Tour de France 2018

[vadaga]

I would expect they were briefed on the corners but still it was quite a twisty bit of road... fair play to Roglic for getting away that was some serious descending, on the broadcast they showed a rider from katusha alpecin IIRC almost lost his back wheel at one point

[Steve James]

It's scary driving on some of those roads in a car, and I'd bet that the speed limit was about 50 kph. Of course, cars can't take the apexes. Dumoulin complained that the camera moto was giving Roglich an unfair advantage. But, it's not easy for it to stay ahead of the bikes on curves. Personally, I get chills because the moto gets too close. All in all, moto accidents seem to have decreased since the last few Tours.

Tomorrow's tt will seal the deal for the whole GC. It's gonna be a thrilla.

[vadaga]

Dagnabit, site lost my comment so here comes the short short version.

Every GC rider who was over 3 minutes down on Sky at the beginning of the first week should have attacked like it was going out of style and only has themselves to blame for Sky's win. Froome cracked under only medium pressure from the other GC teams and if Thomas hadn't been a factor Sky wouldn't have taken the yellow. At very least they could have gotten a chance at prix combatif or a stage win.

I submit the following as evidence

Results 20th stage 2018 Tour de France

1. Tom Dumoulin (nld) 40.52
2. Chris Froome (gbr) + 0.01
3. Geraint Thomas (gbr) + 0.14
4. Michal Kwiatkowski (pol) + 0.50
5. Søren Kragh Andersen (den) + 0.51
6. Bob Jungels (lux) + 0.52
7. Primoz Roglic (slo) + 1.02
8. Ilnur Zakarin (rus) + 1.12
9. Marc Soler (spa) + 1.22
10. Michael Hepburn (aus) + 1.23

RE: claims that Sky are unbeatable, I don't buy it, they are a GC team with nothing but TT riders, rouleurs who can climb and pure climbers. This is one formula for winning the GC. It can be duplicated.

I feel for the sprinters this year though... so many drop outs...

[Steve James]

Team Sky does not have sprinters. They use their collective strength in the tts and in the mountains. They can keep their GC contenders ahead there. Kwiakowsky is a super domestique, and could be a contender if he had help. Bernal is clearly upcoming.

Dumoulin simply didn't have the help.

[vadaga]

It is smart though for Sky, if they are dominant enough to be able to rotate their riders winning then there is less suspicion of any one rider doping. From what I heard Bernal will be their next guy in a year or two and in the meantime they are strong enough to support both Froome and Thomas.

[vadaga]

Dagnabit, site lost my comment so here comes the short short version.

SNIP
RE: claims that Sky are unbeatable, I don't buy it, they are a GC team with nothing but TT riders, rouleurs who can climb and pure climbers. This is one formula for winning the GC. It can be duplicated.

Jumbo Visma are the new Team Sky... but Pogacar is on another level which makes it interesting... Le Tour 2022 starts tomorrow! (with a flat short TT of 13.2 km on flat roads in Copenhagen... followed by two flat sprinter stages over the next two days... not sure what I think about that choice...)

[Steve James]

Agree that Jumbo Visma is the powerhouse this tour. Pogacar has to be the odds on favorite, but the fight with Roglic will be fun.
Too bad that Cav won't be there, but if he were, the team would have to spend the tour supporting him. It's cool that he ends up even with Eddie M.
And Sagan and Froomie will be there. Just like old times.

[vadaga]

I misread the website... the TT starts in 30 minutes!

Not a big fan of Patrick Lefevre and Sam Bennett didn't find his form with Bora so I will be pulling for Caleb Ewan vs Fabio Jakobsen and the Quickstep leadout train in the sprints this year which should be fun to watch. Sagan vs. Wout van Aert for the points jersey will also be good drama.

I am kind of on the fence about ever supporting Cavendish (his UK championship was a great race tbf) as he did some dodgy racing in the past (Crashing Heinrich Haussler comes to mind) - same for Dylan Gronewegen / Nacer Bouhanni

[Steve James]

I was sure Ganna was gonna win... and then

[vadaga]

Oh I forgot Sagan, robbed on the finish line yesterday though his kick was a bit lacking- though watching the video again both Van Aert and Sagan deviated- preventing Caleb Ewan from going up the barriers.

[Steve James]

Van Aert, imo, force Sagan right unnecessarily -which took away Sagan and Ewan's chances, and probably cost him the win too. Lots of people think he should be relegated out of the green jersey.

[vadaga]

/spoilers

Pogacar was dominant today... did a great job of staying out of trouble on the cobbles and attacking Jumbo... a dramatic day of racing on the whole though of course some poor safety design ended Jack Haig's Tour. Mathieu Van der Poel interestingly was nowhere to be seen

[Steve James]

Yeah, but Van Aert managed to stay in yellow despite crashes and playing domestique for most of the race. I was sad to the Intermarche rider. Pogacar was great, but also lucky not to get involved in the mayhem.

This was a brutal stage, but tomorrow's is 220 km; and the day after that it's 175 km in the mountains. If Pogacar is feeling it, I wouldn't be surprised if JV try to blow the race up on Friday.

[vadaga]

I was rooting for Boasson Hagen in the finale but he kicked way too soon and as soon I saw him go knew he'd bottled it.

I do wonder in the cobbles stages like yesterday why the teams used so many team tactics... Pogacar raced it like a 1 day race with minimal team support and stayed up front and clear of the crashes, whereas all of the bigger teams (here I am thinking Jumbo Visma and Ineos mainly) were caught up in the bunch when everybody was squeezed up and felt a lot more effect anytime there was a pileup.

After Roglic took that time hit (which is a shame as he was racing so strongly this year and now he has to have his consolation prize of just winning the Vuelta again for the 4th year running), it looks like Vingegaard is GC rider this year for Jumbo Visma which probably simplifies things for them greatly...Agreed that Ineos and Jumbo Visma are going to have to go after Pogacar sooner rather than later, but I don't expect anything major to happen today (watching the race now) so I'd expect Pogacar to have a relatively easy day of it and be fresh enough to defend tomorrow.

[Steve James]

Apparently, Pogacar is feeling it. He's a beast, and he's a young rider who's already won the Tour twice.