re: 2020 Tour De France, UCI WC, Giro, Vuelta: The Offcial Thread

I wanted Pog to go earlier...

Two pivotal GC stages left in my estimation, 17 and the TT (stage 20). 17 has 2 HC climbs and ends at the top of the Col de la Loze. The last 5km of that climb tips up hard with a max of 24 degrees.*

Tech geek note of the day. The producer put in two nice shots of NTT's Gogl cross chaining when he was in the lead. Guess climbing in the big dog as long as possible keeps his morale up... or he doesn't wanna get Schlecked.



* Anyone that has ever done the Assualt on Mt Mitchell knows that ~200m of 33% grade it has in the climbing section. The first time I did it I was 15 and had to adapt my bike as well as I could with no money. I built a 13/15/17/28/32 freewheel and just made the horrible 11t jump once when we got to the climbing in the last 20 miles. But even a 42/32 was no match for that 33% grade, even zig-zagging (as Bobke called paperboying today) wasn't enough. I had the indignation of getting off and pushing, in those clip and strap days I was wearing a pair of Detto Pietro shoes that had a solid hard plastic sole and a plastic cleat, it was so steep I couldn't even walk up the pavement, it was like trying to walk on ice. I had to walk on the grass with my bike on the shoulder. I did fare better than the guy from Florida that rode in our paceline who had a 13-17t straight block, he kept asking if the rolling hills in the latter part of the first 80 miles were the climbs.

A pair like these cost me $29.99 plus tax in 1980.

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does he have any future as a potential team leader and TdF winner?

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In a word unlikely. He is a climber, not an all-rounder. I think you will see his Achilles heel is the ITT. Last year he was in good form at the Vuelta winning a mountain stage but he lost tons of time in the ITT. Over 5 mins to Roglic. The ITT in this year's tour is a good one to exhibit this weakness. It is the next to the last stage so he doesn't have to save energy to defend the jersey on the last stage and it is a mountain top finish. Given things are in his favor if he isn't very close to the top of the stage leader board it will be clear at 26 he will need a major overhaul to contest the GC in a GT.



ETA:

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Egan Bernal's defense of the Tour de France was reduced to cinders Sunday as the Colombian suffered a meltdown on the first major mountain of the race, while the overall leader Primoz Roglic denied any suggestions he was doping. With three massive mountains, the stage itself was won by 21-year-old rookie Tadej Pogacar, but the extent of the 2019 champion's astonishing collapse on the final climb is the story of the Tour so far. "I lost three years of my life on that climb, I gave it everything," said Bernal. "But I just couldn't keep up."

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LINK

watching Van aert set that pace up the climb then go sit on Bernal's wheel was crazy. dude is a machine. After reading his comments after, Bernal may never recover from that stage lol

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I wanted Pog to go earlier...

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idk, I think that would have backfired. Unless Jumbo panicked and Roglic went with him immediately. But realistically Kuss and Dumoulin reel him back in and Roglic punishes him.

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For the older gentleman of this thread is this what it was like to watch the 1990-91 tour and then things looking very different by 93-94?

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In a general sense yes. Keep in mind we didn't have the massive coverage and commentary we have today especially in the US so it is easier to see the change in retrospect but it was clear we weren't watching mere mortals anymore.

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idk, I think that would have backfired. Unless Jumbo panicked and Roglic went with him immediately. But realistically Kuss and Dumoulin reel him back in and Roglic punishes him.

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I didn't mean to suggest it would be good for Pog necessarily but it would have been good for me. I want to see this duo pushed to the limit. I want to see what they can actually do. Basically I want to see where their breaking point really is.

Just finished watching

Wish i would have seen more attacking on this stage. But, still a fun stage. POG has a chance to win it but he has to overcome all of Jumbo Visma that’s going to be tough. Somehow they need to isolate Roglic to have a chance.

Wow Egan Bernal is off his game.

Tomorrow should be another fun day.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bora tries to distance the pure sprinters again for Sagan to go for the green.

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So they did more covid testing today?

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Yes, and zero positives!

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Tour de France organiser ASO has confirmed that no riders or staff tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus on the second rest day, meaning all the riders and teams can now continue in the race with the goal of reaching Paris next Sunday.

ASO said 785 tests were carried out on the second rest day in the Alps and all "returned negative results."

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Good googly Molly Bernal.

Yeah he got dropped and there was really no acceleration from the peloton.
He just doesn't have it this year.