Worth a rewatch before tomorrow:
And then back in 1996 another Dane on Hautacam …
The day before Lance+Ullrich+Basso smackdown when I did Alpe d’Huez twice after the morning ride I thought I was going to die on the descent iwth drunken fans (and it was barely 10 am). When I did the evening ride it was a gauntlet of camper vans and even more drunk fans. At least one person actually died falling off cliffs during the day from the partying, so when we went up for the evening ride, we wisely descended via the serenity of Col de Sarenne on the other side that brings one to barrage du Chambon. It’s the descent they used when they had the 2x ADH stage some years ago.
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1996 Indurain vs Riis was epic. Also there was the 46 km snow shortened stage to Sestriere where Riis with all the 60 percent glory put down the hammer
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What do you guys think: bad day for Jonas? or this is all he brought to the tour?
He was best of the rest so I don’t think he had a bad day, I think Pogi is just that much better than him, and everyone else at the tour.
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Lipo almost caught him, though.
The race for 3rd is on!!
Obviously anything can happen but at this point I expect that 1st and 2nd will end up as they are now. The fight for 3rd and the white jersey should be interesting though.
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I still wouldn’t rule out Pog cracking at some point, Visma could have really done with one of their other riders in contention though, Jorgenson is over 12mins back.
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To the part in bold, I guess it’s what I said early in this thread. If Pogi has a good uphill TT he literally needs to do NOTHING but sit in for the rest of the TdF and keep his powder dry and then just wait for the final climb to La Pagne and nail the coffin shut. He should be able to easily sit in and react to every atttack he wants. I realize this is not his style so the only way is everyone else has to keep baiting him to do endless surges for the rest of the TdF and make him his own worst enemy which feel unlikely
Matteo is now 12 minutes back. The 1-2 punch tactic from Visma is now out the window.
I understand there is still plenty of tour, but barring an accident, or a complete meltdown, Pog is in a very safe place.
Nothing is guaranteed until they make it to Paris, but Jonas doesn’t have a lot of choices now (if any).
Yeah it’s all over except the shouting
I assumed Pogacar would go on a run today. But what he did today is crazy.
I actually thought he might just cruise today after the crash and destroy everyone on the uphill TT, but maybe he also wanted to see how he himself was doing after the crash!
I was surprised by how much of a non factors the Visma helpers were at the bottom of Hautecam. Yates/Sepp/Matteo were totally left behind and the UAE domestiques did the first work to blow apart the GC group.
The crazy thing is Tadej is at 20 TdF stage wins. He’s literally going to catch Cav and Merckx two tours from now!!! (I think Hinault had 28, Lance 22).
OK back to the topic at hand and the question of what Jonas can do, well it seems he can do a lot compared to the entire peloton, except the World Champion keeps doing even more!
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I found this list : Pogačar falls just short of Bjarne Riis’ 1996 Hautacam record
It appears that Jonas was around 40 second slower than his 2022 time
Hautacam fastest times
| Year | Winner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Luc Leblanc | 35:20 |
| 1996 | Bjarne Riis | 34:40 |
| 2000 | Lance Armstrong | 36:19 |
| 2008 | Leonardo Piepoli, Juan Jose Cobo | 37:28 |
| 2014 | Vincenzo Nibali | 37:21 |
| 2022 | Jonas Vingegaard | 36:34 |
| 2025 | Tadej Pogačar | 35:08 |
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I think you can assume that Luc, Bjarne, and Lance’s times were all done with extra help. So that is the fastest time every.
Visma domestique crew has some splainin to do. MJ looked gray in the interview, absolutely shelled. I was so surprised to see 3 UAE guys with Poggy and nobody with JV at the bottom of the Hautecam.
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haha it felt like a Mauro Gianetti post rest day miracle (pink optional, I realize this is no longer Saunier Duval CERA effect but whatever). Let’s enjoy the show. The 2008 crew on the listing of those Hautcam wins above in this thread were riding for Gianetti and both busted for CERA.
Everyone on the team seemed surprised he dropped so early. Will be interesting to hear what he has to say tomorrow after a sleep on it. I think the GC battle is OVER, but I’m still looking forward to the rest of the tour.
I’m a little bit more Invested in the other storyline’s now. Will remco find his groove back? Is red bull going with lipowitz now and using roglic as a domestique? The Arkea guy (sorry name escapes me off the top of my head), is also having a great tour.
And on pog, he can still have bad days, usually in the last week. Visma have the numbers but they collectively didn’t have it today. I’d be wary about writing them off though, a lot of talent on that team.
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Kevin Vauquelin is the new people’s favorite in France.
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