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

[MrTea1976]

I think EF are going to do something today. One of them, Landa, Quintana or Martin for the win.

EF definitely did someting.

 

[Big Doopie]

My new dream podium:

1. Pog
2. Uran
3. LRP

Tho 2 and 3 can switch places.

21 year old winner. That’s what I hope for.

 

[RedheadDane]

EF definitely did someting.

Yeah, I'm still waiting for @Anderis to defend himself regarding the "sit at the back of the group" comment. Coz that did not age well!

 

[red_flanders]

What did it matter? No stage win, no bonus seconds. Roglic lifted the tempo in the end, Pogi couldn't pass and had his hands full with just following.

You know what? I had totally forgotten about the fact that this wasn't for the stage. I need more coffee.

 

[red_flanders]

Uran logging the quietest 4th position evah...

 

[Anderis]

Yeah, I'm still waiting for @Anderis to defend himself regarding the "sit at the back of the group" comment. Coz that did not age well!

I was about to quote myself and say "It didn't age well".

But I've realised that I'm almost always wrong regarding EF. I must write more negative comments about them.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Feel quite sorry for BORA. That’s two stages, the other being the crosswinds one, where they’ve done absolutely everything right, as good as Sunweb yesterday, but have nothing to show for it. Their captains haven’t performed (yet) but the team is good

 

[Leinster]

Sounds good in theory except Roglic has a good team plus another helper in Pogacar. I can see the Slovenians collabing to follow Bernal on Loze. At the moment it doesn't seem like Bernal has the legs to put minutes on Loze. Neither Quintana.

As others have said above, grinding up 12% slopes at 800-1,400m elevation is a power event, but 8-10% at 2,000+m like the Alps is a different sport. And week 3 is usually different to week 2.; that was always about when Quintana started to put time into Froome, and he never had a climb like Loze to really push that advantage home. Nairo is only 1.12 back, and if I was Roglic, I'd want a bigger cushion than that at this point in the race.

Pog and Rog are definitely the 2 favourites right now, but a week is a long time in politics and cycling.

Incidentally, one for the Irish on here;

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Happy for Martinez. Nothing against Kämna, played by the book, which makes it even more deserving for Martinez.

 

[Breezy1985]

As others have said above, grinding up 12% slopes at 800-1,400m elevation is a power event, but 8-10% at 2,000+m like the Alps is a different sport. And week 3 is usually different to week 2.; that was always about when Quintana started to put time into Froome, and he never had a climb like Loze to really push that advantage home. Nairo is only 1.12 back, and if I was Roglic, I'd want a bigger cushion than that at this point in the race.

Pog and Rog are definitely the 2 favourites right now, but a week is a long time in politics and cycling.

Incidentally, one for the Irish on here;

Ah man I was waiting for you to post so I could send you this pic but you got there before me

 

[Salvarani]

The weird thing is, Ineos looked like they actually thought Bernal had the legs today. You don't burn all your domestiques, isolating your own leader, if he doesn't want to attack.

Maybe he went in with the intention that he wanted to. Just didnt have the legs. It happens.

 

[Breezy1985]

Uran logging the quietest 4th position evah...

Classic Uran. Good to see too that Bardet is gearing up for his stage 19 podium steal

 

[bob.a.feet]

As others have said above, grinding up 12% slopes at 800-1,400m elevation is a power event, but 8-10% at 2,000+m like the Alps is a different sport. And week 3 is usually different to week 2.; that was always about when Quintana started to put time into Froome, and he never had a climb like Loze to really push that advantage home. Nairo is only 1.12 back, and if I was Roglic, I'd want a bigger cushion than that at this point in the race.

Pog and Rog are definitely the 2 favourites right now, but a week is a long time in politics and cycling.

Incidentally, one for the Irish on here;

Fs, how did I not make the Pog and Rog connection til today?

 

[topcat]

As others have said above, grinding up 12% slopes at 800-1,400m elevation is a power event, but 8-10% at 2,000+m like the Alps is a different sport. And week 3 is usually different to week 2.; that was always about when Quintana started to put time into Froome, and he never had a climb like Loze to really push that advantage home. Nairo is only 1.12 back, and if I was Roglic, I'd want a bigger cushion than that at this point in the race.

Pog and Rog are definitely the 2 favourites right now, but a week is a long time in politics and cycling.

Incidentally, one for the Irish on here;

Us Irish should collaborate in our posting like Pog and Rog are doing in the tour and unlike what the Colombians are doing separately.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Now that the legs have stopped talking for the other contenders, the brains(Tactics and strategy) will have to take over. Only 2 MTFs left and with a final TT, Roglic looks unbeatable. All he has to to is pace himself. The team is strong but beatable. JV biggest weakness still is tactics however.

 

[Leinster]

Feel quite sorry for BORA. That’s two stages, the other being the crosswinds one, where they’ve done absolutely everything right, as good as Sunweb yesterday, but have nothing to show for it. Their captains haven’t performed (yet) but the team is good

Well against that, it must be said that while Bora did everything right, EF did everything righter. Bora had 2 in the break, EF had 3. Bora sent their strongest guy (Schachmann) up the road, but EF already had their weaker guy (Powless) up the road with their strongest (Martinez) sitting on, and Carthy there as a spare/bottle grabber. Kamna sat on Martinez's wheel, but Martinez had confidence in his strength and didn't hang about.

 

[woodburn]

Bernal just needs to find out which stage will have the landslide so he can go super early and lock in his time gains.

 

[RedheadDane]

Bernal just needs to find out which stage will have the landslide so he can go super early and lock in his time gains.

Oh, don't be silly... it'll be a fire tornado this year!

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Interesting quotes from Bernal

I looked at my numbers from today's stage and they were almost my best ever. The rest simply went faster.

That's the second time I've heard a rider say they were equal to or out-performing previous Tours. Those Slovenians are next-leveling it somehow.

Bardet also said something similar a few days ago. The second quote is a clear dig at the Slovenians. Maybe he meant: What are they on?

 

[Leinster]

Ah man I was waiting for you to post so I could send you this pic but you got there before me

I am absolutely certain there was an episode of Scare at Bedtime where the 2 of them were on bikes, if even for a few seconds. But if there's a still of it, it's not on google.

 

[Luthor]

As others have said above, grinding up 12% slopes at 800-1,400m elevation is a power event, but 8-10% at 2,000+m like the Alps is a different sport. And week 3 is usually different to week 2.; that was always about when Quintana started to put time into Froome, and he never had a climb like Loze to really push that advantage home. Nairo is only 1.12 back, and if I was Roglic, I'd want a bigger cushion than that at this point in the race.

Pog and Rog are definitely the 2 favourites right now, but a week is a long time in politics and cycling.

Incidentally, one for the Irish on here;

I'm not saying Roglic will win, the gap is too thin but Bernal actually thought he could win time today. He said earlier "my tour starts with this stage", Ineos worked for him quite strong and Carapaz attacked. But in the end he couldn't do much. MAL is smaller than Bernal but had the power to keep up with Landa/Porte.

Bernal needs his form from last year but at this moment he doesn't have it to put minutes ahead of Roglic on Loze. Roglic looks the freshest rn, he didn't struggle yet and kept his effort at a minimum. He can also pace like a madman for good periods of time like he did today. I can see Pog struggling on Loze though, he also spent a lot of effort.

I'm still going with my bold podium from stage 4 :
Rog
Bern
Pog

 

[Luthor]

Interesting quotes from Bernal

I looked at my numbers from today's stage and they were almost my best ever. The rest simply went faster.

That's the second time I've heard a rider say they were equal to or out-performing previous Tours. Those Slovenians are next-leveling it somehow.

Bardet also said something similar a few days ago. The second quote is a clear dig at the Slovenians. Maybe he meant: What are they on?

Porte is a better climber than Bernal then Bernal is gonna dom for Porte next year

 

[topcat]

I am absolutely certain there was an episode of Scare at Bedtime where the 2 of them were on bikes, if even for a few seconds. But if there's a still of it, it's not on google.

It's with the pictures of today's gc action: lost in space.

 

[WKA311]

Well against that, it must be said that while Bora did everything right, EF did everything righter. Bora had 2 in the break, EF had 3. Bora sent their strongest guy (Schachmann) up the road, but EF already had their weaker guy (Powless) up the road with their strongest (Martinez) sitting on, and Carthy there as a spare/bottle grabber. Kamna sat on Martinez's wheel, but Martinez had confidence in his strength and didn't hang about.

Poitschke said in an interview on TV during the stage that they would get Schachmann to attack first because of the steepness of the final hills so that he can get in there with an advantage if possible. As he is a bit heavier. Thats why Kamna was covering behind hoping to stay with whoever would go after Schachmann.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I feel like Ineos aren't able to adapt to the new race situation and just can't turn off the instinct to do the train

People have talked about Sky/Ineos' tactical brilliance at times, but realistically they are generally pretty limited. Their technique works on a simple bludgeoning tactic built around having the strongest rider in the race. When they've had to be more creative, they've struggled, though they have improved in this respect and of course have hit one real home run (2018 Jafferau). A lot of the best tactical work that the squad has done in stage racing has in fact been Froome working off his own back, like the descent attack on the Peyresourde in 2016 and the crosswind move. The question now is to figure out whether this was the team brass becoming more savvy or if it was just Froome himself becoming more tactically astute.