How many seconds did that tire cost Evenepoel? I’m not sure he would have earned the yellow with a good tire, but it definitely would have been closer.
And Jorgenson is now in the top ten. (I still miss Sepp Kuss)
Brian
There was nothing wrong with his tire, he just heard a pop that sounded like a tire blowing and signaled for help. Then bounced his back wheel, realized it was fine, and carried on. 3-5s would be my guess.
Kuss can come back to try to defend his Vuelta title, though if Jonas fails to defend here (which seems more likely than not, though nothing’s decided yet) he’ll likely be looking for red himself.
And Bini makes it two! Uphill sprint played to his strengths. I’m liking how often the smaller teams are winning at this race.
A bit sad the first weekend is two sprint stages. I guess there’s a finite amount of action they’re allowed to have in the first week, and they used it all up on stages 1, 2, and 4.
His team has never won a stage, and now they have two!
Huh, I thought they had one with Rein Taaramae from a breakaway a few years back, but apparently that was the Vuelta.
And in real bummer news, the Norwegian rider André Drege dies in a crash on the descent from the Großglockner in the Tour of Austria.
The news came in around after two-thirds of today’s TdF stage. The commentator on Eurosport Germany almost cried when reporting the news, and it was hard for me to follow the rest of the stage without thinking about how useless this all is in face of such a tragic death, again. Well, what can I say, in my almost 50 years of being a cycling fan, I’ve become hardened and maybe cynical enough to switch these thoughts off and enjoy the final of the TdR stage. But damn, it happens too often.
We just started watching last year’s TdF Unchained on Netflix and the first episode opens with the reaction to death of Gino Mäder at the Tour de Suisse. Especially Tom Pidcock, who candidly admitted that he definitely considers how he descends upon reflection of the dangers of the sport.
Interesting that Abrahamson went for all the small MT points on stage 8 (and lead the race for quite a while), but didn’t try for any on stage 9. – too tired after the previous stage? He still would be winning the polka-dot even if he didn’t try on stage 8.
Question about gravel (featured in stage 9) – do riders use a different bike (perhaps with wider tires)? It was interesting to see a bunch go cyclecross (run, pushing their bike) on the uphill gravel sections.
Brian
Same bikes, generally with the widest tires that will fit the frame (typically ~30mm, though they’re mostly racing on 28mm on regular stages these days so it’s not a huge difference) and often a slightly different model than usual, like an all season variety of the Conti GP5000 instead of the regular one.
At least, that’s what they do at Strade Bianchi.
Looks like we might have a race. I was worried that Jonas wasn’t back to form, and that Tadej was going to waltz away with the victory like he did in the Giro. But today, after being dropped initially, Jonas hauled back Pog and then actually beat him to the line in an uphill sprint for a stage victory.
Now I’m worried that Vingegaard is properly back, but that Pogi’s fatigued from the Giro, and Jonas is going to waltz away from him once we hit the high mountains.
Barring crashes or other disasters for the top two, Roglic & Evenopoel are fighting for the bottom step on the podium at best.
For a while on stage 11 it looked like Abrahamson would at least try to be on top for KoM, but either decided not to or more likely couldn’t. For now he gets to wear the polka-dot as Pogacar will be in yellow.
Brian
Abrahamson must still be interested in the polka-dot, as he grabbed all 3 points in stage 12. He also led (or was in the lead group) for 90+% of the stage. he has the same KoM points (36) as Pogacar, but Pogacar gets the tie breaker winning the toughest climb so far.
Brian
If the final KoM jersey doesn’t go to Pogacar or Vingegaard I’ll be very, very surprised. Abrahamson isn’t taking any points on the Cat 1 and HC climbs on the weekend, where there are 110 points on offer. And then another 80 in the Alps on stages 19/20.
The way Pogi races, a lot of those points are going to go to the GC leaders and not breakaway riders.
That was a master strategy by UAE today with Adam Yates as relay station for Pog on the final climb. Maybe without Yates, Jonas could have followed Pog and battle him in a sprint final, but this way no dice.
Yeah, although I think the stage results hinged more simply on who was stronger than whom. Yates didn’t really pull that much after Pogi bridged before he set out on his own.
Big day again tomorrow, though it’s a weird profile with a lot of flat between climbs so any long-range attacks will need support up the road to help pull in the valleys.
When I heard on BBC News “Tom Pidcock has withdrawn from the Tour de France after testing positive for…” I thought “oh no, surely not” (because no upstanding Brit could possibly be caught up in a doping scandal - yes, this is tongue in cheek) - so in a way I was glad it was ‘only’ Covid.
There’s a lot of covid going around in the peleton.
With two weeks in the books, it’s pretty clear that the podium is fully sorted barring someone totally collapsing on stage 19/20. Congrats to Tadej Pogacar on his third yellow jersey, to Jonas Vingegaard on coming back from a massive crash and minimum prep time to a second place, and to Remco Evenepoel for getting onto the podium in his first Tour start.
I’d certainly agree that the podium has been settled, but there are still 6 stages to go, with two hard Alps stages and the final TT. Normally, as strong as Pog was in the Pyrenees (and how Jonas dominated Remco), nothing should happen to him, but maybe one of the top guys catches Covid or some other bug too, though I really hope this doesn’t happen.
Covid, crashing, or messing up nutrition leading to a complete bonk on Stage 19 can still shake up the podium, yes. I really hope none of those happen.
Well, a crash has made the contest for the Green jersey a lot closer. Girmay leads by just 32 points.
I heard something about Cavendish being out, but he is still in (149th place out of 150, but still in)
Brian