Horner said in his video that yesterday, when TGH went in the final, G lost his wheel on purpose doing exactly the same thing, blocking the bunch, like Kwiato the day before.
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Huh? This was as well ridden tactically as one could possibly expect. I can't think of any scenario where Movistar can expect a better outcome than this. They rode well and used the options they had to put their GC rider (López) in as good a position as possible.
Riding great recently and forgetting to mention Caruso their best rider this year by a mile
Richie Porte was the strongest out there today and he is not good enough for team leadership ...WTF ?
In fact he is probably the only rider at Ineos going to the Tour who can stay near the Slovenians ...Carapaz too on the climbs but he cant TT
I don't know how much you can read into today's stage, although the last climb was very entertaining. Do Tour GC hopefuls want to be in top shape now, or just be good enough? Porte looked great, but I just can't tell about Thomas, Hart, Lopez, Mas...are they rounding into form and don't want to go too far into the red?
It's good to see relatively fresh faces like Gaudu, Haig, O'Connor and AP-P contending on a climb like this. On the other hand, I expected a little more from SK, Quintana and G. Martin.
Porte as designated Ineos leader? I wouldn't anoit him with that crown in early June.
If he is this solid in July, the only way he will have to 'ride for G' will be 'early' offensive moves like today.
MAL was the 2nd strongest GC contender on the day, yet he lies 7th overall now. How is that the best possible outcome?
Specifically not good enough for Ineos leadership, given he has a single 3rd place in a GT at the ripe young age of 36, despite winning a million WT stage races like the Dauphine.
Because TT? There's less than 10 seconds between 7th and 3rd, it's all to play for. Personally I don't fault Movistar for how they raced today. Maybe it didn't work out perfectly but that's hindsight and so irrelevant.
I think the threat for Ineos this year is too big to not put the rider in first position that you really think has a chance. It's not going to be "whoever we choose, he's going to win anyway".
I never said it was the best possible outcome, but best possible expected outcome. And it's not clear at all that he was the second strongest rider today, nor that he was strong enough to ride everyone else (other than Porte) out of his wheel. He tried to get away at least twice before he actually did (and Valverde did well to shuffle the group and allow for attacks to happen), and the tactical situation meant that once he got away he had the help of Mas, a 'slow' pace behind him, and a Porte who had already been in the wind far more than he had.
I would not be surprised if Ineos will actually try to keep Porte on GC at the Tour, although it might be hard to manage with 3 other leaders. If they can avoid responsibility they could keep their options open though. Still, Porte has looked imperious at the Dauphiné / in races leading up to the Tour and rarely has it translated to an actually good result at the Tour, so I wouldn't be too hasty to declare him outright leader.
What I find cofusing is, if Lopez is the leader for Movistar, why was he working for Valverde yesterday and not Mas? Yesterday's action suggested Mas was the leader (and Valverde for the stage of course).
I’m not a huge Superman defender, but Porte’s attack was from over 7 KMs from the finish. I think he gambled on Thomas overtaking Porte on the climb and clearly underestimated just how good Richie is in 1 week races.
They deserve favouritism but Ineos will have one of their strongest teams ever. Still probably won't be enough. Pogacar hasn't even matured yet and Roglic is at the peak of his career. Thomas and Porte past their best and Carapaz can be up and down although his Giro win was solid. Interesting to see Porte's late career surge but one week races have always been his strength and like Valverde he has won quite a few. Glad he got his podium last season but Ineos have the job ahead of them to win the Tour.
I'm going to laugh my ass off if Porte is Ineos' best at the tour, and even more if he wins it - poor guy getting thrown into a leader position when he just wants to be a domestique!
LOL that’s funny. Maybe he should’ve quit trying to peak for Willunga Hill every year and won a few GTs.
Ability. Neither lost time yesterday, but I think only López was able to do the job (and not lose time).
This. Movistar may have failed at assessing the strength of Ineos riders, but at least they ride as a team, not against each other. Then, they have Valverde "giving it all" for his teammates and still finishing within one minute.
Ineos have no-one that can beat the Slovenians one on one. All for one isn't going to cut it this time, they'll just be doing the work for the Slovenians. Imho, they have to go guerilla with as many guys as possible on the last climb. UAE and TJV should take responsibility to control the race anyway.
Mountain aren't very well suited to chaos and guerilla tactics IMO.
Thought of exactly the same thing. They knew Lopez was stronger (although Mas looked quite comfortable, but remember it was only 4-5% gradients when MAL was in the front so the draft was siginificant) and they were very focused on the stage win so they needed a very high pace to prevent any attacks. And apparently Lopez was the only one who could provide that.
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