Not sure, but I think Roglic could do well. Perhaps he thought about going with Pogacar, then realized there's a hellish stage the next day and kept his powder dry. That climb does not look forgiving, at all, and I think it may be bye-bye for Yates

Dauphine winner is not a climbing Domestique!!!! That is crazy. Below are your top 10 from Dauphine final stage for a reminder of who was strong 3 weeks ago (keeping in mind Roglic and Quintana DNF'd, Pinot was banged up at Dauphine as was Sivakov, and they both crashed again early during TdF). Also did Kamna also crash early in TdF?:

1Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma3:58:392Daniel Martinez (Col) EF Pro Cycling0:00:273Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates0:00:304Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos0:00:455Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma0:00:516Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe7Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ0:01:028Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis0:01:049Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale0:01:0610Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic

I know you're probably kidding, but he's 21 minutes down. He's either a domestique or going for stage wins.

No No...I meant to type, "Dauphine winner is NOW a climbing domestique"...vs "NOT a climbing domestique". Should havee proof read. They can easily send him up the road to stage hunt (lets say with the aforementioned Barguil) and could drop back to help Uran. There are a few teams with well placed GC guys who have really good climbers way down who could stage hunt, but could also drop back and help (if they are even allowed to join the break). Let's see.

Is that online or cable?

Looks like Barguil got in the break, Martinez came across. Kamna is in it and Castraveijo made the jump across. And now Martinez jumps out of the group. Roads are wet, but not raining, but supposed to get bad.

Online for me.

I think that was more a case of not looking like you're going to chase everything down. When you do that you send the signal that you're stronger than everyone. He might well be, but probably doesnt want to advertise.

So, instead he let's the guy who was a minute back off the leash a bit.

Yesterday's stage was fantastic, but I personally think that Jumbo is blowing their strongest card.

Using Tom D to blow apart the GC group (and also put himself in a hole) seems like a bad investment to me. Tom is a proven week 3 performer. Roglic has proven as many times to cave in week 3 as he has do well in week 3. At 3 minutes down, he's only a GC threat if several people lose around 2 min before the ITT. Tom was solid at Dauphine and I think if he kept his powder dry, he could be the main guy in week 3 for everyone to be worried about. He would just sit on everyone and limit time loses on the steepest mountains and then take it all back and more on the ITT.

Now its all on Roglic and he has to worry about Carapaz+Bernal getting stronger. Quintana and Bardet are well placed, but what do you guys think about Rigoberto Uran. He will be stronger than most of the pure climbers for the ITT part of the ITT and will lose zero time on them for the climb part of the ITT

In a Dutch newspaper it was considered by Michael Boogerd a mistake of TDM that he burnt some matches for Roglic.
TDM himself said he did not feel good and did not feel to be favorite for the endvictory anymore. He said main thing Jumbo gets yellow and goes for the endvictory.

For me as a Dutchman of course I rather would like TDM to win. Maybe I should also have a look at Bouke Mollema, who seems very strong this year.

I'm watching in online through Peacock. $4.99 per month, so I get the whole tour for five bucks. Live race only.

Am I looking to much into this or does anyone think Hirschi may have had a solid mount for his computer that he may have been using as a pull point while pedaling? I know guys lean on the bars to get low, but he always had his hands on top of each other on the computer. I would think a typical mount would move around a lot more with the amount of times he perched his hands on there and wrapped around it. Is there anything to this?

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Great things never come from comfort zones.

Tomorrow's stage (Stage 10) could be scary if the winds pick up. I'll sometimes avoid railroad overpasses when the wind is blowing 20-30 mph, and they'll have a pretty long/tall bridge to cross to reach the finish on the Ile de Re. I'm reminded of the TTT on Stage 4 of the 2000 TdF, where the riders had to cross the long(er)/tall(er) bridge into St Nazaire, and how some of them thought that was pretty sketchy.

Throw in some crosswinds on the ride up the coast, and they could have a lot to deal with.

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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.

Probably not much benefit from 'pulling' on the mount when motoring along at 300-400W. He was usually back in the drops when sprinting out of the corners.

Roglic was a ski jumper is old news so I appreciate all the reminders that Guillaume Martin is a philosopher.

Unfortunately more banged up riders after today.

So who takes Green to Paris....Sagan can't seem to close any sprints this year. He just lacks the extreme top end. Bennet, Ewen and Trentin seem to have his number. If Wout Van Aert was given the go ahead he wins green in my book.

the real mountains are yet to come and sagan will go in breaks to harvest points which i don't think bennett or ewan can/will do. WvA would be an unbackable favourite if he wasn't on domestique duties but unless roglic hits major issues soon that won't happen. trentin will hopefully keep the competition going but i don't think he'll quite be able to pull it off. i expect sagan will have come into the tour underdone with backing up for the giro in mind so he should be strong later in the race - not necessarily top-end speed to win sprints but consistently up there even on the hardish stages

polka dots is a complete lottery for the moment

white = bernal vs pogacar

The finish today looks like WvA and Sagan favourable with a some up slope in the final 4000m

stretch at high speed that will take the sharpness away from the guys with pure speed. Lance was picking Sagan for today. He looked better yesterday but could not get around the Quickstep guys as the full on sprint started late after the lft bend

Well I mentioned the finish looked WvA and Sagan favourable and those guys tangled up pretty good just before the finish line when Sagan tried to muscle past WvA by the barriers, but nice job by Caleb Ewan on the other side. I felt like Sagan could have taken WvA out of the TdF if things went wrong by a millimeter only based on the overhead shot.

So the Commissaires agree and relegated Sagan to last place. So the green jersey race is really hot now since he got zero points.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...int-shoulder-charge/

Worse than zero points, he lost points. The lead is now insurmountable IMHO. I'm wondering if Sagan will make it to Paris or if he'll drop out to prep for the Giro.

The organizers have no problem putting the cyclists in danger (1 roundabout a every 1.7 miles yesterday) but a head to the shoulder is a dangerous move

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Well I want him or WvA to win Green, but what he did today, in my mind looked a bit dodgy and could have resulted in a massive pileup if it went 1mm the wrong way so he deserves points docked.

Sam Bennet looks in good place, but its not over till it is over. In ill timed puncture for anyone could mean the equivalent of last place points on any stage so lets see.

Hot? Or over? Are there enough points available for Sagan to catch up? He might have to WIN every Intermediate sprint and Finale from here to Paris and hope Bennett finishes no better than say third from now on?

I'm not great at that kind of mathematics here

"I must have the luck of the Irish, except I'm not Irish" - Billy Hoyle

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

It looks like he's 68 points down, and the only good stage for Sagan is the last one. There's 180 points on offer for intermediate sprints, so it isn't mathematically impossible but given how Bennett has been riding so far, barring disaster it's pretty settled. But you're right, it can all change in an instant. One poorly navigated roundabout (and there's a lot of them!) can swing the tide, but just on how they're riding it doesn't look like Sagan's year.