The french TGV acronym also works : Train Grande Vitesse.

That was the pun I tried to make, TJV would be pronounced very similarly to TGV (Tay-Jay-Veeh), so picture was a yellow TGV with black accents (color motif of Jumbo Visma).

The link crapped out. So here I am trying to explain a pun (through of no fault of my own). Let me try linking an image again

I believe I heard MJ say this morning that "theoretically it shouldn't" change much as it should be faster for 3-4
guys to stay together until the final 500k or so but.. if guys punch it or its windy ??

I like Bob okay enough but for some reason not CvD, not sure why

DeGendt would like a 500k TTT..... :)

Other teams hoping they do NOT wake the sleeping kitty.

On some courses taking the time on the 1st rider would make a difference, but on this course? It's pretty flat, so it seems like most teams will ride it like a normal TTT.

Jumbo Visma obviously brought an awesome team and are probably the favorites. But who will take 2nd? I'll take Soudal; I think they'll be working hard for Schmid.

So i was thinking, maybe not in paris nice, but if this was the rule set in tdf, would you not just let pogadjar/vinegaard freewheel from start to save the legs and let the rest of the team set a good time?

"Freewheeling" is not obvious

Watts, in position 2-7 is dictated by the peloton. When in position 2 or 3, it is still significant. Especially when hills are at play. Today max incline is about 3.5%.

You still have to do a pull in position 1. If it's too short, it's bad because you are losing 2-3m and there is the effort to get back on the train is actually substantial. You are "in the wind", (5km/h slower) and then you have to surge to get back on. In the power files it is hard to differentiate the pull from the 12sec after the pull. So there is a downside and cost to not doing reasonable pulls

Short pulls make it easier fo you (to an extent) but you are giving your team mates less time to recover. Their batteries are depleting faster.

Not every team has 7 Pogs to freewheel off. If the Peloton is only getting it's horsepower from 6 guys and not it's using it's strongest part, that hurts as well. Having the depth of a JV helps. I am not sure UAE has it.

Super aero guys (Dennis, Foss) are great. But getting a draft of them isn't as great. In sub 7, they cursed at how little draft they got off Bigham.

So you can preserve a guy but sometimes a big chunk of his energy is best used making the peloton more efficient.

The complexity of optimizing 7 riders, all different strengths, all different drafting and aero characteristics is really challenging. The more even the team in terms of ability, the easier.

I recall back in ~2018, there were reports of the team buying sandwiches at a random gas station because they had ran out of their own supplies and some of their riders (Martin and Aru?) were complaining about their nutrition as they were all swollen up due to too much sodium.

Couple of years later, they were winning the Tour with a twenty one year old kid.

Indeed. They had Filippo Ganna in their ranks for a time before Sky snapped him up. They could have built around him as they have done with Pogacar but I guess they didn't see the potential.

Kind of a fun TTT to see the range of skills of each team. Bit of crosswind - you can see some guys getting nervous in the aerobars in the middle of a line.

Lotto tried the full "team sprint" tactic. Not sure that's going to be the best idea.

Oof, El Tractor derailed. Gonna get ugly for Quick-Step.

King Kung and FDJ did phenomenal!

Nice start to the year for Jakobsen.

wout chilling after 2k lol

nice sprint by jakobsen for sure!

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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

JV did pretty good today - Vinge was -12 now + 12 over Pogi :)

not a bad day but it shows all that Pogi need to do to stay competitive against a superior team ala JV

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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

I’m not a huge fan of the TTT format. Maybe with road bikes but it’s just too much of a tech and talent gap. If UAE and Ineos bring their A team the outcome looks different than today.

Though if Jumbo brings their A team (Wout and Roglic) maybe it's not different. :)

That was the argument made years ago when the TTT's would have a big impact at the TdF. Guys like Delgado were always losing time in the TTT because they had teams stacked with little Spanish climbers while the likes of Roche and Fignon had teams with a few big boys in them who could roll it along and make some gaps in those TTT's.


But the funny thing was that nobody was crying for Roche and Fignon when the mountains hit and the likes of Delgado was making their lives uncomfortable thanks to his team of little Spanish climbers.


Each team's management is free to build their team as they see fit, and to recruit talent based on what the races throw up at them. The teams know when there's a TTT on the schedule and they can select riders accordingly. IF they choose not to bring riders for the TTT and focus instead on riders who they feel they can get a bigger bang for the buck with on other terrain, that's their choice.

True, that's valid discretionary choice in team composition.

But arguably the cost of all the extra bikes (even if that burden falls on the bike sponsor, not team cash) and extra wind tunnel testing is pretty burdensome.

Though kudos today for "lower budget" teams like EF, Jayco, and FDJ throwing down very, very good times. Just shows that having institutional knowledge and good practice sessions probably goes a long way in TT and TTT.

Sort of. Many teams don’t have the budget to be competitive in every scenario, especially an outlier like a TTT. Or their equipment is sub-par (probably less of an issue now). Just because every team is free to build as they see fit doesn’t equal a level playing field.

Was there not a TTT this year using road bikes? That was genious id you ask me. Then the tt bikes can be used on individual tt.

Uno-X finished next to last, ahead of IPT - did the weird helmets help at all?



https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7904507#p7904507

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

50k out and the grouppo is already nervous. I foresee carnage. Hope not but this run in is purportedly super tech.

Venga finally shows some flair! Blowing kisses at the camera while UAE is driving up a climb full gas.

Good to see Bling roll TaddyPo, can't let skinny GC guys win every bonus.

Perfect lead-out by mvdp.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Dang, I need to set up a proper Situation Room so I can keep track of multiple things at once.

MvdP looked like Morkov over in Italy today.