The final stage with a twist, the climb of Montmartre and with this the chance of a different kind of race in the finish.
Never in Doubs: the stage win for Kaden Groves. Only this was no sprint stage, he infiltrated the breakaway on the road out of Saint-Claude and shared the work over the hills of the Jura, including the tough climb of Thésy where he seemed among the strongest. A bluff, the sprinter trying not to get out-climbed? It worked.
There was a touch of luck too. With 25km to go a six rider group went into a bend and three came out after Ivan Romeo crashed, prompting Romain Grégoire to fall and Simone Velasco to slam on the brakes, a fall twice as sore for Grégoire who lives nearby and had been riding these roads since the route was unveiled. But such is the Tour these days, romantic exploits and local heroes feel quaint.
It left Groves, Frank Van den Broek and Jake Stewart in the lead. Soon after, the latter two hesitated over who should take the next turn, and watched as Groves rode off for the win with 16km to while each refused to chase.
Jordan Jegat started the day 11th overall and got in the breakaway too and got abused for this as his presence threatened to condemn the move. But the Tour de France is a bike race and the Total rider had every reason to go in the move, especially as he was also working to tow it away. Five years ago he was doing shifts in a canned food factory, now the 26 year old gets a top-10 in the Tour de France.
It marked another day for the baroudeurs, there was never a quiet moment. Plus with Jegat up the rode there was an added dimension as a GC stage, although just. The Tour is on course for a record average speed and in part it’s because of days like this where it took 70km for the break to form and then it never got much room.
The Route: Mantes and then a ride into Paris via Versailles then a new Rive gauche approach via Eiffel Tour added to the route before the privilege of going through the Louvre courtyard.
Then it’s three laps of the Champs-Elysées circuit as usual, before turning off for three laps of a longer circuit that goes up to Montmartre for the Rue Lepic and the Butte de Montmartre, 1.1km at 5.5% with cobbles, some urban potholes and a bit of 8-10% at the top of the Rue Lepic. Then back down and the rest of the Champs-Elysées circuit with the Tuileries before taking the turn for Lepic again.
For all the talk of the climb and the novelty it’s still a flattish circuit where the long sections along the Champs Elysées suit a chase and we have big teams here compared the the Olympics but it’ll be interesting to watch as there’s often a collective experience and learning for circuits like this. Right now the textbook is blank.
The Finish: downhill from Montmartre for before a right turn onto the Champs-Elysées.
The Contenders: it’ll be interesting to see how this is raced because the formula before was fixed, a parade that ended as the race rode into the Paris city limits and then the pace ratcheted up with each lap. Something similar is likely, as while it pays to get into position for the Rue Lepic there are still three laps of les Champs for this.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE) can win if he wants but has been talking about trying to help the team so Jonathan Narvaez and maybe Tim Wellens can try. He’s still the team’s best option because of his punch.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) is handy in the hills, despite his size he’s more than a flat track bully but still three climbs is asking a lot. Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) has made many moves but each seemed to show he’s waning so he’s not the archetypal pick for today.
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) struggled yesterday with talk of illness so he’s crossed off the list today.
 |
– |
 |
Van Aert, Milan, Pogačar |
 |
Narvaez, Wellens, Girmay, Simmons, Alaphilippe |
Weather: grey and cloudy, 22°C and the chance of rain… when the new circuit was announced it was also mentioned that in case of rain the times could be neutralised on the circuit, so the race for the stage happens among those who want to fight for position but the times for the overall are taken on entry to the circuit but wait for news on what is decided later today.
It’s happened before when it’s rained and the Parisian cobbles have been wet.
TV: KM0 is at 4.25pm the finish is forecast for 7.35pm CEST. The race reaches Paris at 5.40pm.
You can start watching earlier with the Tour de France Femmes with TV coverage between 1.00pm and the likely sprint finish in Quimper is forecast for around 3.00pm.
Postcard from Paris
The 1947 Tour de France saw the race relaunched after the war. It started in Paris and headed north to Lille and then Brussels before making a clockwise sweep to the Alps, across to the Pyrenees, along the Atlantic coast to Brittany and then back to Paris.
It was on the last stage from Caen to Paris, at 257km the third longest, when Jean Robic attacked on the modest climb of Bonsecours, celebrated in passing this year during Stage 5. Third overall that morning, Robic flew up the climb and kept going. And going and what was left of the peloton – then 44 riders – came in almost 20 minutes down. So Robic overturned the race on the last day and to this day is the only winner of the Tour to win the race without wearing the leader’s jersey.
In 1968 and 1989 there were time trial stages on the last day and each time the lead changed with Jan Janssen and Greg LeMond overturning GC rivals. The outcome hasn’t changed on the last day since, in part because it’s been reserved as a flat criterium race for all these years.
Could Jonas Vingegaard spring a surprise today? No is the blunt reply. Nor could a time trial either given the time gaps. But the new circuit today is meant to spice up the stage and entice viewers to watch for sport as well as landmarks.
If organisers wanted an extra climb – a theme of the route design this year – the city of Paris agreed because it revives memories of the Olympics a year ago and the free to watch cycling road races were instrumental to their imagery. The Champs-Elysées regularly attract crowds but they’re kept back from the course and under the tree canopies where they’re audible but almost invisible so the idea was today can also show Paris and Parisians alike.
The crash did have a touch of the Stephen Bradbury about it except it happened a lot further from the finish line and Groves still had a long time trial to the line.
Good terrain for a bike race.
Thank you for your stage profiles again this year. Always the first web page I look at in a morning for their amusing and insightful comments.
Same here. Many thanks, INRNG 🙂 !
Yes. I feel a need for IR’s daily take to better understand what went on and what might happen. Essential preparation before watching and listening to Voeckler, Jalabert and Rousse describing the action. Perfect TdF days. Thank you.
Yet more WT survival points for Picnic-PostNL yesterday. Could they earn some more today with Lund? The team must be full of confidence and optimism.
My problem with the French commentators is that I keep wondering who this rider « Benny Lee » is ( Ben Healey)
I noticed that too.
And “Team man Arensman” (same as RAI all Giro) although he corrected live on air during the post-Stage 19 show. Matteo Jorgenson did become Djorgenson when he was winning in Paris-Nice but his absence from the microphones means it’s going back to Yorgenson. Kaden Groves is “Grooves” in many languages.
Just wait until there’s a prominent rider with the surname Hughes (probably something like “oog”)
My German partner refers to him as Benny Hill, and has done for at least a year.Obviously enough, just to annoy me.
As always, a thousand thanks for this truly wonderful blog, for the insight, the predictions, and for the moderation.
Repeating the other cycling fans to say thanks InnrRng we certainly appreciate your efforts. Alas a boring few weeks ahead of us coming up. At least the Femme TDF can get some of our attention.
On another note will we still see the organisers serving champagne to the riders as they approach Paris or is it going to be racing till the end of the stage.
Excellent conclusion to the TdF femmes today!
I’ve suffered from a spot of Tour fatigue this year. A subscription website and podcast didn’t turn out to be the escape from the norm that they promised to be. This site continues to deliver an exceptional quality of coverage for free and in just the right volume that I don’t have to fret about losing perspective on the rest of the world. Thanks as ever M.Ring, We’re very lucky to have you.
Is that a cryptic reference to your chosen subscription? 😄
Is there a special prize for G?
Getting paid a fat check to soft pedal around France
Yes, the “Finally Kept the Rubber Side Down” award.
Very sour comments there – look at what Geraint’s done in his career; he deserves more respect.
+1
Sour comments are a sign of respect.
I’m fairly sure G has a solid sense of humour. The reality is he has done a lap of France for a tasty paycheck. To be honest, why not, if they’re willing to pay him, but he’s kinda hogging a spot for a younger more capable rider now.
Talking about special prizes:
The Haimar Zubeldia prize for finishing in the Top 10 without making yourself particularly noticeable during the whole race surely goes to Jordan Jegat?
His name may have been mentioned as one of the riders belonging in a large breakaway group, but apart from those three days he was virtually invisible.
Harsh, he attacked several times including going in the breakaway on Stage 20 in the big move but on the Col du Pré on Stage 19, on the Glandon on Stage 18 etc. He was in the move to Carcassonne and more too. He went and got the 10th place rather than letting others fall away.
A few years ago he was working in canned food factory and now he gets a top-10. Kicking myself as the Tour preview was long already and it was for winners so deleted a paragraph saying “Jegat for a top-10” after his Dauphiné and he took a Strava KOM in Liège among other things.
Harsh in the sense that Zubeldia just seemed to tag along with the peloton then get dropped then come home in his own time without ever cracking horribly, so getting a tenth place by getting in big moves and being strong physically and mentally on stage 20 is very much to Jegat’s credit and also non-Zubeldian.
But fair in the two senses specifically referenced in the OP. He was not particularly noticeable during the whole race and if it wasn’t for French TV’s chauvinistic caption of a number of [usually dropped] groups later in stages as ‘Gr.Jegat’ you’d have needed an eagle’s eye and a nerd’s concentration to know he was there. He also infiltrated large breakaway groups somewhat stealthily rather than kicking off potentially race-defining moves himself. In that way his nomination for the Super Combativity prize was incongruous.
All in all, maybe not so much Zulbeldian – nowadays a cliched peg which almost has to have something to hang off it at the end of every Grand Tour however poor the fit – as a consistent and ‘better as the race progressed’ Guillaume Martin?
Merci et chapeau to INRNG for another amazing free(!) guide through the Tour. Regardless of how we feel about the results, you have given us the usual incredible insights that make us wonder who you are and how you have such incredible knowledge. The time I have spent on this site has enriched my enjoyment more than any other platform. Long may you continue!
Thank you Inrng for your previews and reviews of each stage this year.
As another correspondent indicated, I have often turned to this site in the morning to catch up on the progress of the race thru La Belle France. Also to gain insight (and some amusement) on the teams’ tactics, stratagems, or otherwise!
Thanks, too, to all the informed and enthusiastic commenters on here – a welcome respite from the often fractious “social” media world.
Looking forward to an enjoyable run round Paris this evening!
Same here, the INRRG is the first thing I do every morning during any important race that is covered here. Cycling owe you so much.
A Million thanks.
I am looking forward to seeing the Vuelta with more leveled forces if Pogi and Vingo finally show Up.
Vingegaard is going, he said yesterday words to the effect of having a week off and then aiming for the Vuelta.
It sounds like Pogacar won’t be racing the Vuelta. He looks and sounds extremely tired and that he needs a rest.
(But I thought the same after the Amstel Gold Race).
I don’t think he’s going, but he just can’t say it aloud yet as they have to style out the announcement after he was due to ride, it’s more polite to wait for now.
A week off and he might be itching to race again.
This blog is the first thing I check after dinner, thanks NZ time zone.
Thanks so much Mr Inrng for this blog, it is always well researched and informative.
This blog is the first thing I check after dinner, thanks NZ time zone.
Thanks so much Mr Inrng for this blog, it is always well researched and informative.
Just adding another vote of thanks to INRNG for the best previews and the postcards.
It feels like the Tour is limping to a close, with a lot of riders perhaps paying back their efforts from the first couple of weeks. You’d expect the winner today to come from those riders who keep managing to get in the break recently.
As ever thanks to out host for their sterling work once again.
Another vote of thanks for Mr I N Rng, my first port of call each morning for this year’s tour. A perfect summary of the prior day, all the key info for the day’s stage, and a nice diversion via the postcard
Thanks so much for these daily previews and reviews. As someone else said above, it’s the first page I go to in the morning and I really appreciate the insight and the quality of the writing. Au revoir au tour
Let me add to the flowers: This is – by far – the best cycling blog out there. The go-to for insights and wit.
I think it tells a lot about inrng and the Tour that I this year spent significantly more time here, than watching the live transmissioms from France.
Adding my own thanks to INRNG too. It wouldn’t be the tour without you. 🧢
I could use a daily INRNG objective review of how I messed up yesterday and a preview of today’s best laid plans…
Thanks for the best cycling blog there is. Very much enjoyed coming here daily and the lively chat below the line. The end of the Tour always feels a bit like Christmas is over for another year. Still plenty to look forward to but there is something special about the Tour.
The lively chat is great, and InnerRing does a good job ensuring the tone of the chat section is respectful, insightful, and thoughtful.
Thanks INRNG! Love this blogg, keep it up♥️♥️
“The Tour is on course for a record average speed…”
Apart from the course could it also be because of improvements in performance due to training, nutrition, data analysis, and better bikes and clothing?
I’ve read that Pog and others are frequenly riding at 7 watts per kilo, whereas Armstrong at his peak was riding at 6.
@Old Rider often quite a bit above 7w/kg according to Vinny.
The web-estimates of watts/kg tend to wildly exaggerate to generate clicks. Pogacar and Vingegaard likely get to 6.5-6.7 watts/kg or thereabouts (perhaps approaching 6.8). Merckx is thought to have got to 6.7-6.8 watts/kg when he broke the hour record in 1972; this was the in the pre-doping era when whatever they took did not improve performance. While Pogacar and Vingegaard are remarkable (and we shouldn’t forget that), they are also within what is possible for clean riders to do.
Better bikes and clothing result in faster speeds for a given amount of power, rather than affecting wattage. Better nutrition allows fast speeds to be maintained for longer.
It was a bizarre move by Jake Stewart yesterday, to try and force VdB to pull through and work with 2 sprinters, and in doing so gifting the win to Groves…perhaps he felt he’d have no chance against groves, but it certainly threw away any chance he did have!
Many thanks Inrng – insightful and intelligent commentary as ever. Merci et chapeau 🧢
Hoping the weather doesn’t hamper proceedings today – heart in mouth moment watching the crash in the peloton so close to the leaders in the last km yesterday. The peloton is clearly showing the effects of the last three weeks at full gas – hopefully they have enough energy left to be able to celebrate tonight.
Looking forward to G’s send off on the Champs: his post-race interviews will be missed!
I can only echo the sentiments above. Best pro cycling site on the net. Hands down.
Joining the chorus of thanks to M. Inrng.
The best site by a country mile.
Chapeau !
I want to add to the growing chorus of thanks to Inrng. Your stage summaries, previews and insights are easily the best out there and we can only thank you for sharing them with us every Tour.
I think today will be an interesting stage, precisely because of the point you make about familiarity and no one quite knowing how it will play out. I think the Olympic RR doesn’t illuminate much because it was very long at 270 kms, with a very small field where teams had a maximum of three riders. My personal view is that it isn’t as tough as people think, but then riders are on their last legs so that may be the decisive factor.
“Flat track bully” is an interesting, arresting and useful phrase even if not a particularly nice one.
I understand why it can be adopted and adapted in cycling to mean a sprinter who dominates when the parcours is pan-flat but struggles over even a motorway bridge. But that isn’t its original and current meaning in the sport where it originated, cricket, and that meaning could also hold in cycling.
Graeme Hick was the holotype of the flat track bully. Why? Because he looked like the greatest batsman on earth when playing on flat pitches against moderate bowling, flogging them to the four corners and amassing huge scores. But put him up against the best bowling in top-grade cricket, the Ashes for England against Australia, and not only did he persistently fail to perform but there was more than a suspicion from the Australians that he was not up to the task temperamentally.
So a flat track bully in cycling could usefully be applied to any riders who look like a million dollars in the lesser races but struggle mightily with the step up when it comes to racing on the World Tour, especially in the Monuments or the Grand Tours. There are always a few of those about in cycling as indeed in all walks of life. It’s a hard, even a harsh, judgement and there isn’t much in the way of sympathy or empathy in it.
To repeat what others have said, the best cycling blog by far, my first port of call each morning and we are very, very lucky to have you. Thank you Mr INRNG.
Yes. Many thanks for another year of outstanding TdF coverage. Bittersweet that we won’t have Imlach, Boulting and Millar to complement it another year.
It feels like the end of an era. Boulting & Millar are excellent company and Gary Imlach’s dry asides are priceless.
No idea what I’ll do next year without their coverage. I’m certainly not paying £30.99 a month to TNT, so unless I can access free coverage via a VPN, that’s it. I follow the Giro, thanks to this blog & the Cycling News commentary, but the event feels a bit weightless without actually seeing it play out. Taking away FTA reduces the Tour to shadows on a wall with little weight or meaning.
@Chuffy I will be sad to see live coverage disappear from ITV, I’m sad for the team for losing their (freelance) jobs. I am not sad to lose Boulting’s commentary. He’s pretty clueless.
The “Never Strays Far” team (Boulting+Milllar+Deignan+Kennaugh) plan a Live YouTube format during the course of the Tour next year. A watch along from the roads among the fans kind of show, quite different from traditional commentary, but maybe a good alternative to big commercial efforts. We will see.
They won’t have the rights to show any actual racing.
And I certainly won’t be going out of my way to tune in to Ned.
@Chuffy – I have a VPN and the SBS coverage (in Australia) is very good. I spend most of the time in Australia (but it was invaluable when travelling recently). The On Demand app is excellent – with full catch-up of all stages (full, mini, highlights, whatever you select) and the commentary is pretty ok, if a little “entry level” at times (I’d probably replace Bridie with a younger female ex-pro now who has more recent insights). Importantly (having seen the TNT disaster coverage while in the UK), the ads are reasonable in number and length – give it a try. SBS cover most of the big races and it’s become my “go to” since the demise of GCN.
The cyber clowns in the UK Government are now contemplating “banning VPNs”. I’m actually starting to wonder if I’ll still be able to access cycling blogs come next summer.
Imagine being robbed by TNT to the tune of £30.99 a month only to be met by the inane fake enthusiasm of Rob Hatch, a commentator who seems to take his commentary style from heavyweight boxing ring announcers. At least every stage win will be the biggest win ever. Dreck.
Another big thank you for this blog. Entertaining and insightful. I’ve learned a lot here over the years, and also in the last three weeks.
And, I’d like to add my thanks, as well. This blog was also my first stop every morning to get the interpretation of what happened the day before and a preview of what could happen that day.
The “Postcards” have been an excellent addition and added to the enjoyment.
Chapeau!
Another note of thanks to M. INRNG. To watch the stages here in the United States is to juggle carriers, commentators, and VPN providers. This blog remains as steady and reliable as the three weeks in July it pithily chronicles. Vive le Tour, vive INRNG!
Another grateful reader and big fan here. Also my go to read in the morning. M. Ring is the Pog of the cycling blog.
Many thanks to all the commenters too, also an enjoyable read.
Yes, a thousand thanks. Amongst everything else as well, the postcards have been most excellent.
There is a typo in Jhonatan Narváez. Ask his parents 🙂
The Tour this year was to all intents and purposes won early on the Hautacam and the rest was sorting out the minor placings. Visma tried but when it was mano o mano, Vingegaard was second best. Chapeau Pogacar.
This Tour might go down as the time of the beginning of the unravelling of Team Sky’s “golden history”.
To join in with others here, thanks for the always informative and entertaining blog – chapeau Mr Ring!
I get that the final times have been taken, but do riders have to cross the final finish line to complete the tour? As in: if Pogacar crashes bad and can’t continue, does he not win?
Not sure I understood the french commentators…
Yes, they did have to finish the course to finish the race. It seems that they didn’t have to worry about the time cut though, as a couple of riders were outside that but still got a classification.
WVA maybe doesn’t win as regularly as he used to, but when he does, he delivers a masterpiece of grit and thrilling emotions, today and in Siena a few weeks ago.
Ride on for a long time WVA!
I was shouting at the TV with delight when he dropped Pog on that final climb (watching while on holiday in France). Is this the first time Pig has been dropped on a climb this season?
So so happy for WvA!
Also, must echo all the other thanks to INRNG for this brilliant blog: a great way to start the day during any major race of the year
I don’t think Pogacar was dropped in this season and the last. Occasionally beaten in a sprint, but not by a stronger attack.
MSR?
MSR was a sprint, if my memory serves me correctly
I understand the immediate euphoria for the new circuit after the race we just saw.
But people are in danger of forgetting that there was no jeopardy today. There were no very small gaps in the Top10 riders and the organisers took a belt-and-braces approach by also taking times for GC before Montmartre.
There are some very sketchy bits of road and furniture in there, it is very narrow in parts, potentially pretty dangerous. Crashes or punctures or mechs with a full peloton racing full on with GC places on the line would likely see some very different hot takes – still spectacular and crazy but not so much in a good way.
As Sean Kelly would say ‘well, thats bike racing.’
Yes, but he was strongly advocating returning to the original C-E laps, deleting the Montmarte climb.
I would be in favor of alternating finishes to stage 21; I would still like to see the all-out flat sprint from time to time.
I agree. That would work. And would give more riders a chance of CE victory
I agree, good to switch it up, but keep the classic finish once in a while.
Since last year and the finish in Nice because of the Olympics in Paris, it sounds like ASO is leaning towards more TDF finishes elsewhere. So, maybe a 3 year cycle.
The finish in Nice was underwhelming in my opinion. Maybe that would work, and I like the idea of a three-year cycle, but I would hate to see stage 21 go to the highest bidder in some random and less interesting location.
Alternating is a good idea. I want to see both the “traditional” sprint circuit and Mont Martre circuit finishes again and again in the future. 😉
Though, keep GC open for the Mont Martre circuit finishes!
I think Mont Marte should be and will be permanent now. It has quite quickly become my favourite climb in cycling. Alternate it so it is a further from the finish and done less (i.e. they go over once and then do a few laps) some years, and have a full on classic one like this year maybe. But always include it. I think once over and then a couple of laps for the sprint teams to try and track down the break could be just as good, and better than the inevitability of the criterium version.
A very nice final to an otherwise very dire Tour. Chapeau Wout!
“Are you not entertained?”
An exciting spectacle at the end (enhanced by bad weather and a game Yellow Jersey for the neutral observer) but also a bit cruel. If it’s to be staple from now on then maybe add more ‘transition’ days through the 3 weeks, route difficulty seems to be positively correlated with conservative riding.
x
@dft the tour needs longer transitions stages. Might be boring for some, but a good test of legs and mental stamina.
dft, good point about conservative riding. Definitely seemed to be the case in the last week. I also agree with Mr. Swamp; maybe longer, less punchy stages to give some of the hard men more opportunities. Would like to see fewer stages that are pure w/kg tests.
Big thanks to INRNG for this blog. Always interesting and insightful, and it must take plenty of effort putting it together. Much appreciated. x
I’ll post this on moment tour was won also but I feel this was a Tour which might have stories bubbling under for a long while after that we’ll learn more about in years to come… it was a strange last week and while not as interesting on an immediate level I wonder whether there’s a lot more to digest for the riders and teams…? I hope INRNG will get the inside track and help with explanations!!!
It feels like there were multiple stories going on beyond our eyes: the UAE/Visma war, the effect of the tour page/Visma tactics on the peloton in the final week, the weather and general fatigue in final week, Pogacar’s level in the final week (was he tired? Saving himself for Vuelta? Bored? Defending?), the route’s success or failure, super teams dominating the sport… etc etc
I’m looking forward to people more knowledgeable than me explaining what exactly was going on by the end as it felt like a very strange ending aside from Paris.
I’m not sure I can explain what happend, but the whole Tour did feel somewhat “off”. A few breaks lightend the race and Lipowitz, Onley, Johanneson and Jegat showed they are on the move. Vingo tried a few times, but obviously without any real belief after a few bad days. TP seemed to be more and more moody and though it’s nice to see him without the saccherine smile, he just didn’t seem to enjoy the ride the last week.
Rumours that frustration and bad blood is building in both UAE and VLAB.
I don’t have anything tangible but wouldn’t be surprised if TP decides to skip the Vuelta and that Vingo may decide to shorten his career and stop early. Not this year but perhaps after 2026.
I said on a random post a while ago that nobody probably read that a great riders period of genuine peak, when they can essentially do as they please, is usually fairly fleeting. I wonder if Pogacar has already crested his particular wave. There hasn’t been much drop off obviously, barely noticeable. And it may just have been down to the particular circumstances. But Pogacar wasn’t able to essentially play with the end of this Tour in the same way as he could last year. The 18 months from 2024 Strade Bianche to the mountain TT in the 2025 Tour might have been Peak Pog. Or I could be enormously premature.
You also have to consider that this is Pogacar’s 6th Tour at a very high level. If Vingo had never come along, or if he had always had a good trainer, he would have won 6 in a row. That would obviously be unprecedented. How many of the great dominant riders, Voldemort included, have gone on any longer? Which of the Big Dogs – Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, The Dark Lord etc have the biggest gap between first and last win, or podium? I know he started young but that probably just means the accumulated fatigue build up earlier. I’m not saying he’s done for, that would be mental. But you can see why he seemed so fatigued and worn out with it by the last week.
Hinault – 9 years (’78-’85) from first to last TdF win I think is the biggest span
Technically, in terms of span of time between first and last Tour wins, I think Bartali might be the longest – 10 years between 1938 and 1948. Course, in terms of the subject of fatigue from repeated Tour campaigns, Bartali doesn’t count as much – he lost much of the peak of his career to WWII and he rode only 6 tours (12 Giri d’Italia though – but in terms of number of Tours, a number of other riders have longer efforts than both Bartali and hinault).
That Pogacar would have won 6 yellow jerseys in a row if only he had always had a good trainer is a kind of a readily accepted truth.
The question remains whether his training Iñigo San Millan really was one-sided or lacking in some respect and whether the changes made by Javier Sola would have done the trick in 2022 and 2023.
Training is a funny thing. The training that made a champion one year might have made a runner-up another year in an athlete´s career.
This might be the place to marvel at the five consecutive years two riders have hogged the two uppermost podium places – and it is far from unlikely that they will control them next year as well.
The Hautacam/TT swing had a huge negative impact on the way the rest of the Tour was raced. Contrary to many complaints I’ve seen, Visma was extremely aggressive in trying to put Pog under pressure. It tired him out and annoyed him, but JV just didn’t have the legs to do anything with it. Then, unlike last year when Visma spent the last week helping add to Pog’s palmares, their negative racing messed up his chase for stages. This also annoyed him. All the stuff about attacking in pee breaks and blocking the feed zone is a tempest in a teapot, I don’t think anything will come of that. But the “black book” certainly seemed real, and there seemed to be some legitimate bad blood between Visma and UAE (if not the two main protagonists), which lasted all the way through to the end of stage 21. There was almost never a real gc battle, but I agree with oldDave that we certainly haven’t heard the whole story.
Well done to Pog for racing right to the end. Presumably there must have been a packet of magic drugs waiting that only work on you. No wonder you showed so much interest in actually competing in fairly perilous conditions. Phew! Thank god I can enjoy cycling knowing that the likes of Geraint Thomas have been evicted from it after twenty years of shaming the sport through their very existence. Thank you for your attention to this matter,
You forgot the exclamation point.
It goes after “matter”.
!
He put a comma instead. Implies there may be more.
I can hardly wait.
I’m really confused by this post?
It sounds sarcastic but no one seems to be talking about cheating or drugs above? If the way I phrased my comment sounded like this, it was not what I meant, I was only talking about the antagonism between the top two teams and how tiredness affected the whole race. I’m just interested to know whether once we hear more about power numbers, recovery, gossip if that sheds more light on an underwhelming final week.
If these isn’t sarcastic I’m even more bemused, I’ve not heard Geraint picked out before as a figurehead of bad times. I guess each to their own if so, seems like a nice guy to me.
A Tour bookended by Mrs Vingegaard and Pogacar saying basically the same thing.
Just gonna make a pro Pog argument once again.
For all the chat of him winning too much I’m still wholeheartedly in the camp of he brings more than he takes away – the yellow jersey racing for the stage win in Paris was a genuine thrill to watch and made WVA victory so much more special because it came over Pog.
Similar to all MVDPs wins over Pog and even Skejlmose this year at Amstel. He’s given us so many incredible days and by my reckoning for every walkover, in previous years we’d have just as many boring races so we’re really not losing much and gaining a lifetime’s worth of memories.
Personally I’d have happily see him win a few more stages in the final week and avoid what felt like oddly flat stalemates where Almeida’s presence might have likely given Pog the springboard he needed.
If there’s any issue with cycling (and I think there are many) I honestly think Pog is the last person to blame.
Prudhomme is on record as saying about the inclusion of Montmartre that he dreams of the yellow jersey winning the final stage on the Champs.
It’s a live question to what extent the very positive reaction overall to yesterday’s stage is a function of Pog’s presence, attitude and racing style. And if he’d crashed out while overcooking a corner in the rain on the attack? Gotten a concussion a la Romeo on Saturday rather than a bit of road rash as he did after being inadvertently chopped by THJ in the second week? Then we’d be debating the fine line between genius and madness.
Gotta love bike racing and he is one hell of a bike racer.
Except he’d still have won yellow because the stage was neutralised on time – unless of course the organisers said that riders still had to cross the real line to finish
@oldDAVE, you won me over a week or so ago when I was struggling with my perspective on Tadej and pro cycling. Thanks to you I really enjoyed and respected the way Tadej raced the last stage. Now my perspective on other GC riders has changed, a bit for the worse! : )
ha thanks, nicest reply I’ve received! appreciated
for some reason I’ve been in a glass half full mode recently seeing the best in everything.
@oldDAVE
Completely valid points even though I disagree almost as completely. Not because I dislike TP, but because I distrust and dislike UAE intensely. More than any other team the last 10+ years.
Would I warm to TP if he was riding for a smaller team? Probably. Maybe. I still don’t like his ability to run at this level for 6-7 months with so little “downtime” compared to the rest of the world top-10 or top-20. There’s just something spooky about it. But I have a hunch that TP riding for – e.g. – Wanty or Total, would be a very different rider…
If the GC top two is as expected and even dull, the racing has been really exciting in the first 10 days and especially the last two stages. I guess it’s the course for the future of TDF to create as big a show as possible to attract audiences and squeeze the money out of TV subscriber’s pockets.
Thankfully, we have Mr. INRNG still for free. Chapeau sir and thank you!
Thank you Inrng for another wonderful tour companion. Like many have said already, I looked forward to visiting over breakfast each day. Chapeau et merci.