A lot of emotions out en force today. Wow. What a stage. I admit that I felt conflicted about Roglic’s rides yesterday and today. On the one hand, he gave up a bit of the moral higher ground; on the other hand, he showed his strength and, yes, panache. Absolutely flying today. A minute faster than Contador in 2008, 2 minutes faster than Froome in 2017. Crazy fast.
I’m a little confused as to how Roglic is the big villain here today. Vingegaard has attacked on two mountain stages in a row, and Roglic sat with the group, giving up his chances at red to a teammate behind him on GC. Today he attacked and, unlike Roglic, Vingegaard and Kuss immediately followed. Yesterday, Roglic was supposed to get the win but Vingegaard took it. Today, Roglic took the win for himself. The problematic one, IF you think the team should ride for Kuss, is Vingegaard, who has gone from third to two minutes back to 8 seconds off the lead by leaving behind his teammate in red 3 stages in a row.
Also, of course LR has Roglic and Vingegaard pushing the same watts even though Roglic red 100% of the time (by contrast, they have Remco more watts/kg on Le Port even though Roglic beat him by ) seconds. And of course they de-emphasize what a monster performance this was.
I admit I had questions, which I posted here, but I now think that Roglic can be in the mix for a Tour. Can he beat Vingegaard on the same team? Doubtful, given Vingegaard’s insane ITT this year AND the team car’s decision, but possible.
How much time did Roglic lose to Vingegaard due to the following?
- Waiting during TTT (20 second?)
- Seemingly easing up for Vinge on stage 6 when Vinge apparently had GI issues and seemed like he was struggling (10 seconds?)
- Following team orders on Tourmalet and only attacking at the very end after Vinge had built a minute gap (30 seconds?)
- Sitting in the bunch yesterday instead of following Vinge (Vinge did not return the favor today, did he?) (60 seconds?)
That is potentially 2 minutes, and I don’t think I’m being overly biased here. Roglic looked like extremely strong, then he was either weaker or constrained by team dynamics - we weren’t sure - then he showed today that, yes, he was still supremely strong.
Having said that, I think the most likely scenario is that Vingegaard wins, followed by Kuss, then Roglic. Hoping they let the chase go so bonus is off the table so Vinge has to actually truly drop Kuss. Worried that Roglic will pull Vinge to victory over Kuss. But that’s sport.