Jonas even said it wasn’t a great result.
Agreed - I wouldn’t try to extrapolate using guesses. Unless you have their actual wattages from the ITT it’s useless. I would suspect Tadej’s power was much higher than Jonas’s to beat him so soundly in a position that to an educated observer looks like a higher drag position (and the slow polka dot jersey). I’m expecting Tadej to smoke Jonas in the uphill TT. This reminds me of the 2004 TdF where Ivan Basso was staying right with Lance in the first mountain stages, then Lance destroyed him in the Alp d’Huez ITT. Following wheels is one thing, but the race of truth is a very different story. This is a shorter uphill ITT so even :30 to 1:00 would be a sound beating.
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This is also where I’m at. Jonas is stronger than the Dauphine in that he’s not being dropped. Pog hasn’t shown to be in difficulty though at any point so far and he’s also shown he can use the same tactic as the Dauphine (and what he used yesterday) in that he’ll just attack to neutralize the attacks. I think Almedia is a loss, but to me he’s more a loss in setting up a longer range attack for Pog by making it really hard just prior to the attack. Visma is kinda in a no win place in that regard. Too many attacks late in the stage and Pog just uses those attacks as his springboard. Too many attacks early and he’ll absorb them like he did yesterday. UAE presumably has the heat acclimation and fueling issues solved, which contributed to past times when Pog was dropped on long stages.
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That 2004 ITT up Alpe d’Huez was insane. I was camped out on Bourg d’Oisins for five days around that and was on the 4th switchback when Basso, then Ullrich, then Lance shot by. I did ADH climb twice the day before once in the morning and once in the evening. The entire place had camper vans and drunk fans for the entire route, so climbing it as a fan was just like being in the real deal !!!
Before the ITT Phil White from Cervelo used me as a translator in the Team CSC booth/staging area for some French media guys. I was just hanging out in the staging area with the earlier riders doing warmups and Phil was showing me Ivan’s bike that they had to “bring up” to the 6.8 kilo limit and then suddenly I became the English to French translator who could explain Ivan’s bike!!!
Good times. After that, all my bikes became Cervelo !
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Sorry for the Danish commentary
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We don’t need no stinkin’ helmets!
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Now that’s an experience! Very cool! I had to settle for watching it on TV and then later on watching it on youtube many times as I did endless trainer workouts. (2003 TdF is still an amazing re-watch)
Visma is gonna throw the proverbial kitchen sink at Tadej. Wout, Matteo, Yates, Sepp the whole shebangity bang. While Wout might not be Wout of 2022, let’s not forget he took it to Del Toro at the Giro Strade stage, then blew apart the chase on the last stage to pull Yates 2-3 minutes clear before dying in the gutter, a shell of a wrecked man (but still a COMPLETE smokeshow … sorry, woman here, and that’s just a fact!). Tadej is already whining about Visma’s tactics and yesterday’s “festival of watts” pace.
I have no idea what’s gonna happen, but I’m here for all of it. Campanaerts Insta pre stage hilarity has me hooked. Go Matteo!!!
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If Visma tries to replicate the strategy that won the Giro — and they couldn’t be blamed for trying — there is almost no chance that Pogi would react the way that Del Toro did. Pogi might be annoyed that someone isn’t contributing to the chase. But, he wouldn’t throw away the Tour.
So just scanning the general rankings, and I see Kuss, Yates, Benoot, Campanaerts and Van Aert are all in excess of 18 minutes down in the GC meaning on any of these stages if any of these guys go in the break the 4-10 place GC guys won’t have their teams chase them down. So it seems like pretty well every break, Visma can send one or more of these guys up the road with minimal threat of the other teams of UAE shutting it down early? It gives them a lot of options having one or more of these useful guys up the road and Jonas and Matteo hanging back with Tadej.
But regardless of what Tadej does minus a blowup in the uphill TT (unlikely), He just has to sit in for the rest of the TdF and just wait to shut the door on La Pagne and on every stage that the breakaway does not get away, he just takes the stage from the sprint and bangs out bonus seconds (another reason for Visma to send people in the break and make sure the break stays away and snaps up the stage finish bonus seconds)
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Visma just needs to stop him from getting food in the feed zones.
Hannah asks the hard question; Campy dodges with “we” vs “he”
It must be the new Enve hooked wheels.
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Thanks @Mulen for posting the week two profiles. On the uphill TT aside from the main question on this thread about Jonas, I am also interested to see what Remco does and also what form Primoz is in now. I am sure all the VAM calculations vs the days of Contador on Verbier or Lance and Rominger on Madone will come out too. Then the following week we will have the 25th anniversary of Pantani and Lance on Ventoux (was it a gift)?
I think I may make a detour down to Bedouin when I in France for riding this summer (although it is 21 years since I rode that mountain, and my watts are down and my kilos up and its ugly)
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I am surprised that Visma is not saving Van Aert for duty during the Hautecam stage tomorrrow and he’s pretty active and animated working with Van Der Poel chasing the leaders 30s up the road on the Toulouse-Toulouse stage. I would have thought Visma would get Van Aert to take a “rest day” today, work Hautecam stage for Jonas, take a ‘rest day’ on the uphill TT and then be on workhorse duty during Tourmalet + Superbagneres stage after the uphill TT
I was on Alpe d’Huez that day as well about 1.5K from the top. Also rode it the day before. I had the mid-morning shift on the rental bike and did the climb amongst the already drunk fans. I had enough time on my rental to go back down to Huez and do that part again.
Highly recommend, especially if you can ride it or any of the really big climbs the day before. The fans are out and make you feel like a pro cheering you on.
Ouch! You dont see that often
The commentator says MJ swept the front wheel but it turns out to be an UnoX rider - this was pretty lucky for Pog. A front wheel sweep / fall is what resulted in Philipsen’s broken collar bone, could have easily been much worse considering the type of fall and slide into the curb… 
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