There was only one team organized. MvdP really was awesome there.
What was TJV doing? They have no real sprinter, no lead-out. Why aren’t they in the back with UAE? Are they trying to wear Vingegaard out? This is not how you keep your GC guy out of trouble.
WvA didn’t seem to fancy that one much - he was miles out of position throughout the racetrack circuit, I guess that can happen even to a rider of his level as the corners looked hectic.
vdP with the killer move - you need big legs to get on that leadout! That sort of annihilating acceleration is not necessarily what you want in a leadout man but it was perfect there. Impressive from Philipsen to deliver again.
What left the biggest impression with me was the implicit trust Philipsen must have in MvdP (and vice-versa) Philipsen just stayed on Matthieu’s wheel, through all the chaos. (They came onto the circuit on the left of the peleton, their final attack came from the right)
VdP never looked if Jasper still was there*, he saw his gap and gave it his all.
What a difference with the Bora clown car.
“Oops, we lost our sprinter”
*(edit) I just saw an interview with van der Poel, he said he heard Philipsen behind him just before the final.
Wout might not be exactly a sprinter, but he’s won bunch sprints and has a realistic chance to win a stage like this. But it looked primarily like they were trying to be at the front up to the 3km banner, and once there van Hooydonck wasn’t completely out of gas so he just kept going. You’ll note that van Hooydonck and Benoot were with Vingegaard, and Laporte who was supposed to be leading out van Aert was constantly looking around for him but he was the only one concerned about that. For Vingegaard, it’s a similar effort to ride near the front as it is at the back, and considerably safer from being taken out by a crash in front of you. While there’s no time penalty for delays due to crashes after 3km to go, hitting the deck is always a bad thing.
What UAE did was quite risky. The run-in to the entry of the speedway prior to 3km to go was quite narrow. If there’d been a crash in the middle of the bunch at that point it could have taken significant time to get past it.
To me, this stage looked tailor made for purebred sprinters. WvA won a lot of sprints in races where the finish was without a full train. TJV doesn’t have a real lead-out or the capacity to organize a proper sprint train. In stages with teams who can get a real train together they’ll never stand a real chance.
I get your point about being to the front is safer.
I just get really nervous when I see a lot of black/yellow jerseys riding hard without a real plan.
I get flashbacks to 2020.
IMHO they (TJV) should be doing one of three things: - sitting out of the wind (near the front if they like); keeping out of trouble, saving their legs OR riding hard to hurt the competition (never when the competition is drafting behind them) OR - making a play for the stage.
I haven’t seen them do any of those (or not very well), so I’m worried a bit. They seem to think you get points for looking dominant on meaningless stretches of road.
He won on the Champs d’Elysee against Cavendish being led out by Morkov. And today while the others were on the front to keep Jonas safe, he was camping on Philipsen’s wheel. He eventually lost that position and didn’t accomplish anything, but that’s sprinting. There are worse strategies than tagging a ride on the most dominant sprint train.
Yes, I’m impressed with Powless – keeping the polka-dot and 11th for sprint points. (and stage 2 combatitive)
Once they hit real mountains Pogacar/Vingegaard will likely take over as KOM, but still neat.
(for whatever reason, the polka-dot jersey is more interesting to me then the yellow.)
Brian
Great work by Hindley and the whole Bora team. Pogacar not looking good today, Vingegaard steals a minute from him. All in all another great and thrilling stage.
I’m so excited for the next stage which will be extremely challenging. The Col d’Aspin, Tourmalet and a third ascent at the finish. I wonder if Tadej will be able to strike back tomorrow.
Thanks for the commentary!
I watch for the visuals of the peloton through the countryside and the visuals. Not much comprehension of racing though a lotta time in the saddle for me commuting and exercising.
And it reminds me to grab a glass of wine and jump on my tractor to wave at the pack of lunch riders that go by our place most days. They seem to appreciate the gesture. A little craziness can be fun.
Really hope Pog can rally the legs tomorrow as that was a huge blow from JV - was on a different level, on what you would say was a Pog-type climb. Hindley looked superb all day.
Pog actually lost half the time on the descent and run-in to the finish, so clearly lost some composure with the attack. Seemed a bit all over the place at times to me.
Tourmalet is gigantic but not all that steep - be interesting to see how they approach it. It’s harder to force a selection with a KO attack, needs setting up with a very high attritional pace ie Sepp Kuss to the front.
Very interesting stage. Jumbo Visma played with fire but have to be pretty pleased with the results. UAE, on the other hand, looked pretty vulnerable. Which is a bit weird, because this year’s UAE team is the strongest team that Pogacar has ever had at the Tour. But they completely muffed the break formation portion of the stage resulting in a completely unmanageable break, and then didn’t have the rouleurs keep the gap in check.
But of course the big takeaway is that Pog’s form is not on par with Vingegaard’s. Lots of racing left and it’s still perfectly possible for Jonas to lose the race somewhere, but at the moment I think it’s his race to lose. Tomorrow, on paper, favours Jonas more, where on paper today favoured Pogacar. If that holds, Vingegaard will be pulling on the yellow jersey tomorrow.
I thought so to.
Wow.
His attack was absolutly blistering. Riding away from Vingegaard going full throttle.
I had to work today most of the time during the stage and only saw snippets and the last 5 km or so, but what a great outcome. If Vingegaard had been as dominant as yesterday, the Tour could have been already decided today, but Pogacar struck back remarkably. I hope they stay that close together for the next two weeks.
And tomorrow? Cavendish’s 35th stage win in Bordeaux?
Yeah, that wasn’t the result I expected after yesterday. Happy, though, because it suggests this race might be hard-fought for a while yet.
Couple comments:
Jumbo Visma continue to be able to seemingly put riders into the break at will. Obviously this is easier when the rider you’re trying to put in the break is named Wout van Aert, but still. This is a big problem for UAE. Also, rumours of WvA having poorer climbing form than last year might need to be put on hold, because getting over the Tourmalet ahead of the GC leaders was damn impressive.
Jumbo Visma also once again were clearly the stronger team. Vingegaard still had Kuss and Kelderman with him on the Tourmalet after every other GC leader was isolated, without even considering that van Aert was still up the road at that point. If Pogacar had shown any weakness at all on the Tourmalet things might have gone very poorly for him, because if there’d been any gap at all over the top Jonas would have been sat on Wout’s wheel on the descent and valley while Tadej would have had to either chase alone behind or drop back to the Hindley/Yates/Yates group for allies. Either way would have seen him lose another minute or more.
Totally rooting for Cav to get a stage win, but he’s something like the 4th fastest sprinter here at best so he’ll need a perfect setup to win.
Sepp Kuss is a monster of a mountain climb helper. No matter if he was riding for Vingegaard or Roglic, the usual picture you saw when you switched to a TdF mountain stage in the last four years or so was Kuss leading at every ascent with his captain at his heels.
Yeah, Kuss is a topnotch mountain domestique. Has the Giro in his legs this year, but still looks good at this point. We’ll see if he fades as the race progresses, because back to back grand tours is really demanding. Though, looking at procyclingstats his race program this year is just the grand tours (all 3!) with the UAE Tour and Catalunya back at the beginning of the season. Which makes sense in terms of how Kuss can most help out the team over a season, I guess. Skipping the Dauphine and Suisse allows for a bunch of recovery, especially since Kuss can take certain days “off” in a grand tour.
But IIRC, Kuss already won at least one TdF stage when he got free rein, didn’t he?
Lemme check.
1st place
Stage 15, Tour de France 2021
Stage 15, Vuelta a Espana 2019
Stage 5, Criterium du Dauphine 2020
Wow, Jasper Philipsen takes his 3rd!
Less perfect lead-out by MvdP but still an impressive effort.