Planet Rugby Forum

Landa goes! You've got to love his spirit!

And the 2 Ineos riders have dropped Bilbao.

I think Carapaz deserves a stage win following his efforts of the last 2 days!

P in VG wrote: ↑Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:08 pm I think Carapaz deserves a stage win following his efforts of the last 2 days!

Well he certainly deserves the KOM Jersey.

I think Kwiatkowski deserved the stage win for all the donkey work he’s done for Ineos at the Tour in his time with the team. It’s almost criminal that a rider as good as him hasn’t picked up a Grand Tour stage win before today.

Dangerous stage for Sam tomorrow.

An undulating stage. Bora will surely go on the attack and set a fast pace

Good day for Scrumboy on Superbru - 91 points

Carapaz, Hirschi, Kwiatkowski & P Bilbao - inspired choices!

Worried about today. That cat 4 climb. If Bora set the pace high, Sagan could take the intermediate sprint and sprint finish putting him back in green jersey

Bora lost Postlberger today, so as tough a time as they had it controlling the race into Lyon, they'll have less firepower today.

Quickstep have sent Cavagna up the road, and he genuinely has an engine that could go all the way.

Bora might be banking on the climb up to the sprint being harder than the actual categorized climb, which is how it looks on the profile.

The county roads around Champagnole are narrow and winding, and there's no flat piece of road anywhere. It's really a day that should favour the break, but Bora don't want that, and nobody wants to fight with them, so it's all very sedate so far.

Landa to attack?

The whole Quickstep team kept going after the sprint, with Sagan and Trentin!


Ah, they've sat up, I really thought they'd go for that. Would've been epic.

Cracking stage again with an impressive Kragh Andersen!

I really think this has been a cracking TDF with stages for every type of riders. A shame the first stage caused so much damages among favorites, the battle could have been even more exciting.

What a tour for Sunweb!

And what a performance by Bennett who survived the mountains and is a solid leader for the green jersey.

Another Slovenian on the podium of this stage as well. Slovenia is becoming a leading nation in cycling.

Brilliant Bennett.

Stuck to Sagan on that breakaway.

TheFrog wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:15 pm Cracking stage again with an impressive Kragh Andersen!

I really think this has been a cracking TDF with stages for every type of riders. A shame the first stage caused so much damages among favorites, the battle could have been even more exciting.

The GC battle has been a bit of a procession. It's just a huge shame that crashes on stage 1, and the Dauphine to a lesser extent, effectively ruined challenges for several riders.

I also can't help thinking "what if" Dumoulin had stayed with Sunweb. Jumbo would be significantly weaker, and he would have all the strength of this Sunweb team at his disposal. I know he wasn't at full strength, but he still could have made them work harder than they have for it.

What a brilliant TT route tomorrow.

Tactics will be very interesting tomorrow. Roglic, Pogacar and Lopez have to go all out.

Carapaz can take it easy until the the 30km mark and go flat out for the King of Mountains competition.

Yet at the same time Carapaz could secure a top 10 finish... difficult choice.

TheFrog wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:49 pm Yet at the same time Carapaz could secure a top 10 finish... difficult choice.

He gets podium with King of Mountains competition no?

DOB wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 7:30 pm

TheFrog wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 4:15 pm Cracking stage again with an impressive Kragh Andersen!

I really think this has been a cracking TDF with stages for every type of riders. A shame the first stage caused so much damages among favorites, the battle could have been even more exciting.

The GC battle has been a bit of a procession. It's just a huge shame that crashes on stage 1, and the Dauphine to a lesser extent, effectively ruined challenges for several riders.

I also can't help thinking "what if" Dumoulin had stayed with Sunweb. Jumbo would be significantly weaker, and he would have all the strength of this Sunweb team at his disposal. I know he wasn't at full strength, but he still could have made them work harder than they have for it.

it has been less of a procession than in the previous years with the Sky and Ineos train. Roglic often found himself battling alone to keep his yellow jersey. He was attacked several times. Sure, his team dominated and they did control a few stages to bring him all the way to the last few hundred meters. But not on the tougher climbs.

TheFrog wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 11:49 pm Yet at the same time Carapaz could secure a top 10 finish... difficult choice.

5 minutes behind 10th (Valverde). No way he makes up that time.

Pogacar will have one of the fastest splits up the mountain. Carapaz has to make 100% sure his split is faster. Other riders will be trying to calculate if they should go TT bike or road bike or change bikes; it’s simpler for Carapaz, ride the lightest setup he can, tempo to just before the time check, and go flat out from there to the finish.

Will Sam copy Ewen and switch to a road bike on final climb?

I was wondering if anyone knows, why are the Time Trials so much shorter than an usually stage? I get it that there is no protection and rest afforded to riders in a peloton. Is there any other reason why the TTS couldn’t be twice as long?

gurudoright wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 1:03 pm I was wondering if anyone knows, why are the Time Trials so much shorter than an usually stage? I get it that there is no protection and rest afforded to riders in a peloton. Is there any other reason why the TTS couldn’t be twice as long?

There's a LOT to unpack there.

A group can ride a lot farther together than a solo rider.
Simple logistics; the last starter today takes off 4 and a quarter hours after the first rider off. So ultimately today's stage lasts even longer start to finish than most of the stages this year.
Time gaps; back when TTs were the be-all and end-all of TdF winners (Anquetil through to Armstrong) the winners would routinely put 6 or 7 minutes into some of their competitors over the course of a 60-70 minute TT.
And that leads to the big reason; with long TTs, it eliminates a lot of contenders. The Tour of old always benefitted the best Time Trialists. The modern Tour has leaned towards rewarding the best in the mountains, which is the box-office part of cycling.

Yes, I think the ITTs of old (I was listening on TV, they said in the 80s, one was almost 90km long!!!) would result in a rider taking the lead and his team locking the race which made the race boring. So the organizers thought shortening ITTs would make mountain stages more exciting. Truth is that this actually not what is happening.

Another explanation for the TdF is the fact none of the best French GC contenders (Pinot, Martin, Bardet) are not ITT specialists and they would lose a lot time.

And... finally, this TdF was designed with Pinot and Alaphilippe in mind. This ITT goes through Pinot's home village and its profile would suit an in-form Alaphilippe.

Unfortunately for French hopes, Pinot hasn't recovered from his fall in the first state and Alaphilippe doesn't have his 2019 legs.

Nice Pavel Sivakov's interview on France 2: very emotional about his struggle in this tour, he seemed quite affected not to be able to ride with the best. He said this was a good lesson in humility to climb with weaker climbers.

Asked whether he would chose France or Russia as his national team (Sivakov is of Russian parents but grew up in France close to Toulouse and is a French citizen), he responded that he will soon make his decision. And being a bit emotional he confessed that he realized how much support he gets from the French crowd and he said that he felt that the Pyrenees were really home.

Superman on the road. I think he is the only one who can beat Pogacar and Roglic.

First time I've seen Sarries with ball in our half and they shred us.

Rugby? Is this actually a rugby forum?

Apparently, the wind has changed and is slowing down the riders now, which explains Van Aert disappointing performance so far. Cavagna has the opportunity to win the stage against the odds.

TheFrog wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 3:57 pm Rugby? Is this actually a rugby forum?

Having 2 sports on different screens is v confusing at times...

Roglic is a puncture away from losing this.

That push at the bike change for Roglic was way beyond 5 seconds.

OMG!

Pagacar not moving too smoothly either now. What a final day.

Hope Dumoulin has done enough - brave not to go for the bike change.

Pogacar is gonna do this.

Great reward for Porte at this stage of his career.

This is bonkers! Wow

Roglic catching Lopez.

And now drafting Lopez, and now passing him.

Pogacar a minute up on Dumoulin even!

So Roglic is putting in a very good TT performance, but Pog is just destroying him.

Dumoulin watching the big screen with a "Who the fcuk farted" look on his face.

What a ride by Pogacar!