Only watching in the evenings so I stay away from this thread. This is going to be a very interesting race compared to the past couple of years where it was just two guys by day 5. But vingegaard looks like the strongest of the bunch. Too bad Powless couldn’t get in that first break. All of that work for 4 days and all gone in one ride.
In 2020 he wins two mountain stages and storms up the planche des belles filles like a nutter, destroying roglic.
In 2021 he wins back to back mountain stages in the last week and makes it look easy.
then last year he looked vulnerable and was. this year he put in a monster acceleration on an early stage when he didnt need to, but collapsed yesterday.
what is going on?
is it his team? i dont remember him needing them before.
or has the drug regime had to change for some reason?
cos he is the most obviously juiced athlete out there.
In 2020 he wins two mountain stages and storms up the planche des belles filles like a nutter, destroying roglic.
In 2021 he wins back to back mountain stages in the last week and makes it look easy.
then last year he looked vulnerable and was. this year he put in a monster acceleration on an early stage when he didnt need to, but collapsed yesterday.
what is going on?
is it his team? i dont remember him needing them before.
or has the drug regime had to change for some reason?
cos he is the most obviously juiced athlete out there.
This tour has the makings of the best since early Lance/Ulrich before it became clear Lance was dominant, and quite possibly all the way back to Lemond/Hinault or Lemond/Fignon.
After last year and yesterday, I thought maybe Vingegaard had a gap on TP and we would watch two weeks of him taking 30-60 seconds off when available and winning by 3 minutes. But after today, it's on baby!
I wonder how Sepp Kuss would do on GC if he was a team’s leader and had a good support cast.
If he was the Jumbo leader he would be fighting for the win. They can pick any pro and make him the best in a year like US Postal and Sky did several times.
Otherwise, probably a top 10 guy in another team.
You know it's wrong when the teammate drops all the leaders from other teams.
I wonder how Sepp Kuss would do on GC if he was a team’s leader and had a good support cast.
He’s not much of a TTer from what I can recall, but he’d have a lot of time on people in the mountains. Also not sure of his cobble skills, but he started in mtb, so I’m sure he’s solid. He always seems to get stronger as the race goes on, that’s promising.
Finally got a chance to watch todays stage. What was Vinny thinking, pulling Tadej along at the end for an easy attack? He needed to ease up and force him to take the front or ride side by side checking each other until a move is made. Only person behind and potentially coming back was kwiatkoski.
I wonder how Sepp Kuss would do on GC if he was a team’s leader and had a good support cast.
He’s not much of a TTer from what I can recall, but he’d have a lot of time on people in the mountains. Also not sure of his cobble skills, but he started in mtb, so I’m sure he’s solid. He always seems to get stronger as the race goes on, that’s promising.
Finally got a chance to watch todays stage. What was Vinny thinking, pulling Tadej along at the end for an easy attack? He needed to ease up and force him to take the front or ride side by side checking each other until a move is made. Only person behind and potentially coming back was kwiatkoski.
Methinks Vinny got overconfident. Thought he could put an early end to this year’s tour if he could repeat yesterday’s performance time gains. Seemed like a worthwhile gamble based on pogi’s recent return from injury and presumed lack of form. Now Jumbo knows better and will probably be less bold in the upcoming stages.
Yep. looks like it may be back to a 2 man show. pogi should just get stronger since he was behind in training because of his crash. that guy could be even more dangerous in week 3.
Methinks Vinny got overconfident. Thought he could put an early end to this year’s tour if he could repeat yesterday’s performance time gains. Seemed like a worthwhile gamble based on pogi’s recent return from injury and presumed lack of form. Now Jumbo knows better and will probably be less bold in the upcoming stages.
Fair point. They have to feel pretty confident ripping the field on the climbs for the stages to come and testing Tadej more, with how Wout and Sepp are riding.
Puy de Dome lived up to the hype today. What a great stage to watch! Visually, seeing the volcano looming in the distance as the riders got closer gave feel for the steepness of the final grade. Great racing for stage win, KOM points, and GC contenders. The finish was STEEP!!
Couldn’t believe how fast Woods caught Jorgensen. It looked like Matteo was pedaling strong the whole way up until Woods was right behind him.
Tadej appears to have just that little extra over Jonas already, and he should only get stronger. Jumbo has their work cut out for them as theyve already been in control and it doesn’t seem to matter.
Great stage today! . Glad to see the topic of an LR thread in around 2005 win a stage. Realty thought Jorgensen had it. Bummer for him but glad for woods.
Meh, last year Jonas was the better of the two on the longer climbs. The stages so far have been hard but nothing like, for example, stage 11 of last year. I think on a day like stage 14/15 we're going to see a different story
Pogi didn't come into the tour in prime shape since he was out with the injury. I'm guessing he is going to keep on creeping closer and closer to jonas with every mountain stage as he gets fitter.
Powless looks to be in a good position for King of the Mountain with 46 points. I don't know who else is actively competing for the Polka Dot jersey... Gall at 28 points is next. Woods might blow them both out of the water when the tour gets to the big mountains in stages 13, 14, and 15.