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After two frantic "don't call them mountainous" days that packed in some expectations (like Pogacar and Vingegaard going for everything they could) and some surprises (like two rather under the radar late attacks for the win), the Tour takes a slight breather with what is optimistically termed a flat stage - albeit one that still has about 2500m of climbing...
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It's still in the Basque Country - the start for today is actually not far from Bilbao but this time it heads north and then along the stunning coastline through yesterday's finish town of San Sebastian again and onwards to Bayonne which is French but still Basque and famous for its ham. The town has hosted both the Tour and the Vuelta - last time for the Tour was 2003 when Tyler Hamilton won here.
Anyway, the "flat" stage looks like this:
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The hillier course is likely to suit sprinters like Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quickstep) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-Al Ula) more than the pure sprinters who may need an extra day of recovery after the hills of the first two days and the first half of this stage. Honourable mention for Biniam Girmay (Intermarché) and obviously Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who was furious at missing out yesterday.
Definitely one to tune into for the scenery though, as well as to watch a hopelessly doomed breakaway give it their all for the first 120km... Whether he's in the break or not, Powless has enough of a buffer to wear the polka dot jersey for at least another day after today.
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Later start today - 1pm for TV coverage from all the usual broadcasters
what on earth have Pog and Vingy been playing at this first few days... they've been going nuts ! It's basically turned it into a 2 horse race already ? (arguably it was that anyway). It's been bonkers to see this early into a 3 week tour though.
Hasn't Vingegaard just been sticking to Pogacar's wheel?
What Pogacar and UAE in general have been trying to do I'm not too sure.
Pog has been doing his usual. 'Race everyone and who cares about tactics and strategy'
more local imagery
What Pogacar and UAE in general have been trying to do I’m not too sure.
UAE have a slight issue with their co-leader thing now. Pogacar can't be seen to be racing Yates - at some point Adam will of course give the jersey up but it (sort of) needs to be on his terms, not Pogacar attacking his own team-mate.
On the stage yesterday when TP and JV got a gap over the final climb having gone for the time bonuses, there was some definite hesitation. You could tell that Pogacar wanted to race the thing, go head to head with Vingegaard on his wheel. However that would have meant dragging JV clear of Yates and bumping him up the GC at the expense of his own teammate although TP would have got yellow of course. JV knew this and he also had WvA etc chasing on behind so he had no interest in doing anything. It put Pogacar in a bit of a bind, he was desperate to race but actually had to play at doing tactics for once.
I'd be surprised if Yates holds yellow once into the Pyrenees, I think as soon as they're back in the mountains it'll be full gas GC racing again every day.
it's amazing how close Pog is to WvA in that sprint.... if you work him over on the climbs :/
I know from the right angle and with the right framing you could probably make the Swindon branch of Nationwide look good, but that is stunning vista along that coast. Definitely one to visit once the kids leave home.
250m @ almost 3% ramp to the line today.....
some Bayonne pics
Calebs race plan.... drink eat drink eat 🙂
we all love the arena shot....
Related to eating but particularly to drinking, I thought the coverage of some members of the peleton whipping their chaps out and having a pee whilst still moving was excellent yesterday.
A far superior technique to those who have to stop and cause mystery splits in the peleton.
ITV coverage starts at 2pm but The Breakaway on GCN started at 11.30
https://plus.globalcyclingnetwork.com/watch/5153820
shoes for Cav
They're definitely the most disco-ist disco slippers I've ever seen!
recovery ride :/ going to be dull
Powless just out there bagging those KOM points. Think he was hoping for more than one rider to go with him though!
Think he was hoping for more than one rider to go with him though!
As @Klunk says - everyone else is thinking "recovery!"
lets hope they drop back to the peloton with 80km to go after he's got his points and it all kicks off again and someone makes it really tough for the sprinter teams.
Lots of "will he, won't he?" talk about Cav today on Eurosport.
Personally I can't see it happening for him today - there are other stages that better suit, it'll take time to get the lead-out properly sorted - although I'd love it to work out for him so early on.
I know from the right angle and with the right framing you could probably make the Swindon branch of Nationwide look good, but that is stunning vista along that coast. Definitely one to visit once the kids leave home.
Absolutely. My colleague has just been telling me about being taken out there by Orbea a few times, so he was spotting the roads he's ridden over the weekend. I need to plan a trip to Bilboa with my wife. Or even without her, if she doesn't fancy a weekend of pintxos, wine and great scenery!
I thought the commentators were a little unfair on Jonas V yesterday, criticising him for not helping WvA in the sprint. Jonas had punctured, chased back on and dealt with Pog's attacking in the previous 35km or so. I thought he was fairly entitled to a bit of a rest, if anyone can get a 'rest' in the last few km 😀
Look at those crowds!
Relatively steady day so far, fairly relaxed in the peloton, nice weather, massive crowds cheering you on.
I could enjoy that part of being a pro bike rider!
The rest of it, like "being bloody good", suffering, training, crashing etc, less so... 😉
Great work on the photos Klunk! 😍
The scenery is just stunning. Good that the lack.of all out racing at the moment is giving the helicopter crews time to show so much of it.
Thought I knew that view, stayed in the hotel the shot was probably taken from in 1988, in fact its almost exactly the view we had from our room 🙂
exploiting the #tdf2023 twitter stream with the occasional screen grab of my own I sometimes get lucky when I look at my other screen. 😀
the other images come from official site
Lafay just randomly sprinted off the front with over 130km to go, and has taken over a minute already - only "130ish down on the break, with the peloton around 2'45". Looks like he's looking for more than just green jersey points? no need to take such a big lead if he's just aiming for an intermediate sprint?
EDIT - no, looks like he was indeed just making sure he'd get as many points as possible, he was 3rd over the line at the sprint. Pedersen was first in the bunch sprint. Lafay still at 1'33", peloton back at 2'30" having been up to 3 minutes
Results of the intermediate sprint at Deba (km 65.8)
1. Laurent Pichon, 20 pts
2. Neilson Powless, 17 pts
At 1’35’’
3. Victor Lafay, 15 pts
At 2’30’’
4. Mads Pedersen, 13 pts
5. Jordi Meeus, 11 pts
6. Biniam Girmay, 10 pts
7. Jasper Philipsen, 9 pts
8. Mark Cavendish, 8 pts
9. Caleb Ewan, 7 pts
10. Bryan Coquard, 6 pts
11. Mathieu van der Poel, 5 pts
12. Dylan Groenewegen, 4 pts
13. Peter Sagan, 3 pts
14. Alex Kirsch, 2 pts
15. Fabio Jakobsen, 1 pt
Interesting move from Lafay actually. Getting 3rd over that intermediate sprint has given him a 38 point lead in the Green Jersey.
There are 50 points up for the win today so any of the following riders are potentially able to get Green (subject of course to Lafay not scoring)
Victor Lafay (Cofidis) 80 points
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 42
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 36
Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), 32
Michael Woods (Israel-PremierTech), 31
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), 31
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 30
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates), 30
Do they get financial bonuses for days in green ? more UCI points ?
Just watching the bit where Trentin stalled... he's then losing ground at 36kmh uphill... it sometimes takes little things like this to put into perspective how fast they go.
€300 per day for the green jersey wearer from the race organisers, plus the team will revel in the advertising / news / sponsorship opportunitites, and it will look good on Lafay's palmares
Couple of stoppages there, Fred Wright hit the ground in the second of these and is bleeding from his elbow
Ta... i get the kudos side of things, especially considering the team and results etc... so was just curious as to anything else.
Don't you just love it when a running, slightly, overweight, overzealous fan, gets snatched back to the road side (either by security or another fan, while chasing a rider on a really steep climb). I fear the fan's adrenalin won't prevent a heart attack.
lot of punctures