Think I’m more surprised by remco than either pog or Jonas
I really hope he can hold it together for the final week. I’m still officially a three week remco non believer, but I’m starting to come around
The gaps we were all looking for in Jonas’s long duration power curve were revealed today
Can’t blame visma for trying, they had no choice and this was the play for the win
Few random thoughts from the first two weeks
I love Matteo as a classics and one week gc guy. I think it’s premature to put any three week gc aspirations on him. His body type needs to change and he’s great the way he is
I did not have uae improving their tactics to this degree on my 2024 bingo card, but did have rog dropping from gc due to a crash 
As a relative neutral I was primarily cheering for a clean race with minimal crashing or mechanical impact on the gc. Thus far I’m really pleased with the incident impact rate:crossed_fingers:
EF seems destined to run away with the ‘last guy from the break to get caught’ competition
Really pleased with this top speed from bini, huge upgrade for him as I don’t recall him ever finishing like this in the large bunch sprints. I really hope he can maintain this beyond this race
My slight preference for pog this year, based purely on Jonas winning the last two, seems likely to be fulfilled. I’m over the moon that Jonas got back to this level and wasn’t impacted more severely. Regardless of how the last week plays out I’m looking forward to a GT where they both get a clean run at it
I really hope not! I love watching Pog race. He goes hard in the classics, and he goes hard in the tours. He really has a shot to break all sorts of records if he can stay in a long consistent career. Doing 3 tours, especially going for the win in each is too much for anyone IMO. He would be ok doing the Vuelta, but would suffer next year. Case in point, Sepp Kuss. Driven hard last year for 3 grand tours, this year completely absent.
My thoughts are along the same lines, after the Cav win I was really happy to see Biniam Grimay emerge as a top sprinter on this TdF. Matteo dropped to 12th today, great job.
My favorite fan moment was today, dude in orange kicking the guy running after Pog:
On delay over here, still waiting for the lantern rouge to finish.
just saw this:
I’m disappointed but not surprised by the outcome today. Not disappointed that Pog is going to win the tour barring incident, he’s a deserved winner, but it would have made for a far more exciting 3rd week if today had gone differently.
This tour has had some fun storylines so it’s not a wash, but my early hot take is that 2024 will go down as one of the more disappointing seasons of racing when you look across monuments and grand tours. The year of long, boring, solo wins in monuments and GC races that were no real contest. While Pog and MdVP were both dominant in their performances, we also saw major crashes and injuries deprive us of what could have been meaningful competition.
Were there good parts? Will there still be more excitement in races to come? Of course, but taken as a whole, it’s below par.
This was probably enough for Pog to let his HR ease and clear some lactate. Not to mention a bit of a mental carrot. I think this was a clever strategy that worked well.
Guess that means Vinge broke it too, by two minutes.
You’ll see upthread my thoughts that might seem to agree with you, it the point is the entertainment on the day, not how it loooks on paper in hindsight.
We’ve had some great days at Le Tour and Giro, boring it is not.
My take: I’ve absolutely loved this Tour so far. I came into it with a number of hopes: (1) Cav would get #35. He did that in total style, and I lost my voice screaming about it. The drama of his Stage 1 heat exhaustion just made it all the better. (2) I wanted Jasper to be put in his place. That has happened wonderfully so far (I could do without his 2 wins, but…ok); it’s a million times better that he’s losing green to Bini, with his hat trick (3) Bardet is a class act, and I loved his day in yellow. Well deserved and overdue. He’s had some hard breaks along the way. (4) I wanted Visma to eat it. Wout is an ok guy, but I despise the rest of the team, its DS and especially Jonas. (5) the gravel stage was pure chaos, Pogi’s mini crack and sprint loss added some drama, but stages 14 and 15 were sweet redemption. My first cycling idol was Hinault. I think Pogi is the most well rounded, pure racer since The Badger. I’m rooting for the Giro-Tour-Oly-WC quadruple.
You despise one of the most genuinely good dudes in the peloton?
Straight to jail.
Week 3 doesn’t look promising for entertainment. After the sprint stage on Tuesday, I expect a lot of sprinters will suddenly contract an illness. Then we have 1 hilly, 3 mountain, and 1 ITT stage. If GC were close, that would be great, but now…? At least the breakaway might finally succeed in this tour.
Jonas and Visma LAB had a challenging lead up to the tour, but I don’t see how they could have beat '24 Pog. Jonas has crushed the rest of the GC field, so it’s not like he’s a shell of himself. The tactic of blowing up the race and launching for a 1v1 attack only works if you have the strongest guy. Unless Visma LAB or UAE adds Remco, I don’t see any team in the near future have a legit 2-leader strategy. I was pulling for Jonas, but chapeau to Pog. He’s clearly a deserving winner of this race.
Also, chapeau to Remco. I always felt like there was a big gap between “theoretical” GC Remco and “actual” GC Remco. He’s looked better on this tour than I’ve ever seen him. I hope he doesn’t explode in Week 3 (something that’s still a worry), but he can claw back some time in the ITT if needed.
Nice tour so far from Matteo. He did a very credible Sepp Kuss impersonation yesterday when he strung out the field to launch Jonas. (Obviously, it didn’t work out, but he did his part even after an ill-timed bike change).
Great to see Cav’s win and Bini’s green. Jasper has still shown he’s near the top, but it’s more fun when it’s more competitive.
It will be interesting to see who rides the Vuelta.
yep. nice guy or not, I don’t buy his story. reference “the Clinic” thread on Cycling News forum. I’ll leave it there.
The clinic?
3:30 faster than Pantani? 6 minutes faster than Lance? That 100g per hour really is magic.
where they discuss doping allegations
I think the top 10 today were faster than Pantani. It was raced differently, Pantani went hard later int the climb
Ha. Yeah, no.
Pogacar rides for literally the two dirtiest guys in the history of cycling, but regardless, I find both he and Jonas good people. Jonas in particular.
I honestly don’t care about the times, but I do care about the watt/kg. Times can be impacted by wind, leadouts, equipment (e.g., improvements in aerodynamics, etc), etc. that aren’t tied to physiology. Plus would be interesting to total KJ expenditure prior to the effort
PLATEAU DE BEILLE
(15.8 km, 7.91%, 1249 m)
Tadej Pogačar • 39:43 - RECORD •
6.90 w/kg (est. 65 kg standard) •
1887 m/h VAM •
23.87 km/h
