(07-01-2021 01:59 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: Well, Brookes, Cavendish had himself another good day
Much to my chagrin. He looks incredibly strong and just as importantly he's got strong support and is getting great lead outs. I have to revise my prediction: I think there's now a very good chance he at least ties Merckx this year. Only needs two more wins.
Dammit.
...and another. He's now one from Merckx's record and the way he and his team are performing it's now more likely than not he'll tie if not beat the record. Four more flat stages including the final day.
Wout van Aert with a great effort today but the Deceuninck–Quick-Step lead-out is just too strong.
(07-06-2021 12:59 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote: ...and another. He's now one from Merckx's record and the way he and his team are performing it's now more likely than not he'll tie if not beat the record. Four more flat stages including the final day.
Wout van Aert with a great effort today but the Deceuninck–Quick-Step lead-out is just too strong.
(07-07-2021 12:34 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: ...and today...Wout van Aert...
My man Wout! This was an incredible ride. Wout finished SECOND to Cavendish yesterday in a sprinter's stage and the very next day rode away from the best climbers in the world to win an incredibly difficult double-summit of Mont Ventoux.
Quote:"Winning a Tour stage is a dream, it's really the best moment of my career," he added through a translator. "It's my second win, but here it's different."
Politt's victory brought comfort to his team just hours after leader Peter Sagan withdrew from the race before the start of the stage due to a knee injury.
Quote:There was no significant change in the overall standings. Pogacar kept his 5:18 lead over second-placed Rigoberto Uran, with Jonas Vingegaard in third, 5:33 off the pace.
Friday's Stage 13 to the medieval city of Carcassone is an other flat trek suiting sprinters. Veteran sprinter Mark Cavendish will be chasing a 34th career stage win that would put him level with five-time Tour winner Eddy Merckx's all-time record.
If you watched the stage, the run up to the sprint was pretty wild. Around the last turn (a little before the video starts) a train of riders came through on the outside and Cavendish got buried for a few moments but his team are so strong and so organized they just stuck to the plan and it ended up being a really good lead out, even though one of his guys actually got a gap before the final sprint. Shows just how disadvantaged a very good sprinter like Wout van Aert is when he doesn't have anyone to help. You can see him right behind Cav at one point and then he got boxed in and nothing. Also, look at the DSM guy (who was at the front of that outside train at the last turn), trying to gesture to his man to go but it was too early and/or his man didn't have any gas left (and he had no teammate behind to lead out).
Sometimes you can just be in the right place at the right time - you still have to be strong but a lot of that is luck. To get all that **** organized and have the riders to pull it off... it's incredibly impressive. More so when it can be done consistently. Even if Cav is a horse's ass you have to tip your cap.
That was an enjoyable stage. I liked Mollema's move, especially after Michael Woods had that mistake and fall, but you have to be impressed Woods was able to recover and still finish 4th in the stage, near the first chase group (after the nice little ending sprint from Higuita and Konrad). Poels and Woods had some nice duels for KOM points. Quintana was having problems, and lost the jersey. This was a more grueling stage than I think many anticipated, with the pace. I don't recall ever seeing a smaller main peloton at the last portion of a stage. So many riders were dropped.
Also, watching Guillaume Martin move up the GC leaderbaord from 9th to 2nd during the day was fun. Guess they're (Pogacar) not too worried about him, though with the stll-to-come time trial later on. Still, it's fun to watch all the strategy and subplots that remain in this year's race. Shame so many have dropped out.
With this win Sepp Kuss (from Durango, Colo) became the first American to win a stage of the Tour de France since Tyler Farrar on stage 3 of the 2011 Tour de France.
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2021 12:29 PM by GoodOwl.)
Kuss is a great kid - got his start in mtb. Lives in Andorra so this is familiar territory for him and a motivator for the win. I had to giggle when Bob Roll mentioned Valverde is a great descender and suggested he might catch Kuss on the downhill. Kuss extended his lead. Interesting team tactics by Jumbo Visma. Left their leader to fend for himself while they chased a stage win and/or KOM jersey. 3 guys in the break!
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2021 12:48 PM by Brookes Owl.)
Quote:The 29-year-old Konrad finished 42 seconds ahead of a group of five chasers -- Sonny Colbrelli, Michael Matthews, Pierre Luc Perichon, Franck Bonnamour and Alex Aranburu Deba -- on the second day of racing in the Pyrenees.
Konrad is only the third Austrian to win a stage at cycling's biggest race after Max Bulla, who won three in 1931, and Georg Totschnig in 2005.
Pogacar, the defending champion, finished 13 minutes, 49 seconds after Konrad and maintained his general classification lead of more than five minutes over Rigoberto Uran and Jonas Vingegaard.
Pogacar remained in the peloton with his GC rivals as his UAE Team Emirates team enjoyed a comfortable ride in the 169-kilometer (105-mile) trek from the tiny mountain-locked nation of Andorra.
Wednesday will be a day of Pyrenees punishment with an unforgiving 178.4-kilometer (111-mile) route that ends with three major obstacles in a row. The 17th stage ends with the hardest, a steep 16-kilometer climb to the 2,215-meter altitude finish atop Col du Portet.
"The hardest day in the Tour,'' Pogacar said.
"I did the recon for tomorrow and the day after so I know the climbs. It would be better if I didn't see them,'' the 22-year-old joked. "I'm not worried, but it's going to be really hard I think.''
(This post was last modified: 07-14-2021 09:02 AM by GoodOwl.)
Stage 16 was kind of meh until the last few km when Wout van Aert attacked. Some broadcasters/bloggers/journos didn't understand it and thought he might get some grief but he'd been radioed that Carapaz was at the back of the group and he thought an attack with Vingegaard might create a gap. Didn't work, so a little late excitement that amounted to nothing.
Today, on the other hand... wow. UAE just hammered the bunch and shedded riders up the last climb. Pogacar attacked the remains with 7 or 8 km to go on a climb that over that stretch averaged about 10% and then it was just the three guys who are 1-2-3 in the GC. Carapaz was bluffing/sandbagging but neither Pogacar nor Vingegaard believed he was gassed. So they weren't surprised when he attacked but Vingegaard still got gapped. In retrospect, Carapaz probably wasn't bluffing that much - Vingegaard managed his way back and ended up outsprinting Carapaz to the finish! That was an incredibly impressive effort.
But there's just no getting around the fact that Pogacar is easily the class of this Tour. He was never threatened on a very difficult day. The yellow jersey doesn't usually need to go for wins. He had a 5+ minute lead today but he still wanted the win.
(This post was last modified: 07-14-2021 01:33 PM by Brookes Owl.)
(07-14-2021 11:52 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote: Stage 16 was kind of meh until the last few km when Wout van Aert attacked. Some broadcasters/bloggers/journos didn't understand it and thought he might get some grief but he'd been radioed that Carapaz was at the back of the group and he thought an attack with Vingegaard might create a gap. Didn't work, so a little late excitement that amounted to nothing.
Today, on the other hand... wow. UAE just hammered the bunch and shedded riders up the last climb. Pogacar attacked the remains with 7 or 8 km to go on a climb that over that stretch averaged about 10% and then it was just the three guys who are 1-2-3 in the GC. Carapaz was bluffing/sandbagging but neither Pogacar nor Vingegaard believed he was gassed. So they weren't surprised when he attacked but Vingegaard still got gapped. In retrospect, Carapaz probably wasn't bluffing that much - Vingegaard managed his way back and ended up outsprinting Carapaz to the finish! That was an incredibly impressive effort.
But there's just not getting around the fact that Pogacar is easily the class of this Tour. He was never threatened on a very difficult day. The yellow jersey doesn't usually need to go for wins. He had a 5+ minute lead today but he still wanted the win.
Didn't need to, but it's nice he did. Good stage today.
Yup. I don't know if professional cycling will ever be above suspicion again. If you read the replies there's a lot of "of course he's doping" in there. I dunno. Performances get better in all sports, in all events, over time. There are statistical ways to measure if those gains are expected or outliers but even then you have to consider technology and other factors especially when you're talking about athletes that use equipment. It sucks that we have to have this conversation but it's the sport's fault. They let it get terrible and now they struggle to regain credibility.
Putting the cherry on top: When you look at the times listed for all those riders in the last 30 years, it's worth noting that probably the top 10 (if not more) finishers today all climbed Luz Ardiden faster than everyone on that list except for Pogacar and Armstrong.
ETA: It won't help that Bahrain Victorious were raided last night and are being investigated (by the police no less) for doping.
(This post was last modified: 07-15-2021 01:20 PM by Brookes Owl.)
(07-15-2021 01:11 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote: Yup. I don't know if professional cycling will ever be above suspicion again. If you read the replies there's a lot of "of course he's doping" in there. I dunno. Performances get better in all sports, in all events, over time. There are statistical ways to measure if those gains are expected or outliers but even then you have to consider technology and other factors especially when you're talking about athletes that use equipment. It sucks that we have to have this conversation but it's the sport's fault. They let it get terrible and now they struggle to regain credibility.
Putting the cherry on top: When you look at the times listed for all those riders in the last 30 years, it's worth noting that probably the top 10 (if not more) finishers today all climbed Luz Ardiden faster than everyone on that list except for Pogacar and Armstrong.
ETA: It won't help that Bahrain Victorious were raided last night and are being investigated (by the police no less) for doping.
Yeah, I would not assume that one and only one rider is doping. If it's not eliminated by some means then it would be accessible to many at this level where teams and riders can afford the PEDs. Same is true for other sports.
If we want to point to technological advances in cycling, that may be valid when comparing 2021 bikes to 1951 bikes, but much less valid when comparing to 2001 bikes.
(07-15-2021 01:11 PM)Brookes Owl Wrote: Yup. I don't know if professional cycling will ever be above suspicion again. If you read the replies there's a lot of "of course he's doping" in there. I dunno. Performances get better in all sports, in all events, over time. There are statistical ways to measure if those gains are expected or outliers but even then you have to consider technology and other factors especially when you're talking about athletes that use equipment. It sucks that we have to have this conversation but it's the sport's fault. They let it get terrible and now they struggle to regain credibility.
Putting the cherry on top: When you look at the times listed for all those riders in the last 30 years, it's worth noting that probably the top 10 (if not more) finishers today all climbed Luz Ardiden faster than everyone on that list except for Pogacar and Armstrong.
ETA: It won't help that Bahrain Victorious were raided last night and are being investigated (by the police no less) for doping.
Yeah, I would not assume that one and only one rider is doping. If it's not eliminated by some means then it would be accessible to many at this level where teams and riders can afford the PEDs. Same is true for other sports.
If we want to point to technological advances in cycling, that may be valid when comparing 2021 bikes to 1951 bikes, but much less valid when comparing to 2001 bikes.
Not really. If you are talking only about bike weights, yes - the UCI mandated several years ago that bikes must weigh at least 15lbs. But the technology keeps advancing: Aerodynamics, groupset improvements, frame geometry/construction, etc. In about 2009 they introduced electronic shifters/derailleurs. No hesitation, perfect shifting every time even when filthy. That sounds like a marginal improvement but it's incredibly valuable - everyone in the peleton rides them now. Disc brakes are a big deal too - they allow faster descending in poorer conditions and use less force on the lever, and no hesitation when you apply them even when wet. Frames are remodeled every year to become more aerodynamic and better at transferring pedal strokes to the wheels instead of flexing the frame. This stuff makes a difference.
(This post was last modified: 07-15-2021 09:33 PM by Brookes Owl.)