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

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I'm not convinced Jumbo, barring Tom are particularly strong at this inroad. Gesink, Kuss are fine riders but they were nowhere when the attacks started on the >10% inclines yesterday, and looked fried on the lower slopes of the Peyrosourde. The final 4k of Fromentel is more than enough to get rid of the bulk, the 14kish valley is the main deterrent, but It's a slight decline which could be negated if others had teammates up the road. I think many still conflate this team with sky but IMO they aren't nearly as strong as the 2012 vintage for example.

Attacks on stage 18 are a possibility, but the Gileres summit is >30k from the finish, which I think will deter people. You will need at least 90 seconds on Roglic for the final TT, and I don't see any stages other than this or 17 where taking 3/4 minutes (based on position) is at all a possibility. Like i said, I think the likelihood is a lot of consolidation going on with Pogacar attacking 2/3rds from the summit, but if someone lower down with good legs wants to show some winning intent, now is the time. It will be likely too late next week.
Kuss hanged on better than Bernal when the attacks started yesterday and I think you meant Bennett not Gesink.
 
Kuss hanged on better than Bernal when the attacks started yesterday and I think you meant Bennett not Gesink.


Ended up 50 seconds behind Bernal who had a bit of a shocker, the attacks from Pogacar were impeded by the battle up front yesterday but I didn't see him at all once the group split

May have been Bennett yes, can't find the full stage but from the results looks like they finished a minute apart, the main point is as that as soon as the attacks seem to start in this race, all the jerseys are different colours, rather than the usual 4 blue jerseys tapping out a steady rhythm on the front.

Edit: Watching a bit of the end back, good to see Powless clinging on to that all important 17th whilst his leader struggles 15 seconds down the mountain. Kuss seemed to go with the first attack, hit the front for a couple of seconds then blow once Pogacar attacked again.
 
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Ended up 50 seconds behind Bernal who had a bit of a shocker, the attacks from Pogacar were impeded by the battle up front yesterday but I didn't see him at all once the group split

May have been Bennett yes, can't find the full stage but from the results looks like they finished a minute apart, the main point is as that as soon as the attacks seem to start in this race, all the jerseys are different colours, rather than the usual 4 blue jerseys tapping out a steady rhythm on the front.
It's not relevant where they finish as they don't care about their GC. Kuss was in the Landa group when Pog&Rog made their move and Bernal was behind him at that point with Carapaz. Kuss actually did good work but the idiotic TV transmission didn't show much.
But yeah Bennett so far has been dissapointing. I wonder if maybe he should be changed in the order of the train, behind WvA who showed he can do decent even on climbs. With Dumo basically taking Bennett's old place.
 
Think you have to go on the second part of the climb at minimum to gain time here and its very important that Kuss and Dumoulin has been shelled at that point. My hopes are Ineos tomorrow
2nd part of the climb being the part from 9-6km from the finish? I'd agree with that, and probably closer to 9 to go than 6.

I don't think Ineos can set a pace that drops Kuss and Dumoulin though.

I guess there's a small chance Roglic will just react to Pogacar if he goes rather than trying to sit on Dumoulin or Kuss but I think that's gonna last all of 1 acceleration again, and I'm not sure Pog is gonna go that far.

Bernal I think won't attack unless he feels much better and instead pray for miracle on stage 17.
 
Watching a bit of the end back, good to see Powless clinging on to that all important 17th whilst his leader struggles 15 seconds down the mountain.
There's nothing Powless could do to help Uran on such gradients after being spent after the action with Schachmann and I guess he was ordered to try to finish ahead of the peloton for the team classification.
 
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Finishing climb

tour-de-france-2020-stage-15-climb-n3-066ed96344.jpg
 
This is the kind of stage in the recent past where Landa and López would send riders up the road early on then attack halfway up the first climb with it being so steep.

Not as confident they will try it as they are much closer on GC than the usual 5 minutes they often shed through bad luck early in grand tours.
 
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