Morning all.
Interesting day, very interesting with a semi-GC shakeup. More to come today? let's have a look.
The 3rd stage of the Tour de France is likely to see a bunch sprint. At 182.9 kilometres, the riders travel from Lorient to Pontivy, where the finish lies near the enchanting Château des Rohan.
Lorient hosted the start of the 5th stage of the 2018 Tour de France. The race went to Quimper, where Peter Sagan sprinted to triumph on the slightly uphill arrival.
The last line near Château des Rohan in Pontivy is less demanding. In fact, a 3.5 kilometers downhill flies down to a flat finale.
The Castle was built in the 15th century and has seen its fair share of battles. Two massive circular towers at the front were used to drop burning objects on the attackers. The battle for the stage win will be hard, but not as violent.
The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.
The 3rd stage of the Tour de France starts at 13.10 and the race is expected to finish around 17.35 – both are local times (CEST).
Who to expect in the mix?
The Contenders: Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) is the obvious pick for a sprint but his leadout train isn’t as good as he is, they’re good but not world class. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) has the better train but they’re also prone to launching him too early.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is after a stage win and always a menace in sprints but this finish doesn’t have any features, as in an uphill slope, to advantage him and [update 8.30am] Belgian media say he’s going to sit out the sprint and aim for the time trial instead. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain) also won’t find much to suit in the finish today.
Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) had a bad crash on the opening day, injuring both knees so will Mathieu van der Poel sprint instead or do they play the Jasper Philipsen card? Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep), well why not? But even in his pomp he often needed a sprint stage or two to get going. Cees Bol (DSM) gets a run for the line, Trek-Segafredo will probably back Mads Pedersen today
And as ever, yesterday.
Yay I get to watch this one live....... oh it's a sprint day 🙁
Ewan today for me, well at least I hope so as I put him in my team lol
Heart over head call of Cav.
He had a run at the intermediate sprint yesterday with his new leadout man.
I think Sagan will be in the mix too, maybe the technical finish will suit him. More leftfield call - Bryan Coquard.
TBH Cavs got as good a chance as anyone. Sure Ewan is a threat, but if he gets it wrong, then you can see Cav/Morkov being right right there.... Sprinting is tough in terms of positioning as we know but DQS are experts at this. It would be amazing to see him win it.
I would love to see Cav win but I think Demare has it today. Coquard is a good call though
I will shed a tear of delight if Cav wins today (may be awkward as I'm in the office)
did anyone else have serious leg envy when MVDP crossed the line yesterday. Hewn from Mahogany 🙂
chance of thunderstorms.... I wonder whether the longish drag up towards the end is long enough and steep enough for the old Bora push also known as the Cav and Caleb killer.
are we going to see green leading out Cavendish and yellow leading out Merlier ?
G out! 🙁
FFS. Welsh Crash Magnet.
There we go taxi for Thomas.
Looks like a broke bone 🙁
The white shades are broken too.
*Edit back on......doesn't look happy
I think we are at Peak Geraint
that doesn't look good
My fantasy team is in bits now.
My fantasy team is in bits now.
So is Dave Brailsford's
When he turns & looks into the camera during the Zwift advert I am always half expecting him to suddenly smack into something.
That's the kind of weather that almost makes me pleased to be off the bike.
Robert Gesink has stepped off.
David Millar being fairly scathing about Thomas' incident - it was him at fault and he's taken out other riders by his own stupidity including one who has had to retire.
dislocated shoulder
Ah crap!
Hi all. Looking for highlights videos. The ITV site doesn't seem to have yesterdays. Are they going to take more than 24hrs to put them out or am i missing something?
If not ITV what other sites have a decent longish Highlights video?
dislocated shoulder
That's going to hurt later! Although he rode to Paris one year with a fractured pelvis so there's hope for him yet although Carapaz has ridden himself into default Ineos leadership position by virtue of being able to (mostly) stay on his bike.
dislocated shoulder
Put back in and seems to be riding on; Luke Rowe and Jonathan Castrovieijo pacing him back on.....
Tough as teak, even if he can't keep it rubber side down.
uwe-r have you got the ability to record the itv4 7pm highlights?
wednesdays time trial will be painful.
he's collecting quite the crash show reel :/
He really doesn't like to do things the easy way eh?
Hi All.
RE ITV, they have this https://www.itv.com/hub/tour-de-france/1a6999a0283 which is 3 hours long. And confusingly is episode 3. It also doesn't show up under the [stage highlights] tab on the web site.
They have a short version 3mins and a pod cast. Not interested in that.
Channel 4 used to put the 1hr highlights show up on the website. Much better for catching up with the race if you miss a stage. Piss poor from ITV.
@uwe-r - the link I put up is this one - https://www.itv.com/hub/tour-de-france/1a7000a0303
1 hour highlights from 7pm last night.
I've watched both highlights so far from ITV Hub; but they aren't the easiest to find 😀
Switched back to ITV4 (on mute) when G was changing his bike and assumed he was abandoning
Is it truly a bike race if Geraint Thomas hasn’t crashed?
Like clockwork, that gap coming down nicely, peloton are properly winding it up now.
How long before alt tour is a thing in its own right
Roglic crashed again, that's a bad one, he's properly banged up.
Nasty. Let's see if can get back on.
He's going to lose some time out of this, most of JV have gone back. That means WvA is in trouble for the stage win too, he's got no support up the front now.
Oh I can hardly watch this, I hate these crashes. 🙁
this is mental!!!
That moto is SO close to the front of the bunch!
Ouch....
Oh Christ this is awful.
Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan went down hard. 🙁
Ouch - more chaos with Ewan and Sagan.
German commentary is so dull.
This is horrible to watch. Ridiculous stage.
Caleb is going to be sleeping on his front for a couple of weeks
This is horrible to watch. Ridiculous stage.
Sometimes, the twists and turns coming in can actually help a bit but in this case it was just chaos.
Caleb Ewan was to blame for that last crash, trying to go up the inside and clipped his front wheel on the Alpecin rider. There wasn't a gap for him to go into. Stupid move.
Is that Carapaz finishing in the front group? He'll have gained some serious GC time there if it is.
Ewan still down - hope it's not too serious.
Sagan is a robot.
WVA finished in the front group too.... and G managed to roll in with Podje 26s back
Did Cobrelli push Roglic off ? more of the same tomorrow.
Is that Carapaz finishing in the front group? He’ll have gained some serious GC time there if it is.
Yep, 3rd on GC now at 31".
I watched that through my fingers. I really hope everyone just calms down a little now. A lot of riders were saying it would be a 'stressful' day. They weren't wrong. But they are their own worst enemies when they are swerving and banging shoulders like that. Good bit of riding from Ineos to keep Carapaz up there.
Did Cobrelli push Roglic off ?
No, I think Roglic touched his wheel, rider error on Roglic's part from what I saw.
Good bit of riding from Ineos to keep Carapaz up there.
Not entirely sure how much cohesive teamwork was involved in that and how much was just luck. Half the team had spent a lot of time and effort pacing G back in.
Good bit of riding from Cav to back out of it all.
But yeah, so much of it is just self-inflicted; stupid moves, lack of concentration etc - most of what happened in that lot wasn't down to the route or road furniture.
Not entirely sure how much cohesive teamwork was involved in that and how much was just luck
Maybe, but Kwaito (and DvB?) was working bloody hard to keep him at the front towards the latter stages. There was certainly some planning there.
so much of it is just self-inflicted; stupid moves,
the front group were really pushing on that descent to keep Roglic and co from getting back on.....
the front group were really pushing on that descent to keep Roglic and co from getting back on…..
Again, I reckon that at 8km to go, there was no thought of easing off. Willing to bet that half of them didn't even know that Roglic had gone down and besides, it was a self-inflicted crash, he's not in yellow so there's none of that unwritten "we should be nice to the race leader" rule.
Caleb Ewan was to blame for that last crash, trying to go up the inside and clipped his front wheel on the Alpecin rider. There wasn’t a gap for him to go into. Stupid move.
Watch the replay, Sagan is bouncing riders all over the place from a km out, clearly bumps Lotto rider at 850m, nearly takes a Ineos rider out, then barges a DSM rider, he nudges Ewan at the corner who then does what everyone does and over compensates and clips the rear wheel of the Alpecin rider.
Sagan is turning into a bully (fined at the Giro), nobody else was barging the way he was in the final stages today
Watch the replay, Sagan is bouncing riders all over the place from a km out, clearly bumps Lotto rider at 850m, nearly takes a Ineos rider out, then barges a DSM rider, he nudges Ewan at the corner who then does what everyone does and over compensates and clips the rear wheel of the Alpecin rider.
Nonsense. Ewan was totally to blame for that - just rider error.
Jack Haig DNF
Sagan is turning into a bully
I've noticed this too over the last 2 seasons. Reminiscent of Cav before his diagnosis for EB syndrome. Loss of top end speed + pride/desperation = recklessness. Ironically Cav jostling with Sagan on that Harrogate stage was a sign he wasn't firing on all cylinders.
The secret pro agrees with your views on Sagan, https://cyclingtips.com/2021/06/the-secret-pro-tour-de-france-sagan/
Ewan out with a broken collarbone.
+1 with the secret pro. Sagan was smashing riders out of the way left, right & centre. He didn’t need to, he’s faster than most but he was doing it because he’s a bully..
As to whose to blame for that? Well, again the pro points out that Sagan is involved in crashes like this more often than not..
Nonsense. Ewan was totally to blame for that – just rider error.
Watch the replay, watch the headbutts, the shoulder barges, the contact with Ewan before he goes down....
No, I’ll leave it with this – if everyone rode like him, no one would finish a bike race, we’d all be on the deck.
Ironically Cav jostling with Sagan on that Harrogate stage was a sign he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
What is worse is that Sagan seems to be on form, he clearly was strong as he moved up and (literally) through the riders
What a ****ing BONKERS stage ! - for a boring, flat, sprinters day that has made a bigger hole in the race than most mountain stages
Haven't seen an overhead shot (must be one somewhere) but agree that Sagan looked to have unsettled Ewan (who's the size of a 10 year-old and probably easy to derail), who then clipped a wheel and fell on Sagan.
Nuts - in all senses of the word
At this rate if he stays upright Cav could win the GC
That vid shows just how.mad some of the closing stuff is. There is almost not enough room for everyone's bars
It's impressive the way Sagan never let go of the bike when he crashed.
As sad as it makes me feel but I can see Thomas being dropped from Ineos next year (or offered a paycut deal that he might turndown) and that Froome will call it a day before next year's TDF.
Pidcock for 2022 TDF?
You would imagine Pidcock has the build and capabilities to beca grand tour rider but not in le tour as leader next year, he'll need to build up to it
Like he built up to one day road ride races and mountain bike races 😂 (I know a 3 week tour is much harder than either of those, just jesting).