maybe Pog wasn’t going to attack because Vinny had been on the wheel all the way up. Only Millar (eventaully) made the comment that perhaps Pog wasn’t going to launch.
With Onley, they were both as bad as each other, only talking about when Onley was going to attack to take the time he needed for 3rd place. Not once did they entertain the idea that he might be dropped or that Lipo would attack. Then he was gapped and they resorted to gushing comments about fourth place. And Imlach later said that Onley wouldn’t now finish third, even though there are two stages left and today’s is tough (even if more than a minute is tough to close). Cringeworthy again.
I’m glad it’s not just me who hates the giddy ITV coverage. Boulting is as useless as Kirby and just as liable to episodes of unjustified enthusiasm.
+1
@Steve Boulting is worse than Kirby. Far worse.
Does tha’ mean Ned Boulting, lad?
I don’t know anything about ITV, but in USA we have to suffer through NBC/Peacock coverage of Tour w/ Phil Ligget & Bob Roll… the “studio” portions are especially vacuous and annoying. I’ve been watching Tour after the stage is over, during our early evening, and fast-forward through many of the annoying segments.
I’ve read this is the last year of NBC’s Tour coverage; USA broadcasting could reach another nadir, nextyear.
Not to mention the constant switching from km to miles (WTF?! Grow up NBC!)
This seems like a small thing, but when you’re used to watching every race in km it’s incredibly distracting. As for the commentary, they get what’s actually happening wrong about 50% of the time.
Do you know who will take over the Tour in the US?
My info was out of date. NBC/Peacock has the USA TdF rights until 2029.
“NBC Sports, Peacock and A.S.O. announce 6 year extension for exclusive U.S media rights for the Tour”
“NBC Sports Continues as Home of Tour de France in the United States Through 2029”
https://www.letour.fr/en/news/2023/nbc-sports-peacock-and-a-s-o-announce-six-year-extension-for-exclusive-u-s-media-rights-for-tour-de-france/1308985
(published February 15th 2023)
I have really enjoyed NBC coverage this year. Paul Bermeister and Tejay play off each other well.
Bookwalter is a little stiff – wish they had kept Horner. But enjoy them all.
Christian V has really seemed to make the most of the moto commentary. I’m hoping he’s planting himself to take Phils place when the inevitable happens.
Coverage in the US is leagues better than it was 15 years ago. If it wasn’t for steep hill.tv and this website I would have been out of luck. Had to log in to sketchy sports mirror sites to watch it live at 6am way back when.
NBC seems to be putting more effort into it. I genuinely enjoy the studio portion – it isn’t the best for the veterans of the sport but my wife will watch it with me and she enjoys that part. Once Phil takes over she fades off to do something else.
I think it’s easy to dunk on NBC, but for the price of peacock, to get all that on demand – that’s a real good deal. I hope they don’t stop broadcasting next year.
Steep hill was my gateway drug!
I had a reading on yesterday’s stage. I do not think Pogačar was overly worried about Ving winning him the stage. In fact it was Pogačar that paced the whole climb and kelt Arensman on a striking distance. But Pogačar was not haply about doing the work himself alone. You can see when Pogi attacks first, everyone is dropped, and only Ving resists. There Pog nods to him “hey, let’s work together and then may the best man win in the end?” And Ving categorically said “no”. And Pog symbolically shrugged as if saying “well I have a few stages and 2 jerseys on me, I don’t need this, you go home empty handed then”. And he proceeded to drop pace and allow the comeback and attack. Pog had capacity to close the gap, and was willing yo battle it out with Jonas, provided Jonas would contribute at least a bit instead of sucking wheel. But Jonas was the one who was too square to work with Pog for a chance at the stage. When Jonas realized Pog was deliberately not going to close the gap he finally launched but it was too late. He had 20km to pass in the front for a bit and only did so in the last 150m. Well too little too late.
You’ve summarised that perfectly. All the Visma rhetoric about risking everything – when it came to it Vingegaard didn’t even risk a turn on the front for a stage win. Maybe he would have ended up just leading Pogacar out for (yet another) win, but the unwillingness to try was baffling.
Yes, it’s the mismatch between what Vingegaard said & what he did that I found rather disappointing. If he’d said that he was content (or at least resigned) to keeping his second place then I could quite understand that but to repeatedly talk about attacking then not do so until the last couple of hundred metres of the final mountain stage made it a bit of a come down. And I’m someone who wants Pogacar to win. If I’d been rooting for Vingegaard I imagine I would have been more disappointed.
Not sure what your point is. I’m very much in the Vingegard (or at least in the anyone-than-the-horrid-Slovenian)-camp and I’m not sure why I should be dissapointed? Because Vingegard didn’t pull the Slovenian to the line and gifted him a stage?
My point is that if I was rooting for Vingegaard I think I would have been very disappointed that he didn’t try harder to win the stage, given I felt rather disappointed even as someone rooting for Pogacar and rooting for Ineos. It seems some Vingegaard supporters aren’t feeling that though.
@Michael Eisner +1. Pog sits on the wheel often enough but he got grumpy when Jonas sat on his wheel. The Pog groupies also got a tad grouchy about it.
Well I’m certainly happy that Vingo didn’t drag the Slovenian bore to the line and gifted him a stage more.
Which is what would have happened as it already has happened multiple times this year and last. JV would have been an idiot to ride with Pogi. All the people complaining that he didn’t pull for Pogi just want a show. It’s easy to whine about wheelsucking when you have no skin in the game.
@Craig
+1
Dawnstar – I was rooting for Vingegaard and I was glad he didn’t take the bait. There was no indication that he would either get a gap – Pogacar marked him perfectly every time he tried in both 2024 and 2025 – or beat Pog in a sprint on equal footing. He was playing it smart, but it just didn’t work. But Pog didn’t get to add another stage win off Visma’s backs, and Arensman won instead, which is fine with me.
completely agree
Maybe Jonas said: “I worked all these days for you, now you do some work!”?
Probably not, but would be true (and funny in a way). I guess your version is more true.
ITV post stage take on the final ‘sprint’ were along the lines ofTP : ‘well, we ve lost the stage win as you won’t contribute, so have the 2 seconds if it matters that much to you’.
I also think that TP is suffering quite badly with cold/ flu, and he was quite cautious on the very wet roads at the finish. He cut one interview short saying he was really cold. He’s just got to get to Paris ( and not end up in Hospital like MVDP) .
Sorry, but it makes no sense. Vingo knows that Pog 2.0 will beat him in a sprint-for-the-win in 999 out of 1000 times, unless he can get Pog to do most work. In that case the ratio may be down to 99 out of 100 og 9 out of 10.
I think Vingo would very much have liked a win, but he also knew he would have to play poker to get there.
But it was JV with time to make up.
After CdlL he knew it would take a jour sans or Pog to get sick(er?) and when neither happened he accepted 2nd place. The shortened stage was probably demoralizing but in the end irrelevant to gc.
Time to make up? By dragging Pog to the line and gift him a stage? Why should he do that?
OK, accept 2nd place then.
Aargh, that anon was me.
Read above. Vingo had two options:
1) Go all-out and drag Pog to the line, betting that Pog wouldn’t just outsprint him the last meters. Odds likely in the range 1:100 -> 1:1000
2) Let Pog work and bet on him being hungry enough to catch TA and then outsprint him the last meters. Odds likely in the range 1:10 -> 1:100.
So no clear path to victory, but only two bad options.
There was definitely ‘loss aversion’ at play and Ving was the offender. Apart from the possibility of poor legs what did he have to lose by giving it a red hot go?
If Vingo pulled ahead with Pog 2.0 on his wheel, Pog would outsprint him 99+ times out of 100. If he played indifferent and gambled on Pog being more intested in the win, the odds for Vingo would have still been poor but not nearly as bad.
Offender?
Reframe your last sentence as “Apart from the possibility of being humiliated yet again by the better rider countering his every move then riding away from him at will what did he have to lose by giving it a red hot go?” and then walk a mile in his shoes. How would you feel?
Offender. Good God.
Couldn’t agree more. Vingegaard’s done what he could, this was the first time Pogačar spent any time on the front, he’s been following wheels until it suited him the whole race.
Precisely. The Pog-crowd seem to forget how many hours the Slovenian has spent sucking wheels.
So when you’ve already won 4 stages, lead by 4.5, and follow wheels you’re wheelsucking, not controlling the race.
And if you’re trailing on GC, it’s not incumbent on you to take the race to the leader.
I guess we’ve all come to expect Strade Bianche or World’s type exploits, even in GTs.
Most of this was an answer to the “offender” nonsens put on Vingo.
He did what he could and the idea that he somehow should just find another 50 watts is simply c***.
“Take the race to the leader?” Why? Panache? Ciclismo? He was never taking back any serious time, so he very wisely played his best card for the stage win. Didn’t work out, that’s cycling.
I don’t get the hate for Pogacar from some people, but accusing him of wheel sucking just suggests people are watching different races in a completely alternative reality.
@George No! never! Pog would never follow a wheel.
Thank you! Brilliantly said!
Vuillermoz is an interesting and unusual rider having already gained a master’s degree in banking before starting his pro road career. He won’t be reduced to trading on his cycling memories to live comfortably post Total Direct Energie.
The Jurassian towns such as Sainte-Claude and Salins-les-Bains are interesting but best avoided on a rainy day in February. Many have lost half or more of their populations over the past century. The salt mines in Salins make a fascinating visit.
A win for Groupama-FDJ would please me today though I can’t see how it could happen.
Has there even been one stage so far, that will be memorable for some time?
If I had to pick one, it is probably the Abrahamsen win, but that is a weak candidate itself.
From a Jayco point of view only one … I am already looking towards the Tour de L’Avenir to see if the young ones can do any better!
A more serious answer might be the Hautacam stage which is more or less as memorable as the winning time trial effort in 2020.
If you’re Dutch, this was a super memorable stage. I had several almost heart attacks in the last few kms. But the rain king from Deil made it in the end.
Absolute zero. Gianetti’s Frankenstein has made this Tour the least memorable since the days of Armstrong.
Afraid not. I didn’t watch much, but given that the few stages I did follow supposedly where the “great” ones I don’t think this will go down as anything anyone will remember a few years from now.
The Giro will likely remain the high point of this years racing.
Seem to remember complaints during the Giro nothing much was happening, eg on the stage won by Prudhomme to Champoluc the GC battle was dull because only Carapaz tried a move and was sniping for seconds, plus all those stages where the mountains were placed mid-stage meant little happened. The surprise finish on the Finestre was great… but it was a slow burn until then.
Maybe – I was at least not very optimistic about the Giro first, as I feared another UAE panzer-race. But much as I detest UAE, I actually like Del Toro, as he reminds me of the young Bernal/Pog/Vingo-types. Hugely talented but also prone to hideous mistakes based on inexperience.
I know this is with the benefit of hindsight, but I do remember at least the latter part of the Giro being unpredicable.
…but not a fait accompli.
Vingegaard was clearly banking on Pogačar’s obvious desire for yet another stage win. UAE had done a lot of work to put him in position, and he pulled them within seconds of Arensman. Pogačar had already shown he was more than willing to sit on Visma’s train and then jump — see the Ventoux stage where Visma and JV had done most of the work — so why shouldn’t Vingegaard try the same thing?
Cos Vingegaard has nothing whilst Tadej has 4 stage wins and two jerseys. But Jonas, in the end, couldn’t even sprint 200 meters earlier for a stage win. He had nothing to lose by doing so.
Not sure what your point is. Why should Vingo drag the moody Slovenian to the line?
I never suggested he should. But doing nothing is not a better look. Only one of those two is going home with prizes. The other is going home to a wife who doesn’t like his job with nothing to show for it but an “L”.
Its a question of weighin your odds. Gambling on pulling Pog to the line and beat him in a sprint, or gamling on Pog wanting the win so he would do most work.
None of them offered good odds. But I understand why Vingo made his choice.
Rather an “L”, than being one of Gianetti’s experiments….
I don’t think Pog would have gone past Vin maybe a ‘gift’ was on the cards
I don’t think Pogačar does “gifts’…
This has been a truly unremarkable Tour. Without a few exploits by MvDP earlier to enliven a few stages it might have gone down as one of the least entertaining.
Think a lot of the stages have been great for the breakaways but the GC battle never happened with Pog too strong for Jonas.
Likewise, the Toulouse stage was one of the best days of the year but the one thing it missed was the GC riders getting involved on the final climbs.
One thing we’ll look at in the review is how almost every GC moment just saw Pogačar take time, and the gaps between the others as well widened, there’s been little movement along the way.
Agree. We are down to 12 (!) riders within a hour of the winning time. The differences are laughable.
And I don’t think there are any fix to address that. Teams are almost irrelevant. On a course like this Pog 2.0 just need to follow the second best – this year Vingo – and the he can take a few wins as required. He will accumulate sufficient margin whatever any combination of teams will do.
It’s time to get back to 250+ km stages Zomagnan style. This short explosive stages are almost unbearable to watch with Pogacar destroying the whole field without breaking sweat. Maybe if we have more tappones, the tactics will change, because noone can sustain going flat out from start to finish there. Or their guts will be destroyed by consuming this massive amount of carbs, which they claim are the key to success. I am wondering about the long term health consequences of consuming this amount of junk.
Its actually not a bad idea. Really – *really* – long stages will test and tax the physiology to a very different level and may be the way to (re-)introduce the Team and tactics as a deciding factor.
Drawbacks sure, but still…
The attraction is superficial and largely based on the specific, time-limited problem – if it is a problem – of the dominance of a single rider rather than a general problem with the unattractiveness or lack of suitability in a GT of well-designed, explosive stages.
250km+ death marches really are unbelievably boring to watch and in this age of start-to-finish TV broadcasts have a slim-to-nil chance of catching back on.
I remember the hype concerning a really long stage in the mountains in and around Andorra[?] about ten years ago. Designed and inspired by a recently-retired Joaquim Rodriguez we were assured continually that it was going to be epic, a huge test of man and machine, one for the ages, something to tell your grandchildren about. What happened? Nothing happened. It was too much, too daunting, too much downside to attacking early and blowing yourself up. The riders huddled together and it was only the back door which was open, not the front door.
The enthusiasm for ultra-long stages with huge numbers of climbing metres became very quiet, very quickly after that practical demonstration of fantasy versus reality.
My principal memory will probably be Ben Healy turning himself inside-out for yellow.
One of the few highlights if you don’t love UAE
Been looking forward to this stage for ages.
Any thoughts on Magnus Cort?
Cort should be a pick for today, in January he’d be an obvious name but in the Dauphiné he was being dropped in places where he’d normally be fine and so far hasn’t shone in the Tour so left him off the picks.
I forgot he was riding the Tour until I saw his name in the results a couple of days ago. He’s been anonymous, which is a big surprise as normally he’s very present at the Tour.
He has suffered from some sort of illness during this tour and adjusted his objectives accordingly and done what he could to help Tobias Halland Johannessen.
PS When did we last see a rider from a wildcard team in the Top 10 in the CG?
Barguil in 2019?
Stuyven for the win today with the added bonus of the TNT commentators pronouncing his name differently every ten seconds.
I think Ben Healy has enjoyed this tour
I think they are both looking forward to Paris. Doesn’t seem to be a lot left in the tank. I’m not sure I’ve seen Pog looking so tired.
I get the impression that for Pog, all of the fun has been sucked out of racing. Whether that’s because of a backlash against his endless winning, or the misery of online bores declaring that he’s killed cycling, or just the endless pressure to beat Merkx, Cavendish etc, who truly knows? It’s a shame, because he always seemed to be truly enjoying himself.
Strange indeed. The re-engineered pog who from 2024 and onwards, unlike all other top riders in the world, never has a bad day. He should be really happy….
Whatever Gianetti thought up after 2023 has had an impact. Pog 2.0 is not the same as Pog 1.0. Neither physically nor mentally. Probably not surprising.
I would not credit Gianetti with much of this. He’s done a lot to land the money that funds the team but less on the details, even if he’s often very visible on the finish line, it’s almost as if he’s walking around when he notices a camera is filming 😉
Like many others, MM uses Mauro Gianetti’s name (many times) as shorthand for “Pogačar is doping”.
Unlike in the past, there’s no rumours in the peloton of anything, but history of the sport, can’t prove a negative, etc…
@bananito
I may certainly be off track here, and Pog completely innocent. And I admit I have zero hard evidence.
But when a rider makes a so significant step up as Pog 2.0 did from 23 to 24 after – even if he is still young – so many years, I cannot help it but harbour suspicions. He is the only top rider who *never* has a real off day. Even Pog 1.0 had several each year. Over a 7 month season he can start with a 50-70-90 km break on his own and end the season with the same. And grab a few GTs inbetween.
Ok – lets assume he is clean. I still detest and distrust UAE and the whole set-up.
@Inrng. Agree – and as written here I may misread the entire situation. But the way UAE seems to grow riders just doesn’t seem right.
I’ll keep my suspicions to myself however, even though my dislike for Pog just increases.
You have to have presume Pogacar is unwell. A fully fit Pogacar rampages through the last week as he does the first, last years Tour being a prime example. He still could have won yesterday, and would be favourite for Paris if on it. At least that stage is maybe a bit more open now.
Top marks to Roglic for giving it a go. I feel it was his only option to try to get to podium and made these 2 stages interesting for me. Noticed Mohoric finished 4th to last yesterday and hopefully saving himself for today’s stage.
@inrng I appreciate in the past you have stated you do not cover women’s racing but wondering if you have any plans to do a piece on the TDFF as I would love to get your insights and those from the regular comment writers.
I’m due a holiday after Giro-Daupiné-Tour preview blogs, should be a race review on Monday.
Just looking forward to sitting back and enjoying the race. If anyone knows of previews where someone’s researched and ridden the course and don’t look like someone copy-pasted the roadbook into a chatbot then please share 😉
Enjoy your well deserved holiday and thanks again for all your work. I agree the TDFF should be enjoyed and yesterday’s stage was such a good example. Progressed so much in the last 10 years and no longer predictable (except Voss winning!). I do struggle to find good ladies blogs. I know the route or the last stage very well and it going to be tough – Col du Corbier climb is especially tough and should not be underestimated as it south facing and steep.
Thanks, the last stage has the potential to be interesting as it’s hard to control, a team with several riders high on GC can do things here.
Take out Pinky n Perky at the top, this would have been a cracking race! especially if Remco had been still riding. TP’s ability has watered down the beer.
It looked like a derny race yesterday.
(PS is three weeks just too much for clean riders? It feels like Vingegaard, Pogacar and Evenepoel are silently protesting.)
We can look out for the TSS scores (a measure of fatigue) once the race has finished. But one thing this year has been how lively and intense many stages have been, there have only been two real siesta stages (Dunkerque and Laval) with many other days seeing the fight rage for hours at the start to get in the breakaway – like today right now – and many are saying they are fried from all of this. Perhaps an added sprint stage here or there could have let riders recover? But harder to draw the course like this, eg swap Laval for something more intense but have something like this in the Alps.
After reading your preview threw a few darts at todays stage including Groves at 130/1 . Chapeau inner ring . Have really enjoyed reading your previews 🙂
Glad you didn’t back De Lie who it turns out is ill and struggled to follow the wheels today.
Slovenia has a mountain on its flag. Where is the portrait of Pogacar on its flag? He is truly the face of Slovenia. Barring injuries TdF is his to lose for the next 3 years so to be a minimalist. Merckx and et al remain in the rear window of TdF history.
I think you may be right and 3 more tours seem to be realistic. And good for Pog 2.0, for UAE, for Gianetti and Slovenia. Doubtful about the same for pro cycling.
I do not like anything that is good for uae.
You and me both…
MAYBE the rear window of the TdF – compare palmares for a more balanced view. More to cycling than the TdF.
@Chuffy. Hate is a strong and just because someone doesn’t idolise Pog doesn’t mean they hate him. Hater tag makes me think of the legions who idolised that american. Same race, alternative point of view/mindset.
Agree 100%. TP seems to be a nice guy (or did earlier as he has been more of a snarling dour clown this tour), but it’s hard to warm to him. At least for me. I assume he and the rest of the field are controlled to thoroghly that we can exclude any wrongdoings, but the uae-franchise is just a big turn-off. Even though I don’t hate any riders as persons.