Big gap, but with the final climb, the old theory of 1 min / 10km of remaining race goes out the board. ~9’ gap is substantial, but if it comes down to 3-4 minutes before the final climb, it will likely come down to the main group / GC contenders.
eta - gap is coming down quickly now (~4’ @ 15km), but the break may stick it. Some decent climbers in the group and they may be able to keep a gap on the final climb. Dumbrowski and Ellisonde are strong enought o perhaps pull this off.
And the challengers are gonna be better off in letting the break succeed. Otherwise, Roglic can just pad his lead by winning the stage and the time bonus. The challengers need to keep everything based on real time as much as possible, IMO.
Well, the last climb was somewhat interesting, not much happened really. Kuss has always been a GICT and Carapaz said himself he was tired before the start of the race. Here’s the tally:
Only the Movistar guys looked sharp. And now we have to wait til Friday for more action
Nice hors d’ouevre though! Ineos aren’t shelling leaders quite as fast as at the Tour but guess they’re down to 2 already. Hopefully the number of mountain stages will mean the jersey and top 10 shifting around quite a bit as riders have good and bad days.
Great result for Magnus, but impressed with Primoz. Wasn’t quite his assassin self to snipe the win, but looked strong, put time into everyone, took the bonus seconds, etc. Can’t wait for Movistar to display their tactical prowess going forward.
I think Roglic sat up at the last second….de definitely coulda have popped him, I think. After that stage in Paris-Nice, it was nice to see him not play the assassin.
Looks like EF is gonna have to relish Cort Neilssen’s stage win bittersweetly….Carthy cashed in all his GC chips today.
On commentary they said it was a flat on the front wheel (be it by a little stone or pothole). Therefore lost traction and went off. Sure looked like that.
…just a little rock at 40mph.