SECOND WEEK AS IT STANDS
GC is a completely split race. Pogacar and Vingegaard are so close it is hard to pick a favourite. All to play for. There are then another 15 riders probably in contenion for a top-5/top-10. One good breakaway could move any of them up and they are all far enough back that JV and UAE won’t chase them.
Points Classification looks wrapped up. Without something dramatic happening it is hard to see anyone closing the >100pt lead that Philipsen has. He obviously needs to get to Paris though.
The KOM competion has barely begun. Powless’s points tally so far is insignificant compared to the points available in the Alpine stages to come. It is perfectly possible that it comes down to a battle between riders who are still on zero. Probably the bigger question is whether the breakaway taking the Puy de Dome sets a precedent or whether the Alpine mountain finishes are taken by the GC contenders. If the latter, then another year of the GC winner ‘accidentally’ winning the Polka dots too is certainly on the cards.
He obviously needs to get to Paris though.
Has any rival team ever deliberately try and put the green jersey leader out of time on a hard mountain stage? Or is this considered poor form/sportsmanship?
It’s pretty hard to do “deliberately”.
You could crash into them I guess, but that would seem fairly obviously poor form!
Other than that, you could try to drop them from the peloton on an early climb, but then you would need to drive hard for a long way to keep the pressure up. And even then, if the sprinter has their whole team around them to pace that is probably enough.
Most OTL’s are either when the rider is a bit ill or the team just don’t care.
Turned out to be an exciting stage in the end. Both the repeated attempts of Alaphilippe et. al. to close the gap to the front were entertaining, as well as the final. Sad for Zimmermann, though. He really deserves to take a stage one day…
I think Skjelmose would have won if he didn’t spend so much energy getting into the break in the first place.
Hard to predict this one, definitely a breakaway as I don’t see anyone controlling this stage, maybe Lafay for his second?
I’m going to go for Van de Poel or Bilbao. But it could be anyone!
Fair play predicting that one right
:-) It’s only downhill from here!
My picks today are van Aert, van der Poel, Cort, Skjelmost and Alaphilippe.
The stage is pretty much perfect for Skjelmose, the only issue is if they’ll let him in the breakaway.
Fun stage so far. Good to see Ben O has found his legs. Hoping the breakaway stays away today, but I also want to see GC fireworks.
