They now go with two "presenters": one male one female. They hand the rider the flowers and stuffed mascot.

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I believe the issue is they want something that's more areo than the C24's while still being light. So the WS+'s are as aero as the C40's but much lighter. If it was just weight they'd probably run the C24's but the C40's are too heavy for the aero gains they want.

Can anyone explain why there weren't any real attacks by the GC guys (Roglic, Pogacar, Bernal, Alaphilippe, etc.) at the end of stage 6? I know Alaphilippe got a couple of seconds back from that 20" penalty, but I would have thought someone would have given it a go with a K or two to go. Was it because the stage was already won ahead of them? Saving the legs for another climbing day?

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I really thought the steep part of Col de Lusette would result in an attack that tried to stay away but with the breakaway that far ahead they were going to wipe up all the stage bonus points. So the gamble during the 11 percent grade was if you could stay away and get the stage bonus points and time delta. With the bonus points pretty well gone I guess it was not worth a try going early and then no one trying to go with Alaphilippe at the end since there was only a delta of a few seconds to gain and no stage bonus points.

Because a long 4% grade is no match for a strong group like the one that finished together. The watts you would need to put out to get and stay away would be hard to recover from, and there are a couple of tough days coming up.

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That certainly makes way more sense than the Cycling Weekly point regarding weight. The black wheels shown were rather shallow wheels and seem to be used for climbing days as are the black Bianchi frames??? still any manufacturer/ team who can not make a frame and fit it out under the UCI weight limit is just not trying. I suspect it is more about the placebo effect, if the riders think it is more.... fill in the blank then they will ride it and believe in it. Josh at Silca did a whole pod cast on the placebo effect and such things. There was talk about the fact that Ineos did not (do not?) have a wheel sponsor so that they could buy the best wheels for the situation.

Bora is putting down the hammer for Sagan today and DeGhent hanging off the front 20 seconds and Sam Bennet ~5 min back. Anyone know who else is in the Bora/Yellow Jersey group who can sprint? Going to miss the finish...gotta go into a contract negotiation meeting!

Edit: I'll probably get back on the internet around EDT lunch time and see Van Aert took the sprint from the yellow+Bora group

Interesting shuffle on the day today. Bora really mixed it up today, but must feel like the sprint was anticlimactic for them.

What's your crystal ball say for tomorrow?

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Strava

Well I picked Van Aert this morning when I saw him in the break with Bora, but that felt like cheating since we only had 55km to go and no way they are dropping him. So of the people remaining who would have a good sprint.

Anyone want to put money on Bardet tomorrow to attack the downhill on the other side of Peyersourde?

Will Roglic make it through Stage 8 without falling? (I'm thinking about this year's CdD and last year's Giro.) If he falls, will the guys in the team car be stopped for a potty break?

Not going to happen. Roglic stays upright, goes off the front approaching the summit of Peyresourde, and solos to a 20-second stage win.

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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.

I have not turned on the coverage yet, but the ski jumper Roglic, gapped Froome + Thomas + Dumoulin on the descent of Aubisque in 2018 for the stage win and moved into top 3 the day before the ITT that year. Then Froome finished the ITT 1 second behind Dumoulin to go back into 3rd overall.

I mentioned it in the other TDF thread, but there are going to be a lot of positives in the coming weeks. There was no crowd or social distancing at all on the Peyresourde climb at the end. And those fans standing in the road yelling at the riders without masks...made me cringe.

COVID takes the yellow jersey this year.

Well I picked Bardet so felt like my pick was pretty good since he took first out of the yellow jersey group and that after craahi f today.

I was surprised that Tom D lost so much time but I guess he was working for roglic. Overall though there was no jumbo nor Ineos control on Peyresourde. Just a line up of GC guys all attacking each other.

My 2 cents is that the explosions on Peyresourde today were mainly caused by the Bora train for Sagan yesterday. They forced all the GC players to burn their legs.

It looks like Thibault Pinot did not recover from yesterday. He looked like he was totally lights out or maybe after effects from crashing at Dauphine

The fans on Peyresourde were nuts. Keep in mind all those fans hiked or rode up, so they are either healthy or asymptomatic Covid19 carriers. Let's hope there is enough airflow that it's not enough exposure to cause any riders getting sick

I just finished today's stage. Is it just me or is Liggett even worse this year? He literally stumbles over every other name, can't identify half the riders, and doesn't know where he is in the race when the cameras switch. Bob spends a significant amount of time correcting him.

I know he's been around forever, but come on, this is really bad.

I don't think he watches cycling other than the races he calls which is why he doesn't really know most of the riders.

I am watching on Flobikes in Canada. No Phil Ligget.

They should just get Lance and George to do the coverage. We don't need to love them but they know their stuff. Off to WeDu now!

I was thinking the same thing I don’t remember it ever being this bad and I generally watch quite a bit of the tour each year.

But I’m also not sure how much of this is a full production like normal so they may have more name queues and stuff to watch regular years. It may be generally harder to announce this year.

If available, watch the NBC no-ad feed. It's good. Simon Gerrans and Other Guy are both knowledgeable. They both know just about every rider at a glance, understand all the race dynamics. Minimal "chateau talk." They answer questions off Instagram.

And it'll be resplendent in the Vuelta leader's jersey

Yes it’s brutal. Someone needs to put him out of his misery I assume the only reason NBC keeps him around is to try to bring in casual viewers with his talk about the countryside and scenery.

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Let food be thy medicine...

So who do you think takes tomorrow on Marie Blanque and the decent to the finish. I hope they don't let a breakaway go and the GC are battling for the bonus points on the top of Marie Blanque and the stage finish. If you take the 8 at the top of Marie Blanque and 20 at stage finish that's a lot to snap up. The back half of Marie Blanque are Nairo Quintana friendly. I hope his legs are as good as today and he has a chance to give it a go, but he needs other GC teams to hold the breakaway back. If Podecar puts down the hammer, I think he can crack Roglic. It looks like Aru had a bad day or was saving his legs today to help Podecar tomorrow.



Meanwhile Rigoberto Uran is quietly shadow boxing for the entire first week kind of invisible in anonymity but never losing time at all. Arkea could send Warren Barguil with Winner Anacona up the road in the break to stage hunt as Barguil is far enough back that he would get some leish, but with the option of dropping back and helping a Quintana attack on Marie Blanque

Not only that, but today when Quintana and Roglic attacked, it looked like it was Uran who took up the chase. It's possibly those two stay away if Uran hadn't taken charge. And now that it looks like Higuita and Martinez are out of the GC picture, he's got two stellar climbing domestiques.