In other thoughts, it’s too bad Evanapoel lacked the balls to pull with Pogi and Vingo…you know, to put distance on their rivals :fm:
In other thoughts, it’s too bad Evanapoel lacked the balls to pull with Pogi and Vingo…you know, to put distance on their rivals :fm:
I thought I saw some wheel slip/drift before WVA went over the curb.
great rivalry. I can't get enough of this era of the TdF!
Tadej! He shoulda stuck with his team, maintained his lead. Not sure why he went for the hay maker. Just sit back, let others take the race from you.
He fried his team and himself. At least he kinda popped Jonas with him.
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Yeah, he could’ve had the team ride tempo and won the sprints for both the time bonus and the win.
If he was afraid before this stage that he didn’t have enough time on Jonas, he’s gotta be scared shitless now.
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On the other hand, that move did work for him on stage 2, giving him this lead. And if he didn’t crack on the second last climb today nobody would be saying it was a reckless attack.
This is going to be insane heading into the Pyrenees. Is the giro showing in TP’s legs? Is Jonas just getting warmed up? Are the rest of UAE cooked? What will Remco come up with?
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Didn't want to get his hands dirty. Those things are gross, all oily and shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dee Hubbs
Did you guys see these shenanigans? Local MTB guy gap jumped some riders on stage 11: http://instagram.com/p/C9P5NRPsJDv
ha, i did not!Quote:
Originally Posted by dan_pdx
that must have stoked out the riders seeing it
Regrets, I've had a few.Quote:
Originally Posted by xyz
Attachment 496250
Interesting discussion/analysis starting 6:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE04sgZ9u90
It’s been done five times before - Mr. Anouilh is the first to do it twiceQuote:
Originally Posted by dan_pdx
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-...cond-time.htmlQuote:
This was actually Anouilh's second time jumping over the Tour de France peloton, after first doing it in 2019. This time, he says that the drop was his biggest ever, at 12m high and 8m long. He started building it one week ago and just finished it last night, the evening before Stage 11 passed under it.
The first rider recorded doing the peloton huck was Dave Watson, who crashed on the landing in 2002. Since then, Alexis Bosson, Roman Marandet and Dan Leclercq have also given it a go.
As far as we know, no rider has attempted the feat twice.
A couple of podium girls were hot today. Highlight of the stage for me.
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I see I used up my credits so no more rider changes for me. And my token team filler Renard (rating: 5) dropped before today's start [I guess he actually didn't make it thru stage 11]. So, i ride with this crew to the end!
(I doubt my team will magically resolve into the points powerhouse required to win, but who knows maybe it will fit into the results somehow? Doing pretty well for now...)
Tomorrow would suggest a breakaway tries to foil the sprinters, but, with bonus points on the finish line, I suspect they come in mostly together.
No comments about DeMare and Cav getting relegated in today’s sprint?
Did DeMare deviate from his line or did the organizers choke down the course in the final meters? Couldn’t tell from the camera angles but DeMare looked like he was going straight to me.
And I saw Cav changing lines - that’s what happens in a mass sprint - but couldn’t tell from the finish line camera angel whether he impeded anyone?
Cav looked clean. He swerved hard but he was just moving around a gassed lead out. Maybe he interfered with the cofidis ruder behind.Quote:
Originally Posted by TBS
Waut got pinned on the barriers. Too bad he may have taken it.
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Cav interfered with multiple riders on the run to the line. He was bouncing all over the place. (Luckily no one went down ultimately.)
It’s actually fascinating watching how that scrum morphs every meter approaching the line.
And no Primoz today
Question about the crash yesterday. I hear the talk about whether that center divider should have been marked, but why don't the riders have all the course info? They've got radio and on bike mapping and such. How does the collective brain of the peloton not have a handle on it?
There have been situations in the past where the Tour has removed road furniture for the race & replaced it when the stage was through. I imagine they don’t do much of that given the expense.
But yesterday’s issue wasn’t knowing the dividing curb was there — they were already in the divided road. The crash occurred because a rider’s wheel got caught up in it as he was avoiding a brief slow up in front of him (micro slinky effect in the peloton). Then he fell across the divider into the peloton in the other lane.
^^^Yup - no place to go.
And Roglic was not up front, where he should have been.
Maybe it’s because he came to bike racing late, but his bike handling skills are right down there with Jan Ullrich & Chris Froome
Oh, and fuck Maxim Van Gils- should be DSQ
Jasper wins. Good for his mental health. Seems like he takes losing extra hard.
Lance was saying yesterday each town should remove all the road furniture for the stage. Replace after. Not cheap but I tend to agree. It freaking dangerous for the peloton. Surely a town benefits from the tour passing through. It should be a requirement.
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road furniture, like the concrete medians!?Quote:
Originally Posted by xyz
If that's the case.. yeah no. They don't make that kind of coin to make removing concrete and replacing it with something that is able to be taken out and put back in, plus the time, cost and energy for the additional maintenance on everything because you have removeable things, or are rebuilding concrete (a 30 year design life) every time the tour decides to blow through for a few minutes.
The erected furniture should be bolt on bolt off. Those median curbs should go. Even harder to see. They F up some guys a lot. Expensive? Yes. Perhaps the tour, towns and country should all chip in. Or redesign them so they can be removed replaced easily.
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The medians yesterday seemed particularly low and easier to overlook than what we've seen in other towns. Even putting some colored paint on them might have helped.
Bummed out for Roglic, he maybe still had a shot at the podium until the crash yesterday
In the last few kms today the crosswalk shad double steel bollards still erected. Not even marked. Ffs. Those are can be very easy remove and replace.
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either way someone was going into the barrier on that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by TBS
capiot should have held his line, but looking left over the shoulder led him to drift further after van gils was in the gap. yeah, the shoulder looked violent but self preservation often is.
big mistake? yes.
Big difference between defensive (protecting your position) and offensive (barging thru space that doesn’t exist).
Van Gils never had the room to get both he and de Lie through.
And the irony is that deLie was trapped behind the crash. So all that carnage for nothing.
UCI fines Van Gils CHF1500 and docks him 60 points for his conduct
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/racing...-france-sprint
Quote:
It is not the first time the 24-year-old has got into trouble with the UCI's commissaires. Last year, Van Gils was handed a 25-day ban from competition after he slapped another rider on the back of the head at the Japan Cup Criterium in October.
Thinking about Saturday…
Will UAE let a break go if it includes Gee or Ciccone? They are more than 7 min. behind Tadej, but less than a minute behind Yates.
Can UAE control a break with Ayuso gone and Yates likely a little tired after today’s adventure?
Will Evenapoel or Rodriguez make a play?
As a tadej fan I hope he keeps it in his pants tomorrow. Just protect your lead. Let jumbo or remco try their luck with a move.
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I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yates go in a break. If the break fails he’s ahead to link up with a tadej attack. If the break succeeds he could move up considerably.Quote:
Originally Posted by TBS
I think tadej is bluffing. I don’t think he has the ability to sit back.
But will Soudal and Visma let Yates go? Six minute gap between Yates and Evanapoel/Vingo right now.
And I agree Tadej has not yet learned to ride to manage time gaps
The aerobic capacity of these guys is insane…
Healy looked like he might have the breakaway down today
Then Yates flew away & seemingly could have blown to the finish were it not that his leader caught up in no time after a wait in the group
Then Pogacar blew past him
Better UAE tactics today
Oooff. tadej and UAE on another level. Sending Yates up the road, making Healy look like a punk, setting up tadej. Jonas just doesn’t have the pop.
Tactics played out well. Aggression paid off this time. It is a bike race after all. He respected the yellow by going for it.
TD didn’t look fresh as a daisy after the stage like he usually does tho. Maybe he went super deep.
Jonas needs to be the aggressor if he wants a chance. He can’t really respond to tadej acceleration
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Let’s see how things go in the Alps. Vingo tends to do better on the longer steady climbs in the Alps, Pogi does better on the shorter explosive climbs in the Pyrenees.
I wonder if these teams have police scanners or something so they could listen in to each other’s team radios.
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Coming back to this…maybe I’m not quite understanding the actual strategyQuote:
Originally Posted by ::: :::
my impression on how the finale played out:
UAE’s idea of sending someone dangerous up the road to threaten podium positions is a fine one on paper. But it was less than 5k to go. And seemingly TVLaB responded appropriately: they let Yates go & put a reasonable pace on but didn’t try to reel him in. And they didn’t really need to work much more until Yates actually put in a gap that added up to danger for podium contenders. Yates was 6:59 off the yellow jersey to start the day, so my guess: he’d have to get into a 3+min gap before TVLaB got too worried. With less than 5k to go, it seemed a non-issue.
And Yates clearly had legs & churned right thru to the head of the race. I bet he could have kept going.
Then Pogacar jumps. Yates had a 5s gap. Why now? Visma wasn’t reacting at all to Yates. Was Pogacar worried that Yates might get the stage?
I’m guessing number 2, but that’s pure speculation.
Then, he barely hung out with Yates when he bridged up. No resting tow to the flame rouge or really much at all.
Kinda awkward team strategy in play, no?
So while UAE beat the GC teams down well, shedding most domestiques, the attack portion just seemed ham fisted.
What did you guys think?
Pretty much agree.
I think Tadej couldn’t control himself. In an interview he said that instinct rather than plan motivated him to jump when he did.
Let’s see how UAE Soudal and TVL recover for tomorrow’s stage. It’s a beast and to my eye UAE has burned a lot of matches - and now they’re a climber down. It also looked like maybe WVA and LaPorte were taking today off to be ready for tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be great whatever the outcome
Yeah, if anybody had chased Yates then Tadej was ready to counter attack. When that didn’t happen he said fuck it, I’m going. The gain was not insignificant, but let’s see what his team has left tomorrow.
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JHC. Tadej. Alien status. Jonas had his shot today. His terrain with his team showing up. He made his move But clearly tadej is stronger, in every way.
Not even covid will knock him out. He was just infected prior to race.
This is over unless tadej seriously blows a fuse.
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6.9w/kg?!! Unreal