Tour de France 24
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@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
I hate when one team is this strong. I hated Sky. I hated Postal. It's shit when you see the same 5 jerseys controlling every stage, and fending off every attack.
But last night was awesome watching them drag the peloton up that mountain
Agreed. We’ve not seen it for several years as the style of Grand Tour racing has changed so much. It was great to see it as a throwback, but I don’t want to see it become the norm again.
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@gt12 it's been super interesting?
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@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
@gt12 it's been super interesting?
Relative to topless women on south of France beaches?
You’ve changed bro
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@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
@gt12 it's been super interesting?
Not in comparison to the view on the beach.
I see @voodoo has anticipated this response
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@Machpants said in Tour de France 24:
Well done Cav, most stage wins ever. What a legend
Just watched the stage highlights. Awesome to see, well deserved Cavendish. Pretty big risk by his team to take him on again for another tour but stoked for them it's paid off. Cavendish can retire a happy man.
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@voodoo said in Tour de France 24:
@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
@gt12 it's been super interesting?
Relative to topless women on south of France beaches?
You’ve changed bro
i've never been to the south of France...
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@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
I hate when one team is this strong. I hated Sky. I hated Postal. It's shit when you see the same 5 jerseys controlling every stage, and fending off every attack.
But last night was awesome watching them drag the peloton up that mountain
I'd imagine pulling together that cycling team is dirt cheap compared to sponsoring football teams - and even "our" America's Cup team.
Tour de France analysis – On the Galibier, UAE Team Emirates brought cycling into the era of the 'hors catégorie team'
Rival squads must now find ways to counter Tadej Pogačar's star-filled support squad, which looked near-unstoppable on stage 4
That Galibier stage was fabulous - leaving Pogacar aside - it was interesting seeing the relative strengths of the other riders.
Jonas on the climb.
Ayuso, Rodriguez and Roglic on the descent.
Remco on the flat and in the sprint.
Almeida (and Ayuso) were superb climbing on the front into the headwind.
Seeing how much Cavendish suffered on day 1, he probably deserved that victory - which, I imagine all of his training was tailored to. He was an hour behind the GC leaders after stage 2.
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i am astounded Cav got that win (caveat: didn't watch the end last night)
He's old. He was suffering early, and after a high mountain stage i thought his legs would be cooked today. Good on him, and well done to the team. His job is done now, just try and get to the end (i am sure he would like to finish his last tour).
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@mariner4life Yeah - watching him on stage 1, I thought he was no chance.
But, as above, I guess his training has been absolutely tailored to winning a sprint finish - and literally zero to getting over hills.
I'll be pretty surprised if he makes it to the end - but, as you say, he'd probably like to bow out by making it to the fnal finish line.
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Typically, now that I'm back in Japan I want to watch the race. I missed the gravel stage but it looked amazing.
Have to love Remco for saying that Jonas doesn't have the balls to take him and the Pog on. I love that kind of honesty (we miss it in rugby).
But, equally, well no shit, Sherlock, on that stage, on a 2nd (or 3rd) bike? Jonas must be hoping he can try to ride for the big dance.
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@Dodge said in Tour de France 24:
Jonas just rode an incredible ride. Pog jumped and pulled out a gap, Jonas just put his head down and rode him down then won the sprint. Huge emotion in his interview at the end too. Chapeau
I feel like Jonas is holding his legs for some of those tougher stages. I'm a big Pog fan and I'm hoping he hasn't gone too hard too early in this Tour. A minute lead over Jonas isn't that big especially taking into account what happened last year.
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@Canes4life Geraint Thomas said a few days ago he favours Jonas and last night will reinforce that.
Geraint Thomas: Vingegaard bigger favourite than Pogačar to win 2024 Tour de France
Welshman on new terrain at 38 as he tackles first full Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double of career
Pog's big advantage is his team. Wout Van Aert crashed quite badly, so Jonas possibly even more hampered.
I wonder if UAE might consider sending Almeida up the road in a break, force the others to chase and see if they can bring two cards into play for the GC.
UAE currently with four riders in the first nine!
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Pog lost his last two tours riding stoopid.. same thing today. Doesn't learn.
rides like he was at the Giro where he could just ride away from everyone. Seems to forgot there was no one else in the top 25 in the world at Giro.. TDF a different beast and he's been riding hard all year. Interesting to note the TAB now has Jonas as the favourite.
Love him or hate him - I reckon johan bruyneel is the smartest guy in cycling.. this is worth a listen
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I just watched it, and Pog was not a happy camper at the warm down. I think he knew he had to gain a minute or two to ensure he could hold on that last week.
My money is on Vingegaard now.
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Today will certainly have worried UAE. Tadej must have got around 30 seconds ahead and Jonas managed to claw it back. Suggests he can do that and more when the mountains are much bigger.
I guess the big challenge for Jumbo is working out how to effectively attack Tadej given they don't have the firepower of previous years.
How do they make the big mountain stages hard enough that Jonas can eventually ride Tadej off his wheel?
If they just do the traditional burn away your team until the last guy folds - there's still going to be probably 10 guys with Jonas when that happens and three or four of them will be from UAE.
Interesting to note Marc Soler cruising home 25 minutes behind the leaders today. Suspect he'll have a bigger role to play for UAE later this week.
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