Powless has all kinds of power, just needs a bit more "nous."

Demare looking like a good pick for MSR with that effort.

Jumbo-Visma left Venga seriously isolated. A bit lucky to get away with that.

Tirreno with rain made for a crappy TT - most riders not taking chances this early in the season

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

No wind at the Race to the Sun on the echelon-friendly stage. :(

I know right? lol I'm watching that one too

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

Except for Ganna, looks like he was tired of losing.

Meanwhile, over in France, Pogi takes an intermediate sprint to pick up more bonification.

does the TdF offer intermediate bonus seconds like P-N; are we seeing the future here

boring day with interesting finish!

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

All the big sprinters blew it!

Totally. Messy sprint but Mads getting it done.

Yup, Tour time bonuses can add up.

How are we supposed to interpret WvA's ITT performance in Italy? Recovering, taking it easy in bad conditions, both?

Good question. Think he was sick, so maybe a bit flat like MvdP was at Strade? Roglic also looked a little off the mark.

Magnus van Ineos with a big ride. McNulty up there too.

he and mvpd need to be good for what 3-4 months?

really no point to risk it imho

if he smack the peloton during tdf like he did last year WHO is going to talk about the tt he did half ass at the beginning of the season? ;)

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

One of roglic's vuelta wins came down to his bonus seconds, if I'm remembering right from stage time alone carapaz would have taken the win.

There's the illness thing that kept him out of Strade, so it's not a surprise that he's not firing on all cylinders 2 days after the race he wasn't fit enough to start. But I think the weather played a role too - it was pretty clear the early starters weren't going to be in contention for the win. So no point in burying yourself when winning isn't possible. Save it for later.

In P-N Pogi looking savage, and Mads doesn't make mistakes.

Michael Matthews could not come around him on a false flat. Which is bananas.

Not sure what Jumbo-Visma was thinking assigning 'Donck to point-sniping duty. They absolutely needed to have Olav be that guy today.

No question about both. No GC guy wants to go to the line with Pogi given that nasty finish. Vinge is rarely, if ever, going to put it on him, absent a complete implosion like last year. So J-V better get a little more clever with how they approach stages like today. Pogi is a savage—both with his legs and race craft.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out after tomorrow. Vingegaard likely isn't super worried about those seconds right now when he's going to be lining up behind Affini, Foss, and Dennis for the TTT.

You're seeing the past... and the future since the ASO reintroduced them.

Bonus seconds have long featured in stage races as a way to liven up the racing somewhat. They went out of favor at the TdF for quite a long time but Christian Prudhomme has resurrected them of late.


I can't recall which of his wins it was, but Giuseppi Saronni won the Giro d'Italia one year because of all the bonus seconds he had scored in the sprints. His actual elapsed/uncorrected time was greater than the rider who finished second on the GC.

thanks - love the history/background stuff - Beppe is now an advisor for UAE La fucilata di Goodwood

The P-N TTT tomorrow will have an interesting new twist in timing. Instead of taking the time off the 4th rider and assigning that time to all finishers in the bunch, they're going to take the time of the first guy to cross the line.

On paper to prevent the Roglic/LaPorte/WvA thing where they dominated GC because they killed the TTT.

In theory you could get down to your 1-2 strongest guys. But somehow I think most teams will bring at least 3-4 to the line. Jumbo-Visma, the favorite, says they're not changing anything.

Yup - he's moved upstairs in the organization.

Recall that the UAE team had its roots in the Lampre team of the early 90s. That organization was set up with Saronni at the helm, initially as the director before moving into a more overall managerial role - just as Patrick Lefevre did with his team in its various Quickstep guises.

Do you recall when Maurizio Fondriest had his purple patch from 93 to 95? He was riding for Saronni's team. The team became Panaria for a bit in the mid to late 90s before shutting down for a few years. It was resurrected when Lampre returned to the sport in 1999 and was sponsored by Lampre until the end of 2016, when the team looked like it would fold when Lampre decided to pull out again.

UAE were found at the very last minute to sponsor the team (Ernesto Colnago played a bit part in brokering that sponsorship) and the team kind of drifted until Pogacar came along and his success attracted more money from the UAE sponsors and the rest is history.

Beppe Saronni's son now manages the team, I believe.

An approximation of the JV Train

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yup. And it's nuts that this version has to be considered the "B train" without WvA and Roglic and it still has two TT world champions.

Too bad neither the Giro nor TdF has a TTT this year because the absolute A train with WvA, Roglic, Foss, Dennis, Affini, Venga would be off the charts. I probably left off one or two.

TJV, although granted, in Germanic languages, "J" is pronounced as "Y"