His aero advantage will of course be far less than it is on a flat TT. I would guess top 3, as he knows how to TT (suffer), and will go in with some degree of confidence and expectation. He's going to put a fair bit of time into a few in the top 10.
It's a good question. I think maybe it's because there are more interesting (mostly young) riders than Richie Porte and Adam Yates threatening to podium Le Tour in the last couple of years. Lipo is really interesting to people as a young guy from a country who hasn't had a GT contender in a long...
Lance (yeah, I know) had some pointed comments about the transfer today. That if he doesn't podium, or clearly beat someone like Lipo, that will have a significant, material impact on his transfer (or not) and the value thereof.
Sounds like he had a bad day. Hope that's all it was. If he can defend the rest of the race, he can hang on to the podium. Lipo the only real threat left unless Remco loses it again.
Another view of this. Looks like our boy gets a few...let's call 'em..shoves..in. Brilliant.
View: https://x.com/lucasaganronald/status/1945611361775505482