Your regular reminder that time bonuses are bullschitt and should be shut down.
You need them sometimes in early stages of a race to create some gaps and make things interesting, but once you get off the flats, there are no need for time bonuses. The fact that grand tours have been won on time bonuses alone is utter shite.
/rant
Looking at the question of how often does the GC winner take a stage in the Tour:
For 1975-2023, List of all GC Winners and how many stages they won in the year the won the GC. Listed in order of first GC win.
| GC Winner | GC Wins | Total Stage Wins All GC Years |
|---|---|---|
| Thevenet | 2 | 3 |
| Van Impe | 1 | 1 |
| Hinault | 5 | 21 |
| Zoetemelk | 1 | 2 |
| Fignon | 2 | 6 |
| LeMond | 3 | 4 |
| Roche | 1 | 1 |
| Delgado | 1 | 1 |
| Indurain | 5 | 10 |
| Riis | 1 | 2 |
| Ulrich | 1 | 2 |
| Pantani | 1 | 2 |
| Pereiro | 1 | 0 |
| Contador | 2 | 3 |
| Sastre | 1 | 1 |
| Schleck | 1 | 2 |
| Evans | 1 | 1 |
| Wiggins | 1 | 2 |
| Froome | 4 | 6 |
| Nibali | 1 | 4 |
| Thomas | 1 | 2 |
| Bernal | 1 | 0 |
| Pogacar | 2 | 6 |
| Vingegaard | 2 | 3 |
| Average Wins Per Person | 3.54 | |
| Average Wins Per Year | 2.02 |
Source: Wikipedia, official records only
I was going to go with 1974 (50 years), but Eddy skews all the data.
Which one(s) had that?
The Vuelta a couple of years….Levi would have won one except for the differences in time bonuses. There was at least one other one as well.
And don’t even get me started on the years when they had time bonuses for TT stages. Completely idiotic.
Ah, 2008. (It is hard to lookup Levi when I can’t spell his last name). Contador won the GC by 0:46. Both on Astana. They weren’t messing around with bonuses. 20, 12 and 8 at the end, plus 2 (6, 4, and 2) sprints on stages!
Time bonuses for a TT is madness.
After the Intermediate Sprint today, Girmay should be OK for the maillot vert…even if he “no scores” at the intermediate sprint tomorrow, Jasper can only get 20 points and Bini padded his lead by a point or two today.
ETA - the new Jayco kits are 
Will we have some action today?
edited: 2 min after Poga goes.
Yes. 
Well-timed post.
The way he climbs is just phenomenal. It seems so easy, and he’s making 400w all the way.
Looks like JV is tired, which is understandable considering his lead up
Wasn’t Levi disqualified for PEDs?
Not for 2007 forward
Levi cooperated with USADA and his penalty was relatively minor. He was as much a doper as any of the riders in his time. By his own words:
Seeing what Remco did today, I think there is possibly a decent fight for second. Remco is only down 1:58. JV is looking pretty beat at the moment. UAE won’t likely chase a late attack from Remco, leaving all the work to VLAB. If Remco can chip 10-20 seconds each day the next 2-3 stages, the final TT could be a really big deal!
Jonas does seem to be fading, but if he rode defensively for 2nd I don’t think that Remco could legit drop him outside of taking a few seconds in a sprint. The problem is that marking Remco moves opens him up to more counters from Pogi. Pogi doesn’t give a crap about Remco taking a little time if the stage win is already gone and will let the gap open to force Jonas to work. Jonas meanwhile has said he doesn’t care about 2nd so minimizing further time loss to Pogi is more important to him in the very small chance Pogi has a bad day on one of the final big mountain stages.
It doesn’t change that he could indeed lose 2nd, but it’s more based on the tactical situation than fitness.
I’m of two minds on the current podium battles
Jonas has two tours and likely personally doesn’t care about the difference between 2nd and 3rd. But his team has not had great results this season and the perception of losing 2nd to remco wouldn’t be the best for them
I can easily see Jonas letting pog go and following remco. This might not only be his best defense of 2nd but also his best mitigation to pog. Obviously depends on all three riders form but also the race conditions.
Above is largely possible, in my head, because I view Jonas as tactically superior to remco so even if remco is indeed coming stronger I think Jonas can feast on his relative impetuousness
My fear is we end up with racing like the giro where no one is racing pog, although even if it happens it won’t really be as bad as the giro situation since it’ll only set in on the final road stage
Regardless, it’s been a great tour so far. Hoping today is another banger for the Italian classics riders. Mvdp with a pre Olympics statement ride in the break but then gets dropped on the final climb
Agree Jonas/Visma are tactically better but have been super impressed with how Remco has ridden. Reminds me a bit of Thomas in how he’s just ridden his own tempo in the climbs, not got dragged into going into the red trying to match Pog or Vin when they light it up, and trusted that riding a sustainable pace will either bring him back to them or at least minimise losses. I would have expected him at some point to go too hard and then have some big time losses but he’s been very measured and controlled. Bodes well for future GTs for him.
For me the worrying signs aren’t even the comparisons to the 90s , but the rate of improvement over the last 4 years is just insane. Since both remco and Jonas confirmed that the calculations were pretty accurate it looks like Pogi is around 10% better then last year and about 15% compared to 21/22…
I think discussing which team has a history of doping is a bit useless in mist teamcars or staff there are sitting dopers or alleged dopers… You would have to get rid of a whole generation of riders and staff…
And the tour that was supposed to be one of the best, turned out to be a bit “boring”.
Yep, I know, there were a few highlights, but I don’t/didn’t see any dispute for the yellow. TP was dominant 90% of the time.
You’re watching a different race than I am. Other than a couple of sprint stages without a break there’s been action in nearly every stage
There’s entertainment in cycling well beyond the top step of the GC, and even if that’s your sole focus the GC was in lots of doubt until stage 15 (and still isn’t officially over)