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A lumpy little number today, on paper at least destined for the breakaway but then yesterday was destined for the sprinters and they messed that one up. The race is back on the edge of the Jura mountains although this stage manages to avoid most of the major hills, opting instead for more rolling terrain. The 3rd Cat climb only 25km from the finish could make a good launchpad for a late attack though.
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A lot of these roads were used last month in the Dauphine; Jonas Vingegaard won a stage in Salins-les-Bains which the race passes through at about the 130km mark.
Any number of potential candidates for a breakaway, especially now everyone has seen how some master tactics can disrupt the bunch. Fred Wright or Matej Mohorič from Bahrain-Victoious, Magnus Cort (EF Edcation-EasyPost) and Lotto-Dstny will be fired up by how their gameplan played out yesterday, even if the ulitmate beneficiary was Soudal-QuickStep.
Anyway, once finished, the race may get to sample some of the famous Comté Cheese matured in Poligny.
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And as it's the edge of the Jura, there's a load of paleontolgy as well - Louelle has a world-famous site of preserved dinosaur footprints in what used to be a mudplain about 155 million years ago
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I'm off to Paris later for the final stage so @nbt will pick up the baton for the final two threads, the Vosges Mountains tomorrow and Paris on Sunday.
Blessed are the cheese makers - I get through a fair bit of that stuff.
Sadly that's me away for the rest of the Tour, so thanks for all the chat guys... Hope the next few days are fun.
Thanks everyone !!
sorry I haven't been able to add much flavour for the last few days I currently have limited internet access (an ancient iphone 🙂 )
mmmm, comte. Nutty and delicious
Thanks very much for all these stage threads crazy-legs,enjoy Paris 👍
Hoping for another breakaway win today.
Like others much appreciation for the daily threads
Actually you know who I didn't list in the stage options?!
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) can do long-range breakaways, short range attacks off the final climb and win in a sprint if it comes down to it. His teammate Søren Kragh Andersen won a late stage of the Tour on these roads back in 2020 as well.
MvdP would be a popular win, especially as he's been acting as leadout for Philipsen all Tour and deserves a bit of glory.
<!--more-->Had a small slice of compte for breakfast. And yea MVDP in a long break would make for a fine day.
Yesterday showed 1) the peloton are knackered and 2) a lot of sprinters have gone home, and their teams said “rolling rest day”. Today should show signs they’ve recovered (a little).
Top work, thanks.
Got a cheese hunger on now though.. Mmmm
Fair few teams without a stage win that did very little yesterday, you would hope for more animation today.
I think they were all waiting to see what would happen and were also knackered.
Lots of riders probably willing to go into a big group, none willing if it was only 3 or 4. So 3 riders jump clear, everyone else dozed off for the next 100km.
Plus the general consensus was that it'd be a sprint day so why flog yourself for 100km into a headwind to achieve nothing?!
The consensus today is that it's one for the breakaway so expect action right from the start.
Good thing for us viewers the consensus yesterday was wrong 🙂
Campenaerts on the break, again. Batshizzle.
ten attempts later and the breakaway 'may' have established.
VC still in it mind 😉
EDIT: yep, peloton across the road, almost two hours of madness over
It's absolutely manic today, over 55km in to the race and we still don't have a break. THe current attempt (including Campanaerts, hero!) has 22 secomnds, but gaps that big have been brought back before. No sign of Fred though 🙁
and as I type that, the Peloton spread across the road and the block is in place
That's some Allstars breakaway group.
benoot
pedersen
alaphillipe
haig
politt
zimmerman
barguil
campanaerts
currently at 1'15" ish
there's also a "second peleton" at 2'40" ish, I know Adam Yates was caught out and made it back but not sure who's where, can;t watch and work!
You would have to believe a group that strong has a decent chance
Few teams have got a bollocking by the DS by the looks of it - but can't see them getting it back
back from a meeting to see the peloton is at 1 minute, and politt off the back of that having ha to change to a neutral service bike. not sure what went on there
edit - they just said on commentary, he broke his chain
Looks like the breakaway lost a bit of oomph when politt dropped out, which spelled bad news as they were approachging the intermediate sprint - the gap cam down to 29 secs. There's been another attack off the front including MvdP, and Jumbo visma have shut the peloton down so things may go out again
How come Campanaerts hasn't got the red numbers today? There can't have been anyone else who was more combative than him yesterday!
He did win the combativity
https://www.letour.fr/en/rankings/stage-18
BIG group chasing these two at the front including Philipsen, mvdp, fred wright and tom pidcock. There are 34 chasing so Campanaerts and clarke don't really stand a change - but against philipsen, any one who wants to have a go will have to go long
I think anyone who can climb a bit will try and drop Philipsen on the 3rd Cat. Two brits in the lead group, but I'm finding myself cheering for Campanaerts
Campanaerts noooooooooo
finally blew up
This is getting exciting, two in a row for Asgreen? surely not?
Saw the last couple of km on streaming while on the bus from the airport to Paris.
Super close finish!
What a nice guy Matej Mohoric is, almost tearing up myself watching that interview, never heard someone apologise to his opponents for beating them.. team deserves it after what happened with Gino Mader
Ach, what a nice fella...Really good interview post race, well worth searching out
Yeah, that post race interview was special. So pleased for him and the team.
I think the last 2 stages have been my faves so far. Like a good classics weekend.
here's the interview, it was fab
sorry, it won't embed. I've tried 4 times now with different links
Thanks for that!
Christ, what an interview !
Amazingly candid
Mohhoric massively gone up in my estimation
MvdP would be a popular win, especially as he’s been acting as leadout for Philipsen all Tour and deserves a bit of glory.
Is he just training for the world's?
Mohhoric massively gone up in my estimation
Aside from the rather ill-judged "zipping lips" gesture when he won a stage of the Tour in 2021 (the day after a police anti-doping raid on the Bahrain Victorious hotel), he's always come across as a decent guy.
His win in Milan San Remo on the descent was epic.
Mohoric is obviously doping. Nobody could be that nice of as guy unless he was on something.