This is such a tough one to predict. I still think it will be an observation round for the GC guys.
I expect a lot of battling to get in the break, not only for the stage/yellow jersey combo but also for mountain points and an early lead for the polka dots. It will be hard to get out.
But I still think that the win will come from a puncher in a fairly large breakaway. I’m putting my money on Bettiol.
Solid choice.
I remember he made an Instagram post saying he would not be defending his title but he intends to get it back more or less. Other than that I have no idea what is going on with him. It does look like he has been training.
Procycling stats knows all (about results). He has not raced since the crash. Last season was a lot of DNS/DNF results. The National Champion was an outlier. I’m guessing he has peaked.
I’m waiting for stage 4. It will be interesting to see how the GC boys teams hold up with Sepp and Rafal not escorting leaders up the climbs.
Why aren’t team Visma in their typical yellow jerseys?
It’s the standard TdF deal. Tour organizers do not allow any team to ride in a team kit where the majority color is yellow.
ONCE used to do the same thing. Yellow kit everywhere except the tour where they rode in pink.
Exteondo just introduced throwback ONCE jerseys in both yellow and pink.
Goddamn I miss GCN+.
This Peacock coverage is just so f__ing bad: endless cutaways to inane commentary in the studio, commercials every two minutes.
Gotta find some way to convince Discovery+ to take my money, so I can VPN into the Eurosport coverage.
This is excruciating.
Get a VPN and you can either get the SBS feed from Australia or, if you have a Flo subscription, you can get the Canadian Flo feed.
Super hard to find Visma in the peloton in their non-yellow TDF special jerseys
Race is just detonating….Groupama’s tour is already over with Gaudu and Martinez both dropped with 50+km to go.
I don’t see how Cav makes the time cut…20’ back and still two climbs to go.
“Only” 16 minutes back from the peloton and got to assume the peloton will either catch or get very close to the break. Commentators earlier thought that at the speed they’ve been going the cut off would be about 49 minutes. If that’s accurate you’d think he should be ok.
ETA: I either misread the gaps or was looking the wrong gap, 20 minutes to the peloton. Should still be fine if it’s ~49 cut off.
21 minutes.
Barring a collapse in the last 50km they should make the cut with time to spare.
In the past couple of years Peacock has had the “International Feed” available in its replay. Those have the better (Eurosport) commentators and is commercial free. Hoping they keep that up this year.
I hope so too.
No international feed on Peacock this year……only crazy Uncle Phil and the 2 stooges.
If you are in the US, you’ll need a VPN to either get the SBS coverage from Australia or Flo coverage from Canada (if you have a subscription).
Commentators just said that the stage is classified as a “mountain stage” which means there is a greater percentage of the winner’s time allocated for the time cut. So that is in Cav’s favor.
I didn’t realize the stage was classified as high as that….thought the number would be lower than that.
If he makes the cut, the next question is whether Cav can recover….
Looking good for Bardet……well executed by DSM so far. We’ll see if he can hold it!
ETA - Oooops…maybe not. Peloton took out 40” in less than 5km!!
Gonna be tight but i don’t think they can hold it now.