Tour de France 2020 | Stage 15 (Lyon - Grand Colombier, 174.5 km)

[perico]

Chavez is just not made for the Tour. He’s more suited for La Vuelta or the Giro. He can’t handle the constant high pace.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I prefer the one that had Ace dropping everyone on PDB but Basso.

Yeah, 2004 was also quite scary. I also remember 2002 when Beloki on multiple times was isolated with Armstrong and Heras. Heras was amazing, but Armstrong was just flat out insane I think he tried to gift the stage to Heras on Beille, Beloki went after Heras, and then Armstrong basically said "screw you then Joseba" and quickly put 1 minute into him.

Oh good old times.

 

[Savant12]

LOL I’m pretty sure they had Cavendish and EVBH in 2012

They did their part for the day then dropped off.

 

[roundabout]

Indeed, 2001 tour

1	Lance Armstrong	United States	U.S. Postal Service	1	[3]
2	Roberto Heras	Spain	U.S. Postal Service	15	[3]
3	Viatcheslav Ekimov	Russia	U.S. Postal Service	82	[3]
4	Tyler Hamilton	United States	U.S. Postal Service	94	[3]
5	George Hincapie	United States	U.S. Postal Service	71	[3]
6	Steffen Kjærgaard	Norway	U.S. Postal Service	101	[3]
7	Víctor Hugo Peña	Colombia	U.S. Postal Service	79	[3]
8	José Luis Rubiera	Spain	U.S. Postal Service	38	[3]
9	Christian Vande Velde	United States	U.S. Postal Service	DNF	[3]

And look at their places. 1 helper in the top-30. Or look at the stages. Telekom worked on the stage to Alpe d'Huez and IIRC Ullrich could attack on the Azet or before the last climb in the Pyrenees.

 

[120mmStem]

I can’t see Gogl or Rolland staying away. If they do I’ll eat my bib shorts

 

[gregrowlerson]

But then again that wasn't because they couldn't but because they brought a sprint train for Cav with Knees/EBH/Eisel. And EBH even wasn't that far off from what WvA does (of course not finishing it off in a similar way).

Fair enough. I have to admit that I usually take very little interest in the sprint stuff.

Anyway, that means that they had TWO trains then

 

[Brumdog66]

Don't think Sky 2012 and JV 2020 are the worst trains in recent history, rather that in both years the other teams are/were really weak. Pogacar essentially has no team and Ineos have f*cked up their preparation spectacularly, crashes have obviously also helped neither team.

The Sky 2012 PDBF train was legendary think Uran was the 4th or 5th option.
EDIT: he wasn't there just talking bollocks

 

[perico]

LOL There was the year they brought in Triki Beltran and he went so hard and basically destroyed Lance’s legs in the first KM in the Alpe and couldn’t follow the attacks from Mayo and Vino.

 

[Breezy1985]

Definitely not the strongest overall, but still incredibly boring. At least JV aren't dropping everyone to the point that Sky did when the only interest factor was whether Froome would try to drop Wiggo or not.

2012 was shocking but it wasn't just Sky's fault. Every possible GC rider outside of Sky seemed to be having problems

 

[Valv.Piti]

LOL There was the year they brought in Triki Beltran and he went so hard and basically destroyed Lance’s legs in the first KM in the Alpe and couldn’t follow the attacks.

2003, I dont know what Beltran was thinking lmao, although they kinda did the same in 2001 where Armstrong obviously was much stronger than in 2003.

 

[johnymax]

Jumbo is doing their job. I like how they are keeping the break on a short leash so the winner of the stage comes from the main favourites as it should be. In the end they'll make the last climb hard so we'll again see a showdown between the GC contenders.

There was never gonna be some crazy long range attack on this stage. The gaps are still small in the top10. There is really noone who should risk everything today. The majority is happy where they sit at the moment except probably Bernal and Nairo but then again, they'll try on the last climb and if they gain 20-30s they should be happy and call this stage a success.

 

[Red Rick]

Chavez is just not made for the Tour. He’s more suited for La Vuelta or the Giro. He can’t handle the constant high pace.

He had mono right? He just doesn't seem to have recovery anymore.

 

[Ted Striker]

exciting stage !! posters are taking a walk down memory lane of the 2012 Tour

 

[perico]

Think I just caught a glimpse of Verona still in the front group. He’s been pretty strong this year after doing little for the last few years.

 

[Red Rick]

Jumbo is doing their job. I like how they are keeping the break on a short leash so the winner of the stage comes from the main favourites as it should be. In the end they'll make the last climb hard so we'll again see a showdown between the GC contenders.

There was never gonna be some crazy long range attack on this stage. The gaps are still small in the top10. There is really noone who should risk everything today. The majority is happy where they sit at the moment except probably Bernal and Nairo but then again, they'll try on the last climb and if they gain 20-30s they should be happy and call this stage a success.

Yeah, but the tragic thing is they don't even have the domestiques to drop any Jumbo domstiques so they have to drop all domestiques then Roglic himself.

 

[Red Rick]

All this boredom could've been prevented by finishing in Culoz instead of on top of the GC.

 

[perico]

2012 was shocking but it wasn't just Sky's fault. Every possible GC rider outside of Sky seemed to be having problems

It didn’t help that Contador had issues with his steak, Schleck had basically destroyed his career in the crash, and defending champ Evans was already on the decline at 34.

 

[perico]

He had mono right? He just doesn't seem to have recovery anymore.

Yeah same as Aru (though Aru also had that leg problem).

 

[ppanther92]

I mean, 2012 also was special because they dominators of the previous years (Contador and Schleck) were gone and Sky just exploded onto the Tour scene. But in the end everything they did from the Vuelta 2011 onwards was pretty special in that year. They introduced kind of the years ot skeleton like looking GC riders and Wiggins dominantely won every race that year going into the Tour.

 

[Chris Gadsden]

Watching Gogl paper-boy on the steeps of the Fromentel was interesting. I can’t remember seeing somebody in the lead break doing that.

 

[TomLPC]

exciting stage !! posters are taking a walk down memory lane of the 2012 Tour

There are two types of posters on this forum.

People who derive a sick pleasure from watching late 90s GT racing

And liars.

Back to the race anyways, the time last month for the climb was 48:15 for the climb and it was ridden pretty efficiently. Many of us, including myself were saying naaaah they've peaked way too early for this, now we shall see, I'm doubting myself here however.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

All this boredom could've been prevented by finishing in Culoz instead of on top of the GC.

The MTFs have consistently been among the worst stages this year. Obviously ASO won't draw the right conclusions from this Tour, instead cutting down on TT distance again.

 

[Valv.Piti]

It didn’t help that Contador had issues with his steak, Schleck had basically destroyed his career in the crash, and defending champ Evans was already on the decline at 34.

Sanchez was declining hard, Valverde just came back, Kloden was declining... it was the PERFECT storm for Wiggo. There literally were no one outside of Nibz who wasn't all that great. So yeah. Horrible Tour with a horrible level, horrible route, horrible everything.

 

[Tigerion]

Chavez is just not made for the Tour. He’s more suited for La Vuelta or the Giro. He can’t handle the constant high pace.

Looks like he is still in the group coming into the last climb

 

[Red Rick]

It didn’t help that Contador had issues with his steak, Schleck had basically destroyed his career in the crash, and defending champ Evans was already on the decline at 34.

2012 was also a route issue. They barely did any climb over 6% and had an ungodly amount of ITTs