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There's still a chance for vingo
For sure, yet to reach any mountains.
Proper black country boy doing his stuff today!!
Outstanding!
Looks like Pog enjoyed his club ride. No gifts in professional cycling 😉 . But 48 km/h for the first hour was pretty mad and it took a couple of hours for the eventual selection.
it was interesting to hear some of the other team managers/DS's being quite vociferous in their 'dislike' for UAE,
When you employ a team of GC contenders as domestiques (and pay them GC rider rates) for a super-GC contender generational talent, of course they are upset! Visma have now followed the same strategy with their own Yates twin among others. Other teams just don't have the budget to do the same.
Pretty much what they said about Team Sky. Apart from the super GC generational talent.
I couldn't really get into today's stage. Had it on most of the day but just didn't get excited by it.
Plus I've plummeted down the STW league. AA, up to second for you!
I know shocking I am usually really bad at this! Shame we didn't get to see what happend with the GC group in the last 20km as it finishes up a really small group and had made up a huge amount of time on MVdP.
Great highlights show on ITV4.
Alex Dowsett is a good pundit too.
I know shocking I am usually really bad at this! Shame we didn't get to see what happend with the GC group in the last 20km as it finishes up a really small group and had made up a huge amount of time on MVdP.
Couple of things I read suggested VLAB were racing to keep Pog in yellow so he'd have to do podium and interviews. Hence chasing down MvdP.
Todays profile is somehow hiding 3500m of climbing. Tough day.
Quite a lumpy bit of the country, did 60 mile trip & 1000m + just to view it, flipping hot today too.
Couple of things I read suggested VLAB were racing to keep Pog in yellow so he'd have to do podium and interviews. Hence chasing down MvdP.
Interesting, I was wondering if MVdP asked Pog beforehand if he would chase him.
Couple of things I read suggested VLAB were racing to keep Pog in yellow so he'd have to do podium and interviews. Hence chasing down MvdP.
It wouldn't surprise me if Pogacar is back in yellow tomorrow anyway. Looking forward to the Mur de Bretagne finish! Another tough day but commentary seemed to suggest it was too important for GC to allow a breakaway the same leeway that they did today.
Great highlights show on ITV4.
The pedalo feature made it for me 😂 I've said it already, but I'm really going to miss the Gary and crew show.
Got to love a Ben Healy attack. What now? See how high on GC he can remain or perhaps have a tilt at the KoM?
Then again, I think I've just spotted his next potential stage win.
Stage wins I expect, this one was very much earmarked as a possibility
Think Devon and Cornwall terrain. Easy to do that amount of climbing over a stage. Nothing long, just relentless up and down. Pleased for MvdP. But not as pleased as Pog - who’s one of his best friend.
Got to love a Ben Healy attack
I was amused to hear him say he'd been concentrating on keeping aero after being subjected to watch him ride for 40k in a style that suggested he'd jammed his fingers into a plug socket! I don't know about anyone else but just watching him exhausted me 😂
Ben Healy is one of my favourite riders (had him in other velogames teams before now), I was absolutely chuffed to bits for him, but he does remind me of Pozzovivo in his cycling style.
As I mentioned further up - The Alex Dowsett book is very good indeed - Bloody minded (my life in cycling).
I'm secretly cheering on Kevin Vauquelin to win a tour very soon, of course Oscar too but he's got time.
I'm secretly cheering on Kevin Vauquelin to win a tour very soon, of course Oscar too but he's got time.
Rumour is Kevin's off to Ineos next season.
G in the break
Not looking like a breakaway day at the moment unfortunately, but you never know!
G in the break
Not looking like a breakaway day at the moment unfortunately, but you never know!
I did laugh at the commentary when ITV4 came on air and Ned was relaying the "what has happened so far" info, how the break formed etc and he said G had chosen the worst day possible to do breakaway heroics.
The bunch are keeping this very tight. A single call on the radio or a bit of wind creating some possibility of splitting the race and that break will be history.
Shit that's one hell of a crash. Back of the front group of riders, a touch of wheels at high speed and 6-8 riders just down in a massive tangle.
No-one of massive note involved, none of the big GC riders but that was a very sudden incident.
So João Almeida broke a rib and he's apparently starting today. I broke a couple 7 or 8 weeks ago and I'm only just riding again.
One of the many, many reasons I'm not a pro cyclist.
So João Almeida broke a rib and he's apparently starting today. I broke a couple 7 or 8 weeks ago and I'm only just riding again.
Remember when Geraint Thomas rode a lot of the Tour with a fractured pelvis?
Collarbones and ribs are pretty common - I've ridden with cracked ribs although it was about 1/4 the speed the pros go at.
And about 1/10th the distance.
And there's the classic Tyler Hamilton teeth story...
Anyway - missed the stage today, was on a brewery tour. What happened to Tim Merlier? I thought he'd be top 3 at least.
What happened to Tim Merlier?
He realised he was in my team and gave up!!!
Got delayed about 7km from home, not sure why and couldn't get back to the front
Cracking stage in the Giro Feminina too today.
What happened to Tim Merlier?
He realised he was in my team and gave up!!!
Got delayed about 7km from home, not sure why and couldn't get back to the front
He did get back to the peleton, but there's some mystery about why he didn't compete for the stage win. The u-turn ~3Km from the finish made the approach to the sprint super fast, tailwind and iirc slightly downhill too, the itv4 graphic had the peleton doing 70-80kph for most of that stretch! So if you got caught out of position, you had very little chance of moving up to contest the sprint.
MVdP is a complete nutter at times, yeah we rode flat out for 170km so Jonas could get the combativity award !!!! 😮😮😮
MVdP is a complete nutter at times, yeah we rode flat out for 170km so Jonas could get the combativity award !!!! 😮😮😮
Sort of related, partly because of the deadpan / pisstake commentary which references MvdP's speed is this video from GCN:
Short summary - Dan Lloyd finds that the climb at the end of Stage 2 has never been used by the Tour before so he goes full gas to get the KOM on it 24hrs before the Tour hits it. And then watches as he tumbles down the Strava leaderboard. But it's worth a watch just for the "commentary".
Should be a good one today, let's see if my GC/climber picks for Velogames are better than AAs...
Ta for posting that video crazy-legs, well worth a watch.
Imagine being MvdP this morning with THAT ride in his legs realising just how many mountains he has to haul himself over.
Should be a good one today, let's see if my GC/climber picks for Velogames are better than AAs...
I have to hope Evenepoel can climb well!!
ITV4 live now.
Repeated attacks by visma, can't accuse them from not trying!
Simon Yates going for the stage
Visma killing it today
As I expected, Visma have attacked both at the front (Yates, trying for a stage win) and in the peloton (trying to force Pogacar to chase and deny Ben Healy the yellow jersey, so Pogacar has to fulfil the media responsibilities)
Pog surely about to launch
Looks like Pogacar is happy with that, he's launched off the front - Jonas is the only one who can stay with him, though Oscar Onley seemed more comfortable than Remco. Looks like Kevin Vauquelin will be slipping down the rankings
edit - but things calmed down, and Ben is now in Yellow. Chuffed for him
Odd GC finish in the end. Pog and Vingo sat up cruising behind a wrecked Martinez. But Pog did not drop Vingo.
Anyone remember when Simon Yates joined Visma there was lots of chat about him finally settling into the 'well paid domestique' era of his career?
Black Country Boy in yellow...awesome!