Persico is the rider who crossed four lanes in the last 20 meters? Did the jury relegate her?
Also curious how the green jersey went down. She looked pretty battered and seemed left alone to try and come back to the group.
On a positive note - Vos is definitely the goat.
i will say i’ve seen a LOT more drafting behind team cars through 5 stages of this race than in entire TDFs. that woman yesterday went from 3-4 minutes down to being right back into the peloton from drafting behind her team car the ENTIRE TIME. so you’re right, basic rules seem to be ignored but obscure ones that resulted in some poor 21 year old kid getting tossed for doing nothing wrong gets enforced? seems…bs
Welcome to UCI and world tour rules and enforcement 
It was pretty clear in the men’s race that if you were one type of rider, on one type of team, you could use the cars liberally and no barrage was instituted. Where as for other riders, the officials were all over them and barrage was employed. Sticky bottles are totally abused as is hanging onto the cars “pretending” to fix bike problems and other nonsense. I didn’t see any consistency at all this year in the men’s race.
Officiating in all sports often gets criticized, but cycling is one of the worst for arbitrary rules and even more arbitrary interpretation and enforcement. C’est la vie
I understand part of that rule is to prevent strategic bike changes etc “cyclo-cross style”. i.e. aero bike all day with a team car waiting with the 6.8kg mountain bike at the foot of the climb.
They aren’t supposed to be waiting for them. At least that was mentioned a while back in one of the men’s races.
Agree completely that it’s ridiculous to have the same strict limitations if there’s only one team car per team, though I don’t think swinging across the front of the peloton is as safe as just pulling off of the rear 
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Wow. Turn on the race at the start of coverage, AVV already throwing down and dropping everyone. Pure dominance.
Hopefully she can keep the pace with 60 more km togo, she does has a big lead on the yellow Jersey. Borghini is only 3+ minutes back, should be a good one to watch til the finish
Anyone know if the Trek-Segafredo team is riding the Madone? I’ve only seen the Emonda but, recall the men more on the Madone. Doesn’t matter just wondered. The blue is gorgeous!
Man, I am not looking forward to next week’s bike hangover after having a solid month of racing.
Love the way they timed this race. Getting to watch racing up the Grand Ballon and Super PdBF a week after the Champs Elysees is perfect.
Looks like UNC Tar Heel Blue!
I think the Trek Segafredo Instagram page has a few pics of their Madones in the same light blue colorway, so it seems they can choose between the two
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgfOMM8MQ2x/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Curious about how the rest of the field felt at the end of today’s stage? This article paints a good picture.
Last couple of days I was sitting there like “I get the feeling that Van Vleuten is looming ominously in the background here”
Annemiek van Vleuten enters the chat
btw when do we get to hear chatter about her doping? isn’t that the protocol these days? what i saw today was far beyond anything pogacar or vingegaard did to the men’s field. and she’s 39…
they all had madones early on but they all switched them out for emondas for the gravel stage and i haven’t seen many go back. i think it’s their choice but pretty odd for none of them to have chosen their flagship climbing machine for today at least
Not even close.
Well…now apparently.
“”Volleying shared that she had told Van Vleuten that her performance was ‘not normal’ and Van Vleuten was quick to offer Vollering a few words of comfort in return.
“She said ‘I have so much more training experience and training overall, it will come to you’,” Volelring recalled. "So let’s hope.””
I mean most of the allegations directed towards Pog and Vingegaard were based on their progression and that they seemed to ‘come from nowhere’ which is very much not the case with AvV. She’s been consistently climbing at a level above the rest of the women’s peloton for pretty much her entire career, and it was remarked upon by a number of commentators that >2 minutes probably wouldn’t be a big enough gap heading into the mountains if she was back to her usual form.
Not to mention comparing parity in men’s and women’s sports can be pretty misleading given the differences in field size, resources, research etc- we’re seeing simiarly unprecedented performances across women’s sport as a whole, with many records within the endurance sphere being set by women in their mid-to-late 30’s. Not saying they weren’t doping either, but looking at time gaps alone is missing a lot of context- which is sort of important in determining what constitutes enough of an outlier to be suspicious based on that alone.
I don’t have a strong opinion either way, but I don’t think basing doping accusations off of what is ‘normal’ in suituations that are not necessarily comparable is particularly compelling or productive in lieu of any other evidence.
Just a side question - how much aerodynamic disadvantage does Kasia Niewiadoma have for riding non stop with that open jersey? I mean it really seems like her zipper broke on day 1 and she doesn’t have a spare.
