It may be a failure to launch by Carapaz. It’s worth a try. Also, if you’re not going to win, at least you can give your sponsor a pretty TV picture for their money on one of the most famous venues of a grand tour.
Carapaz did very well actually.
But of course the hero of the day is Van Aert. Incredible.
They’re not really racing Pogacar anymore. They’re racing against Uran, Vingegaard, O’Connor, etc for the bottom podium steps. They got Carapaz past O’Connor today and he’s now just one second from the podium. Put a bit more time into Kelderman, Mas, and Lutsenko, too.
Is Cavendish going to make the cut-off? He was 33minutes behind when Van Aert crossed the line.
He made it with 6 minutes to spare, in a large bunch. While he could theoretically collapse at some point, at this point he’ll most likely make it to Paris. Stage 9 was the worst stage for missing time cuts based on the profile. Most of the other big mountain stages have significant flat sections to start, where Stage 9 had a big climb almost right out of the gate.
That said, Luke Rowe missed the time cut today, and that’s not something anyone would ever expect to happen. Must have been a hunger flat or something.
Wouldn’t it be more fun for everyone to tell Carapaz to stay in Pogacars wheel and let some of the other guys join a break away?
This looked as if they were on UAE’s payroll. In fact: INEOS’ actions were indistinguishable from those of a team working for UAE. I cannot imagine sponsors being too happy with that.
I think Ineos did the classic move of trying to crack the guy in the yellow. Remember that Pogacar had only one guy with him on the second climb while Ineos still had four. In the end, it was Jonas Vingegaard that exposed a chink in Pog’s armor. Not all strategies work out the way you want.
In other news, Sagan is not starting due to knee injury.
Cavendish’s chances for record stage wins in green are getting better every day.
I mean, their guy moved from 5th to 4th and is now literally 1 second away from being on the podium. No one is beating Pog unless he utterly collapses. It’s entirely reasonable at this point to race for 2nd and 3rd. And Sky/Ineos have never been about what would be more fun for everyone.
Does anyone know why the announcers keep pronouncing his name, “Vingego”?
Who are the commentators on NBC these days? The commentators I hear (Anthony McCrossan and Simon Gerrans) pronounce Vingegaard properly. At least so far as I can tell. I’m not fluent in Danish.
These guys:
NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2021 Tour de France features Phil Liggett , universally known as the “voice of cycling,” who will call play-by-play race action. Analyst Bob Roll will join Liggett on the call and Steve Porino serves as the reporter from on-site in France.
Paul Burmeister will host daily pre-race and post-race studio coverage, along with former professional cyclist and analyst Christian Vande Velde and American Grand Tour champion Chris Horner . Former professional cyclist Adam Blythe , who retired in 2019, will serve as a reporter in France.
I’m going to replay yesterday’s stage but I’m pretty certain they were saying “Vingego”. I assume that in Danish, it’s pronounced as it’s spelled: Vin-ge-gaard.
I can see there is a point to be made that INEOS benefitted from their work. - my point is that Pogacar benefits more.
By allowing Pogacar to sit on their tail all day they effectively negated Pogacar’s only weakness- the lack of a strong team. They could have let Pogacar kill himself chasing his competition who could have attacked in turns. Now INEOS kept the pace too high to allow any escapes. Exactly the role UAE would have filled if they had the capacity to do so.
As I’ve repeatedly said, the others have pretty much stopped racing against Pog. They know they’ve lost. They’re racing against each other. Imagine the race tactics as proceeding as if Pog wasn’t there. Then they make sense.
Also, without the Ineos train, Majka and maybe McNulty would have still been there. I’d have to go back and look at who dropped when, but pretty sure Majka was there till close to the end. And Pog doesn’t have to chase down every attack from the others if he doesn’t want to. When Vingegaard went, he could have just sat behind Carapaz and Uran and said “I’ve got 5 minutes on that guy, I’m not chasing him. You can chase him to protect your positions if you want.”
Phil. Well there’s your problem. I mean, he’s a lovely guy but accurate pronunciation of German/Dutch/Danish/etc names isn’t one of his virtues. I think he does better with the Romance languages.
I love Phil, and the rest of the crew. Except Porino irritates me for some reason. He seems like a guy with anger issues. Be that as it may, they all seemed to have been mangling Jonas’s last name. Like I said, I’ll go replay it later and see if I just need my hearing tested.
Well, call it ignorance faught:
How To Pronounce Jonas Vingegaard - YouTube’
Stopped reading the thread after Cavendish’s Stage 10 win, because I haven’t watched the Stage 11 highlights yet. But damn, seeing Colbrelli muscle his way from behind the peleton all the way back into the lead group, I was really hoping he’d have the legs to finish in the top 10. That was some damn gutsy riding. (And I was tickled to learn he’s named after Don Johnson’s Miami Vice character.)
A question for you serious fans, though – I know the TdF caravan includes a decal printer, who can quickly add a rider’s team and sponsor badges when a leader’s jersey changes hands. Does he also do helmets and other equipment? I noticed that Quintana had polka-dots on his helmet, the day after he won the maillot à pois rouges; and Cavendish was wearing not only a green jersey, but green shorts, green gloves, a green helmet, and even carried green gels. I’m guessing the rider’s team has those on hand, just in case?
Ha. You want loneliness? Try starting a thread on ultra-marathoning. I started one on the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc - the ultrarunning equivalent to the TdF - that had four replies (two by me), then died a-borning.
Ceremonial jerseys are done by the tour sponsor “Le Coq Sportif”. They are not meant for racing. The individual teams are responsible for race day clothing and equipment because each team has their own selected supplier of gear and clothing including the awarded jersey colors.
I was out of town June 30-July 6 and am very behind in watching – is there a recommended stage or 2 I should watch? I like lots of climbing.
Thanks,
Brian
Stages 8 & 9 were good.
Stage 11: They climb Mont Ventoux. Twice.