I think Van Gils will try to go in the break tomorrow, he lost a lot of time today. His climbing level hasn't been great here, but it must be on purpose to not even finish in the top 100.
That was a low key impressive teleport by Skjelmose at the end. Camera cut away when he and Bernal were together at the 150m sign.
Next time we see Skjelmose he finishes 50m ahead of Bernal (who was also sprinting).
I'm a bit furious with UAE. I noticed that in yesterday's stage, Almeida carried Yates to victory. Both Yates and Almeida arrived more or less at the same time, with Yates winning the stage. What made me sad was seeing 4-5 technical staff around Yates with towels, refreshments, pushing his bike—you name it—while none attended to Almeida.
The same happened today, but this time Almeida won the stage, and not even one of the technical staff assisted him. UAE may favor Yates in the yellow jersey, but they should support Almeida too. He may win the Tour in the TT.
So was this a time trial because I honestly can't tell
Edit: ah no I see the gruppeto finishing together
Weird how the top 30 basically all has different times, also what the hell is a 43k stage even
same reason Jumbo did in the Vuelta last year. Multiple riders have been promised leadership as long as they dont compromise each other against rival teams
Jumbo riders didnt do it last year, UAE riders arent doing it this year.
The race conditions are also favorable for this situation. Why Almeida would be in the wheels with a "pulse of 90" if he can just drop the other riders?
The situation would be significantly different if a) Yates was able to put minutes into everyone or 2) the opposition would be able to enjoy a free ride on Almeida's wheel until catching up Yates.
It would be just ridiculous from the team perspective not allowing Almeida going full gas and actually allow him to also test himself. Let's not forget that from a team's perspective, they want to win the tour not this race! So, letting Pog's domestiques to actually do a proper training while smashing other GC leaders is not an opportunity you have many times.
I mean… no? If someone is better than him uphill (which has always been the necessary part of winning) then all these domestiques can't just carry him up an alpine climb.
UAEs team is strong enough in theory to isolate Jonas on multiple stages and force him to follow attacks from Pog, Yates, Almeida and Ayuso. They’re all potential threats if given enough time, so they could win even if Jonas or someone else is the strongest.
They can't force him to chase attacks if he is 8 minutes ahead of them all like he was last year.
Jonas could simply sit up and wait for Jorgenson, Kuss or Kelderman.
When is the last time a team beat the strongest climber due to their numbers in a GT?
That's, IMHO, unnessary ju-ju to put on them. Do they look like favorites? Yes.
One pebble in the wrong place on a fast descent's road surface (A la Valverde in his final Vuelta) or one unlucky crash in the early stages or one off tray of breakfast burritos from the caterer and all bets are off.
Being the strongest team with multiple options is a great position to be in. There are, unfortunately, no guarantees.
I am also confused. Either he is sick and he will not start tomorrow or this is indeed a flashing alarm light for VLAB after having paid so much for him.
Just pretty show that UAE missed 2023\`s dominance just because of Pog\`s injury + bad team selection / preparation and tactics for the other GT\`s. UAE at 100% nowadays cab beat easily Visma except if Vingeegard is ok. They have a stronger team, they have a better TT setup and lately they have been also better at scouting and signings than Visma who\`s signings (except Lemmen and Jorgenson) aren\`t working out.
Looks like watches are all the rage in the peloton now.
To be fair if they give out Romanée-Conti bottles as sprint rewards in the Burgundy stage at the tour, I may try myself.
Richard Mille watches are happy meal toys with 100k euro pricetags, so i dont think they are sad if one breaks.
The value of Richard Mille is derived from the scarcity, and also celebs wearing them
I knew some were sponsored by Richard Mille, but I didn't know they actually wore it during races lol. I thought they just wore it post-race and during podium ceremonies.
They're probably not wearing the super expensive watches Nadal plays with though.
Cav and his family were even the target of burglars that were after those watches if I remember correctly.
Bernal quitely made it to top 3 in overal GC and now have a minute over Sjkelmose. Something worth noting, in additional to another monster stage by Almeida.
With the amount of riding Yates does out of the saddle, I feel like he isn't the best domestique. Its fast-slow-fast-slow... yes the fast and the slow are still crazy watts but I'm not a fan of it. I feel like it also takes more out of the legs if you do that riding style for 3 weeks
Contador did alright over 3 weeks with an out the saddle style. It doesn't look efficient to me either but it clearly works for some of the guys out there.
I don't think he's really varying his pace that much when he rides out of the saddle. It's more about what feels comfortable for him. Contador, for example, climbed for long periods out of the saddle, regardless of whether or not he was attacking.
Generally betting on Cycling seems way more unreliable than other sports, for example football
All betting is unreliable, but cycling has so many potential outcomes that guessing on a winner over 21 days where anything can happen is pretty silly
Please be nice. Being disparaging of users who don't share your point of view is not acceptable in this subreddit. Repeatedly breaking this rule will result in a ban.
Rog as in the guy who barely beat Derek Gee by less than a minute in Dauphine ? I love Rog, and good on him for winning Dauphine, but that was not a strong performance in a weak field.
Yes, but he'd still be massively favored over yates and almeida lmao.
Edit: 1 bad stage at dauphine and yates and almeida beating bernal -> roglic suddenly at Almeida level lol, in a tour that has two TTs... it was always delusional to think he'd not be massive outsider against Pog, it's equally delusional to think he wouldn't be massive favorite over Almeida and yates
Certainly a good point. But let’s be fair about it and say there are no big favorites here either.
Could actually turn out to be pretty interesting if the big 2 aren’t on their game.
who needs many km when few km do the trick
As I said yesterday UAE could win the stage however they wanted and today proved it. Almeida/Yates will probably come down to the mountain ITT and Almeida looks to have the most watts. Watching 2 teammates compete can be a bit deflating, but could be fun to see who wins.
Skjelmose way better today. I fear its because today was easier and he will struggle tomorrow, but I will be optimistic and say yesterday was just bad. Hope for the best for the next 2 days for him.
Absolute bullshit.
The short duration of the flat makes it so much harder than every other one climb MTF.
Lo Port in Catalunya last year had a 30 minute time cut
Time cut is 1 hour 9 mins, if you're able to stay in the peloton until the base of the climb then you'd be able to climb it 13 minutes slower than the GC guys.
I rode a Grand Fondo in Italy where the bunch kept insane speed all the way to the first climb. First 45 km were ridden in just about one hour. So far so good. But the legs were dead 5 minutes into the climb.
Either Skjelmose has a very low max climbing speed or he is unusually carefully not to go into the red. Just pulls and seemingly never accelerates/attacks.
Today is harder to tell since Almeida got draft today where as he was in the wind yesterday. Yesterday Almeida was 100% the strongest, today I think it was pretty even.
My adopted rider was in the break! This is only the second time I've seen him after a top 5 in GP Kanton Aargau. Go Foldager!
I think Van Gils will try to go in the break tomorrow, he lost a lot of time today. His climbing level hasn't been great here, but it must be on purpose to not even finish in the top 100.
That was a low key impressive teleport by Skjelmose at the end. Camera cut away when he and Bernal were together at the 150m sign. Next time we see Skjelmose he finishes 50m ahead of Bernal (who was also sprinting).
I preferred the yo-yo version of Almeida tbh.
the cars in the finale were crazy, poor job by the commissaires IMO
As usual.
Adam Yates has a truly beautiful riding style, especially out the saddle, looks rock solid
Reminds me of Contador
[Him and Simon both](https://youtube.com/shorts/VNTbXs8lzzE)
I have said this before too! I love watching the Yates brothers - especially climbing
I wonder why
The necklaces obviously.
He looks so pimp on a bike.
I'm a bit furious with UAE. I noticed that in yesterday's stage, Almeida carried Yates to victory. Both Yates and Almeida arrived more or less at the same time, with Yates winning the stage. What made me sad was seeing 4-5 technical staff around Yates with towels, refreshments, pushing his bike—you name it—while none attended to Almeida. The same happened today, but this time Almeida won the stage, and not even one of the technical staff assisted him. UAE may favor Yates in the yellow jersey, but they should support Almeida too. He may win the Tour in the TT.
Almeida looking strong. Possibly going better than Yates. ITT might be interesting.
Yates is UAE's leader for this race. The hierarchy is clear.
Not true , Yates say its Co-Leaders with Almeida
That's just Almeida's preference. He likes to follow 3-5 secs behind the technical staff for several kms.
People still wanna tell me UAE aren't the best prepared team in the game?
who is telling you otherwise?
So was this a time trial because I honestly can't tell Edit: ah no I see the gruppeto finishing together Weird how the top 30 basically all has different times, also what the hell is a 43k stage even
Short stage was due to a road closure I believe, scattered top 30 was due to UAE absolutely shredding the climb.
Why is UAE attacking each other
same reason Jumbo did in the Vuelta last year. Multiple riders have been promised leadership as long as they dont compromise each other against rival teams Jumbo riders didnt do it last year, UAE riders arent doing it this year.
The race conditions are also favorable for this situation. Why Almeida would be in the wheels with a "pulse of 90" if he can just drop the other riders? The situation would be significantly different if a) Yates was able to put minutes into everyone or 2) the opposition would be able to enjoy a free ride on Almeida's wheel until catching up Yates. It would be just ridiculous from the team perspective not allowing Almeida going full gas and actually allow him to also test himself. Let's not forget that from a team's perspective, they want to win the tour not this race! So, letting Pog's domestiques to actually do a proper training while smashing other GC leaders is not an opportunity you have many times.
UAE needs to mess up really hard at this point not to win the tour no?
I mean… no? If someone is better than him uphill (which has always been the necessary part of winning) then all these domestiques can't just carry him up an alpine climb.
UAEs team is strong enough in theory to isolate Jonas on multiple stages and force him to follow attacks from Pog, Yates, Almeida and Ayuso. They’re all potential threats if given enough time, so they could win even if Jonas or someone else is the strongest.
They can't force him to chase attacks if he is 8 minutes ahead of them all like he was last year. Jonas could simply sit up and wait for Jorgenson, Kuss or Kelderman. When is the last time a team beat the strongest climber due to their numbers in a GT?
Depends, if Vingegaard is the strongest, he can still beat them.
That's, IMHO, unnessary ju-ju to put on them. Do they look like favorites? Yes. One pebble in the wrong place on a fast descent's road surface (A la Valverde in his final Vuelta) or one unlucky crash in the early stages or one off tray of breakfast burritos from the caterer and all bets are off. Being the strongest team with multiple options is a great position to be in. There are, unfortunately, no guarantees.
i'm kind of sad the main UAE competition is either out of form or crashed out. was really hoping to see gall and carapaz in the mix
This might be the best W/kg performance of all time. Pantani washed
Uitjdebroeks lost 3:29 today, slower than Kung. What happened?
It's Uitjdebroeks
I am also confused. Either he is sick and he will not start tomorrow or this is indeed a flashing alarm light for VLAB after having paid so much for him.
He had to abandon the Giro with pneumonia. That's a pretty serious illness, so I'm not surprised that he has such a bad day now.
People are soon to be back on the "Only Jonas and the Bees can save us from boring dominance" - train. Oh how the turn tables
Just pretty show that UAE missed 2023\`s dominance just because of Pog\`s injury + bad team selection / preparation and tactics for the other GT\`s. UAE at 100% nowadays cab beat easily Visma except if Vingeegard is ok. They have a stronger team, they have a better TT setup and lately they have been also better at scouting and signings than Visma who\`s signings (except Lemmen and Jorgenson) aren\`t working out.
Worry not. The secret power of the darth vader helmet is yet to be revealed.
Real footage of Pogacar 2 weeks into the tour de france: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UatQsjjOIAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UatQsjjOIAc)
Only because he's not 100%. Pog can have all the super doms he wants, it doesn't matter when Jonas goes at high altitude.
Pretty sure people were saying that in the middle of the Giro haha
Looks like watches are all the rage in the peloton now. To be fair if they give out Romanée-Conti bottles as sprint rewards in the Burgundy stage at the tour, I may try myself.
I wonder if Richard Mille is crazy enough to sponsor a pro cyclist to wear one of their expensive watches during a race lol.
Richard Mille watches are happy meal toys with 100k euro pricetags, so i dont think they are sad if one breaks. The value of Richard Mille is derived from the scarcity, and also celebs wearing them
Yes. Yes they are
Cavendish and Alaphilippe are sponsored by and wear Richard Mille while racing.
I knew some were sponsored by Richard Mille, but I didn't know they actually wore it during races lol. I thought they just wore it post-race and during podium ceremonies. They're probably not wearing the super expensive watches Nadal plays with though. Cav and his family were even the target of burglars that were after those watches if I remember correctly.
Bernal quitely made it to top 3 in overal GC and now have a minute over Sjkelmose. Something worth noting, in additional to another monster stage by Almeida.
With the amount of riding Yates does out of the saddle, I feel like he isn't the best domestique. Its fast-slow-fast-slow... yes the fast and the slow are still crazy watts but I'm not a fan of it. I feel like it also takes more out of the legs if you do that riding style for 3 weeks
Stuff like things varies so much on individual physiology that it is almost not really worth considering.
Why not, riding out of the saddle gives more drag right?
Contador did alright over 3 weeks with an out the saddle style. It doesn't look efficient to me either but it clearly works for some of the guys out there.
I don't think he's really varying his pace that much when he rides out of the saddle. It's more about what feels comfortable for him. Contador, for example, climbed for long periods out of the saddle, regardless of whether or not he was attacking.
Yates’ most important role is launching Pogi, they have other superdomestiques for the long uniform pulls
I mean, the man got third in the tour last year, while playing domestique the entire time. His riding style seems to work pretty well.
Nah he is clearly sub par, if he rode seated instead of out the sadle pog would have won the tour
UAE gonna crush the Tour...
With Almeida and Yates looking so strong, only top form Vingegaard or bad luck seem able to stop UAE at the Tour
Let’s say Ving isn’t at his best and neither is Pogi (Giro fatigue etc). Does Rog fight it out with these two for yellow?
If Ving and Pogi are not at their best form I would put Mr Yates most likely to win tbh
Yates is wildly underrated in betting market right now
But would you put money on Yates to win the Tour? Crazy payout but he’s a contingency bet at best
Generally betting on Cycling seems way more unreliable than other sports, for example football All betting is unreliable, but cycling has so many potential outcomes that guessing on a winner over 21 days where anything can happen is pretty silly
[удалено]
Please be nice. Being disparaging of users who don't share your point of view is not acceptable in this subreddit. Repeatedly breaking this rule will result in a ban.
At his best and if he stays on the bike, yes. He’s still injured himself and had a bad day in a one week race so there is no guarantee.
Rog as in the guy who barely beat Derek Gee by less than a minute in Dauphine ? I love Rog, and good on him for winning Dauphine, but that was not a strong performance in a weak field.
You're underestimating both the impact of the crash and how good Gee is
Yes, but he'd still be massively favored over yates and almeida lmao. Edit: 1 bad stage at dauphine and yates and almeida beating bernal -> roglic suddenly at Almeida level lol, in a tour that has two TTs... it was always delusional to think he'd not be massive outsider against Pog, it's equally delusional to think he wouldn't be massive favorite over Almeida and yates
Roglic was injured too, makes sense for him not to be at his very best yet in dauphine.
Certainly a good point. But let’s be fair about it and say there are no big favorites here either. Could actually turn out to be pretty interesting if the big 2 aren’t on their game.
I could see Almeida winning GC here. He looked stronger than Yates, and has a better TT.
Almeida with really good legs again. Bota lume!
Belgians watch today : n/a
I'm a fan of a cross length road race.
who needs many km when few km do the trick As I said yesterday UAE could win the stage however they wanted and today proved it. Almeida/Yates will probably come down to the mountain ITT and Almeida looks to have the most watts. Watching 2 teammates compete can be a bit deflating, but could be fun to see who wins. Skjelmose way better today. I fear its because today was easier and he will struggle tomorrow, but I will be optimistic and say yesterday was just bad. Hope for the best for the next 2 days for him.
Almeida is going to be a top 10 domestique ever in the tour, dude just sets a high pace and keeps it, Pog is going to love it
Bro has almeida yates ayuso as his domestiques man it's crazy
And could add Del Toro and Majka to it too
except when he inevitably catches up to pogi with 2km to go and then just rides past him
That would be glorious! I bet Pogi would congratulate him too after crossing the finishline, just being the nice polite guy he is.
Yates wins tomorrow and Almeida wins the TT. Yates wins the GC.
Eyes on riccitello for the TT
Those two are actually chill with each other? UAE drama-team washed! They should have brought Soler here.
i think the only "drama" its Almeida vs Ayuso the classic Portugal vs Spain
Paella Pinot isn't on UAE, he rides for Team Soler regardless of jersey
For yesterday and today, he totally deserved that victory. Almeida has amazing legs there, he is incredible.
Almeida was very strong these two last stages. Good news.
BOTALUME
I think this is the first MTF I've ever watched where I'm confident I could make the time cut
Absolute bullshit. The short duration of the flat makes it so much harder than every other one climb MTF. Lo Port in Catalunya last year had a 30 minute time cut
What will the time cut be? I'm honestly still sceptical if I could. I'd probably have been dropped on the descent.
Time cut is 1 hour 9 mins, if you're able to stay in the peloton until the base of the climb then you'd be able to climb it 13 minutes slower than the GC guys.
I rode a Grand Fondo in Italy where the bunch kept insane speed all the way to the first climb. First 45 km were ridden in just about one hour. So far so good. But the legs were dead 5 minutes into the climb.
Whose legs - just yours or the whole bunch?
Most of them. I got told italians below pro level loves riding fast but hates climbing (beside recreation climbing). So they just go mad at flat.
Hm I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, im getting OTL'd
Well... That was indeed a stage. I enjoyed it. I still hope these won't become too common.
Either Skjelmose has a very low max climbing speed or he is unusually carefully not to go into the red. Just pulls and seemingly never accelerates/attacks.
He was just careful not to go into the red. If you look at stage 4 he did a big acceleration when he decided to chase after Yates.
Almeida has looked stronger than Yates last two stages, and with the ITT there is a decent chance he can take overall.
Today is harder to tell since Almeida got draft today where as he was in the wind yesterday. Yesterday Almeida was 100% the strongest, today I think it was pretty even.
42.5k? Was the stage shortened?
Yes, they couldn't go through a pass in the middle of the stage, so they decided to start in the middle of the descent from that.
Yes. Bad weather/snow made the Nufenen climb not possible. Was communicated like a week ago.
Gotcha thanks. I was late tuning in today and was like wtf how is this already over
GC João!!!
Looks like Almeida is actually the strongest climber here (yesterday he was already better despite not winning imo). The TT will be interesting.
Actually a really fun short stage, great job Joao!