85th Tour de Suisse (2.UWT) // June 12th - 19th 2022

[hayneplane]

He crashed on stage 2 of TDF 2020.

And also was a beneficiary of Roglic crashing out and Pinot crumbling when in yellow with one day to go. Hard to say Martinez was the best rider in 2020 Dauphine.

 

[Samamba]

So annoying Kron got sick right before the hilly classics. Such an underrated rider when he's in form. Wonder where he'll be riding next year. Doubt he'll stay with Lotto.

 

[titan31]

That was a quite furious opening to the race. Wouldn't have expected that big gaps.


Fuglsang looks strong. Certainly a contender for the overall, if his high altitude climbing is just as fine. Evenepoel strong, but he's always vulnerable. Vlasov brings a good combination of TT & climbing.

It's gonna be interesting now. On paper they all need to ride aggressive and put Evenepoel under pressure from here on. Certainly Fuglsang & Yates. Bora can go 1-2 with Higuita & Vlasov.

Pozzovivo surprisingly strong. If he has been able to recover a bit from his crash at the Giro d'Italia and reminisce his Blockhaus shape, he might even be a dark horse.

Lutsenko also is an aggressive rider. Looks more like lower end top 10 for me. But with a good TT like at last years Dauphine, who knows.

Hirschi could be a surprise based on how his climbing is going to be. Carmenzind used to be a contender for the golden jersey back in the day. So theoretically Hirschi could snatch a top 5 here. But one swallow doesn't make a summer of course. Gonna be interesting to see what he's able to show in Switzerland & Liechtenstein!

This looks promising on paper. Both the contenders & the route offered to them. But let's not get too excited in advance.

Martinez out already is a negative surprise. Arensman said at the Giro d'Italia, that he always has problems getting his motor into a rhythm the first stages. Might be cooked, might be a victim of that intense kick-off.

Pinot doesn't look promising. Still has been 2nd at the 2020 Dauphine. If he wants to contest for the polka dots at the Tour de France, there's an urgent need for improvements in the Alps upcoming weekend.

Cosnefroy had a total off day it seems. Ill?

Maybe the guys having already ridden Argau had a benefit, because the rhythm had been already there?

Forgetting Schachmann for Bora too. Stages 6 and 7 might be beyond him and he'll end up riding in support of Vlasov but he'll be there about until then imo.

 

[Escarabajo]

Martinez may deliberately come into a prep race on lower form than in the spring races?

In 2020 he won the Dauphine but was nowhere in the Tour.
In 2021 he was kinda nowhere in TotA, then was flying in the Giro.

I think his season 2022 has to be taken in isolation. It is the first time that he comes with different objective for the Tour.
The other two seasons had to relevance to what he was doing later as an objective. Additionally he crashed on stage 2 of the Tour 2020.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Tomorrow's climbs:

There's a lot of uncategorised climbing early on. The last rise before the first KOM is the hardest of these, it's the actually-uphill part of the profile below from Wintersingen to the junction to Nusshof.

Following that, we have the climbs to Gempen...

...Eichenberg...

...and finally the Challpass, just 13.8 mostly downhill kilometres from the line.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1536086379746234370

View: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1536086379746234370

 

[Big Doopie]

Watched the last climb again and Remco seemed to be just marking any attack he thought was legit and then looking back to see who was following/for Van Wilder(?)

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Watched the last climb again and Remco seemed to be just marking any attack he thought was legit and then looking back to see who was following/for Van Wilder(?)

According to a report i read, be it from a somewhat shady newssite, Evenepoel wanted to attack at 500m to go, but Vlasov was marking him too hard, so when the others got back, he told Ilan he could sprint for himself. I'm assuming he burned one match too many to contend in a sprint. I think if Van Wilder waited a bit longer, he might have made the podium.

 

[search]

Quite a large break today, that could very well stay clear, given the lack of favourites for this finale: Holmes, Burgaudeau, Schär, Badilatti, Pellaud, Rutsch, Basso and Suter + Imhof & Vitzhum about to bridge. Problem is, the first two are at +1:01 in GC

edit: apparently it's not Pellaud but Leknessund

 

[titan31]

Based on yesterday, I can see GC action again today on that final climb. Surely even guys who lost some time might want to go. Final 2k of that climb are hard enough to drop people if a team wants to.

 

[SafeBet]

Bora now working hard at the front cause Leknessund could be dangerous for the GC. Gap still over 5 minutes.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Leknessund would need 5 minute before the final 3 stages to even have a very small chance at winning.

 

[Potomac]

With the old 10K to take back 1 minute rule of thumb, this break is now officially interesting.

 

[spalco]

I found a pretty useful stream of SRF2 if anyone's interested. Works a lot better than tiz for me, but obviously it's in some strange language that vaguely sounds like german.

https://www.2ix2.com/srf-2/

 

[Filippo_3467]

Fake pace setting by Ineos? bahrain not strong enough or uninterested to keep yellow? No day for Remco and DQT?

Very weird that the peleton is this uninterested.

 

[BR2]

Fake pace setting by Ineos? bahrain not strong enough or uninterested to keep yellow? No day for Remco and DQT?

Very weird that the peleton is this uninterested.

Peloton doesn't seem very interested in any case these days?
Bora doing a lot of work this season, though. Saving some days.

 

[Filippo_3467]

The peleton can still easy catch them if they put the hammer down, but I don't understand why the break is getting that much of a leash on those kind of days. It was the same in the Dauphine.

Edit: Poor Deqlerq - if they chase a few minutes earlier he doesn't have to make that much of a pain face.

 

[Sciatic]

DeClerq looks like a giant has joined the race when he appears on the front.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Burgaudeau, Suter, Holmes, Badilatti. Leknessund. Will be a good fight for the stage. Badilatti was recently at a training camp with Fausto Masnada in livigno. Let's give him some support.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Declerq appears, 45 seconds disappear.

 

[spalco]

The peloton is still trying, I'm not sure why.

 

[Riek s]

The peloton is still trying, I'm not sure why.

isn't there still a climb coming up?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

The peloton is still trying, I'm not sure why.

Maybe Remco will attack in the final climb and bridge. Yates, Masnada and Vlasov go with him. Fuglsang maybe as well

 

[titan31]

Peleton probably need to go harder on this climb. Pretty soft pedalled atm

 

[Samamba]

Yeah Leknessund wins this if the peloton soft pedalls this