TDF 2024 general chat *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

not pulling out any time at the moment so maybe not, looks like it will come together

amazing roads

Carlton seems to think Vingo is a demon descender – is that right ??

He used to be – how much that crash in Tour of the Basque Country has taken off his confidence is anyone’s guess. Pogacar has obviously had far more racing in the build up so at the moment is probably more willing to push it a fraction.

It’s notable how poor* Evenepoel is on the descent though – he went over the top in 3rd but is now 6th on the road.

*it’s a relative term obviously, he’s still amongst the best in the world.

having said that, +26 now, so

Boom, gone.

Remco looks strong the way he closed the gap as the descent eased.

It’s notable how poor* Evenepoel is on the descent though

No doubt that huge off in Lombardi a few years ago is likely on his mind still!!

Carlton seems to think Vingo is a demon descender – is that right ??

Even if he was I wouldn’t like to make any such assumption since his crash. There’s got to be some mental scars as well as physical ones. Pretty decent effort from him all things considered.

Wasn’t expecting so much damage to be done today.

Wait.. it starts in Italy? Wtf is that all about?

Went past the end of my brother’s road in the hills outside Florence, couldn’t go anywhere on Saturday.

But srsly… shouldn’t it start in France? I’ll never understand roadie business

But srsly… shouldn’t it start in France? I’ll never understand roadie business

Tour that is predominantly in France.
It’s been common for decades to have the start (the Grand Depart) in other countries, in fact it’s pretty highly sought after for tourism purposes.

Ten years ago it started in Yorkshire!

2014 United Kingdom (Yorkshire)
2015 Netherlands (Utrecht)
2016 France (Normandy)
2017 Germany (Düsseldorf)
2018 France (Pays de la Loire)
2019 Belgium (Brussels)
2020 France (Nice)
2021 France (Brittany)
2022 Denmark (Copenhagen)
2023 Spain (Basque Country – Bilbao)
2024 Italy (Florence)
2025 France (Lille)
2026 Spain (Barcelona)

So only 4 starts in France in the last 10 years

Jonas looked absolutely blown coming over the line and in the warm down…. more worrying for him is the state of his team I really did think they had been pulled on stage 2 in preparation for today but seems not, that is their level. Don’t think you can win the tdf when your chief mountain domestique wouldn’t make 4th wheel in your main opponents team.

https://x.com/LeTour/status/1808162807088558451

latest never strays….

Good highlights programme. Always worth catching that for the interviews and the background / filler stuff.

Flat (well, flattish) stage tomorrow and Thursday, sprint stages. Back to the “will Cav make it 35?” speculation…

Ended up watching most of the live coverage when we got home this evening. Scary looking descent! Pog is just a crazy talent. Still set up for a great race, Evenpoel looking strong ahead of the TT. Vingegaard close enough and didn’t lose much on the climb.

Evanepoel never been a great descender (relative terms, he’s better than me for sure), but despite the Lomabardia crash, he’s looked better descending in the last couple of years

Pog looked great on the bike today. You have to hand it to the fella, he always makes it look like he’s having fun.

Remco looked really good today – there seems to be a bit of maturity in how he lets the big attacks go and then reels them in at his own pace. He might even make some time in the TT as well.

Impressive from Pog today but I do feel that’s the GC sewn up. Bit of a shame for the rest of the race but still Cav to look forward to!

Impressive from Pog today but I do feel that’s the GC sewn up.

We’ve had 4 stages and he leads by 45 seconds! Vingegaard won by what, 8 minutes last year?! It’s set up perfectly, there are 2 tt’s and a LOT of climbing to come.

UAE look able to crush the opposition. JV can look around but his team are nowhere. It’s going to be a hard three weeks for the GC contenders with the strongest rider in the strongest team. Hilight was seeing Remco close the gap to the next group on the flat. I think it will be Pog-Remco-Roglic for the podium. The interview with JV was telling.

Was Vingegaard on 1x today? Looked like it. Visma* do seem to be pretty keen on it but seems like a bold call for a stage like this.

*Hard to stop calling them Jumbo!

todays parkour

Was Vingegaard on 1x today? Looked like it.

https://x.com/opaisdociclismo/status/1808307329990877584

random images from yesterday….

gc

1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) 19hrs 06mins 38secs

2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick Step) +45secs

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Visma-Lease a Bike) +50secs

4. Juan Ayuso (Spa/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 10secs

5. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1mins 14secs

6. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 16secs

7. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick Step) +1min 32secs

8. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 32secs

9. Giulio Ciccone (Ita/Lidl-Trek) +3mins 20secs

10. Egan Bernal (Col/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 21secs

Today:

Tour de France Stage 5 Preview

Interestingly Inner Ring doesn’t even mention Cav as a pick for today’s sprint… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Thing about Vingo’s descending is that he lost less time on the steep twisty bits than the slightly flatter swoopy bits, which points more to lacking that final 1% of fitness than any worries about his descending nerve.  Unless he actually races himself into shape he is going to be chasing for the rest of the Tour.

Interesting that the tables have turned this year, with UAE having built a really strong team around Pog, the team seemingly able to beat up JV and Rog in the mountains like Pog got beaten up the last 2 years.

JV seems to be lacking the team support since Visma lost Rog to RBBHG and Kuss to covid.

First time that RE challenging for the TdF, so wonder how SQS will cope with the step up needed to challenge for GC at the TdF in rather than just riding for TdF stage wins and compared to their Vuelta experience

Early days, but Pog hasn’t had the crashes the other contenders have, so in good nick. Wonder how JV, Rog and RE might come into better form over the course of the tour

I thought this was an interesting analysis…. some “decent” power numbers….

https://lanternerouge.com/2024/07/02/pogacar-smashe

s-the-col-du-galibier-record-tour-de-france-2024-stage-4/

The commentators on Eurosport occasionally appeared surprised that a team can be that much better/more switched on than others….have they forgotten the Armstrong days, or Team Sky or JV last year…it is just UAEs turn….next year, 5 yrs, 10 yrs, it’ll likely be someone elses turn.

JV seems to be lacking the team support since Visma lost Rog to RBBHG and Kuss to covid.

Highly likely they would have had Kruijswijk & Van Baarle too, in addition to Kuss, if not for crashes etc. To lose those 3 from the team must be having a big impact.

Interesting comments from both Pogacar

“I know the downhill but I was a little bit surprised to see wet road in the first few corners, so it was a bit scary.”

and Evenepoel

“Then I launched into the descent and I took a little too much risk, I almost paid for it. I slipped two or three times on slightly wet sections, so I lost a little confidence.”

For a sport trying to improve safety it seems a bit crap they weren’t warned.

obligatory route eye candy….

think what we’ve learned is the chasers need to keep it tight UAE are too strong for them to go long so you can’t let the Pogimonster off the leash again and hope he has a bad day or 2.

Flat stage so I’ll just pop in to say GoCav!

For a sport trying to improve safety it seems a bit crap they weren’t warned.

I can’t imagine for one second that they weren’t; they also climbed on wet patches just before the summit, so they must’ve been aware of the chance on the descent.

In Pog’s case, I read that as he’s trained on the downhill plenty of times, just not in those conditions.  It would be the same with any precipitation, however, so it’s up to the rider to be more or less risk-averse, no?  No guts, no glory, etc.

We’ve had 4 stages and he leads by 45 seconds! Vingegaard won by what, 8 minutes last year?! It’s set up perfectly, there are 2 tt’s and a LOT of climbing to come.

Sure he won by a distance last year, but you don’t need to. I’m struggling to see how either of the other two contenders could make up even 45 seconds given the strength of the UAE team, especially given that there is a lot of climbing to come.

I hope I’m wrong!

There is still lots of snow on the top of the Galibier,  my BiL did the marmotte on Saturday, and descended in monsoon rain as well.

That rain has softened the remaining snow and on live coverage they had a digger clearing a small snowslide from the road at the top while the riders were on the lower slopes.

https://x.com/BikeBlz/status/1808413976604107200

the full unclipped image of pogi descending

more pics taken @ that spot….

https://x.com/LeTour/status/1808240926780764392

Oi Sean! eyes on the prize ;)