2014 Tour de France Stage 4: Le Touquet-Paris-Plage / Lille Métropole: 163km, flat

[Dazed and Confused]

Actually he's won more races than anyone in the peloton this year despite being injured for part of the year. But yeah, he's been disappointing so far this Tour. He did try to do a little something today but he waited until way too late to move up. He was a little ahead of Sagan when he made his move forward in the final k but was too tentative. And even though he moved up to 6th at the end he never really looked like he was going for it. He barely even got out of the saddle

I don't know, he certainly doesn't seem his usual self right now.

I remember an incident earlier this year after he came back from injury where he almost hit a car in the run in to a bunch sprint. Greipel has always be cautious which tells us something, but now fear could be creeping into the equation. He's 31 now, it would not be the first time a top sprinter suddenly lost it for mental reasons. We shall see.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

From the start of the stage:

Surely the looking at the stem isn't catching on?

More photos here: http://www.steephill.tv/2014/tour-de-france/photos/stage-04/

 

[veji11]

I remember an incident earlier this year after he came back from injury where he almost hit a car in the run in to a bunch sprint. Greipel has always be cautious which tells us something, but now fear could be creeping into the equation. He's 31 now, it would not be the first time a top sprinter suddenly lost it for mental reasons. We shall see.

Greipel and Démare are having the same difficulties this Tour (although vastly different ages) : They both like clean sprints where their leadouts do the job and they are dropped at the 200/150 mark with a clear road ahead, and all they have to do is push hard...

Well this isn't cycling. Just as hearing climbers say they only like MTFs but descents should be made illegal (hello Andy and Thibaut, inter alia), seeing sprinters unable to sprint when they aren't brought "on an armchair" as we say in french all the way to the 200meters is frustrating. Part of the art of sprinting is finding your spot.

Guys like Sagan, the young Coquard, a younger Cavendish, a Bouhanni, they have this instinct, they find the opening somewhere somehow and then don't hesitate and push hard to win it.

Yesterday showed how one can have a good chance to win against a great train like the Giants : Break the train, get yourself in the middle of it, fight for position. This is what sprinting is about. Just like mountain stages aren't a simple matter of wattage, sprints aren't just a question of power and strength.

Seeing Greipel and Démare on the tour makes me appreciate a lot more what Bouhanni did on the Giro, where on a couple of occasion he just went for tiny spaces, along ther barriers or in slippery condition, to nab that win without a dominating train.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I'm a sucker for old style bunch sprints, love entrepreneurial fastmen.

Both Demare and Greipel are pretty versatile riders (Demare more so imo), they can easily expand their career beyond bog standard flat stage bunch sprints.