Tour de France 2020 | Stage 13 (Châtel-Guyon - Puy Mary, 191.5 km)

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I am fascinated by the team competition and today is a crucial day.

Current standings -


1MOVISTAR TEAM-154h 26' 36'-
2TREK - SEGAFREDO154h 30' 54''+ 00h 04' 18''-
3EF PRO CYCLING154h 32' 13''+ 00h 05' 37''-
4AG2R LA MONDIALE154h 40' 23''+ 00h 13' 47''-
5TEAM JUMBO - VISMA154h 44' 08''+ 00h 17' 32''-

EF should be the most dangerous in the mountainous stages but many of their riders are struggling with crashes and injury. Movistar have appeared as half a team for the most part. I do not recall seeing or hearing the names of Cataldo or Oliveira too often yet they still lead.
Trek may struggle due to still having two viable GC contenders and their chances are at the mercy of breaks winning by big margins. They need Elissonde to carry a large burden and I was surprised to see him infiltrate yesterday's move.
 
It would be fun to see Ineos try to ride disruptive from far out, but they rarely do. I think they will be more focused on trying to get into yellow next week, rather than this, and both they and Jumbo will mark each other. It needs, say, Yates, Martin or Bardet to attack early to make it interesting.

Hence happy to let it come down to the final 2km, and then see if there’s a chance to grab time opportunistically. I suppose you could gain 20-30 seconds over 2km? And hence Bernal could bag the jersey that way.

Pierre Rolland FTW. Or Tibo ...
 
A climber from the break for the stage. I pick Thomas de Gendt... what a surprise. :p

I'm not sure these 2,5 km to the line suits Roglic so much, a gradient is extremely high. It is just a pure power climbing, no hiding, no following wheels, no strategy except yoyo. The strongest shall win, even small weakness can create big damage.

Expect quite big gaps, top 10 GC contenders will finish in the range of 2 or even 3 minutes.

GC finish:
  1. Landa
  2. Pogacar + 0:15
  3. Martin s.t.
  4. Bernal + 0:25
  5. Roglic + 0:30
  6. Badret s.t.
  7. Quintana + 0:45
  8. Porte + 1:00
  9. Uran +1:30
  10. Lopez s.t.
  11. Mas s.t.
  12. Yates +2:00
  13. Mollema s.t.
  14. Carapaz s.t.
  15. Big Tom +3:00
  16. Valverde s.t.
  17. Caruso s.t.

This would be great, but I think that these sorts of gaps will be more likely to be seen next week.
 
If the break is allowed to go far enough up the road (enough to take the stage win), I'm not sure how intense the GC battle will be at the end, since the bonus seconds on the penultimate climb and finish will no longer be available. I could be wrong (and often am).

Some GC riders will seek to get seconds a different way - at least they should
 
Aug 15, 2020
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This has Porte written all over it. Survived Stage 9 and hard to see anything stopping him now. Some will argue his 35 years are an issue, but like a nice red or port, he just gets better with age.
 
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I hope we see someone try something with teammates up the road rather than just sitting behind the trains and seeing how long they can hang on. Honestly, anything that's not the peloton giving a break 10-15 minutes and waiting for the sprint on the last climb will do.
 
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