Tour de France 24
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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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I can't imagine crashing like that at 60km an hour, then getting straight back up and riding hard to the finish.
Then going for another 10 days. Those guys are their own kind of tough.
It would impressive if he continues and very special if he gets a podium.
Edit: The leadout for Bini was fucking impressive too, great result for that team.
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@gt12 Yeah - I did some routine blood tests today and as I was leaving the nurse said, "Take it easy for the rest of the day, no vigorous exercise or heavy lifting...something about not doing any housework (which sounded like great advice)".
And I thought, I bet Wout Van Aert lost a shitload more blood than me - he arrived at the finish line with blood still streaming down his shin - no-one stopped him from doing vigorous exercise!
Primoz was hammering along with his team - his shorts shredded. AAArgh!
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@gt12 The amazing thing is that Pog really only used Yates for a few hundred metres and then took off because Adam couldn't go fast enough.
Decent statement to counter Jonas'effort from a few days back.
UAE burned a few matches last night - and Ayuso is out with covid.
Van Aert sat up very early (I think a couple of others as well), so maybe Jumbo has a counter-attack planned for tonight.
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Just to chuck this in - George came third in GC in the Tour of Sibiu. I gather it's in Romania.
It must be a pretty competitive race because four-time TdF Champion Chris Froome came 103rd and 42 minutes down on George. Sounds like Froome was being used as a domestique for George and Riccitello.
George did have a little bit of a crack...
“We had a nice few days here,” added Bennett. “I didn’t plan on being in Sibiu in July but I enjoyed a week here with a good crew. It was nice to see Riley get his first pro win and me and Mathew did what we could on a course that didn’t really suit us.”
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Big weekend of climbing that basically resulted in Pogacar putting first 39 seconds, and then a minute eight in to Vingegaard, and he now leads by 3.09
Still a tough 3rd week to go, and plenty of opportunity for Vingegaard to fight back before the last day time trial. But Pogecar looks in great shape, and also has the best team.
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@mariner4life said in Tour de France 24:
Big weekend of climbing that basically resulted in Pogacar putting first 39 seconds, and then a minute eight in to Vingegaard, and he now leads by 3.09
Still a tough 3rd week to go, and plenty of opportunity for Vingegaard to fight back before the last day time trial. But Pogecar looks in great shape, and also has the best team.
I watched the replay this morning before the Euro's and Pogacar looks like a man very determined to right the wrongs from last year. Unless Jonas pulls a rabbit out of the hat and can attack Pogacar on an off day, it's Pog's to lose. How many grueling mountain stages left?
