Morning all, everyone well?
TTT day today, and I for one love it, a real test of team work and skill. So lets see what's in store.
27.6km and heading out of Brussels to the suburb of Woluwe Saint Pierre where, once upon a time, the Merckx family ran a small grocery store and now there are schools and squares named after him before heading back into Brussels… where there’s a metro station named after him too. The course isn’t too technical, it’s got long boulevards – beware the tram lines – and bridges, just 200m of vertical gain but the corners and slopes have to be managed carefully by teams, to know where to swap the lead and how to pace it. The time is taken on the fourth rider of the team across the line.
Stage map?
Stage profile?
Lovely, so who's in the mix? Off the Inrng we go.
Team Ineos have a strong roster with engines like Geraint Thomas and Michał Kwiatkowski who can win a solo TT on their day, plus the likes of Gianni Moscon, Luke Rowe and Dylan van Baarle who’ll be strong too.
Mitchelton-Scott come with two specialists in Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge and strong riders like Matteo Trentin and Daryl Impey plus the Yates brothers are good but small, offering less shelter to those behind.
Jumbo-Visma have a strong squad, one reason Wout van Aert was called up was for today, the Dauphiné TT winner will be a big engine today along with Tony Martin and Mike Teunissen can stay in yellow.
Deceuninck-Quickstep were third in last year’s TTT but have a couple of powerhouses less compared to the squad they had a year ago.
EF Education First won the TTT in Colombia earlier this year, a surprise but testimony to work done and added budget affording more aero testing and they have a good squad with Tejay van Garderen a regular with BMC’s world champion squad.
Sunweb and Katusha both have strong, homogenous squads and CCC are running on a fraction of the budget of the old BMC days, their eight riders here are also very complementary
Couple of pics from yesterday to finish off? of course.
Wonder how many people said, "Who?" at the end of yesterday!
Mitchelton Scott to win today. Bardet to lose any realistic chance of winning the tour.
start times
1 1 14:30:00 INS TEAM INEOS GBR
2 22 14:35:00 PCB TEAM ARKEA - SAMSIC FRA
3 8 14:40:00 AST ASTANA PRO TEAM KAZ
4 6 14:45:00 GFC GROUPAMA - FDJ FRA
5 4 14:50:00 ALM AG2R LA MONDIALE FRA
6 7 14:55:00 MOV MOVISTAR TEAM ESP
7 18 15:00:00 TDE TOTAL DIRECT ENERGIE FRA
8 12 15:05:00 CCC CCC TEAM POL
9 13 15:10:00 UAD UAE TEAM EMIRATES UAE
10 14 15:15:00 TFS TREK - SEGAFREDO USA
11 19 15:20:00 TKA TEAM KATUSHA ALPECIN SUI
12 16 15:25:00 COF COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS FRA
13 21 15:30:00 TDD TEAM DIMENSION DATA RSA
14 15 15:35:00 SUN TEAM SUNWEB GER
15 2 15:40:00 BOH BORA - HANSGROHE GER
16 17 15:45:00 LTS LOTTO SOUDAL BEL
17 11 15:50:00 MTS MITCHELTON - SCOTT AUS
18 5 15:55:00 TBM BAHRAIN - MERIDA BRN
19 10 16:00:00 EF1 EF EDUCATION FIRST USA
20 3 16:05:00 DQT DECEUNINCK - QUICK - STEP BEL
21 20 16:10:00 WGG WANTY - GOBERT CYCLING TEAM BEL
22 9 16:15:00 TJV TEAM JUMBO - VISMA NED
your going to hear team CCC coming a mile off....
6.25 in
Best thing about TT racing is hearing the carbon wheels going past you
I do like the GCN crew, they really love their riding and are such tech heads.
Oh and a set of the 42mm tubeless disc wheels and a pair of 28mm tubeless tires please.
thanks that'll be £3400
Jumbo-Visma FTW.
Not my favourite discipline, so hope everyone gets around in one piece.
I’d like to see WvA in Yellow 🤷♂️
I should have said that those start times are CET
some more GCN TTT Tech
Did he really say homogenius?
INEOS all done and for a shower!!
thanks that’ll be £3400
squeak! 😢
Good ride from FDJ there, very un-French bar the last but 1 corner.
Love a TTT at the beginning of a tour as it really sets up the teams in your head and gives a proper insight as to how they gel.
Bardet a minute down..
And half of France let out a wail. The other half will have to wait for the first big descent when Pinot is dropped. 10 seconds off my prediction 🙁
Great spectacle, and as mentioned, the only opportunity for a podium for many riders. But there is a reason why it’s not as long as they used to be.
Going for Lotto, been doing a lot of aero work with Matt Bottrill
Hmmm 12 seconds down at mid split
time is for 4th rider but if you do a big turn with 2km to go and then disappear out the back, do you get the team time full stop, or is there a gap after which you're deemed to have your own time?
Could your GC contender just trundle around while 7 TTT'ers set a good time for you?
Hmmm 12 seconds down at mid split
got my Lotto and Jumbo mixed up,
Jumbo did the aero work with bottrill
Could your GC contender just trundle around while 7 TTT’ers set a good time for you?
No, you'd miss the cutoff and get DQ'd
smashed it, keeps Moscon out of Yellow as well which is no bad thing
the frackers get fracked
I have to say I really don't want team **** the planet to win this
roglic is probably thinking why did i pick the giro !
Could your GC contender just trundle around while 7 TTT’ers set a good time for you?
I think you have to finish within X (maybe 2?) seconds of your 4th rider to get the same time, don't you ??
Oh, and Sky must be cross now - sat on school chairs in the sun for a couple of hours and then lost at the very end 🙂
@klunk, why dont you start your own Ineos hate thread and clear of out of the tour threads. Your seriously boring mate !!
😀 only another 19 days, and it's you're btw and but you've still got time to edit
Doubly boring klunk 🙄
some early doors seconds
1 TEUNISSEN, Mike (TJV) 4:51:34
2 VAN AERT, Wout (TJV) + 10
3 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (TJV)
4 MARTIN, Tony (TJV)
5 BENNETT, George (TJV)
6 MOSCON, Gianni (INS) + 30
7 BERNAL GOMEZ, Egan Arley (INS)
8 THOMAS, Geraint (INS)
9 VAN BAARLE, Dylan (INS)
10 VIVIANI, Elia (DQT) + 31
11 ALAPHILIPPE, Julian (DQT)
12 ASGREEN, Kasper (DQT)
13 MAS NICOLAU, Enric (DQT)
14 LAMPAERT, Yves (DQT) + 33
15 MATTHEWS, Michael (SUN) + 36
16 ZABEL, Rick (TKA)
17 POLITT, Nils (TKA)
18 KELDERMAN, Wilco (SUN)
19 KÄMNA, Lennard (SUN)
20 SCHMIDT WÜRTZ, Mads (TKA)
21 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (TKA)
22 KRAGH ANDERSEN, Søren (SUN)
23 DOWSETT, Alex (TKA)
24 BETTIOL, Alberto (EF1) + 38
25 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (EF1)
26 URAN, Rigoberto (EF1)
27 WOODS, Michael (EF1)
28 KANGERT, Tanel (EF1)
29 GONÇALVES, José (TKA) + 40
30 VAN AVERMAET, Greg (CPT) + 41
31 BEVIN, Patrick (CPT)
32 LANGEVELD, Sebastian (EF1)
33 ROSSKOPF, Joseph (CPT)
34 GESCHKE, Simon (CPT)
35 GAUDU, David (GFC) + 42
36 MOLARD, Rudy (GFC)
37 PINOT, Thibaut (GFC)
38 KÜNG, Stefan (GFC)
39 REICHENBACH, Sébastien (GFC)
40 ROCHE, Nicolas (SUN) + 45
surprisingly good day for ZAKARIN
Brad looks happy.. I like his pillion insights.. he’s got a lot covered that sometimes we don’t see.
Looking forward to the bumps, wonder if he’ll get some sort of up close and personal with the riders..
TJV still hanging in there!!! go TJ! Come to think of it thats quite an interesting Triumvirate Education First have, TJ/URAN?WOODS interesting to see how it compares to the Movistar QUINTANA/VALVERDE/LANDA in paris
TJ would have to have been pretty unlucky to have had his “bad day” by the end of Day 2!
Was more spectacle than slectable today. Except for Bardet.
got my Lotto and Jumbo mixed up,
Jumbo did the aero work with bottrill
nope i got it right, Lotto have bene working with Bottrill
Jumbo Visma have been working with Dan Bigham of Huub-Wattbike
I wonder if evil Ineos are secretly not unhappy that they don't need to spend the rest of the week defending the yellow jersey because that's what you're supposed to do. Or something like that, I confused myself with multiple double negatives. In other words, I wonder if Ineos are secretly happy not to have taken the yellow jersey at this point in the race.
Errr yeah 🤣
Best swerve the Companies ethical liabilities at interview this early on..
Is Porte still upright ?
just about 1.28 back leading Bardet by a second...
I enjoyed it . Mr Wiggins pillion stuff,that I saw ,was really insightful imo. It must have been his idea...” I’m not sitting in the studio bored off me tits, get me amongst it!” Ha.
And can we add the misnaming of team “sky” into the drinking game?
Keep it up Klunk!
👍🙂
That was another most excellent days watching. Crowds were big but it was possible to still get a good view. Strangely when Ineos came through they really didn't look the fastest or smoothest but watching the same spot on the replays they looked slick. Guess it shows how difficult it is to really see much in the few seconds they zip by.
will this win tomorrow ?
That looks like it weights 40lbs..