Still no words from Bettiol? Really, Really curious why he did that.
nah.
Going for the win was a bit a hail mary. He and Pog would have to successfully bridge, then it’s a 6 way fight for the win. Stuyven is good, but that’s a tall order for any rider.
The other option was to let Pog do the work. He’s riding GC, he’s the one with the most to gain in terms of putting time on his rivals, and it’s not like Pog is the weaker rider.
When it became clear that they couldn’t birdge the DS should have told him to sit up. Maybe he did, which would explain why the gap between them and the group behind reduced from ~50s to ~10s.
Great action, but unfortunate crashes too.
Cobblestone stages should be mandatory. They always deliver. Ok, too bad the wayward haybale took out Ewan and by extension Rogla. But the point is these stages induce racing whereas especially MTF stages induce tempo grinding trains, ie. snoring.
Too bad Wout, Laporte and Benoot could not ride for the stage. WVA looked stale after the crash but ended up having the legs to win again by the looks of things during the last 25k. Saved Vingo’s GC hopes, in theory that is.
But barring crashes and illness, the GC was always moot anyway. Pogi is a couple levels stronger and frankly looks ominous.
Last km
Pog is absolutely spent
But has someone pulling to the line
GCN commentator: “the man [Pog] he’s dragracing to the line”
Really would like to know how these things work. Lifetime favour? Actual envelope with cash?
2 Likes
Wout the fuck is happening?
Lots of attacks and counter attacks already, going to be a long day. Sad to see MVP getting dropped, hopefully he can make it through today.
I think cobbled stages are great, they’ve nearly always been part of the Tour and should remain. Whichever way you look at it they’re good. If you think that getting through the stage is as much due to luck as skill, then it’s a great way of rolling the dice and making the Tour more interesting in periods when there’s a dominant and otherwise unbeatable GC rider such as now. That view would say that it could just as easily have been Pog who hit the hay bale and we’d now have the fabulous prospect of seeing Pog go on the attack to try and claw back a 2 minute deficit. Maybe worth mentioning that it was a cobbled stage in 2014 that contributed to Froome abandoning in a period where Sky otherwise completely dominated the Tour and fans complained how boring that domination was (though Nibali winning by over 7 minutes wasn’t exactly thrilling either!)
Alternatively, if you think that doing well on cobbles is more skill than luck and down to handling, positioning, alertness, strength, etc then it’s hard to argue that they shouldn’t be included as a way of ensuring that the Tour is a proper all round test of cycling ability and doesn’t just boil down to who had the highest W/kg.
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Nearly always?
Very rarely, but do date back a long time and yes normally very dramatic
4 years out of the last 18 isnt it or have I missed one or two.
2010, 2014, 2018, 2022
It is both skill and luck, they dont have to be exclusive, just look at the people that went down yesterday, and saying most weren’t on the cobbles is ignoring the reason for the spills off them. Plus then there is all the mechanicals.
I love them, but there is a big lottery element to them.
I think the team director deserves a fair amount of the blame here. Apparently the “cobbled stage” was a “free for all” for the team. They basically said everyone can freelance. A team without structure is not a team at all. I understand the idea of giving everyone a chance to show what they can do, but obviously in the middle of a race with no plan, folks are prone to making dumb decisions by themselves. He wasn’t protecting Uran because literally, the plan was not too.
see anything wrong with this picture from yesterday?
Here’s the video
Looks like yellow shirt guy causes it.
Did Wout and J-V need more TV time today? I don’t this break stays away but it’s nice the yellow jersey in a break. This will take the pressure off the rest of J-V when they need it.
Sometimes I think I understand basic tactics and then I watched the first 80k of this race and left scratching my head.
So many innocent breaks start up the road and WvA animates the peloton and brings them back. And then he finally gets with a group of 3 and the peloton gives them 4 minutes. I don’t understand why some teams would let that go.
Not that UAE needed further exposing, but if Pogi was human, he would eventually pay for the lack of support. But nothing makes me think he can’t overcome any of their shortcomings. they did support him on last climbs, so I’ll eat some words
wow
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If anyone is interested in the different points on offer for spots and green jersey competitions, the web site cyclingstage.com has the points broken down by stage. Curious if others have a better source?
For example, cat 4 climbs are typically one point only and for the first rider across. Cat 3 climbs are 2 points for first and 1 point for second.
Real Time - Looks like WvA is going to try and TT the last 30km today. Quinn is off the wheel and peloton is chasing.
WvA has serious panache!!
This tour is over already 
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I think we all saw that one coming. Good legs
Two days in a row that yellow slipped just past Neilson’s grasp…dang.
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They let it go because there was no one in that group they were worried about. WvA wanted the stage, so that’s why he wouldn’t let a group get away.