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Post by marylandstoke on Sept 4, 2020 15:55:58 GMT
What an awesome day.
This should light the fire for the weekend 🚴🏿♂️
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2020 16:57:48 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going.
Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ?
As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds.
Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey.
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Post by RedandWhite90 on Sept 4, 2020 18:17:00 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. That first hour today was brutal. Will need to catch highlights later but the job Bora did early doors was impressive.
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Post by thehartshillbadger on Sept 4, 2020 18:18:09 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. That first hour today was brutal. Will need to catch highlights later but the job Bora did early doors was impressive. It was a great day to watch finally
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Post by salopstick on Sept 4, 2020 18:50:00 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. Could ineos team selection have been wrong?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2020 19:29:45 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. Could ineos team selection have been wrong? I've been thinking that myself. Dave Brailsford said they were adopting a different tactic this year but that has perhaps been forced on them due to their available personnel. They lost Wout Poels to Bahrain Merida, Nieve, Ellisonde and a couple of others have also gone. Rod Ellingworth went to Bahrain Merida as well, and Nico Portal sadly died. I think they have had to re-jig the team as Froomey and G just weren't ready, and they were top heavy with Bernal, Froome, G, and Carapaz all in the same team, so that was never going to happen, and Bernal was nailed on to defend his title. On paper it looks a strong team but IMO van Barle isn't in the same level as yet as Poels, and Sivakov although a good young rider, doesn't yet have the experience required, Amador and Carapaz are hopefully saving themselves for the mountains, Kwiato looks less of a force than previously, and Bernal just doesn't look in the same shape as last year. Luke Rowe and Castroviejo seem to be the same as previous tours. Andrey Amador. Egan Bernal. Richard Carapaz. Jonathan Castroviejo. Michal Kwiatkowski. Luke Rowe. Pavel Sivakov. Dylan van Baarle.
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Post by salopstick on Sept 4, 2020 20:07:38 GMT
Could ineos team selection have been wrong? I've been thinking that myself. Dave Brailsford said they were adopting a different tactic this year but that has perhaps been forced on them due to their available personnel. They lost Wout Poels to Bahrain Merida, Nieve, Ellisonde and a couple of others have also gone. Rod Ellingworth went to Bahrain Merida as well, and Nico Portal sadly died. I think they have had to re-jig the team as Froomey and G just weren't ready, and they were top heavy with Bernal, Froome, G, and Carapaz all in the same team, so that was never going to happen, and Bernal was nailed on to defend his title. On paper it looks a strong team but IMO van Barle isn't in the same level as yet as Poels, and Sivakov although a good young rider, doesn't yet have the experience required, Amador and Carapaz are hopefully saving themselves for the mountains, Kwiato looks less of a force than previously, and Bernal just doesn't look in the same shape as last year. Luke Rowe and Castroviejo seem to be the same as previous tours. Andrey Amador. Egan Bernal. Richard Carapaz. Jonathan Castroviejo. Michal Kwiatkowski. Luke Rowe. Pavel Sivakov. Dylan van Baarle. I think both were ready as they could be but team politics made him send g to Italy and froome to Spain
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Post by teenagefanclub on Sept 4, 2020 20:08:25 GMT
Great sagan interview as ever, one of the last great characters.
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Sept 4, 2020 20:55:44 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. Pogacar had a puncture just before ineos started gunning it in the cross winds. Landa and two other Bahrain guys crashed around the same time, so they were all at the back of that group when it split.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2020 21:45:14 GMT
About time - An exciting stage and great finish. Hopefully the Tour is finally getting going. Van Aert is a real quality rider isn't he. Good to see Yates is still in yellow but for how much longer ? As has been said Bernal doesn't look to be in the best of shape, and Carapaz lost a load of time today, surprising that Pogacar was also caught out in the crosswinds. Full on from the start by Bora helping Sagan take the lead in the green jersey. Pogacar had a puncture just before ineos started gunning it in the cross winds. Landa and two other Bahrain guys crashed around the same time, so they were all at the back of that group when it split. Yeah I just read that Pogacar had a puncture - unlucky timing for him wasn't it. I didn't see Landa's crash - he never seems to have much luck, pity it wasn't Quintana !
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2020 16:06:20 GMT
Pogacar took some time back today as was to be expected. Interesting to hear Eurosport saying Jumbo Visma were looking a bit of a shambles today in comparison to their pre-Tour form. Good to see Adam Yates still grittily holding on to yellow by 3 seconds but still generally close at the top of the GC. Alaphilippe loses 18 minutes today. Maybe the time trials could be the decisive stages this year 1 Adam Yates 34:44:52 2 Primoz Roglic 00:00:03 3 Guillaume Martin 00:00:09 4 Romain Bardet 00:00:11 5 Egan Bernal 00:00:13 6 Nairo Quintana 00:00:13 7 Miguel Angel Lopez 00:00:13 8 Rigoberto Uran 00:00:13 9 Tadej Pogacar 00:00:48 10 Enric Mas 00.01.00
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Post by Clem Fandango on Sept 5, 2020 17:22:53 GMT
At which point do we (if we really ever did ) stop considering Pinot an actual GC contender? The bloke seems to have some sort of excuse every tour for his annual capitulation. If he wasn’t French he’d have been dismissed along time ago.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2020 8:17:15 GMT
So Roglic is in yellow - is that race over by the first rest day ?
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Post by Clem Fandango on Sept 7, 2020 9:14:47 GMT
So Roglic is in yellow - is that race over by the first rest day ? He certainly seemed strong enough yesterday when the fireworks started that said he didn't attack himself just shut down or went with others. Going to be interesting to see if he can maintain into the third week. Likewise Pogacar looks strong but is it his inexperience which might make him pay later on. I've started to get more interested now after the slow start. Shame its a rest day!!
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Sept 7, 2020 13:12:20 GMT
No way is it over, only on the first rest day. I fancied Roglic before the race and still do, but if anything I think the GC is more open than I thought as Bernal's level seems closer to Roglic than I expected and Pogacar is better than I expected too, so I think we've got a good three way battle and a few other guys close enough to need chasing down. Bernal looks like he is gaining momentum and Ineos will hope to have Sivakov and Amadour back from their crash recovery by the end of next week so he looks to be on the up. Think he needs to take a lead into the ITT. Who knows with Pog? He might blow himself up, but then he seemed to go from strength to strength in last year's vuelta. He could do with Formolo and De La Cruz hitting form.
Week 2 looks like a couple of sprint days with potential for crosswinds, then Thursday and Friday a couple of rolling days where there might be a little GC skirmish for bonus time at the finish, although Friday does just look pretty hard overall so could be bigger gaps. Saturday the significant climbs are all done well before the finish so reckon it'll be a truce before a big showdown on Grand Colombier on Sunday.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2020 16:57:54 GMT
No way is it over, only on the first rest day. I fancied Roglic before the race and still do, but if anything I think the GC is more open than I thought as Bernal's level seems closer to Roglic than I expected and Pogacar is better than I expected too, so I think we've got a good three way battle and a few other guys close enough to need chasing down. Bernal looks like he is gaining momentum and Ineos will hope to have Sivakov and Amadour back from their crash recovery by the end of next week so he looks to be on the up. Think he needs to take a lead into the ITT. Who knows with Pog? He might blow himself up, but then he seemed to go from strength to strength in last year's vuelta. He could do with Formolo and De La Cruz hitting form. Week 2 looks like a couple of sprint days with potential for crosswinds, then Thursday and Friday a couple of rolling days where there might be a little GC skirmish for bonus time at the finish, although Friday does just look pretty hard overall so could be bigger gaps. Saturday the significant climbs are all done well before the finish so reckon it'll be a truce before a big showdown on Grand Colombier on Sunday. Good summary ! It does seem to be getting more interesting after what was a dull start. I'm still hoping Bernal can win it but as you say there are a few possible contenders although Roglic is favourite.
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Post by marylandstoke on Sept 8, 2020 11:41:42 GMT
Tour director tests positive on the rest day!
All the major teams only one more test from going home.
Is the sensible money now on the ‘never get to Paris’ bet?
No doubt todays is a sprinters wet dream. More incredible scenery on the start island.
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Sept 8, 2020 12:38:49 GMT
Tour director tests positive on the rest day! All the major teams only one more test from going home.
Is the sensible money now on the ‘never get to Paris’ bet? No doubt todays is a sprinters wet dream. More incredible scenery on the start island. They changed the rules so that only 2 positive tests from riders, not team staff, would mean automatic exclusions so I think the teams are all OK. As we all know it's pretty rare for a cyclist to test positive for anything. Prudhomme isolating for 7 days now. Apparently the French PM was in the car with him on Saturday so guess he has to isolate too. Vive le Tour! EDIT - No I'm wrong, it is 2 members of the same team including both staff and riders. The teams petitioned for it to be riders only but it was over-ruled due to proliferation of cases in France.
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Post by thequietman on Sept 8, 2020 15:50:40 GMT
Bennett ! And he leapfrogs Sagan to take the green jersey too.
Chaotic with all the crashes. Makes what was a sprinter's stage a lot more exciting though ...
The flattest of flat stages tomorrow. Sunny, dry, hot & virtually no wind. Could do with a major pile up or two to make things interesting otherwise it will be the biggest borefest imaginable until the final 10km.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2020 15:29:06 GMT
So stage 12 today. No movement in the GC but a terrific solo ride by Marc Hirschi of Sunweb to win by more than 30 seconds. Richly deserved victory, great planning by Sunweb, and particularly after Hirschi so nearly won a couple if days ago o ly tobe caught in the final kilometre.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2020 16:23:20 GMT
It's the second rest day today and so far it's definitely been a Tour to forget for Ineos. They've been outclassed in every department and it has led to big questions about the new management structure and the team selection. Some of the reasons are fairly obvious but this article in the Telegraph also sums it up fairly well. A poor Tour, or have Jumbo Visma, and a couple of other teams, caught up and overtaken Ineos ? I guess we'll see what happens at the Giro and the Vuelta, or maybe they will come back stronger in 2021 particularly with Adam Yates as one of their team leaders. link
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Post by Clem Fandango on Sept 14, 2020 19:33:45 GMT
It's the second rest day today and so far it's definitely been a Tour to forget for Ineos. They've been outclassed in every department and it has led to big questions about the new management structure and the team selection. Some of the reasons are fairly obvious but this article in the Telegraph also sums it up fairly well. A poor Tour, or have Jumbo Visma, and a couple of other teams, caught up and overtaken Ineos ? I guess we'll see what happens at the Giro and the Vuelta, or maybe they will come back stronger in 2021 particularly with Adam Yates as one of their team leaders. linkI think its pretty simple their team leader isn't as strong this year as the others and they don't really have much of an alternative as Carapaz, Thomas and Froome were all struggling as the selection was made. Bernal will probably be back in better condition next year. As we saw when Wiggins abandoned in 2011 and Froome in 2014(?) Sky/Ineos dont usually have a plan B. I suspect we'll see Thomas give the Giro a good crack and the B team that Ineos fielded at Tirreno did seem very srong.
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Post by salopstick on Sept 14, 2020 20:13:00 GMT
It's the second rest day today and so far it's definitely been a Tour to forget for Ineos. They've been outclassed in every department and it has led to big questions about the new management structure and the team selection. Some of the reasons are fairly obvious but this article in the Telegraph also sums it up fairly well. A poor Tour, or have Jumbo Visma, and a couple of other teams, caught up and overtaken Ineos ? I guess we'll see what happens at the Giro and the Vuelta, or maybe they will come back stronger in 2021 particularly with Adam Yates as one of their team leaders. linkBernal is still young but raw they went with the wrong team. I think froome or Thomas could have gone this time and were only left out to give Bernal a free crack at it. He doesn’t have the experience to fully lead a team
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Sept 14, 2020 20:43:08 GMT
I don't think Ineos got their team selection wrong - Thomas and Froome were both miles off the pace at the Dauphine. Froome still was coming in twenty minutes behind the leaders at Tirreno Adriatico last week and although Thomas has had a good week, there were only 3 GC days and a short ITT in a week long race with which is a world away from what is required at the Tour. They'd have been shelled out the back just as quickly as Amador and Carapaz. Maybe Tao Geoghan Hart or someone might have fared better, but that would be even less experience. This is a season like no other and there was always going to be a difference in how teams dealt with lock down. More or less half the Ineos roster look way off the pace so for me it looks like their physiologists have got something wrong with the way to replace racing with training - tactics are all good and well but if your riders don't have the condition then they can't be executed. That said they have been really unlucky with crashes for Sivakov and Amador and I assume Bernal has to be mildly sick or injured to get so destroyed on Grand Colombier when the likes of Valverde were still there at the top.
Really enjoyed the race this last week, some quality break aways stages. Sunday was a bit of a borefest on account of Jumbo just being so dominant. Sky have always had their dominant squad but can't recall them ever having anyone of Dumoulin's class riding as domestique, maybe Porte at his best. If they can keep their team intact like that next week I don't think anyone has much chance of attacking in the mountains with much success. Col de la Loze is supposed to be super steep so perhaps the sort of climb where domestiques make less of a difference.
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Sept 16, 2020 20:54:25 GMT
Pretty epic mountain stage today. Roglic has got it from here I think. Shame it looked like a fan impeded pogacar with a couple of km to go, knobheads.
I was at the top of the Madeleine having a horrendously expensive can of coke just over a year ago.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2020 6:04:36 GMT
I think Roglic has had it sewnup since the first rest day. Jumbo Visma have been consistently head and shoulders above every other team and ensured he's been in the right place. Overall I don't think there have been too many attacks and to be honest I've been bored rigid with it this year (maybe due to the abysmal Ineos performance).
Yesterday was one of the few good stages and it was good to see Lopez win. Pogacar has looked the only real threat to Roglic and he lost even more time yesterday.
Hopefully the Giro and Vuelta will be more exciting.
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Post by Clem Fandango on Sept 17, 2020 11:51:01 GMT
I think Roglic has had it sewnup since the first rest day. Jumbo Visma have been consistently head and shoulders above every other team and ensured he's been in the right place. Overall I don't think there have been too many attacks and to be honest I've been bored rigid with it this year (maybe due to the abysmal Ineos performance). Yesterday was one of the few good stages and it was good to see Lopez win. Pogacar has looked the only real threat to Roglic and he lost even more time yesterday. Hopefully the Giro and Vuelta will be more exciting. Roglic has never looked in danger and sadly that's sucked most of the excitement out of it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2020 20:35:02 GMT
Finally a day to enjoy for Ineos. Since Bernal has pulled out the remaining riders have some freedom to let rip. After Carapaz' unsuccessful effort yesterday it's been followed up by a great win for Kwiato with Carapaz second today.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2020 19:35:35 GMT
Wow ! I didn't see that coming. Pogacar overturned Roglic's 57 second lead going into the stage 20 time trial, and after Roglic cracked, Pogacar now leads by 59 seconds with only the stage 21 procession into Paris remaining.
"I think I'm dreaming. I feel like my head is exploding," was Pogacar's reaction on Eurosport. Roglic must be shattered after leading so comfortably since the first rest day.
Chapeau - well done indeed !
Special mention too for Richie Porte who turned the clock back and climbed up to third place instead of Lopez.
After a very dull Tour (in my opinion) it has certainly had a sting in the tail.
Looking forward to the Giro in a couple of weeks now !
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2020 22:53:43 GMT
Wow ! I didn't see that coming. Pogacar overturned Roglic's 57 second lead going into the stage 20 time trial, and after Roglic cracked, Pogacar now leads by 59 seconds with only the stage 21 procession into Paris remaining. "I think I'm dreaming. I feel like my head is exploding," was Pogacar's reaction on Eurosport. Roglic must be shattered after leading so comfortably since the first rest day. Chapeau - well done indeed ! Special mention too for Richie Porte who turned the clock back and climbed up to third place instead of Lopez. After a very dull Tour (in my opinion) it has certainly had a sting in the tail. Looking forward to the Giro in a couple of weeks now ! One of the best penultimate days in the tour I was there for the other one.
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