And Froome dropped again.

No one can say Yates isn't racing to win, pushing all the chips in against Dumoulin going solo from 15K out.

His performances are pretty....er, remarkable.

aided by the putzing chasers. it aint just the classics specialists who can't organize a chase. that gap should have been pegged below 20 seconds, instead it's approaching a minute.

Yates riding away from TD and Pinot on flats? Uhhm

the chasers are pissing away the seconds though. they decide to chase, gap dipping toward 35; when no one else comes through, gap shoots back up to 45.

TD just chased back to Pinot et al, closing 17 second gap. what are they all thinking? seems like they are more interested in podium positions than actually overhauling Yates

Looks like yesterday was a wedding gift to Harry. Like the British equivalent to Bastille Day

Well, TD was gapped repeatedly so they weren’t putzing the whole time. TD doesn’t appear at his best, but still.

It’s Yates’ race to lose at this point. Wonder if Froome throws in the towel and turns final week into training.

You'd think for the $1.4M or whatever it was he should try for a 2nd stage win...maybe the TT.

Carapaz rode like a twerp.

TD is money, just amazing. He saved his chances. Frickin' studly suffering. You look at the final sprint to the line and he looks like he's surrounded by munchkins.

Yates' attack was super ballsy and risky. If he didn't get enough of an initial gap before the descent and had been caught by the chasers, he could have blown it big time.

Earlier, when it was all blowing up, it was fascinating to see TD and Yates both looking around to see where Froome was. Respect.

Think he simply burnt all his matches yesterday, and then often has a bad day when it's cold and wet anyway. Plus Yates really is on superlative form, he seems to be able to have the acceleration to get that break on the hills whenever he wants. Reminds me a bit of Contador in his early days when he just had that explosive acceleration on the hills.

I really hope Yates is clean. I love how he rides, but I am concerned that he was putting time in to the others on the flats as well. The power feed from Yates is eye raising.

He looked like Pantani today and attacking out of the saddle, in the drops and big ring, spinning 75 rpm.

just rewatched Yate's attack. Not saying that it isn't a bit "remarkable" how strong it looked, as he was caught and attacked immediately to gain 10 seconds, but the chasers certainly helped in letting him sail away. From his second attack to top of the hill, the gradient is ~5%. These guys should be going at a good 16-17 mph here, and drafting certainly helps.

At 16.5, Pozzovivo is driving on the front, gap down to 13 seconds (from 18); Pinot second in line, followed by Carapaz. This means that TD is 4th or 5th wheel



At 16.1, Pozzovivo presumably had peeled off from his turn. Pinot now on the front, with a gap to the second rider, Carapaz. Conclusion, Carapaz rode like a twerp and didn't pull through, Pinot got fed up and attacked.


At 16.0, again a paceline, with Pinot leading, followed by Pozzovivo. Everyone presumably has just went over threshold (Pinot to initiate attack, everyone else trying to follow). Gap at 14 seconds, which is insignificant from 13, but soon after, it went up to 18 seconds when Yates crested the hill



All the while, TD was nowhere near the front! From game theory perspective, it's awfully bad faith to be the strongest of the group and not contribute to the chase, especially as the gradient was low here. Gap continued to grow as they dropped into the valley, and finally we see TD working. Yet after one turn, TD has the temerity to tell others to pull through, when he went shirking on the climb...



My take from all this: Carapaz rode like a twerp, but TD was a bit too cynical and was solely concerned about additional energy he needed to burn. He had willing riders who cooperated, but refused to put his nose into the wind until the gap ballooned to over 30 second (12 of which from the descent). The other riders (Pinot and Pozzovivo) were right to shed him and make him work.

Also, at one point they had a graphic showing Yates averaging 420 W on the final incline (~1.5 km from ~3.5 to ~2km). That's 7 w/kg, after 14 days of racing, at the end of a stage, and an altitude of 4000 ft. A lot of power, indeed, but doesn't appear to have anything that jumps out. His ability to put in two attacks though, that was remarkable as noted above.

What was his power on the first attack? Maybe he was sandbagging it a bit the first time, softening them up and letting them think they'd pulled him back before going harder the second time?

I've given up second guessing who's doping, it's pretty much impossible to tell whether we're watching a cleanish rider dominate a cleanish peloton or a doped rider dominate a doped peloton. I'm certainly of the view that if there is cheating going on then there's enough movement between teams that the trade secrets will be fairly well spread around. E.g. if Sky's marginal gains have crossed the line into cheating, then key riders like Landa and Porte who have led the team in Grand Tours would certainly have been on the programme and will have taken that knowledge with them. So have to assume the top teams are all on similar programmes, whether they're legal or in grey areas.

My guess is that Yates is as clean as any of them, he's certainly been a top talent from an early age. I guess we'll find out at some point how clean the peloton currently is, through autobiographies if nothing else.

Is Tramadol still not banned?

Yeah, he made a good move and stayed on the gas while the chase group squabbled. But he did that from 17k out, grew gap across flats, and a day after smashing the toughest climb in cycling. Three stage wins and missed 4th by a hair yesterday, while the rest of the contenders look fairly close in the fight for scraps. Nibali and Quintana never really put TD to the sword like that, so it Yates that good?

If he beats Tony Martin in the TT like Contador was beating Cancellara for a while, I'll stop giving him the benefit of doubt.

its sure been a race of unexpected performances. first chavez, now aru cracking completely. froome well below his normal level and yates well above the level he's previously shown. i'm taking the attitude that this is great as it gives us unexpected results. one can draw all kinds of conclusions based on this but its all speculation so best to just accept it is what it is and be happy with the excitement it provides.

dumoulin is keeping steady but i think if yates can keep climbing like he is he'll take it comfortably. still, the last week could well have even more twists than the first 2

Woods has said that he likes the tough steep climbs because at some point it gets down to the same times per km as his running paces, but if you're in a 10K track race, you don't attack at 6K out, which is what he did. He just built up too much lactate yesterday to deal with it. Also keep in mind that when the altitude gets above 1400m or so, there is some thinning of the air and then you have the final 400m of vertical to go

There may be a few restaurants in Spain that Yates has been getting his beef from :-). Actually, rolling back to last year's Vuelta, Contrador appeared (in my mind) to have have just too awesome form. It was an awesome gift to the Spanish fans with him taking Angliru and all, but it almost felt like he got a free pass...in any case, hopefully Yates is clean. Let's wait for Tuesday to gauge his Contador like awesomeness in TT's!

I hope we see some more power files released. I saw some power files that from some affiliates and university maths nerds that I trust and the NP or some guys is already crazy. Froome's Zoncolan ascent VAM estimates and what Yates has been doing on not just stage wins, but on finishes where he is powering on the flats are a bit unnerving.

Does anyone have the Froome time up Zoncolan vs Basso? Someone said Froome's was faster. I suppose we could just go to the video and time Froome and work the VAM data from there.

Dev

If I were a betting man I would say we will see some well written and researched articles in this area very soon as there are parties who have already seen interesting historical trends this year. I hope we see this same level of interest in triathlon because I am tired of the blind eye our sport turns as well.

we shall see. TD still looks good though, despite his struggles today. I'd say he takes back 2:30 on Yate, which would make it a really tight race.

No, Jimmy, it's not.

I don't get why. I rode on it once just to see what the hubbub was all about. I had heard about its use from a former high level Amateur Cali racer.

It wasn't a real race, it was the Wednesday Night Worlds, group race/ride of mostly team guys. Oftentimes it was harder than the races on Saturday.

I split a pill in half because I'm a weenie. I don't know the mg. There is one short steep hill that selects guys like me out. I always raced at 205 to 215 lbs.

This night I stuck in the front group of lighter 1's and former pros that attacked on the climb. It was remarkable to look down and see my numbers through the roof and go, huh, isn't that crazy. The pain that usually kicked in on the climb was not there and there was a certain detachment to the ride that was disconcerting. I can see why they say it causes crashes. You're less aware, you have this kind of, oh well, whatever feeling. It's an opiate.

I know it has been rampant in the amateur ranks. One friend with addiction issues in Cali, a former high level guy gave me a primer on it. Not pretty.

So when I see a guy seemingly not suffering like the other humans I wonder why. And do they simply pick their days to use it and go with no masking on other days? If it is not banned and you're looking up at Zoncolan, it would really be tempting.

I give the benefit of the doubt mostly but when something looks too good to be true, there ya go. But we'll see going forward. Yates is going to have to have his day without. He was completely shattered at the finish today. no faking it. Maybe he is that good.

OK, looking at the time differences, if Dumoulin pulls back all of Yate's lead on the Tuesday TT, I don't see anything in between now and the Sestriere stage where Yates can gain back time and the Colle delle Finsestre may be too early in the stage, but who knows with the gravel.

Here is the description of this year's Cima Coppi....gravel on the second half:

The Colle delle Finestre (Cima Coppi) has a steady 9.2% gradient throughout (with just a short punchy bit in Meana di Susa topping out at 14%). The first 9 km are on tarmac, while the last 9 km is a gravel road, all the way to the summit. Twenty-nine hairpins are tucked in less than 4 km over the first part of the climb (45 hairpins overall until the summit). The descent is very technical as the roadway is narrow and initially unprotected, up to Pian dell’Alpe. As the route goes back onto the ss. 23, the climb is resumed with doable gradients all the way to the finish. A long uncomplicated climb follows, leading to the Sestriere categorised summit. Following a fast drop into Oulx and a false flat section leading to Bardonecchia (intermediate sprint), the route takes in the closing climb to the top of Jafferau. Final kilometres: the final 7 km run entirely uphill, with sharp 9-10% gradients, topping out at 14% in the first part. The road narrows in Maillaures, approx. 6 km before the finish, in the steepest section. The finish line lies on a 50-m long, 6-m wide home stretch.



And then Saturday's stage to Cervina/Zermatt



This queen stage across the Alps features a remarkable 4,000 m rise and drop, tucked away in the last 90 km, where the riders will tackle 3 climbs amounting to nearly 20 km each. The route climbs steadily all the way from Susa towards Turin, and then follows the gentle undulations of the Canavese to reach the Dora Riparia valley. The route then heads from the outskirts of Ivrea to the Aosta Valley to tackle the last 90 km. The stage takes in climbs up the Col Tsecore (16 km with long stretches exceeding 12% over the last 4 km), Col de St.Pantaléon (16.5 km at 7.2%) and Cervinia (19 km at 5%). The roads are always quite wide and well surfaced. Final kilometres: the route rises all the way to the finish. The steepest stretch is encountered just before Valtournenche, and throughout the town centre. The gradient starts to weaken at the 3 km mark, with slopes averaging 1.4% over the final 2 km. The home straight (450 m long, on 7-m wide asphalt road) has a 4% gradient. Note that the route passes through two well-lit tunnels over the final 6 km.

I am not seeing anything on the final hill stage to drop Dumoulin. The Sestriere/Finestre stage, I can see lots of things turning upside down through, with the gravel and technical descent too.