Tour de France 24
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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?
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@Canes4life The remaining stages are:
16 Flat
17 Mountain
18 Hilly
19 Mountain
20 Mountain
21 ITTStill time for Jonas to crack Tadej, but he needs it to be a proper crack - with 3 minutes to make up, Tadej can likely "manage" getting dropped 3kms from a finish.
Stage 19 is the hardest remaining - that's the one I reckon will bear watching.
The final ITT climbs 500 metres, so probably suits Tadej and Jonas more than Remco, but I doubt anyone will make up minutes on it.
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Jonas just does not have the team to crack him, and Tadej has a team that can protect him. If the teams were reversed this week it would be much exciting, but I think he is home and hosed. I really feel like Visma needs a big domestique alongside Kuss to help Jonas.
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@gt12 Yeah - right now it seems pretty unlikely, but we've all seen how quickly the seemingly invincible can suddenly blow up.
Tadej looks a bit too good for that to happen to him.
Wout Van Aert hasn't seemed as good in the mountains this year as previous years.
If he was better, with Sepp Kuss, Jorgensen and Kelderman - that would be a pretty good team. Still not as good as UAE, but enough to do more damage.
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Has anyone ever won the 3 grand tours in the same year?
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@mariner4life No - I was just googling that to see.
Jacques Anquitil won four grand tours in a row, but it was two in 1963 and two in 1964.
Merckx won three in a row, but also across two years.
Have a go Tadej - it's only 3000 odd kms!
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UAE boss on Pogacar's Vuelta: ‘Don’t want to risk burning him out’ - Canadian Cycling Magazine
Mauro Gianetti says that the yellow jersey will not be doing any more Grand Tours in 2024 UAE boss on Pogacar's Vuelta
I'd guess not, but who knows.
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@mariner4life No.
