The race will resume tonight but the GC time will be taken at the summit of the final climb.
The race winner will be decided at the finish line after the descent.
Bahrain Victorious & Tudor Pro have withdrawn their riders.
I guess life goes on and there’s commercial considerations involved but I’d find it extremely hard to go back to work the day after one of my colleagues died at work as the result of a work related incident.
Expectations for the Tour?
If this had more flat TT miles I’d expect Vingegaard to walk away with it but as it is, it might be more of a challenge. I still expect him to take it out but it’s going to be more of a battle. There’s a big question mark over Pog’s form after the crash though so it’s possible that he’s just not where he needs to be.
I’m really interested to see how Jai Hindley goes, lots of hills - right up his alley. Just a question of whether he has a team around him that can go the distance. The Giro is hard, but this Tour looks absolutely cooked.
He extended his lead over Pog in the TT last year in the uphill TT didn’t he?
Pog’s issue last year was he ran out of support, that stage where they just kept rolling him with attacks through the valley before the climb was sublime viewing - so much better to see that kind of riding than the team sky train that just made races incredibly boring (outside of Froome attacking with 70km to go anyway). Vinegard had someone up the road or with him at all the crucial points where Pog was isolated.
Pretty excited for tonight’s stage, profile should mean it’s entertaining.
Definitely not the race to come in underdone for, the first week is brutal with even the flat stages being “Basque” flat.
Pog smashed them in the Slovenian National ITT & Road Race but it’s hard to gauge accurate form from that. Taken on face value though, he beat Matej Mohoric by close to 5 minutes.
Matias Skjelmose is the guy I wanted on my fantasy team but I couldn’t squeeze him in. He’s in excellent form, can TT with the best of them and the Trek team has some strong climbers to help him through the mountains.
As for the Australians, 4th & 5th for Ben O’Connor and Jai Hindley is the best I think we can hope for but both finishing in the Top 10 is more realistic.
The Bora team doesn’t look the strongest and Hindley could be left isolated very early on in the climbs.
AG2R look well placed to support O’Connor. Paret-Peintre had a great Giro and Felix Gall is in great form. He’s my smokey for the Polka Dots if something happens to Ben O’Connor early on.
Pretty sure Jack Haig is only there as a domestique so I’m not expecting anything from him.
Hard to read into Caleb Ewan’s form. By and large it’s been a pretty disappointing season for him especially when he steps up to the World Tour races. There’s hardly any flat finishes and there are numerous better uphill sprinters than him in the race. He’s bound to throw it down the road at some stage as well so I can’t see him picking up any wins.
I think Sam Welsford has just as good a shot as Ewan does and I see him getting a top 5 at best.
Green: Van Der Poel
Polka Dot: Simon Yates
Yeah but I think he would do so even more on a flat TT. He’s absolutely flying right now, the Dauphine TT was kind of rolling and he destroyed that course.
Yeah he’s had a great season and should come in with pretty low pressure which will help. I’m not sure I’d have him on the podium but a definite should for fifth or so. I just don’t know if he’d be better than a Yates or a Hindley over the three weeks with this parcours.
Also agree on that first week. I don’t remember a parcours with a first week this tough.
I know I backed him for the KOM but I’m not sure of Simon Yates’ form. He pulled out of Romandie and hasn’t raced since and he hasn’t finished his last 3 GT’s. If he finishes then I expect him to lose time along the way hence the KOM target.
The other thing I meant to mention about the first week is that makes it so difficult is that the first rest day isn’t until after Stage 9. I think the attrition rate in the first week is going to be huge.
TDF:Unchained on Netflix is excellent, its the Drive to Survive of cycling.
Unbelievable stage last night, great tactical move from Bora to get Hindley up the road. Jumbo did well to isolate Pogacar, and then Vingegaard completely cracked him on the final climb.
Yeah, UAE and Jumbo Visma really dropped the ball there. It also took them a long time to react, I mean surely someone would have said that he was in the breakaway long before race radio broadcasts it.
Can’t wait for tonight, I love a trip up the Tourmalet. If Pog is struggling then there’s no hiding tonight.
Interesting move by Alaphilippe.
Disappointing for Hindley. Vingegaard cracking too was quite surprising, however he managed to minimise the damage. Couple of flat stages before another HC climb on Sunday going into the rest day.
Really looking forward to the second half of next week. Looks utterly horrid.
Started watching this year’s Tour for the first time since David Millar was riding.
Two things I’ve never understood, fuckwits on the road right in front of the riders, get the fucking fuck out of the fucking way…and people lighting flares, what in the name of lucifer’s balls are you thinking letting thick smoke billow onto a fucking cycling road race???
I think the whole “cracking” thing is a little overdone. For mine, cracking is losing a sizeable amount of time while also losing the ability to see the tactical side of the race in the moment, essentially losing your head.
Pog didn’t crack yesterday, he just didn’t have the legs, conserved his energy and bounced back today. He could’ve put himself into the red and limited his losses to 30 seconds but that would’ve impacted him today.
Similar for Vingegaard today. Pog caught him by surprise with the attack but rather than blow up he rides tempo and limits the loss.
As for Hindley, there was a 2 minute swing to Vingegaard and he himself admitted that he was struggling. At the same time though he’s only 1 minute behind the best cyclist in the world and 90 seconds off the lead.
I think Jumbo just went too hard on the Tourmalet and lost the ability to control the race. Then Vingegaard did all the work after the domestiques finished up while Pog tucked in conserving energy. They wanted to finish the race today but ended up shooting themselves in the foot.
These things really piss me off too, especially when 2m away you’ve got a cop doing fuck all to to stop it. I get they can’t have barriers all the way up, but even last night there were two clowns running along inside the barrier at one point. They should put a few more police with big sticks or cattleprods along the climbs.
Call it what you want, either way he lost time due to poor strategy and an inability to follow the wheel.
If he didn’t think at some point Pog was going to attack after sitting on his wheel for 50km+ he has rocks in his head.
I’ve no problem with the fans on the road. It is what makes the sport unique, that the fans are their on the playing surface while the event is taking place. I’ve been there and done it and in a lot of the cases there is nowhere for the crowd to go. The riders are used to it and the crowd parts as they make their way through. Yes there have been incidents in the past but they are few and far between and generally related to my next point.
I do hate it when they wave flags in front of the riders or hang out with cameras with straps attached as even with the best intentions this can easily bring a rider down. They can get caught up in wheels, handlebars or brake levers and ruin a riders race. Chris Froome carrying his bike up the hill was the result of one of these interactions.
As for the flares, I’m surprised that the riders aren’t coming more loudly against them. I couldn’t imagine what it would be l9ike copping a lung full of acrid smoke filled air when you’re close to or already in oxygen deficit.
It was more the location that it occurred rather than it happening at all. Pog dropped back and it looked like Vingegaard reacted late and was in the wrong gear. Rather than go into the red he rode tempo to the end like what Pog did the day before.
I’m talking specifically about the clowns standing right in front of riders till the last second, draw a fucking line either side of the middle of the road and tell people to stay behind it.
doubt that would work. Those are the ones that are trying to get on TV. They’re there for their 2 seconds of fame rather than to watch the race
And no one will ever remember or notice who they are anyway!
Well, that’ll throw a spanner in the works…