Yes, Tadej looks unbeatable, but as an alternative to going non-traditional tactics, you could also plan on what’s worked before. That is, Tadej has cracked on hot, big kilojoule days (yes, today looked like one of those days, but it hits different when it’s towards the back end of the Tour and those days get stacked one after the other). So rather than risk blowing it in week 1 with a risky play, I’m guessing Lisa is hoping to limit the damage, preserve their troops as much as possible and wait until at least stages 14/15 to really try something.
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That whole Remco / Lipo deal didn’t exactly start too well.
Looked like they were riding on two different teams for a lot of that. I wonder what the DS was telling them.
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No chance. There’s no one at the tour in the same galaxy as Jonas on high mountain days other than Pogi who is in a galaxy all his own. The battle for 3rd might be fun, but IdT is basically going to be able to ride as a protected leader for the next couple weeks.
Was Lipo supposed to work for Remco? Remco thinks so. I beg to differ.
red bull thoughts: assuming peacock’s top of tourmalet gaps are accurate (I know - big assumption) - Pogi / 30 secs Vinge / 1:20 seixas/lipo/ dt // 1:45 remco/sjkelly/ayuso/kuss/lenny
In my brain Remco and dup lipo are good at different things - long high mountains and 3 week consistency - Lipo // anything less than 6-7% and 10 minutes or less climbs and everything aero - remco. Once the groups came together on descent at some point I’d have remco and lipo attacking that group to get away solo (preferably Remco cuz no one is catching him). Dt and Kuss got free rides for a long time today - Remco or Lipo should have had some free ride time also. If the race finishes on Lipo terrain - sure have remco do some turns for Lipo.
remco - Don’t let your emotions get you to say rash stuff at the finish line (you really though DT wouldn’t smoke you in that sprint?). get red bull to let you attack that group bc pulling seixas and Ayuso and Sjkelly doesn’t seem to help the team much). on a different note - Lisa-Viz -please ask Jonas to sit up. he rode himself into the ground for 45 minutes for 18 seconds. He sits up and kuss takes turns (maybe they even lose less to Pogi?) and he can easily cover any attacks from the rest.
This.
Skelly was just hanging on it looked like but others could have ridden. Remco wasn’t wrong about that but leave Lipo, a teammate, out of it. Spoiled brat.
Amazing support from.his Belgian fans who view him as a mini Tommeke but if any other rider of a nationality not Belgian whined the way he does, they’d have a field day.
It’s the Tyler Farrar rule ( who created it by whining): you just can’t whine….yes it’s unfair. That’s the game. As Ricky Roma said in Glengarry, live with it.
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As weird as it is to see a bike racer whining about stuff that is just par for the course for bike racing, maybe worth remembering that Remco didn’t come up as a bike racer, but as a soccer player, where whining about shit is just what you do.
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Remco can be a bit much and while he may have a bit of that from his original sport, at least he doesn’t dive!
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Good points all.
Torstein Traeen putting soccer players to shame today.
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Remco was complaining about Lipo not leading him out as well.
Late to the chat but to me Pogacar did his normal thing (and looked smoked at the end) while Venga looked like a guy with the Giro in his legs. On a normal day I’d guess he’d be much closer, as evident by Remco, who can’t hang with his stuff, being only :20 back.
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I have had broken ribs and not sure how he rode to the finish “easily”… prob the worse injury I have ever had and god knows I have had a TON hahahah
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to me Jonas looked like a guy that emptied the tank and it was still 2min behind Pogi… he looked defeated. If the second pack (lipo, ayuso, del toro, paul) work together yesterday or during the following stages the second place maybe at play.
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Yeah, Venga looked mentally and physically gone while Pogi was out doing a Landis. At the top of the climb I think Venga was maybe 30 seconds down, but on the descent and valley Pogi’s higher absolute power and superior w/kg in general just was lightyears beyond the rest.
It was sad to see Traeen pull out of the race, but chapeau for fighting until the end yesterday.
Try as I might, I can’t help but believe that Pog has been doing a Landis for a while.
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Pogacar put :40 into him on descent, that’s just superior skill and/or Jonas was empty. I didn’t see what Pogacar did as anything that extra special for him, he’s been doing those efforts for a few years now. Just that normally, Jonas can stay closer this early in race. Giro + heat is looking like a rough combo.
Really good discussion of concussions & concussion protocols on today’s show
i thought Vinge held Pogi at 10-12 seconds for a LONG time on top of Tourmalet (8-10 minutes?), but then couldn’t hold it anymore in last 1.5k or so and was at 30 secs when the descent started. NO WAY Vinge gains any time on pogi with the profile from the top of Tourmalet (he can’t do as many accelerations out of turns as Pogi and tailwind just not enough watts at 15-20 lbs or so less than pogi). If I were Lisa-Viz as soon as they knew Kuss had made it into the group behind Vinge - I would have had Vinge sit up. I agree - he looked crushed but for what gain? He’ll gain on Seixas/Lipo/DT/Remco when it finishes on a long climb - that seemed like a wasted effort.
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Great point about sitting up with Kuss behind, not to mention Remco always being willing to chase, is likely a better move. Then he can do what he wants on final climb. He clearly wasn’t on a very good day—Kuss is never :20 behind him with that much climbing— so play the long game.