Bennett can afford to take less risks now. So he is set. Peter did not need to muscle WvA to protect his green, as he was going to get good points, but it was probably bugging him that he had no stage wins, so he took the gamble, and now relegated. But Bennett or anyone else can get relegated from now to Paris, or flat or or or.

That was a difficult spot for Sagan to be in. He knew the only way he would have a shot at the stage win was if he made some room to be able to pass. He was not thinking about the green jersey at that point, he knew he really had a shot at a stage win but he had to get up there. I think the problem is that instead of nudging he threw the elbow and his head, thus a bit too aggressive. It's hard for me to fault the guy for trying to make some room since he really had a shot to win but he was too aggressive on the shove.

It's too bad because he is too far away now from a green jersey win and it's going to be really hard to get a stage win on the remaining stages. A stage win would be the only thing that would salvage this tour for Sagan, but I don't see that happening. On to the Giro...

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http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

Yeah, or maybe he was thinking about that time Cav tried something similar and he put him into the barriers.

He deserved to be relegated. He sought out the contact and he moved WvA over at least a foot with the shove.

He could have easily ended the TdF for WvA and himself today so the relegation was fair.

But I think he soldiers on and keeps up the fight for the Green even if mathematically nearly impossible. I look forward to hearing George Hincapie's views on WeDu tonight.

He should have watched Ackerman's sprint the other day - guy is even bigger and fit through a Cav sized hole along the barriers to beat Gavira.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Quote from Van Aert from velonews.com:

The 25-year-old Belgian was incredulous at Sagan’s actions. When asked if Sagan’s move was due to the Slovakian’s impeccable bike-handling skills, van Aert shot back.



“This is a really weird way of thinking. I think I’m also a good bike handler but it never comes into my mind to create space like that,” van Aert said. “There wasn’t a gap, and if you use your elbows to open it up, I think it’s completely against the rules. For me, it’s not reasonable and not done.”

That’s being kind to Sagan. van Aert was in contention to win before Sagan shoved him over and blew his momentum.

This is what I posted on this thread at 11:49 EDT right after the finish before the commissaires put the hammer on Sagan (rightful penalty):

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.

could have gone either way. There has been sprint bumping before that has gone uncalled. As a Sagan fan, I'm not happy, but I see the other side.

Not sure if this is the right spot for this or if it needs another thread, but is anyone else annoyed by the Velonews prime or insider subscription to access some of their articles? 99$ is pretty steep, but that's my $0.02

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Great things never come from comfort zones.

Well its velonews' biz and what they want to put inside their paywall. I am spending my time mainly on other cycling websites that have advertiser supported content, but I make sure I go to velonews 1x per day to read their free perspective.

I agree the cost of velonews is pretty steep. I am getting flobikes.com video feeds for $12.50 per month (well it's $150 for the year and then you have to cancel outstanding months you don't use).

Word on the street is that Sagan jumped left to avoid a selfie-stick he suddenly saw hanging over the barriers



Looks reasonable

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

He was asked about this in an interview this morning and he said he didn't see the selfie stick.

In the article he says he was trying to avoid the advertising vertical pillar (the one tht says Leclerc) because otherwise if he kept going the way they were his right handlebar would hit it:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...as-a-dangerous-move/

I just played the thing back frame by frame and you can see then they suddenly come up to the advertising pillars that he does his push on WvA's hip. When you see the photos from in front, it looks like there is no excuse, but when you look at the overhead camera at full speed, those advertising pillars are not anywhere in the shot and suddenly they show up.

Its still debateable if he would hit them, but maybe the larger question is why advertising is trumping riders safety in course design. Remember when Abdou hit the massive Coke Can pillar on Champs ?



and the debate on why that advertising needed to be there?

A single photo frame does not tell the tale, but look at that photo and tell me who is centered on their bike and who is leaning into the other rider? Look at the head tubes and seatposts relative to rider body.

When I watched the overhead, WvA was moving across the road to the right, but holding his line. Nothing sudden and the hole would have closed right around the advertising pillar. Maybe Sagan thought he could thread the needle like Caleb Ewan last week, but he left the advertising pillars out of his calculation. If you look at the geometry of the board your wheel can be right on the board (one mm to the left of it) and handlebar in the air vertically over the slanting board...until their a vertical pillar and no room in space for your handlebar.

Its not excusing Sagan, because everyone knows where these pillars are. He may have forgotten what the design of the finish is at every stage with these pillars.

Also on that image, for a normal body position, the head should be over the pedal you are about to push down on, not over the pedal where your foot is down....but timing is everything.

OK today Bernal is saying his power numbers are best ever:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...rall-on-le-puy-mary/


and Roglic and Pogacar just rode away from him. I was kind of hoping to see Nairo Quintana and Bernal do some damage on Puy Marie.

Dev,

I'm excited about the whole Tour and the race within the race, the shake ups on GC are all a thrill. I'm really happy to see Rigoberto Uran just 11sec off the podium and I'd like to see Neilson, Tejay, Martinez, etc rally around him to support - even if Bernal's numbers are fab this might be an opportunity for him to podium in Paris again.

Ian

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Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan

I think if Rigo can limit any losses in the next week, he has a great chance to podium in the final ITT. It feels like the Slovenians may have had a small advantage given their less than tight lockdown vs many other countries. For example they held their nationals in June before anyone was even close to racing again.

As I mentioned on the other thread...I wonder why Pogacar is not publishing his power any more?

I hope it's nothing sinister, but I fear we have been down this road before...and before...and before

Remember when Lemond, as an early SRM user said he was hitting the same numbers are the previous years, and Indurain, Bugno, Chiapucci and others suddenly were blowing the doors off. Now is Bernal saying his numbers are best ever, but its just talk just to stir the pot, or is he actually posting his own (forget about Pogacar).

'Sky' have been very guarded with which power data they post...Bernal hasn't had anything up for weeks.

Yeah this is roughly my point. Pogacar's Peyresourde climb has now been dissected to death. Bernal blabs off that he's doing close to all time, yet he got dusted today by around 40 seconds. This seems to be an underhanded jab at trying to say that everyone else is not normal given that he won last year on just as good numbers. For all we know he was posting all time best numbers and his brakes were rubbing, or he had a slow leak, or maybe he just thinks his numbers were all time best but he is out of shape or his back is sore and he's several watts down over last year. Or Roglic and Pogacar are super high.

I'm tipping a combo of both. But the cycling fan in me is reasonably cynical about what is going on at the pointy end.

I am with you on "combo of both". No way last year's Bernal cannot keep up with Richie Porte who dropped him today.

Bernal also looked a bit like a guy bonking today. Maybe he just messed up hiis fueling. It was a 5 hrs stage with 4400m of vertical. The total vertical crept up because of the sawtooth profile