Tour de France Stage 6: Bayeux – Vire-Normandie (201.5k)

[Krzysztof_O]

Healy rules in hilly terrain! Strong performance during this difficult stage. Other breakaway guys (strong group) didn't have a chance. MVP kinda cracked at the end, maybe this stage had too much climbing for him, maybe a bad day.

BTW Pogi is such a generous, young man. Not only he let others fight for the stage victory but he made sure his friend MVP gets the yellow jersey (by...1 second, Pogi knew it and didn't attack hard at the end). No wonder everybody loves him (except Van Baarle).

 

[kingjr]

Maybe you didn't follow cycling 20 years ago but Sella was cruising for the win in some mountain stages.

Oh God don't remind me.

 

[Penninepeddler]

How much aero reduction to Healy's earrings, beard, hair and neck tilt add?

Kind of crazy he is a pretty good TTer.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Lol, Simon Yates cannot be *** with this interview

If I was a journalist I go straight to him at the finish and ask wtf he was doing all day . But then again half the races in his career I wonder the same thing

 

[Red Rick]

Pretty poor ROI for Van der Poel today I think, especially if today's effort **** him for tomorrow.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

The chances are high Pog takes yellow again tomorrow so if that was what they were going for it’s probably going to work tomorrow.

2 sprint stages coming up after that, so UAE won't have to do anything and stage 10 I guess they'd control anyway. So overall I don't see how that was worth it.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Roglic, Almeida 5s loss, O'Connor in narnia and should go for breaks.

Carlos Rodriguez losing 16 seconds

Skjelmose also lost 40s, probably due to that issue that had him change bikes, don't know if it was a crash or not. (Edit: it was a puncture according to Nys). Mas also lost 5s.

 

[E_F_]

Pretty poor ROI for Van der Poel today I think, especially if today's effort **** him for tomorrow.

Pretty rich ROI due to Healy, though.

 

[scribers]

Almost as childish as Wellens not riding in KOM jersey today

Let’s not disrespect the Belgian colors!

 

[houtdffan]

Rog, Mas, and Almeida lost time on the final climb

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I still didn't understand what Visma was trying to do today. Even Simon said this stage wasn't for him.

I kept trying to make sense of it...and ultimtely, neither can I.

 

[Red Rick]

Rog finishing in front of Almeida.

The Remontada for 4th place starts tomorrow

 

[Peyroteo94]

Pretty poor ROI for Van der Poel today I think, especially if today's effort **** him for tomorrow.

Exactly this. Maybe Pogacar is the hot favorite right now.

 

[fenns]

Great, this could lead to more bad blood with UAE and Visma to add a bit of spice. Visma did the right thing in chasing it down even if it ultimately failed. But nonetheless a great attempt at shithousery.

especially when UAE had told them they wouldn't be chasing down S Yates. but Visma got what they deserved.

 

[E_F_]

This stage was a TAPESTRY of ***

 

[Samamba]

Time limits in these kind of stages are just stupid. Sprinters were dropped after 20k and they can just chill half the stage.

 

[scribers]

They don't care about that at his other job ringing the bell at Notre Dame!!

QuasiBen Healy

 

[noob]

MvdP looks like a hitman just now. His eyes when he's mad are so scary!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Gall not getting gapped in an uphill sprint when Roglic and John Ol'Meida get gapped bodes well for the mountains.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Ben has moved up to 8th now. GCHealy is happening.

 

[Mayomaniac]

MvdP looks like a hitman just now. His eyes when he's mad are so scary!

Only little Aussie girls are afraid of him.

 

[yaf2]

The Visma clowns spite pulled so Pogi remains in yellow.

They better be humble cause time will come in the next weeks where jonas is begging pog for 1 stage win

 

[Sciatic]

This is why breakaway stages are not fun to watch. But, I guess, the yellow team realized that pulling on flat and small hills is helping Pog rather than hurting him.

Breakaway stages that have some relatively unknown guys gradually losing a huge advantage to chasing sprint teams that we know will reel them in are boring for me sometimes. This stage is a classical (as in long a part of the Tour heritage) Tour stage with top riders, and a well earned solo win by an aggressive rider. We had a break with the best barodeur in the peloton, one of the two best classics riders in world (and former WC), the recent Giro winner, and a few other good rouleurs. We had time to watch and wonder which would have the tactical advantage--a Healy long-range attack or a final climb battle with MVDP as favorite. Surprising, and disappointing that noone in the break was attentive to the obvious (to all of us) Healy attack.
If today ended up being a GC team controlled stage, we would have had the peloton riding a' bloc for long stretches (which I detest) and then ramping up at high speed prior to the final categories climb and then probably a very exciting showdown between the top 3 or 4. Definitely exciting stuff. For 10 minutes. Sometimes, like today, I'd rather have two hours of interesting racing than ten minutes of GC excitement (which we know we will get on every mtn stage). And . . . I know this is not how many (most?) folks will see a stage like this.

 

[dobrien]

How much aero reduction to Healy's earrings, beard, hair and neck tilt add?

Kind of crazy he is a pretty good TTer.

Fashion over function baby!!

 

[E_F_]

Only little Aussie girls are afraid of him.

Well it could be worse... If rather than hitting them, he hit on them...