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Roglic spanked the other GC guys today... & he spanked them hard. Imagine getting badly beaten by a mummy? Someone should call Brendan Fraser. Pogacar is of course hilariously in Dragon Ball Z unattainable territory, but Roglic is a fighter & he'll go for the podium if his body allows him. Van Aert meanwhile should go home & rethink his own self-importance.
Imagine leaving number 11 behind to rot on Monday after a crash whilst you sprint hard for the final 4km at the front just because you dream of the yellow for a day or two? That's what van Aert did.
Honestly I was so pssed-off when it happened I refrained from comment, but Jumbo shot themselves in the face with their bizarre focus on allowing van Aert room to fantasize about yellow. I just never see that sort of cr*p from teams focused on the singular goal of winning the Tour.
Would a healthy Roglic would have been faster today? Could he have been fast enough to beat Pogacar? Maybe, maybe not. But I know for certain if van Aert had been called back to ride for Primoz at 10km on Monday, he's be closer to the podium right now than he is. That's a fact in my mind.
Imagine leaving number 11 behind to rot on Monday after a crash whilst you sprint hard for the final 4km at the front just because you dream of the yellow for a day or two? That's what van Aert did.
Honestly I was so pssed-off when it happened I refrained from comment, but Jumbo shot themselves in the face with their bizarre focus on allowing van Aert room to fantasize about yellow. I just never see that sort of cr*p from teams focused on the singular goal of winning the Tour.
Would a healthy Roglic would have been faster today? Could he have been fast enough to beat Pogacar? Maybe, maybe not. But I know for certain if van Aert had been called back to ride for Primoz at 10km on Monday, he's be closer to the podium right now than he is. That's a fact in my mind.
Eurosport commentators said that according to some rumours in TJV's camp yesterday morning, Roglic was expected to lose 90s to Pog. But I guess they didn't expect Pogacar to do so well and Roglic going just 44s is a really good performance. If his condition gets better he has good chances for 2nd.
Hair loss is contagious?Very creditable performance all things considered. If his injuries improve the podium is very possible. I hope he feels better and goes on a Roglastomp to upset the apple cart, there is a Long way to go!
P.S. Follow to yesterdays Bala hair comments:
In the best case scenario, we can hope for a nice little battle with our old friend Carapaz for second. That would be fun.
If Van Aert was in peak condition and had shown that in the first stages (which he wasn't and which was known), I could somehow understand it. Likewise, it could be defended to have kept Vingegaard in front as he is flying and fully fit. But this? No *** way can that decision be defended. Shameful.
I agree. As I said, I refrained from comment on Monday because I was so gutted, but what the hell, it's a mini sporting scandal IMO.
Imagine Lance in his prime with a teammate who fancies yellow (after an appendicitis operation a month or so earlier!) & leaves him to rot after a crash? There would be a nuclear fallout larger than Chernobyl. Then that teammate (in this case van Aert) gets beaten by Vingegaard & only takes 14 seconds off a guy wrapped in bandages?
JV have a screw loose.
JV has a problem. Money. It always comes to money nowadays, doesn't it. The team cannot afford to pay riders as much as Ineos or UAE with seemingly unlimited budget can. So they compensate that by giving their (sometimes less than stellar) riders a lot of "opportunities for themselves". Kuss and Kruiswijk have been leaders in countless one week races this year (and failed to perfom misserably), George Bennet got to lead the Giro (while getting dropped with 20 riders left in the group and not being able to follow freaking Tratnik on Zoncolan) and so on... they compensate lack of money by giving riders freedom. Just so they can keep them. But I agree. If you want to win the Tour, whole team has to work for one goal. I know a day or two in yellow would be great for Wout. But that goes against what the team came here to do. Leaving your best flat engine in the front while your leader is trying to get back to the group is not the best picture... if anyone should stay in front it should maybe be Vingegaard, a backup GC option. WvA is not a GC guy in the Tour. He can go for his own chances in the TTs and sprints when Roglič is safely in the last 3km. Like last year. I love Wout, but as a team you should work for one goal. Like in Amstel. Roglič chased down all the attacks and Wout won. The team won.
Today was possibly the best time trial Primoz has ever ridden, factoring in the injuries, suffering, and courage.
I'm not naïve, i.e. I figured there's contractual & sponsorship obligations involved.
I can imagine WvA had certain "demands" acquiesced by Jumbo before he signed his contract extension (at a time when Ineos were forcing for his signature pretty hard). Going into this Tour all we head from the WvA side was "he's not going to ride in the mountains like last year & has objectives for after the Tour... but he does fancy a stage win or yellow in week one".
I'm sorry but that's total B.S. for a team with GC aspirations. I didn't want to believe it was serious talk, but they really did throw everything down the toilet just to follow through with that pre-Tour agreement. And now I'm reading unintentionally hilarious comments from fans on social media putting pressure on them to make Vingegaard their GC leader after today's TT. I mean if they listened to this sort of madness there would be anarchy in the team & the GC would never happen.
But the WvA situation already came close to that this week. It's just too many mistakes to ever hope to beat someone like Pogacar. Primoz Roglic is their GT winner & their only hope. Anything which undermined that goal was just garbage.
WvA was sprinting like a madman after the 4km crash to get back to the front whilst Roglic was himself half a minute behind pulling at the front of his group with the Movistar riders.
Unacceptable.
WVA said that he plans to contest tomorrow's sprint.
Putting himself (and his lead-out Teunissen?) at risk.
Yeah, this is not a pure GC- squad.
More like halfway between BORA and UAE/INEOS.
Not that he's done anything wrong but why is Teunissen in this team this year? Van Aert can sprint already. Why not take Oomen or Harper or even Bouwman/Benett from the Giro. WVA doesn't need him surely
Lol at the sandbagging from Jumbo. Kudos to Roglic for his valiant effort today.
They've probably realised that the World is likely to implode if Harper and not-Harper ever ride together again.
I try to avoid getting too hyperbolic or emotional with this stuff, but after Roglic did his domestique duties in Amstel like a man on a mission (chasing down everything & everyone), I don't know, but the first five days of this Tour leave a sour taste in the mouth.
I wish things were like the Vuelta last year after Dumoulin quit: Ninja Turtles & total JV camaraderie. That was a winning recipe, even a man down.
Yes, a very good performance by him. He fought really well beating most of other GC contenders despite being hurt. Obviously he would be faster that than under normal circumstances (but beating Pog would still be difficult). Let's see how he fares in the weekend - longer efforts could be more difficult for him to sustain but I don't count him out as a podium contender. He'll give 100 %.
Went to movies to watch Terminator 2 and got a replay of the mummy.
One guy who can help position Van Aert/be a backup option in case something goes wrong with Van Aert and can double up as pretty good flat rider seems like a good selection.
Taking a climber instead would have had only Martin as a pure flatlander and that probably would have been too much.
They are currently more vulnerable in flat and rolling terrain than high mountains. I don't think Oomen would help when the wind blows.
Eh, that's the guy who turned up to the Tour last year with bandages from a crash that happened 2 weeks before that.
I mean there is no doubt that the last crash he had had to hurt, but with Roglic the amount of bandages doesn't necessarily correlate with an actual injury.
I mean there is no doubt that the last crash he had had to hurt, but with Roglic the amount of bandages doesn't necessarily correlate with an actual injury.
Ya, I'd be in agreement with posters above on WVA. If he's not going all in for the team at the Tour (others races are fair enough, just not here) they'd probably have been better off taking the likes of Affini and Foss/Oomen/Bouwman over WVA and Teunnissen. Affini covers the flat with Martin then and you've another climber to help uphill (and they're all guys who would be very willing domestiques here). If WVA is fully committed, he's obviously the best you can get in any team but if he's not, he's just a distraction
The loss of Gesink makes WvA even more important now, insofar as he works with the team for the team.
And by "team" they understand that their best shot at achieving something is getting Roglic as high as possible in GC. If there's disunity & JV allow guys like WvA to stage hunt for glory, they risk leaving France with nothing.
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