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Arnaud Démare discussion thread

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Re:

ppanther92 said:
Demare lost 12:30 to Quintana, who was also over 3 minutes behind Kangert. French people pushing a french rider - that will always happen, i am not sure though if its really that big of an advantage (messes with your rhythm). Holding ono the car? Maybe, but than Greipel should at least have the balls to call it out directly if he witnessed it. This twitter data thing (even with an error in calculation) is rather passive aggressive.

"Demare's gap to the leader based on the tourtracker data"
https://twitter.com/velofacts/status/1022204078066163714/photo/1

Di-YXveX0AADs4B.jpg
What about the Alpine stages?
 
I'm very happy for France & even Demare. But he really can't afford any more holding onto car insinuations & accusations. He's had far too many already. But again congrats to FDJ & that kit is still the best in the peloton!! <3
 
ciranda said:
There are millions of people on these mountains. Since no photo documentation has turned up it is now clear that he doesn't hold on to cars to get to the finish.

Maybe you're right. It doesn't make sense that there haven't been videos of it if it had occurred.

How he could ride the Col du Portet that quickly is wondrous then and in that case I don't understand how he is always the first to let go of the peloton. Yesterday it was exceedingly obvious that he was the worst climber when he was dropped within 100 metres.

But maybe it's a plan for him to just go his own tempo all the way?

On the other hand, Greipel's initial comments from the Alpe d'Huez stage didn't leave much room for doubt that Démare indeed had gotten help on that stage.
 
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tobydawq said:
ciranda said:
There are millions of people on these mountains. Since no photo documentation has turned up it is now clear that he doesn't hold on to cars to get to the finish.

Maybe you're right. It doesn't make sense that there haven't been videos of it if it had occurred.

How he could ride the Col du Portet that quickly is wondrous then and in that case I don't understand how he is always the first to let go of the peloton. Yesterday it was exceedingly obvious that he was the worst climber when he was dropped within 100 metres.

But maybe it's a plan for him to just go his own tempo all the way?

On the other hand, Greipel's initial comments from the Alpe d'Huez stage didn't leave much room for doubt that Démare indeed had gotten help on that stage.

Demare is a professional. He knows his body and his FTP. If you ride tempo on a climb like that, you can easily lose 15 minutes, but you lessen the risk of cracking. If a rider knows they will get dropped amyways, then there’s no point in burying themselves to simply hold on to the peloton.
 
This is like the accusations against Cavendish, specifically in 2011 when he was in the green jersey. The only time there has ever been proof of Cav taking a tow was in the Giro stage he won in 2009(?) When he was late to the start and got paced back to the peloton by a different team car that was also late.

His date shows he lost chunks of time, Greipel apologized but the damage is already done, there is no proof, and him riding his own pace makes sense to stay within the time limit. No reason to stay with a group that is going faster then he can ride causing him to use all his energy.
 
tobydawq said:
ciranda said:
There are millions of people on these mountains. Since no photo documentation has turned up it is now clear that he doesn't hold on to cars to get to the finish.

Maybe you're right. It doesn't make sense that there haven't been videos of it if it had occurred.

How he could ride the Col du Portet that quickly is wondrous then and in that case I don't understand how he is always the first to let go of the peloton. Yesterday it was exceedingly obvious that he was the worst climber when he was dropped within 100 metres.

But maybe it's a plan for him to just go his own tempo all the way?

On the other hand, Greipel's initial comments from the Alpe d'Huez stage didn't leave much room for doubt that Démare indeed had gotten help on that stage.

Greipel was the first one dropped on the Madeleine (along with Sieberg, De Buyst and Pozzovivo) and abandoned quite early so how on earth would he have seen that?
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
I guess it one of 2 things

1) he does hang on to a car and somehow there's no evidence

2) he has a terrible time to get the engine going so he gets dropped during uphill and fast starts

A bit of both. I’m sure he takes as much help as all the sprinters do. He may even get more pushes from roadside fans than most in the Tour (whether that actually helps is up for debate). I’m sure he also knows his legs and knows when to drop off and just ride his own race to make the time limit.
 
Re:

Durden93 said:
So it appears Demare lost roughly 10 minutes on the final climb. So Demare was riding at roughly (just under, actually) 5 w/kg. That’s entirely reasonable for a world class rider. https://mobile.twitter.com/velofacts/status/1022204078066163714
the broom van was following him, a Bora car as well for good measure...fake news...Greipel's mouth gets more results than his legs these days...
 

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