Critérium du Dauphiné 08/12 > 08/16/20

[Parker]

I think what we're learning here is that the days of Skyneos bot domination weren't that bad. Or, at least, not everything else is less worser. Domestiques are too good. Skyneos bots or JumVis bots are all the same. And there will be new bots in 2025.
Hopefully, by 2035, we will have the ability to better control the weather. Crosswinds in every stage! We also need much steeper climbs than the ones in France. Maybe we will also have the technology to replicate climbs like Zoncolan or the Angry Lou and stick them in the Tour. This is my dream.

Welcome to the new era of Jumbo keeping everything together until the last kilometre with Roglic grabbing time bonuses to give him a TT headstart over Dumoulin. Not the boring days of Froome and Thomas winning queen stages solo wearing the Yellow Jersey.

Panache is back

 

[Big Doopie]

As soon as you say “everyone is complaining” you lose the argument. I’m not complaining. That takes away from “everyone”, making your statement an incorrect opinion. Ill leave the rest of your comment till after the race and then we can weigh it’s truth

oh puhleeeze! Lol!! Semantics on a discussion board.

got nothing else?

guess u can find nothing unfactual about the others. You must be praying for some huge event to happen in the next two days so that u can point to it desperately. Lol. And lol again

whatever.

what is the mountain stage that u remember in the last few years? Froome at the Giro. Basically that’s it. Even if u r not a fan of him. And why did it happen? Because u had a rider who was far enough back in time to risk everything. And he had panache. That is what makes it exciting. Not the rinse and repeat bs we see in 99% of MTFs.

 

[Tonton]

Grande Formolo! Bravo!

For the GC, Roglic looks strong but you never know. Pinot was suffering from the heat today but got 3rd. His placement has been suspect...all he cares about is Bernal. Does he feel something, does he know something? After all, Ineos is still the team to beat.

For the Tour, JV looks good, but so was Movistar not too long ago. JV looks smarter, with a designated leader, but who knows how the mayonnaise of chemistry will hold.

In this bike race, Roglic is dominating but time gaps are small. Not in the bag.

 

[Oldermanish]

Welcome to the new era of Jumbo keeping everything together until the last kilometre with Roglic grabbing time bonuses to give him a TT headstart over Dumoulin. Not the boring days of Froome and Thomas winning queen stages solo wearing the Yellow Jersey.

Panache is back

How can anyone complain in the era of C19 about a one week stage race? You've got beautiful mountain stages, guys crashing everywhere and then pummeled by Biblical level hail. If anyone needs more carnage there are still plenty of crashes on Nascar.

 

[The Hegelian]

First live bike race I've seen in 2020: Formolo big-chainringing it all the way to victory, face showing how much pain he was willing to endure for it. Great stuff! Chapeau, didn't think he could stay away.

 

[The Hegelian]

I really want Formolo to be terrible until whenever the nationals are. Not because of anything against him but I don't want to have to hurt my eyes looking at that ABOMINATION any more than is strictly necessary. This is actually worse than the Radioshack German and Swiss champions' jerseys and maybe even worse than Levi's abortion of a US Champions' jersey. The Italian jersey is so easy to get right, how is it possible to get it so wrong?

For a while there I thought you were talking about his climbing style.....it worked, but it wasn't pretty...

 

[Big Doopie]

For a while there I thought you were talking about his climbing style.....it worked, but it wasn't pretty...

it was pretty old school. i liked it.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

it was pretty old school. i liked it.

A fan of Mollema and Latour as well?

 

[Big Doopie]

the next two stages do seem to encourage more movement with non-stop up and down. yes, the final climb is not super hard, but my hope is the terrain with a lack of hiding places may actually deliver. i look forward and hope for greater action.

ultimately, you need the rider who has the personality.

 

[tobydawq]

A fan of Mollema and Latour as well?

A pity Latour couldn't keep up with Formolo. That duo would have been quite a sight.

 

[Bolder]

Yes don't see him getting much better in the high mountains. Most riders have that ability when they are younger, it's not something that gets developed late,r with a few exceptions. Even someone like Voeckler was better in the high mountains than Ala especially when in yellow !

No, he wasn't. Ala only was in the high mountain in yellow once and he was at least equal to Voeck

Grande Formolo! Bravo!

For the GC, Roglic looks strong but you never know. Pinot was suffering from the heat today but got 3rd. His placement has been suspect...all he cares about is Bernal. Does he feel something, does he know something? After all, Ineos is still the team to beat.

For the Tour, JV looks good, but so was Movistar not too long ago. JV looks smarter, with a designated leader, but who knows how the mayonnaise of chemistry will hold.

In this bike race, Roglic is dominating but time gaps are small. Not in the bag.

Not in the bag but it will take a bold strike to dislodge Roglic if he wants to win the overall this weekend. I'm still not 100 percent convinced that Ineos isn't sandbagging a little, maybe they aren't as good as Jumbo right now but I don't think they're quite as far behind as what my eyes have been seeing. Thomas and Bernal were right there, even if 10 seconds behind Roglic.

The last climb yesterday (which I did in the Etape du Tour last year in identical conditions) showed that there are about 10 climbers on good form right now. Sure, Roglic has been winning but without a leadout, someone else could have jumped away in the last 500 meters or disrupted his pace more easily down low.

I think the heat was a factor for some riders -- that climb was an oven last year for me, with direct sun all the way up and dark tarmac -- but in the Tour it won't be a problem given the September time frame.

 

[movingtarget]

Grande Formolo! Bravo!

For the GC, Roglic looks strong but you never know. Pinot was suffering from the heat today but got 3rd. His placement has been suspect...all he cares about is Bernal. Does he feel something, does he know something? After all, Ineos is still the team to beat.

For the Tour, JV looks good, but so was Movistar not too long ago. JV looks smarter, with a designated leader, but who knows how the mayonnaise of chemistry will hold.

In this bike race, Roglic is dominating but time gaps are small. Not in the bag.

At the moment I would say that Jumbo is the team to beat. We will see how Ineos can respond when the Tour hits the mountains. They still have time to pick up their game as do many others who haven't looked that good in this race. i think the erratic training and racing plus lockdown protocols in different countries have messed things up a bit so far. Roglic peaked too early in the Giro but looked more formidable in the Vuelta. He's a much better rider than he was two seasons ago.

 

[geisterhome]

Looking at the TdF profiles it seems tailor made for that JV mountain bunch sprint stragtegy. I counted 2 to 3 Stages where it might not work. Otherwise it's not overly difficult MTFs or rather modest final climbs with some distance to the finish line. Guys like Kuss, Dumolin or Steven K. will be able to make the pace there until the last 1 or 2km and then Roglic can take over. It would need stages with like 2 HC climbs towards the end with the last climb being steep throughout.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

what is the mountain stage that u remember in the last few years? Froome at the Giro. Basically that’s it. Even if u r not a fan of him. And why did it happen? Because u had a rider who was far enough back in time to risk everything. And he had panache. That is what makes it exciting. Not the rinse and repeat bs we see in 99% of MTFs.

How many years back are we allowed to go before it doesn't count as the last few years? Because in the last decade there's Schleck to Galibier, 2010 Giro Aprica, 2011 Giro Rifugio Gardeccia, Quintana in the Route du Sud, Contador to Fuente Dé, Quintana to Semnoz, Quintana to Val Martello, Aru to Cercedilla, Landa to Aprica, Nibali to Risoul, 2016 Vuelta Formigal, Contador's career-ender at Angliru, Yates' win at Sappada, Froome's odyssey to Monte Jafferau, Carapaz' Giro-winning ride in Aosta, the Courchevel raid in the Dauphiné when Froome and Contador lost the GC to Andrew Talansky, the last stage of Paris-Nice 2017, the race-settling final stage of País Vasco in Eibar last year...

There are a lot of races with plenty of panache. You're saying that the panache is what makes things exciting, but 99% of Froome's career has been predicated on the "rinse and repeat BS" that you deride, because he's been on a team that has built a strategy around the simple bludgeoning tactic of "have strongest rider in race. Have strongest backup team in race. Ride on the front until everybody drops". Froome himself has a few other stages where he's surprised people - the descent attack on the Peyresourde, for example - but for the most part he's used the same rinse and repeat tactic himself, and has only been interesting when his support team has been weaker so he's raced more mano a mano (putting his authority down on Contador on Las Allanadas in the Ruta del Sol, winning on Col du Béal in the Dauphiné) or he has been put in a position of weakness (Jafferau) - and it's no coincidence that races and performances like that have been better received by the fans than the average Froome show of power even though you could certainly argue that a few of them (Pierre Saint Martin, for example) were more impressive than any of his more well-received results.

Sure, plenty of people who are celebrating Jumbo's dominance are only happy because it feels different, not because it is different. It's still the same tactic, just used by a different team, sure. But for a lot of people they're just happy it's a different team that's doing it because it isn't just the same old same old. You know, just like how F1 had had several years of the same teams dominating and people were bored of them and Vettel stealing the title from Alonso and Webber on the last day in 2010 was received well, but two-three years later when Vettel had become the dominant champion people were sick to their heart of him... and then people were glad when he was going to finally be challenged when Mercedes got their act together, and now F1 viewing figures are in the toilet because we've had several years of Mercedes winning everything, and since Rosberg retired and Hamilton insisted on a clear #2 driver rather than a #1B, we don't even get the opportunity for some insubordination in the ranks.

 

[Poursuivant]

Bernal doesn’t start today.

 

[DNP-Old]

Bernal doesn’t start today.

Back problems according to Thomas.

 

[Lequack]

Darn, although you could see he was struggling and pushing trough the pain. Hoping he rests and recovers for the Tour!
On a more positive note, this might give us some attacks from Ineos, like Sivakov?

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1294571353711026177

View: https://twitter.com/itvcycling/status/1294571353711026177

 

[Lequack]

 

[Lequack]

How Movistar prepares for today

https://twitter.com/x/status/1294525480000000007

View: https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/1294525480000000007?s=20

 

[Pricey_sky]

Bernal doesn’t start today.

The back problems do explain why his form has declined massively over the past week or so. It’s going to be a struggle for him to start the Tour in great form now.

 

[RedheadDane]

Chris, for ***'s sake! Pull your mask up!

 

[hammerthaim]

I'd say the back pain is a cover to go to altitude camp sooner and try bump the form up a bit.

 

[Lequack]

He could do the Victor Campanaerts method and sleep in a tent simulating 5000 meters.

 

[Gigs_98]

That Bernal news might be huge.
Could Ineos arrive at the tour with Bernal, Thomas and Froome all incapable of competing for the win?