It's not over obv. 68 p gap with 180p still in contention.
Interesting stages to come. Battle for the green on the Champs Elysees
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It could only be my impression, but it seems that this year there are more intermediate sprints than usual in the early part of difficult stages.
There is probably only 1 stage left where I would be 100% sure that 2020 Sagan gets to the line ahead of Bennett.
And it's a question mark how difficult stage 19 actually is.
This was yesterday, by the way - he just misses Van Aert, and this was totally unnecessary:
Is he under too much stress?
Is he under too much stress?
Not pretty from Sagan. He hasn't won a race in 14 months and is obviously getting frustrated.
The good thing is that he actually looks to get better and better. If Van Aert had opened to the right (I'm not suggesting he should have) he would have won the stage quite convincingly. Something I would have thought impossible.
The good thing is that he actually looks to get better and better. If Van Aert had opened to the right (I'm not suggesting he should have) he would have won the stage quite convincingly. Something I would have thought impossible.
it won’t be easy but it’s possible and Bora really don’t have anything better to do. Sagan can’t win by competing in the same sprints with Bennett, so they have to try to contest sprints Bennett can’t. I agree with you that the placing of intermediate sprints makes that tricky.
Im not entirely sure how I’d play it if I was Bora DS. Tomorrow for instance, there’s little opportunity to put Sagan in a break before the intermediate sprint. It would be too easy for DQS to control. If a strong break without Sagan goes early it has a strong chance of staying away. So it might be in Bira’s interest to police breakaways so as to try a later attack?
I think there has to be more pressure to produce than he is used to. It’s a long time since he won. He is very much expected to win “his” jersey.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's a deliberate ploy. The green jersey battle has been very little of one for several years, as generally speaking Sagan gets into the jersey on stage 2 or 3 and then stays in it til the end of the race. I wouldn't be surprised if ASO have decided they want to see there being more of a genuine battle for the classification and have deliberately orchestrated the route to try to tempt other sprinters to compete with Sagan for it as they'd frequently give up on the idea in previous years once Sagan started collecting intermediates in intermediate and mountain stages, and while he was chasing the record in the classification that in and of itself was a compelling enough storyline; now he's the record holder, Sagan winning it comfortably and unchallenged is less of a story so they want to incentivise more of a battle.
I get this but if you are a top level sprinter and can't get through these narrow gaps then you are going to be limited to winning behind a lead-out train. There was no dominant lead out by any team on today's stage. Ewan obviously had far more speed at the finish, he deserved to win and won fair.
Jeeez
It's not attempt to take him out, he bumps pedals with the Trek rider on his right. You can see the Trek riders foot out of the pedal after.
Bunch of drama queens in here
He seems not to be in control of the stress/emotions there. To me it looks like he was just bulldozing all over the place given the video indicates he bumbbed also the NTT rider just before.
Nice of the race stewards to totally wreck the exciting competition for green. It's the same in F1, when ever there is some good aggressive racing the judges decide to excersise their 'power'
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Yeah, not much in that at all. if it wasn't Wout, nobody would look twice at it.Jeeez
It's not attempt to take him out, he bumps pedals with the Trek rider on his right. You can see the Trek riders foot out of the pedal after.
Bunch of drama queens in here
Between that and the finish, you have to give huge credit to both Sagan and vanAert for their ability to control their bikes so well, at such high speeds, in such tight quarters. With the nudge WvA got at the finish, any average cyclist riding flat out like that would have slammed into Ewan and Bennett and brought dozens of guys down. In the event, he was able to ride the bump, right the ship, and cross safely.
Sagan went for the same gap Ackermann went through the other day, but the difference was that there was space on Gaviria's inside to get there, but not on vanAert's. It's a difference of centimeters, but once Sagan saw that the gap wasn't there, he needed to ease off, not barge.
Maybe it was a touch of pedals, yes, but he has been riding very aggressively this Tour. It's not needed, and the relegation will hopefully give him some food for thought.
I agree he should have backed off - but "sprinters be crazy"
As as earlier stated agree on the penalty, I just think the hate and the hype is way over the top.
Maybe?
It's clear as day dude.
You can't use a debunked argument, that you yourself brought into the debate, to prove something about his state of mind.
If you have another example to prove your point, go ahead, but that one is void, sorry
I'm not contesting the decision of 2017 but to me today's intention was way more dangerous than it was back in 2017.
The only difference is the outcome. But if we had to judge on the intention though...
(Ps: I've always liked Sagan as a rider)
The only difference is the outcome. But if we had to judge on the intention though...
(Ps: I've always liked Sagan as a rider)
In all of the complaints over rider safety, race officials have little direct control. Where they do have direct control, they operate with a heavy hand.
You do realise, that what Sagan did today, was exactly what Cavendish did in 2017, right?
I would not say "exactly" looking again at both finishes. But yeah that's why I said that Sagan's today's behaviour was more dangerous than what he did in 2017.You do realise, that what Sagan did today, was exactly what Cavendish did in 2017, right?
I don't have anything against him, I just think, that after Jacobsen incident, UCI has to be very careful with those decisions. Those are people actual lives.
Call it drama queen or not, I watched Jacobsens crash live and I don't want to witness this anymore. Sprinting is dangerous but there have to be strict rules enforcement to avoid real drama in the future. It's their job to ensure riders safety and this job has to take some hard decisions sometimes. I know the etiquette in the peloton but I'd find very sad that some riders don't get punished because of their fame (applies to Sagan, Groenwegen, Bouhanni, Moscon...) .
Both tried to squeeze through a too narrow gap on the right of the lead sprinter, up against the barrier, and bumped him in the process....... I don't see a difference.
If anything, Sagan's gap was larger today.
The point I am making however is, that you can't blame Sagan in both instances, since the roles are reversed, so you have to make a choice.... either he was innocent in 17 and guilty today, or the reverse, the two are mutually exclusive
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