Remco, Bennett, Carapaz

Aru, Hermans

ulissi, vlasov, remco

would like to pick contrarian but these cats are killing it.
curious about dauphine now that theyre hitting the constant climbs all stage instead of the mega climbs to finish the stage.
how many dudes will even make it to the start of stage 5?

Yeah, everyone outside of Formolo looked gassed today. I realize the Yellowjackets are controlling things, but no one looked at all eager about attacking..just sprinting the final few hundred meters.

The TdF could turn into a real zombie march.

Boy I am glad that was in pink.

I thought Thomas in particular looked horrible today. He doesn't look close to race weight and his breathing looked very labored for a guy who was dropping off the back to just cruise to the top so he can hit peak form in 4 weeks. What type of training hole do you have to be in so that all of your former Tour winners are either dropped or hanging on for dear life? Wouldn't these guys be trying to show up under-cooked rather than over-cooked?

The other interesting thing was Formolo's pedaling style. When I saw the first highlights of the last couple of kilometers, I figured he was just really dead from his breakaway. Then I watched the extended coverage and he looked just as bad 55k from the end. You can't argue with the result, but it sure it's anything like watching Nibali. I would go so far as to say that Formolo makes Froome's style look classy.

I like it. But I’ve gotta shop at Remco.
Then, Woods, Mollema
Ulissi, Shachmann

And to add to the effect, he was making more faces than anyone since Voeckler.

Helluva ride though!

Gotta be Remco. Then Scachmann and Woods.

Carapaz and Almeida as WCs.

re - formolo
there is a post from a guy who fitted formolo at garmin a few years ago
i figure the obvious question is - how do you fit a guy who does 400watts at 70 rpm for a 45 minute climb?
i had to adjust my posture just to watch that and my back still hurts.

i saw formolo in 2015 on stelvio (he didnt get selected for tour). he had jersey and shorts rolled for (??) more tanning (??). i was passed by him twice (they had a team car to stop at and chat/refuel). he looked like classics type rider who could just powerfully turn the gear. then again i was hypoxic and tired.

seeing the crash news this am from dauphine - emphasizes the luck involved in modern cycling - 200 dudes so close in ability averaging such high speed that draft is critical = there will be crashes. bummer.

One moment JV looks unbeatable. Now one of their GC guys is certainly out for the TdF and Roglic who knows how this crash affects his rest of race and final prep. He's back on the bike.

J-V doesn’t look panicked, and Roglic certainly knows something about crashing. Bernal seems of more concern if there’s something unrelated with his back.

Bummer for Buchmann. He showed his talent last year, hopefully he can recover in time.

Carnage...

Remco won't sneak up on anybody here. His own youthful impatience (burning too many matches) might be the only thing to derail him outside of a mechanical.
33 wins since last year. Wow.
Gilbert has something like 80 I think over 18 years which is also amazing.

Wout back on the front driving it. Confidence will grow even further if they can pull off the GC after adversity.

Strong showing from M vdP. Matching Woods

That climb looks like something I dream about. Though right now it’s MvdP’s nightmare.

Remco really mixing it up today. Trek rider chirping at him on earlier climb, now he's bumping with Astana blockade. Guys trying to rough him up a bit, but he's unshakable. Kid has moxie.

He does. He was just railing a descent, putting a little pressure on guys.

Ciccone and Nibali together look dangerous.

Edit: And right on cue Nibbles has just put descending class into session.

Oh f***, is that a race bike by the bridge in the replay?

Where's Remco?

Also, Ulissi and Majka are bad at descending

edit: oh f***; that was Remco's bike

Oh fuck I hope Evenepoel is OK. Went over the fucking bridge.

holy shit......i hope he caught the bank above the stream and didn't fall all the way down

in other news, M vdP is only 20 seconds back. Probably will get dropped again, but brave effort

The 2020 shite-show continues. Multiple Tour contenders and Remco all out in a flash. I can't wait for 2021.

Nibali looking super frisky. They don't want to let the blue monster MvDP back on.
Wish we could get a Remco update. That was bad.

Haven't seen the Remco replay from the motorbike cam, but that looks like a long fall. not good. Hope he's ok.


Edit: Just saw the replay. The wall probably did more damage than the fall as he came off the top of his head.

Let's go George B.

OPQS says he's okay

moments like this makes you realize that road racing can get bare-knuckled gladiatorial. Those roads look downright frightening: off camber turns, off camber turns opening to narrowing bridges, car bumpers jutting out onto the road. Remind me of that one stage of Tirreno where there was a narrowing on a stone bridge, and a poor dude almost flipped over.

Doesn't take long for us to flashback to four years ago when it was Nibali who had a horrendous crash in Rio