• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Tour de France Tour de France 2020 | Stage 10 (Ile d’Oleron / Le Chateau d’Oleron) – Île de Ré / Saint-Martin-de-Ré, 168,5 km

Page 14 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Not a very noble way to win what is essentially a sprinters jersey. I wouldnt like to see Bennett take green because Sagan lost out on a huge mountain

"Because Spinter-X lost out on a huge mountain" is a time-honoured way to win the green jersey. It's how Kelly won 4 of them, how Hushovd beat Cavendish, how Bling beat Kittel in the one year Sagan has missed, and how Sagan has won 7 of them.

(It's also how the Vuelta version has ended up in the hands of some GC rider more often than not while even a 4-stage winning sprinter like Trentin in 2017 can lose out.)

probably true but it’s noteworthy that Ackermann is in quite a similar situation. unlike the other guys in this race he is an actual peer of Ewan and Bennett, he’s been one of the top sprinters this year and last. And like Bennett last year he’s not even getting the Giro as compensation for the a Tour this year.

it will be interesting to see how Bora handle him. He’s more valuable in sponsorship terms to them than Bennett was as he’s arguably the best German rider. And Sagan doesn’t look like quite his old self in recent times. But Sagan at the Tour is what brings them a huge part of their exposure for the year.
Ackermann is 4 years younger than Sagan, where Bennett is practically the same age. He can have patience on his side. Unless Bora suddenly decide Buchmann or whoever is worth all their resources for a GC run, then there maybe is room for Sagan and Ackermann in the same Tour team.
 
Ackermann is 4 years younger than Sagan, where Bennett is practically the same age. He can have patience on his side. Unless Bora suddenly decide Buchmann or whoever is worth all their resources for a GC run, then there maybe is room for Sagan and Ackermann in the same Tour team.

sure, but sprinters aren’t noted for their patience. Ackermann was good enough to be a top contender in the Tour sprints last year, is good enough this year. next year would be three opportunities missed. its an unusual guy with that speed who puts up with that
 
sure, but sprinters aren’t noted for their patience. Ackermann was good enough to be a top contender in the Tour sprints last year, is good enough this year. next year would be three opportunities missed. its an unusual guy with that speed who puts up with that
Right. And he's kind of in the position this year where Bennett was last year, and if I were Ackermann's agent, I'd be demanding a guaranteed Tour ride or a release for 2021. But he is younger, and he is riding for a German team, and those 2 factors do make a difference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zinoviev Letter
I think working that hard would be even less productive than stage 7. Bennett is a true sprinter, but he's a better climber than Ewan, Greipel, Bol, etc. So he'll still be under the limit, even if some others get cut.

Put another way, if Bennett does come in OTL, it'll most likely be a Formigal-type situation where half the field is OTL, and the organizers end up forced to let them stay in.

I really hope that if a formigal type situation occurred where the dropped riders gave up and used quantity of group to essentially date the commissaires to throw out the organisation would have the cojones to eliminate the riders.

It was disgusting to see OTL riders come back and win stages at the back end of the Vuelta at the expense of riders who had expended true effort to stay inside the time cut.
 
nice theory with Bora putting the grupetto into trouble, but how, and mainly and with whom would they do that. They're not exactly Ineos or TJV to set crazy pace all they way in mountain stage, or at least to a phase of the stage, where some long attackers have serious chance to win and finish their plan. Maybe if some of that crazy short stages were planned this year,... Seriously doubt that Kamna, Schachmann or Buchmann cat set a pace or go into the break and motivate the peloton chase them like crazy.
 
I really hope that if a formigal type situation occurred where the dropped riders gave up and used quantity of group to essentially date the commissaires to throw out the organisation would have the cojones to eliminate the riders.

It was disgusting to see OTL riders come back and win stages at the back end of the Vuelta at the expense of riders who had expended true effort to stay inside the time cut.

OTL riders which are allowed to continue lose all the points.
 
"Because Spinter-X lost out on a huge mountain" is a time-honoured way to win the green jersey. It's how Kelly won 4 of them, how Hushovd beat Cavendish, how Bling beat Kittel in the one year Sagan has missed, and how Sagan has won 7 of them.

(It's also how the Vuelta version has ended up in the hands of some GC rider more often than not while even a 4-stage winning sprinter like Trentin in 2017 can lose out.)
That's also because the Vuelta has increased the number of stages ending in climbs to ludicrous amounts, while simultaneously resisting the sprint-weighting of the jersey that the Tour and Giro have introduced to keep it among the sprinters. Until fairly recently the Giro's points jersey was identical to the Vuelta's, and the Tour was the only sprint-weighted one, but the Giro has followed suit with the different ratings giving more points for flat stages.

One point on this is that in Spain the points jersey is often called the "maillot de la regularidad", or consistency jersey, so it would be out of sync with that to then award more points in some stages than others in the name of giving a different type of rider the chance to win it; plus with about 12 uphill finishes in modern Vuelta editions it's almost inevitable that non-sprinters would take it anyway. When the Giro had the same points classification as the Vuelta, some editions saw the jersey won by sprinters, but others were won by GC men anyway - Purito in 2012, Contador in 2011, Evans in 2010, di Luca in 2009, Simoni in 2003, Konyshev in 2000, Jalabert in 1999, Rominger in 1995, Chiapucci in 1991, Bugno in 1990.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
"Initially, I didn't really plan to go on the attack today," Küng said, "but Michael Schär wrote me a text message and asked me: 'what do you think? Should we try'? A day like today was supposed to be very nervous. We did not have a rider for the GC, nor a sprinter, so I was like 'why not, it's going to be a less stressful day if you're in front than if you're in the peloton'."

I did not know they actually do it like this.
 
"Because Spinter-X lost out on a huge mountain" is a time-honoured way to win the green jersey. It's how Kelly won 4 of them, how Hushovd beat Cavendish, how Bling beat Kittel in the one year Sagan has missed, and how Sagan has won 7 of them.

(It's also how the Vuelta version has ended up in the hands of some GC rider more often than not while even a 4-stage winning sprinter like Trentin in 2017 can lose out.)

The Vuelta green jersey is a joke alright but there is a huge difference between being strong enough to make the intermediate sprints and trying to ride guys out of the race.

I do like the set up this year where most intermediates are before the mountains which has teams going full gas from the start
 
"Initially, I didn't really plan to go on the attack today," Küng said, "but Michael Schär wrote me a text message and asked me: 'what do you think? Should we try'? A day like today was supposed to be very nervous. We did not have a rider for the GC, nor a sprinter, so I was like 'why not, it's going to be a less stressful day if you're in front than if you're in the peloton'."

I did not know they actually do it like this.
I’m both unsurprised, and delighted, that they do.
 
That's also because the Vuelta has increased the number of stages ending in climbs to ludicrous amounts, while simultaneously resisting the sprint-weighting of the jersey that the Tour and Giro have introduced to keep it among the sprinters. Until fairly recently the Giro's points jersey was identical to the Vuelta's, and the Tour was the only sprint-weighted one, but the Giro has followed suit with the different ratings giving more points for flat stages.

One point on this is that in Spain the points jersey is often called the "maillot de la regularidad", or consistency jersey, so it would be out of sync with that to then award more points in some stages than others in the name of giving a different type of rider the chance to win it; plus with about 12 uphill finishes in modern Vuelta editions it's almost inevitable that non-sprinters would take it anyway. When the Giro had the same points classification as the Vuelta, some editions saw the jersey won by sprinters, but others were won by GC men anyway - Purito in 2012, Contador in 2011, Evans in 2010, di Luca in 2009, Simoni in 2003, Konyshev in 2000, Jalabert in 1999, Rominger in 1995, Chiapucci in 1991, Bugno in 1990.

Just to add, Simoni won the jersey because Petacchi was OTL in a mountain stage.

And a minor correction, Konyshev would be a rare example of a not an out and out sprinter nor GC guy winning the jersey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
"Initially, I didn't really plan to go on the attack today," Küng said, "but Michael Schär wrote me a text message and asked me: 'what do you think? Should we try'? A day like today was supposed to be very nervous. We did not have a rider for the GC, nor a sprinter, so I was like 'why not, it's going to be a less stressful day if you're in front than if you're in the peloton'."



I did not know they actually do it like this.

Just wait until Nairoman fires up his whatsapp on Thursday, September 17 and blows this race apart
 
  • Like
Reactions: gregrowlerson
"Initially, I didn't really plan to go on the attack today," Küng said, "but Michael Schär wrote me a text message and asked me: 'what do you think? Should we try'? A day like today was supposed to be very nervous. We did not have a rider for the GC, nor a sprinter, so I was like 'why not, it's going to be a less stressful day if you're in front than if you're in the peloton'."

I did not know they actually do it like this.

the slightly amateurish or haphazard nature of this stuff, particularly on teams who don’t at that point have an overarching strategic goal, is one of the best things about cycling.

when he was much younger Nico Roche used to have a daily diary in one of the Irish newspapers during GTs. one of the things that stuck out was how charmingly ramshackle tactical decisions were, at least on Ag2r in the period just before the French teams got competitive again. At one point he was their Tour GC man but they’d never at any point given him a TT bike to train on. In one column he just said that he was thinking of having a go at the bunch sprint next stage. Then the next day he reported that he’d had a chat with the team‘s nominal sprinter and he was the designated lead out man now. And sure enough he was enthusiastically but not very successfully leading out some fourth tier sprinter.
 
Mads Pedersen does daily SMS interviews with Danish broadcaster TV2 after each stage.

Tonight the subject was why he ended up 5th in the sprint and Stuyven 9th (and they both appeared to ride the sprint to win).

Turned out Pedersen, whom the team was originally supposed to ride for, had said he was too gassed to sprint, after helping Porte stay with the lead group in the wind, so the team decided to ride for Stuyven.

Then after the 3 k mark, when the peloton had taken it easy for a few kilometres, Pedersen felt better, so he left Porte to himself at the back and fought his way to the front, to help lead out Stuyven....... only he forgot to tell the team he was doing it.

So when he flew by Stuyven on the right, attempting to lead him out in the sprint, Stuyven wasn't prepared for it, and didn't manage to latch onto his wheel.

When Pedersen realised they had blown it, he decided to just keep going to the line.

He owned the mistake.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan

TRENDING THREADS