Le Tour '19 stage 19: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes 126km

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

 

[DenisMenchov]

It's official:
1 EGAN BERNAL 78H 00' 42''
2 JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE + 00' 48''
3 GERAINT THOMAS + 01' 16''
4 STEVEN KRUIJSWIJK + 01' 28''
5 EMANUEL BUCHMAN + 01' 55''
6 MIKEL LANDA MEANA + 04' 35''
7 RIGOBERTO URAN + 05' 14''
8 NAIRO QUINTANA + 05' 17''
9 ALEJANDRO VALVERDE + 06' 25''
10 RICHIE PORTE + 06' 28''

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Would be a bit aakward if Thomas looses the podium because of that.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Would be a bit aakward if Thomas looses the podium because of that.

Why would he? He seems pretty strong and will most likely overtake Alaf

 

[King Boonen]

Val Thorens suits Thomas to a tee. Long diesel climb. Ineos will set a very high pace hoping to drop Ala and stop anyone else launching attacks.

 

[Inquitus]

Re: Re:

Would be a bit aakward if Thomas looses the podium because of that.

Aye its defo thrown a big spanner in the works, JA would defo have lost more time in the run up to Tignes and Bernal may well have paid for his efforts at that point leaving Kruiswijk and co to tow Thomas back up towards Bernal. If anything it has just gift wrapped the tour for Bernal.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Le Tour '19 stage 19: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes 1

Uhm...what the f*ck?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Ineos can only shut critics up by being even more dominant

Yeah no doesn't work like that.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Le Tour '19 stage 19: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes 1

Uhm...what the f*ck?

Thank God, when the mud avalanches happened I thought you had died

 

[IndianCyclist]

For once the situation benefited the attacker. Thomas, Kruijswijk and Buchmann weren't going to attack till possibly the last k. They messed up the earlier chances they had. Now the final battle looms and they have to throw everything at Bernal

 

[railxmig]

Re: Le Tour '19 stage 19: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes 1

Kreuziger valiantly defended his 15 place in GC and potential Zubeldia invisible trophy (decision on wether count Buchmann still pending) ahead of Bardet (who doesn't care about GC) and... Lutsenko!? How the f... he's that high!?

Some predictions for tomorrow:
- all Movistar in break
- Schleswig and Manny will pump up and take their shirts to do absolutely nothing #JaRule
- Bernal riding the last 2-4km for GT to gift him a stage win - Giro stage 20
- Voeckler barely finishing in top 5 GC
- a brutal fight for the last 10th spot in GT between all of Movistar, Porte and Barguil (who did really great today)
- Kreuziger defending his 15th place like it's a matter of live or death
- finally, Lutsenko to smoke all of 'em.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Ineos can only shut critics up by being even more dominant

Yeah no doesn't work like that.

Think critics are about making the race boring (not necessarily dominance) and clinic stuff. I think everybody wants to see the best rider win in the yellow jersey tomorrow, that just feels right after today.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Ineos can only shut critics up by being even more dominant

Yeah no doesn't work like that.

Think critics are about making the race boring (not necessarily dominance) and clinic stuff. I think everybody wants to see the best rider win in the yellow jersey tomorrow, that just feels right after today.

This. We'd all have preferred things had happened differently, particularly with how good this year's Tour has been, but I'm ok with it because it's looking like we're going to get the deserved winner. Over the flats, crosswinds, TTs, and climbs he's proven to be the strongest overall. If today had led to a victor who only won because of a fluke weather situation, I'd be more upset.

 

[topcat]

Asterisks are for begrudgers except in the case of a disqualification.
Being fair isn't important. Being seen to be fair is. They should cancel the stage. There's a precedent. Of course, they can make it fly. Cycling needs a French winner.

 

[DanielSong39]

Bernal was the best, he didn't really benefit that much from the Ineos train (which was not working properly this Tour).

Anything can happen and hope to see lots of long-distance attacks and breakaways tomorrow. Ineos unable to set a high tempo or control the action but Bernal will stay behind wheels and coast home safely.

Alaphilippe received an absolute gift today, if he attacks and wins the Tour tomorrow he will go down in history as an all-time legend. I would give him a 1 in 50 shot.

Movistar tried their best but none of their riders had the legs and they were being watched closely anyway.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Re: Re:

Climber standings:

1 ROMAIN BARDET 86 PTS
2 TIM WELLENS 74 PTS
3 DAMIANO CARUSO 67 PTS
4 SIMON YATES 59 PTS
5 EGAN BERNAL 58 PTS

It can be very interesting. Bernal could take this too with 40 points in Val Thorens

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Ineos can only shut critics up by being even more dominant

Yeah no doesn't work like that.

Think critics are about making the race boring (not necessarily dominance) and clinic stuff. I think everybody wants to see the best rider win in the yellow jersey tomorrow, that just feels right after today.

Honeslty, it feels like the luckiest rider is in yellow right now. I know Bernal did look super strong both yesterday and today. But if I remember correctly the very same rider who got screwed the most today, Kruijswijk had a huge lead in the stage to Alpe d'Huez last year with 36kms to go, yet ended up losing time to Geraint Thomas in that stage.

He ended up losing more than a minute on that stage, and was only 6 minutes behind in the end. Imagine someone just stopping the race at this point.

 

[Hayabusa]

Re:

Asterisks are for begrudgers except in the case of a disqualification.
Being fair isn't important. Being seen to be fair is. They should cancel the stage. There's a precedent. Of course, they can make it fly. Cycling needs a French winner.

So it's important to be fair and the way best to do that is to neutralise the stage for no reason and make sure the winner is French? This is one of the worst posts I've ever seen on this forum.

 

[Cookster15]

Re:

Val Thorens suits Thomas to a tee. Long diesel climb. Ineos will set a very high pace hoping to drop Ala and stop anyone else launching attacks.

It suits 2018 Thomas / Ineos to a tee. In 2019 Bernal will extend his advantage yet again. Unlike Thomas, Bernal doesn’t need the train. A train which has misfired this Tour.

 

[DanielSong39]

Re:

Asterisks are for begrudgers except in the case of a disqualification.
Being fair isn't important. Being seen to be fair is. They should cancel the stage. There's a precedent. Of course, they can make it fly. Cycling needs a French winner.

If Valverde had gotten the yellow jersey on the road I'm 100% sure the stage would have been canceled, so point made.

Even if the stage had been canceled I'm not sure it would have been any more outrageous than 2016 Ventoux.

With that said two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[Northerner]

What was the time limit today? Debusschere seems to be the last to 'finish', 34 minutes down, 21% over the winning time. Is that not HD or is he let off because of the circumstances?

 

[Carols]

Honeslty, it feels like the luckiest rider is in yellow right now. I know Bernal did look super strong both yesterday and today. But if I remember correctly the very same rider who got screwed the most today, Kruijswijk had a huge lead in the stage to Alpe d'Huez last year with 36kms to go, yet ended up losing time to Geraint Thomas in that stage.

This. There was a Long Way to go. Nothing says he'd still be there at the end. Tomorrow if he goes out and wins the stage dropping everyone, he'll have proved best. Otherwise he's just the Luckiest IMO.

 

[Fergoose]

That is possibly the single most frustrating day of sport I've ever seen. Firstly because I was rooting for Pinot and secondly because it would have been amazing to watch :

- the Alaphillipe descent
- if Bernal faded with the effort and gave Yates a sniff of the stage victory
- Steven vs Thomas vs Buchmann on the final climb.

The shortened stage artificially makes it all over bar the shouting and we'll never know if Bernal could have been clawed back and would have ended up suffering the effects tomorrow.

Aaaargh!

 

[DanielSong39]

The premature stoppage almost certainly hurt Ineos, Bernal was clearly the strongest and Thomas appeared to be second strongest. Alaphilippe got a 2 minute gift.

We don't know what would have happened but that is the most likely scenario.

Hope to see lots of early attacks tomorrow. Movistar might as well do something crazy, hey, why not?

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Ineos will ride as slowly as possible - Little hope Bernal will win the stage.

Dont think so. Imo Ineos would love to shut up the critics with a statement win.

Ineos can only shut critics up by being even more dominant

Yeah no doesn't work like that.

Think critics are about making the race boring (not necessarily dominance) and clinic stuff. I think everybody wants to see the best rider win in the yellow jersey tomorrow, that just feels right after today.

Honeslty, it feels like the luckiest rider is in yellow right now. I know Bernal did look super strong both yesterday and today. But if I remember correctly the very same rider who got screwed the most today, Kruijswijk had a huge lead in the stage to Alpe d'Huez last year with 36kms to go, yet ended up losing time to Geraint Thomas in that stage.

Lucky? Bernal has now gained 2:32 on SK on 4 different mountain stages so I'm not exactly feeling like he was screwed.

 

[houtdffan]

Re: Le Tour '19 stage 19: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne > Tignes 1

Bernal's been getting stronger and stronger throughout the race. Amazing for a 22 year old.

shades of Ullrich in 1996

Hopefully, Bernal does not follow the Ullrich strudel training regime

Ha, I think we can safely that won't be the case! His strong mentality is arguably even more impressive than his talent.

I agree there. Bernal has ridden a very smart race, steadily taking time on the mountain stages. Only time he was in any sort of trouble was on Stage 14, and that was minor trouble to Pinot.

Ullrich should have won in 1996. His TT on the Iseran was BAD. Think he even finished behind Indurain, who wasn't climbing well. That's where he really lost the race that year. He easily should have been ahead of Riis heading into the Pyrenees