Pretty obvious at the moment that Ineos don't have a clear leader for the Tour. I think they will keep an open mind until the first few mountain stages.
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Maybe. But then again, Mas looked strong yesterday sprinting to 5th place on the stage and Lopez in the end could barely hang on with the front group and ended the last with the s.t. group.
But things are working out well for them so far. It'd be nice to have a strong Movistar team at the Tour.
Everyone seems very sure that the Slovenians won't misfire.
I know making fun of Kuss has become sort of a meme, but I don't get what he's done wrong today. He's been a top5 climber on the stage finishing in 6th, only 18s behind Porte. He blew up a little trying to follow Padun (Porte and Mas couldn't or decided not to), who was on another level. It's been a repeating occurrence for him to go too deep, too early in the climb, only to lose some time in the end. But his climbing today was more than fine.
After today, I'm not.
The level on display is just ridiculous, i.e. Padun's climbing time is the stuff of legends: Subiendo como una moto: Mark Padun indurains La Plagne! (climbing-records.com)
I'm not seeing a lot of options for them. Leave it to UAE & TJV to set the pace, have them burn through their domestiques. By the time Pog & Rog are down to their last man, Ineos could still be there with 4 or 5 guys. Then they can play the numbers game. If they try to go toe to toe, they will get massacred. At least, that's what i expect.
Pretty much. Also if you try fancy attacks you can also just simply eliminate one of your own contenders. I think echelons might be their best bet. Or maybe straight up joining the breakaway with one of their contenders and hope Jumbo will want to make UAE work or something stupid, but I don't expect UAE to be that weak.
Fun stuff could happen if you have Ineos attacking breaks and Van Aert sneaking in.
It's difficult to compare the times, when they didn't use exactly the same ascent. The 1995 Tour stage was also harder:
That's 1987, right? (Same route for the 1984 and 1987 stage)It's difficult to compare the times, when they didn't use the same ascent. The 1995 Tour stage was also harder:
I love when people can just go "nah this wasn't that stage profile from 25 years ago, it was completely different"
You're right. It was only 166 km long and started in Le Grand-Bornand. I thought it was the correct one, because the other one I found was from 2002.
If Kuss is not riding for a leader, his tactics or plans are like WTF are you doing?
And results even worse than as a domestique
Not that the stage was easy in 1995, and with Zulle up ahead, I'm sure it was fast throughout the stage. But it was the day after the first rest day, and Pantani set the record on Alpe d'Huez the next day on a hard profile as well.
Not that the stage was easy in 1995, and with Zulle up ahead, I'm sure it was fast throughout the stage. But it was the day after the first rest day, and Pantani set the record on Alpe d'Huez the next day on a hard profile as well.
But it's still not easy to compare the times, when the climb was 800 m shorter, and they didn't start racing proper before it. Many riders today beat the times not set by Indurain for instance.
Ineos/Movistar were a bit hamstrung with Porte/Mas in between so the gap went out that much and Kuss had enough of a margin to come 6th.
He did not do anything wrong, but I am not sure how to rate the actual performance.
Barring crashes or illness, they simply don't misfire. Roglic you could say last misfired at Amstel, a race his teammate won anyway. That crash at Paris-Nice doesn't really count, I'm not sure this race last year does either given his performance at the Tour. He's been so close to perfect since 2018 it's crazy.
Pogacar is much scarier, for all we know he's a robot who's incapable of misfiring. I certainly can't find any obvious examples of that happening to him as a pro.
Roglic misfired the 2019 Giro. And arguably the odd classic here and there.
And ignore the fact that Carapaz has beaten Roglic and only lost to him due to time bonuses in their last 2 grand tours where they were riding for GC. And ignoring the fact that Pog's TT was an absolute freak and nowhere near represents his normal performance level.
Roglič didn't misfire in Amstel. He was working for van Aert and did a great job until his mechanical.
There is always a possibility something goes wrong for them. I can see Pogačar struggling in the heat for example.
BTW, you can look up all Tour routes here: https://www.touratlas.nl/etappekaarten
Carapaz was seemingly incapable of winning a stage in the Vuelta. Roglic won 4 because he's a better time trialist & he's got a monstrous mountain sprint. That's why Carapaz will still struggle to beat Roglic this summer, notwithstanding the fact Roglic was also out of gas at the end of last season whereas this time he'll be fresh. So that's a lot against Richard Carapaz.
But this is cycling (anything can happen) & the stuff we're seeing (Astana & Bahrain upping their game) means we just can't be sure. But Pogacar & Roglic are still the clear favorites, for good reason.
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