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Agreed, CL. Alan Phillip was going to get chewed to pieces on the last climb.
Very disappointing.
It was hotting up nicely .
All to play for tomorrow.
Bernal wins by a landslide 🙂
I was thinking G would pile up the final climb, might have been the INEOS plan maybe.
AP must have been knackered down that descent so surely couldn't have kept up on the final ascent, he might have leaked more time.
Still, they all might be grateful for the rest looking at tomorrows profile. 33km final climb!
All to play for tomorrow
Have to wait to see the time gaps (and the weather!) but I reckon tomorrow is going to be mental as riders seek to consolidate their positions.
Whole race has been turned upside down. Riders / teams will have been planning expected time gaps, energy usage, tactics etc only to find that the predicted gaps are half what they should be.
Feel doubly sorry for pinot now though. If he could have hung on a bit longer he might have felt up to it tomorrow and at least manged to ride into Paris if not contention.
I was thinking G would pile up the final climb
I was thinking the opposit - he'd diesel his way up and lose more time to Bernal, then Kruijsvijk would attack him to try for second.
Blimey:
Never mind the danger from falling rock, must film same wobbly iPhone footage as everyone else!
I was convinced Yates would get the stage win.
And Bernal didn’t win the stage.
According to the tour app feed
I suspect the chances of a French winner suffered a double whammy today.
Amid the weather drama I doubt if there will be any fuss made about Pinot's mechanic kicking a press photographer in the goolies..............
Officially no stage winner, and thus no stage winning bonus seconds. GC times to the top of Iseran. I think Bernal keeps his 8 second climbing bonus. No most aggressive rider award either.
No cutoff time either, so Dowsett gets to finish OTL tomorrow instead!
God is a Francophobe?
He had a go at stopping a French TdF winner yesterday, but couldn't quite manage it, so had to resort to the backup plan today
https://twitter.com/SuperASASSN/status/1154190931509350401
So the time bonuses on Iseran were taken into account and the stage result, taking Col d'Iseran as the finish line is:
1. Egan Bernal
2. Simon Yates, at 5’’
3. Warren Barguil, at 41’’
4. Laurens De Plus, at 50’’
5. Steven Kruijswijk,
6. Geraint Thomas,
7. Emanuel Buchmann,
8. Vincenzo Nibali, all st
9. Richie Porte, at 1’18’’
10. Gregor Mühlberger, st
11. Wout Poels, at 1’50’’
12. Damiano Caruso
13. Alejandro Valverde, all st
14. Julian Alaphilippe, at 2’07’’
15. Rigoberto Uran, at 2’30’’
So the overall is now:
1. Egan Bernal
2. Julian Alaphilippe, at 45’’
3. Geraint Thomas, at 1’3’’
4. Steven Kruijswijk, at 1’15’’
5. Emanuel Buchmann, at 1’42’’
JA got supremely lucky there. He'd have been 3+ minutes down if that race had gone to Tignes. I reckon G probably lost out too - while there's a chance JA could have got some of the time back o the decent he was probably going to go right out the back door again on the final climb.
Hard to see Alan Philip staying on the podium tomorrow. Bernal has it won for me. Big question is will Kruijswijck and Buchmann attack him tomorrow? If they're feeling good then maybe they'll crack Thomas? If not, it's hard to see anything other than Bernal winning and G in second.
Big question is will Kruijswijck and Buchmann attack him tomorrow? If they’re feeling good then maybe they’ll crack Thomas?
All hell is going to break loose the second the flag goes down tomorrow. It starts straight up a Cat 1 climb, the Cormet de Roseland, 20km. Off that, there's a Cat 2 lump and then straight into the final HC monster, 33km up Val Thorens.
That's it, there are no further opportunities to gain any time. althoguh part of me wonders what would happen if the time gaps were mere seconds on the final day...
Could be an amazing stage tomorrow.
As much as I'd like that to be true CL, I reckon that a pretty big group will be there for the start of the final climb.
As much as I’d like that to be true CL, I reckon that a pretty big group will be there for the start of the final climb.
You're probably right, there's nothing to be gained from holding back now - everyone will be able to lay everything they have on the line.
This is the location of the snowplough clearing water / hail from the road
https://goo.gl/maps/dPsZkC5PZLbLFphHA
It's still on the descent from Val d'Isere to the Barrage de Tignes so they would have been going flat out
What tyres for...
I suspect G was going to attack to Bernal on the last climb to really put AP out of contention I guess in many ways it makes tomorrow even more interesting.
Tomorrow will, once again, be nuts.
Highlights starting on ITV4 now...
I suspect G was going to attack to Bernal on the last climb to really put AP out of contention
I reckon G will convince himself of that aswell. Wether he could have actually come back to Bernal is another thing.
I would have liked to have seen 25km of J.A smashing the descent though!
Slightly surprised they didn't neutralise the stage and leave J.A in yellow 😉
I think Alaphilippe was going to lose loads of time more on that last climb ... gutted for him. I was really wishing he’d minimise his losses on these last two days to just about hold on to the yellow.
I would have preferred any other team than Ineos to have the winner. But happy it’s Bernal and not Thomas ... just listening to Thomas interviewed is excruciating. “Well uh ... yeh uh ... eh, yeh, uh ...” f#€k sakes it’s impossible for him to string more than 3 words together.
Gutted Alaphilippe has lost it!
Tomorrow's stage rejigged also: main road to Moutiers then to to VT. It'll be a drag race
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2274999112549455&id=103512969698091&ref=bookmarks
Tour de France 2019: Stage 20 cut by 71km because of landslides and weather warnings
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/49134648
Anyone else getting an email from Science in Sport at 17:03
My reply to them went as follows:
Dear SIS please remove me from your mailing list, there is no chance I will ever be buying your products. Today at 19:03 BST, 3 minutes into the UK's Tour de France Highlights program some imbecile in your marketing department decided to send out an email informing me that Ineos had taken the yellow jersey. So the most exciting and eventful stage of what has been the most competitive tour in many years was ruined as a viewing spectacle. Clearly whoever made that decision has no real interest or understanding of sport and I question the values of a company that would employ them.
So the most exciting and eventful stage of what has been the most competitive tour in many years was [s] ruined as a viewing spectacle [/s] still not interesting enough to keep me from checking my email for 20 minutes
#burn
Tomorrow's stage is going to be bonkers.
Full on lead out trains to the bottom of the climb!
Should make for a spectacular finale,if only to see GT's face having to play domestique to bernal. I can almost see him actually trying to race bernal for the Jersey against orders
yep. looks like it will be worth watching from the very start
loads fridge with beer
prepares snacks
sends children away for the weekend
So tomorrow's stage has been slashed in length to 59km due to landslide(s) - drag race up a big hill basically...
Edit: oops, missed the earlier post, but there you go.
loads fridge with beer
you'll not need much for a 59km stage.
Should make for a spectacular finale,if only to see GT’s face having to play domestique to bernal. I can almost see him actually trying to race bernal for the Jersey against orders
Not a fan I take it?
ASO taketh and ASO giveth. A mountain TT. Yay. Race will now be on. For third. I think G could be off the podium tomorrow and if Buchmann or Kreijsvijk replace him I would not be sad. I think JuJu will hold on. As I said at the first thread, G career peaked last season and the stars aligned thanks to Froome. Now he knows how Froome felt. In fact I suspect Ineos knew all along that Egan was the de facto leader. But they no how to give their team orders and keep it in the bus now, not on the road.
Sorry for Yates, who was denied another stage today, but what a refreshing interview with the new superstar. Played out just as I predicted at the start. More by luck than judgement.
What a shame !
Juju will have his tale up now.It’ll be absolute carnage. & I have to record it ffs.
Ineos will TTT to the top preventing any attacks. JA will crack, GT will take 2nd. Bernal will hold the lead.
Who realistically out of the GC riders can put time into Bernal now?
A mountain TT.
Well not exactly.
I'm struggling to understand he anti-G sentiments.
Some amazing drivel being posted on Twitter at the moment by people who know how to organise a race better than ASO do.
I’m not in the least bit anti-G. I was absolutely delighted he won last year. The reward for 10 years of hard work with the stars aligned. But it’s been obvious that Bernal is the outstanding talent and he has shown it this year. Kudos for G for recognising this on the road and not doing a Sir B.
They’ll all be managing their efforts tomorrow carefully, so yes a mountain TT is sorts - drafting allowed and all off at the same time. They will be racing their own individual races, not wanting to go too hard and blow. They’ll want to max out their efforts at the top and hope that gets them the position they need for GC. And then Bernal will go off the front 😉 no he won’t tomorrow. G might try but his attacks looks as futile as mine at the moment#
#Comment in my last race “we all knew you’d go at three laps to go, but we always catch you so didn’t worry”. Of course I went at four to go. And was caught.