Paris-Nice 2023, March 5-12

[perico]

What else should he have done, exactly?

Not set Pogacar up? It was Gaudu who needs the seconds on Pogacar. Jonas isn’t going to beat him.

 

[nightowl]

Bit of an odd climb, Pog was closing Gaudu seated so you wouldn’t think he was in that much difficulty but also would’ve expected him to go a second time if he was feeling good

 

[Netserk]

What else should he have done, exactly?

Whenever anyone does anything, if they don't win, they get criticised. Always safer to just never do anything.

 

[Red Rick]

Feels weird that my main takeaway from this is that Pogacar was underwhelming.

 

[DNP-Old]

Not set Pogacar up? It was Gaudu who needs the seconds on Pogacar. Jonas isn’t going to beat him.

Why would he care about that? It was a hail mary from him to win the stage. Just go and hope there's a moment of hesitation between the two.

 

[theyoungest]

I about spit my drink through my nose at Jonas attack there. What did he think would happen?

What else did you want him to do? He's not in the form to drop them right now.

 

[BR2]

Not set Pogacar up? It was Gaudu who needs the seconds on Pogacar. Jonas isn’t going to beat him.

I think it was the only chance he had, his sprint is not as explosive as that of the other two.

 

[JosefK]

Feels weird that my main takeaway from this is that Pogacar was underwhelming.

Pog still building form, too.

 

[perico]

Why would he care about that? It was a hail mary from him to win the stage. Just go and hope there's a moment of hesitation between the two.

Which wasn’t going to happen. Just another opportunity for Pogacar to twist the knife. It was a dumb move.

 

[Poursuivant]

Pogacar’s thunderbolt attack sent shockwaves down the mountain and forced Paret-Peintre off the road

 

[Aimar16]

Whenever anyone does anything, if they don't win, they get criticised. Always safer to just never do anything.

Then they criticise him for not doing anything

 

[JosefK]

Jonas actually looked a little better, today (vs. stage 4).

 

[DNP-Old]

Which wasn’t going to happen. Just another opportunity for Pogacar to twist the knife. It was a dumb move.

…? He was on the back foot the entire climb. He knew he had < 1% chance of winning. The only chance, however, he had to win was to hope for a mistake from the other two. Vingegaard could give two shīts who wins between Gaudu and Pogchamp.

 

[Berniece]

Easy win for Pogacar, although I do believe he should be given some wins to other riders. More beneficial if he ever needs help

 

[Krzysztof_O]

So Teddy wins again. The outcome was not surprising but the climb itself delivered some surprises. First of all, Teddy countered Vinge's acceleration (after hard work by JV's powerhouse, Foss), attacked hard with 5-6 km to go and...got caught a few minutes later. That was unexpected. Vinge clearly can't stand those intense accelerations but is able to keep a strong pace. The other surprise is that Gaudu not only stayed with the two mutants but even looked the strongest in the closing kilometers (dropping Vinge a couple of times). There could've been only one outcome - Teddy pushing turbo button at the end, as usually.

 

[theyoungest]

Which wasn’t going to happen. Just another opportunity for Pogacar to twist the knife. It was a dumb move.

Okay. And what if he had done nothing?

Jonas actually looked a little better, today (vs. stage 4).

I think he's realized he doesn't have the acceleration yet, but if he keeps a steady pace he can do reasonably well. And of course a longer climb suits him better.

 

[Andy schleck]

@Red Rick you were right. Vingegaard is stronger this year than in the same time of last year at TA.

 

[BR2]

Easy win for Pogacar, although I do believe he should be given some wins to other riders. More beneficial if he ever needs help

He's not really the type for that, though, is he? He always wants to win, he wants to dominate, and he's more like a lone wolf anyway (in races).

 

[Netserk]

Easy win for Pogacar, although I do believe he should be given some wins to other riders. More beneficial if he ever needs help

Gifting bonus seconds to Gaudu is out of the question.

 

[tobydawq]

Easy win for Pogacar, although I do believe he should be given some wins to other riders. More beneficial if he ever needs help

Today would certainly not be the day to do that...

 

[Didinho]

Easy win for Pogacar, although I do believe he should be given some wins to other riders. More beneficial if he ever needs help

Why give the stage to Gaudu if you're only 6sec in the lead?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Jonas actually looked a little better, today (vs. stage 4).

I disagree. On stage four he was able to easily drop Gaudu on a climb that suited DG better (he exploded afterwards, but that wasn't because of DG and I don't see it as a true indication of his level on the day), but today he couldn't do that on one that should have been a better fit for him. The only difference is that he rode smarter/was lucky that the tempo kept dropping which allowed him to come back.

 

[Tonton]

Pogacar > the rest. It's way too early in the season to get too high or too low on riders, but I'm starting to feel that Gaudu will have a great year. He, for sure, is clearly better than he was last year.

 

[JosefK]

I'm afraid Gaudu is going to get my hopes up for a French rider to be a real threat in the TDF. ... I still haven't recovered from Pinot's adventures in the 2019 TDF.

 

[Salvarani]

Pog again!

What a rider!