Reckon today will be a bit of a phoney war with a few seconds here and there, but not much major change, will depend how much work UAE can and want to do, but likely to see Pogacar move into yellow with bonuses unless a breakaway can make it to the end, tomorrow will be a big fight up the Tourmalet, can see Pogacar going for it in the last 3-4k of that climb in an attempt to distance everyone, but think Vingegaard will sit on his wheel, they could potentially ride to the final climb together depending how big a gap they get over the top, it might be in Vingegaards interest to look to distance Adam Yates to ensure they can't 1-2 him in the coming week, then a few easier days before Sundays big climb up to Puy Du Dome.
Pro Cycling Thread 2023
- Thread starter SoliD
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Because he struggles on the best of days in the mountain, with those scrapes and the pain he's no doubt in I doubt he'll be chaperoned to the finish line after today and risk losing more of his team when they can go for stage wins later. They had a few up the road today which indicates he's saying he's not good and to leave him with minimal support.
Heck of a stage, hopefully Hindley can back it up tomorrow
Heck of a stage, hopefully Hindley can back it up tomorrow
Today is a lot shorter 145k so that time cut will be tougher to hit today I reckon.
@AndyCr15 UAE have never chased the race/controlled it like Ineos/Sky used to do Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe talk about this on their podcast yesterday if you have some time to listen, saying they're a bit naive in that regard and rely on Pogacar just being head and shoulders above everyone else. Jumbo were fine as they had 3 men in the break, one of which could have got into the yellow jersey, there was nothing for them to chase. Granted WVA won't win the tour. But sometimes the DS' just don't realise who is in the group when the break is that big. Hindley was my pick for top 5, but that ride yesterday should put him above Pogacar, he's very much a slow burning rider based upon his Giro, but seems to know how to exactly pace his efforts, his win yesterday he never once looked like he was going 110%. Whereas Vingegaard pulled some real grimaces and was on his hands and knees at the end, how that plays out today I don't know, but Hindley has the capability to stay with JV and Pog, just think he'll struggle with a constant up and down pace. But he should be podium now with who else is left in the race. Also Buchman is up there as a card to play, he came 4th in 2019 and has the capability to go for 3 weeks.
Wonder how much of that was due to Vingegaard going deep doing everything on his own in the last 20k yesterday versus Pog sitting in the wheels for most of the descent and the flat. Good for the Tour anyway, still think Vingegaard will be stronger on the longer climbs come week 3, but hopefully he won't run away with it. was disappointed by how early Hindley got dropped.
Strange to watch with no spectators on the finish. Great ride by Woods paced it perfectly. Feel for jorgenson coming 4th in a race of 1 with 2k to go!
Pog clawing back some more seconds, vingegaard looks like he needs a reset and few days off. Would have thought today's steep gradients should suit him, but seems to need that extra altitude that the third week should bring. Been an exciting first week and good to see a breakaway get it today.
Pog clawing back some more seconds, vingegaard looks like he needs a reset and few days off. Would have thought today's steep gradients should suit him, but seems to need that extra altitude that the third week should bring. Been an exciting first week and good to see a breakaway get it today.
Yep. One of my favourite riders, thoroughly deserved. Good to see pidcock best of the rest too. strange stage that one. Really don't know how to read it, potentially Pog showing some weakness as he doesn't believe he can go for the kill if he has the tiredness in his legs. Gonna be interesting to see what happens over the next 2 days.
Yeah not ideal, but can't imagine it's easy with that amount of people there. Although they should have been expecting something over the top. Don't think it'd have changed much.
Great win for Rodriguez, took the initiative and once he got that few seconds there was no looking back. Obviously studied the descent before the way he flew down. Not sure who'll be happier after that day. Pog will obviously be disappointed but so will Jonas after the amount of work his team did.
Great win for Rodriguez, took the initiative and once he got that few seconds there was no looking back. Obviously studied the descent before the way he flew down. Not sure who'll be happier after that day. Pog will obviously be disappointed but so will Jonas after the amount of work his team did.
That wednesday stage will likely see a much "bigger" change than we've seen so far, many climbs plus a long final, that after a TT that isn't that simple. I think a good indicator of what Jumbo are doing will be if WVA is allowed to go for the win tomorrow or is anywhere near the top. If not then they're all eggs in for the Wednesday. Looking forward to it.
Not believeable to me...These 2 are on such a different level consistently, you expect GC riders to be above the rest but not to that extent. They're going to be 10 minutes ahead of everyone at the end of the week. Last time we saw that sort of domination of a small subset of riders was Lance and then before that was Merckx.
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disagree, when you've got people dying in their sleep from whatever they're taking or unknown consequences of the drugs they're taking in the long term it isn't right. I've said previously that potentially what these teams are doing currently may not be illegal but in 5 years time I suspect it will be. It's a 2 tier race and the sudden increase in capability or dynamism of their riders (WvA for instance). If this had slowly happened over 10-20 years it could perhaps be explainable, but this is since 2020, the step change is just absolutely ridiculous.
Would say it extends to the rest of their teams to some extent. These two teams, most notably Jumbo have started to dominate pretty much every race throughout the year. Difference between Jumbo and UAE is that Jumbo seem to have a number of riders whilst UAE are almost enitrely focussed upon Tadej.