Not replying to anyone in particular, but what has happened to Tejay?
His performance has fallen off a cliff. To be fair, I haven't closely followed bike racing in a couple of years so this may have been a developing trend.

Yup, that's it. He's not a TdF GC guy, he's riding for the team. I don't follow the races outside of TdF as closely, so I can't speak to his performance there, but if you're not the GC guy for the TdF, the time really doesn't matter. EF is riding for Rigo and stage wins, and they had a good day today. And maybe team overall too.

The third option would be that Bernal is indeed hitting his all time numbers, but that he lucked out last year with a weak competitive field.

Then again, getting dropped by half the GC field yesterday may suggest that his numbers aren't all that great.

I think Bernal is bullshitting. He got dropped by 35 year old Richie Porte, Lopez Quintana (who crashed), Landa etc etc. It sounds like sour grapes or him changing power meters. It would be one thing if he was hitting all time numbers and in third and put the Slovenians in question (as thats an open question after Peyseroude), but without putting up his numbers unless everyone around him is on Ferrari orange juice and way above their bio passport, then Bernal was down.

George Hincapie predicted today perfectly. He said that the GC teams should keep the breakaway close enough so that the teams of the "climbing sprinters" have motivation that they can bring it back and win in a potential sprint and then the for the rest of the day, the GC teams can sit in and draft and have a day off. Looks like that is what is going on, with Bora but CCC is not playing yet for GvA.

Stefan Kung on a massive TTT

Bennet group off the back and Bennet has cracked. So now it looks like its going to be Wout Van Aert, Sagan, Peterson, Trentin and GvA....but lots of riders in here who could also attack earlier on the sprinter teams.

Bora drove hard two days ago, on a 'Hilly' stage, with climbs of 4-4-3-2.

Today is 'Flat' with climbs of 4-2-3-4-4 (and 14 miles shorter than stage 12).

No brainer that they would drive the front hard today after the relegation. I wouldn't be quick to send my team up to do any work when Bora is so motivated to drive up front.

I think the question is whether the long-range solo attacks come on the penultimate climb or the last one.

Also doesn't help that his team isn't as strong, and Bernal was isolated when Sepp Kuss and Tom Dumoulin went to work. We missed a lot of that watching the excellent Martinez-Kamna-Schachmann battle. Sean Yates called out Ineos for apparently being stuck in history, pretending like they can use the exact same tactics they always have. When their team is fundamentally different. No one trembles with fear anymore when Ineos goes to the front on a long climb. It looked like Roglic and Pogacar were casually chatting when Kwiatowski and Castroviejo were going as hard as they could.

Quite surprised than Bennett held on so long. DQS kept the pressure on then CCC started working with Bora and Bennett went past his limit. Time to sit up.

The question is how much will all that work have taken out of Sagan? Bennett could also be fried. I have no insight into any rider's state in week 3 of a GT. Coming week is brutal.

Bit surprised that CCC did so much work for little return. Once the gap was established, if they had sat in like Sunweb I think they would have had much better results.

It'll be a ding dong battle for the intermediate sprints for the next few stages. Stage 19 is the only opportunity for Bora to make major gains on intermediate sprint and finale, it'll be hard not to see a breakaway going on this stage unless Bora turn themselves inside out to chase all day.

Bora has put down quite an effort the past 3 days and walked away with little to show for it. Today was especially tough... didn't pick up enough points to give Sagan more than a slim chance, but picked up enough that it's still worth contesting.

Stage 19 is definitely a chance for big points, but I think they'll have to push it early on 16 too and hope they can drop Bennett before the intermediate. That would be huge for Sagan if they could pull it off.

When Julian Alaphilippe could destroy people at the front a year ago and now looks more like a domestic it does make you wonder what is going on

Wondering how many friends Bora made over the past few days and if there'll be any pushback. Lots of teams with no success so far itching to get in a break. CCC desperate for new sponsors. Sincerely hope Sagan doesn't get a flat in any stage - could see others making it difficult for him to get back on.

I totally understand why Bora were trying to bury Kung on his solo and also drop Bennet and make Bennet hurt. Maybe they are thinking they can hurt him enough before the big mountains that he can't recover and miss a time cut on something like the Grand Colombiere stage coming up.

But I don't understand why Kamna attacked today with 6 km to go. Even with those small climbs 6km to go is way too far.....3 km to go would make more sense....years ago Ekimov would attack anywhere from 4000m to 3000m to go and use his pursuit pedigree to try to win stages or races.

Kamna's attack seemed doomed to failure, but what that did was turn things from a potential proper sprinter team finish to a series of attacks and counters, thus potentially killing it for Sagan....Sagan himself is burning a ton of matches and as it stands there is only stage 19 and stage 21 to have a chance to close on Bennet, but Bennet will be there to get points too unless he gets relegated and I would think he plays extra careful and just needs a few intermediate sprint points in the vicinity of Sagan and finish stage 19 and 21 in the front group and he is set.

Bora and Sagan are making their opportunities. It's going to come up short, but they are trying to give him a chance. Stage 7 after Bora sets him up with similar tactics as today (3:32 for 104 hilly miles) and he drops a chain in a sprint and he gets 4 points for what could have been 50,30,20 for 1,2,3 which he likely would have seen as, like today, few sprinters remain.

Stage 11 relegated and cost him 53 points (43 for him lost and Bennett moved up a place gaining 10 more).

Today's stage he gets 18 for 4th place, could have been 50,30,20 for 1,2,3.

Again, Bora is making his opportunities. Stage 7 and 11 could easily have been 100 points rather than 22 for him. Meanwhile Bennett and his team put him in position for exactly zero, so their fate has been completely at the whim of what Sagan can manage, and they simply are lucky he has only managed 13th and 4th on those days. Luck is a fickle friend and no way to rely on holding a jersey.

It will not work out for Bora and Sagan, and Bennett will ultimately win the jersey, but you cannot fault Bora and Sagan for trying.

Strange thing to say. Morkov has been doing some great leadouts for Bennett and, in the intermediates, has regularly been outsprinting Sagan to deny him points. One should also remember that Bennett wasn't contesting the intermediate sprints or green jersey with any effort for the first few stages, so Sagan was luckily gifted quite a few points there - before the Green jersey competition got serious.

It's a three week race, and Sagan set his sight on Green and continues to even though at a strong handicap. Its not Sagan's fault that Bennet took it easy when Sagan was trying to snap up easier points. Now if Sagan's team or CCC make it a fight for Bennet that's just part of winning the jersey. As Sagan said a few days ago, "They all want green or they want to bust my balls"...well now Sagan wants Green and he's trying to bust Bennet's balls so it goes both ways!!!

Perhaps the commentators are trying to keep some interest in the green jersey competition by saying "It's not over yet!"

But unless Bennett has some horrific bad luck (crash, illness, abducted by aliens) he's got it wrapped up. Sagan will have a tough time simply finishing ahead of Bennett on Stage 19 and Stage 21, much less getting enough points to overtake Bennett.

But it is good to see Bora and Sagan giving it a try.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Do you think they are able to put enough hurt on Bennet that he risks the time cut?

Tomorrow, Pogacar goes once with 12k to go to thin the pack and again with 7 km to go on the Grand Colombiere when it hits 12%

Ewan might have problems making the time cut. But Ewan always seems pretty good at just squeaking in on the climbing stages with a couple of minutes to spare. This could a year where one of the stage winners also ends up as the GC lanterne rouge.

Bennett looks like he can grit his teeth and hang on with the rest of the autobus without too many problems.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Bennett looked horrible yesterday but lost only 30s on a cat 2 today. That's a fantastic recovery from him. No idea what his legs will be like in week 3 - but at least 40 riders will get time cut first if Bennett is to get time cut. That might ruffle some feathers.

I'm enjoying the spectacle and fully expect Bora to go all out on stages 16 and 19, or any other chance they get. I think DQS messed up leadouts in two stages but were exemplary in all other respects. Not Bennett's fault that Sagan was regulated or Sagan's fault that he got some points gifted in the first stages. My bet is that Bennett will win green by more than the points Sagan lost due to relegation. Would love to be proved wrong. It ain't over 'til it's over. Makes for fascinating viewing.

I meant in stages 7 + 14 where Sagan's team created opportunity for him to score big and Bennett's did not.

Separate topic: KOM competition is pointless and stupid. Prove me wrong.

Really sad to see Quintana lose 3 min today after crashing a few days ago. And poor Bernal....hope he did not get Covid19 from his positive staff

How could he have Covid, he was just putting out his best numbers ever

Really bummed about Quintana, was really hoping to see him in the thick of the action and land on the podium.

Otherwise, what a let down today's stage was, I mean nothing at all happened.

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Quintana must be feeling his crash. Those crashes not only hurt the spot where the crash happens but messes up sleep and recovery in a 3 week event. Had he stuck with the group, he would be in very strong podium position.

As it stands, this stage basically sucked the life out of the tour de France, unless you are a Jumbo fan. It just stretched out the entire GC battle and it also stretched out the Green Jersey battle