I think he will make it. He is going strong so far and his team is going to give everything for him to get over the Pyrenees. And I think he will win the Champs-Élysées… Nobody managed to win it more often than Cav (Suck on that Eddy 
) I think he will do it one more time 
2 Likes
Uh, I don’t think I’d trade any of their palmares for Sagans???
1 Like
Did you word that the way you intended…because I agree - I wouldn’t trade theirs for Sagan’s either since theirs are better. 
Apparently not, because Sagan is way over them. Multiple WC, first person since the Badger to win Roubaix in the stripes, all time green jersey champ… That crushes monument wins.
1 Like
Even if he loses time in the Pyrenees, there’s still the stage 20 ITT giving him additional buffer on top of the 5 minutes he currently has. He took a minute out of Uran, 1:44 out of Carapaz and 0:27 out of Vingegaard in the first ITT. If that stays marginally the same, that means, he has to lose 6+ minutes in the mountains to lose the Tour. While not over, much of the writing does appear to be on the wall for 1st.
That said, with the podium wide open, it is possible they attack each other and ignore Pog. In that case, if Pog makes a mistake in following wheels or attacks, he could “explode” more than the “little bit” he said he did on Ventoux. So in my mind, he loses the Tour if he 1) crashes out or 2) pulls a Yates.
2 Likes
I hope Cav makes it to Paris but there’s 5 “hard” days in a row coming up for him. Sure there’s a rest day in there but he hasn’t done more than 2 “hard” days in a row yet and he’s using every bit of the time cut to finish those.
1 Like
It’s funny how we rank riders. Most riders win a Tour stage and we pat them on the back for the win of a lifetime. Sagan has 47 Tour podiums and we say ‘he could have given us more’!
We know how Museeuw did it. Doped to the gils! When a team puts their mind to it, they can accomplish great things.
2 Likes
There ought to be a forum penalty for posting a picture of that tattoo. I mean, come on man, we can’t unsee that!!!
Back to records:
Sean Kelley’s palmares is one for the ages and it doesn’t get mentioned often enough. Monuments. One week tours. Grand tours. Tough to beat King Kelly in his day.
9 Likes
Paris Nice record will never be broken
1 Like
This will haunt my dreams. I need eye bleach.
2 Likes
It’s less the content but more the meta-aspect of getting a tattoo of yourself as the joker, which is quite frankly, psychotic.
I hope he lost a bet. Otherwise, no wonder his wife wanted a divorce.
4 Likes
Too bad we can sit around, drink beers and BS about this stuff.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
3 Likes
(back to original topic)
I do have to say that I absolutely love watching when the break sticks and you get a solo rider that comes in to bask in the moment. Great moment for Nils Politt!
4 Likes
Sagan apparently made a visit to the press room today to show off his bruised knee. I guess he wanted to fend off stories about how he was faking it.
1 Like
@stevemz, the Thomas Voeckler of the thread! 
Love it. Great racing this year and fun thread.
3 Likes
Too much training, not enough make party 
2 Likes
A totally meaningless statistic….no one cares or remembers who finishes 2nd or 3rd on a stage.
And I’m not even talking about stage wins….I’m talking about Classics that he should have won multiple times over.
But way to miss the point……great riders find ways to win even when they are marked. Which has been another flaw in Sagan’s career - his tactics have generally been lacking.
1 Like
Au contraire mon ami. Lots of podiums is exactly how you become the record holding 7 time winner of the Green Jersey.
His tactics and style might not be how you would race, but they have worked for him.
4 Likes
Right….which is why the Green Jersey competition is measured in Green Jerseys, not number of podiums.
Otherwise we’d also be hailing his “wins” in intermediate sprints as well.
You’ve made your point. I got it. He’s not great enough for you despite him have a better palmares than most riders from his era. Ok, he’s not Boonen or Cancellara. Sagan is also a different type of rider IMO. He’s more of a punchy rouleur. Boonen was more of a pure sprinter and Cancellara was more of a TT specialist.
Boonen came up in the EPO/blood bag era and even rode for US Postal. He won the World road medal once. He only won a single green jersey and 6 TdF stages. Yes, Boonen won more at Roubaix and Flanders.
Cancellara - once again, he came up in the EPO/blood bag era. He rode for Mapei initially. He never won the World road medal. Yes he has more wins at Roubaix and Flanders plus Milan-San Remo. He only has 8 TdF victories and not a single green jersey.
When you put Sagan’s record against theirs, I’d say it’s just as good, if not better in some ways. Different era, different type of rider, different set of wins. But equally impressive IMO.
3 Likes