Question Should Wout van Aert have waited at the top of Mont Ventoux???

[seldon71]

I can understand both sides of an argument, but Jumbo-Visma definitely lost a nice chance to make some serious GC damage by letting Wout to descend for a stage victory.

If he was stopped at the top (right after taking the mountain points), waited for Vingegaard, then pulled him back to Trek-Segafredos (only like 12-second gap) and then even got them to co-operate in working throughout the descend for a 4-man group (would have involved "selling" the stage), I believe they could have had almost a minute on Pogacar-Carapaz-Uran at the bottom. 40-45 secs , something like.

GC-wise that was absolutely THE THING to do and I believe it would've been something Kuss or Teunissen would have been forced to accept if they were in Van Aert's shoes.

But I do also understand that alienating one of the great stars of the team and whole cycling world who was about to win an unexpected glory of a "Queen stage" of TdF - something no one would've bet for...

Yeah, that would have been a huge risk to cause complications in upcoming times.


What do you think?

 

[saganftw]

if pog loses 4 and half minutes in pyrenees this gonna get spicy but since you dont race with hindsight you dont wait for leader who is 5 minutes down

 

[inri2000]

Yeah, Sepp Kuss and Kruijswijk should absolutely have no personal ambitions - they are only here to help, since they both are quite horrible atm as well and stand no chance. But you can just sense whenever any Jumbo rider is trying to get up the road, the commentators seem sceptic (despite Cort trying to do the exact same on a day like today, riding for a team which is 2nd on GC). Van Aert on the other hand should definitely have all the freedom in the world on this stage.

Not a great comparison in terms of teams since JVS have lost 3 riders while Cort's team is still intact.

 

[Panda Claws]

How did this thread make it throught 'Thread Planning'?

 

[RedheadDane]

How did this thread make it throught 'Thread Planning'?

I don't think the purpose of the 'Thread Planning' thread is to ask permission for any thread, but just to give a heads up about threads with topics multipe people might start a thread on. Such as race threads.

 

[JosefK]

Now, at the end of the 2nd week of the Tour, Jumbo have two stage wins and high morale. WvA and Kuss are happy, and Vingegaard is happy, so not holding up WvA seems to have been the right way to go. Even Chris Horner said he thought it was the right move, though he did raise the same tactical question posed by this thread.

 

[Netserk]

KoM is difficult for Van Aert with the 50 points on each of the two MTFs. I think the best plan for the third week is for everyone to rest on Tuesday, setup Vingegaard for a Portet stage win on Wednesday, and hit the break on Thursday with the hope that Van Aert can take stage and KoM. Then Teunissen can go in the break on Friday, while Van Aert will aim for both ITT and Champs-Élysées.

 

[42x16ss]

The only correct answer here is a resounding no.

A stage win can justify an entire team's budget for the year, especially Ventoux with your team leader out.

As for option two, at first glance? Maybe, but then when you consider Roglic is almost certainly the best descender of the genuine GC contenders who is going to be of any benefit to him on that descent finish?

Jumbo got it totally correct.

 

[topcat]

Wout should have waited earlier today. In fact Wout does little waiting. It's Mr V who is waiting for Wout to wait for him. Waiting for Wout, ... it'll be a long wait.