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Tour de France 2020 | Stage 16 (La Tour-du-Pin - Villard-de-Lans, 164 km)

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Nothing wrong with the design today.

It is just the perfect storm:

  • Two Slovenians at the top. there is some camaraderie.
  • One doesn't have a team so he has to wait for the sprint finish
  • The other one has the team and sprint finishes is his forte
  • Eliminated their biggest rivals. Or they eliminated themselves.
  • The biggest danger for the podium are Uran, Lopez, Porte, Yates, Mas and Landa. Lol. the only two who are attacking riders and can do anything are Lopez and Landa. Lopez and Landa might have some pressure from their coaches and sponsors to not blow up and defend their position. When one of those riders attack a picture of crabs trying to get out of a bucket comes to my mind!!
  • Dumoulin cannot attack from far away because is his teammate.
  • Quintana cannot attack from far away because is more worried about his poison ivy recovery.
 
If I'm not mistaken, Kamna has ridden the last 30 kilometers some 2-3 minutes faster than the peloton. On a stage that was IMO perfect for some GC action. What a joke the GC fight is for this year.
I very much preferred the Sky train over this, they were at least using their train to shred the peloton into pieces, Jumbo is only keeping everything together.
 
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What else shoud they do tomorrow.?Take a rest day or take it from the break like today.?
IF Bennet is OK with limit DQS should help them to get Ewan out of game.Stage in Paris is worths two stages. ;).

I don’t know, because I don’t know if the uncategorised climb is hard enough to drop anybody. If it’s only slightly tougher than false flat there isn’t much purpose in going berserker and the energy is better saved. If there’s any terrain where they could get rid of Bennett than it will be full gas from the start as usual.
 
Actually I like this stage design, though I wish there was less flat between the last two climbs - can't help that geographically though. It reminds me a bit of the great Pescocostanzo stage in the 2008 Giro.

However, the issue for this stage is pacing rather than the stage itself in a vacuum, I believe, though there's not much ASO could realistically have done about it as a result; this stage was never going to see meaningful GC action when placed on the eve of the all-important MTF of the race.
It was designed with July 14th in mind. Otherwise, they could have finished at Stade de Neige.
 
Bernal really is having some back and other issues. I'm wondering if he may be a DNS. (Tomorrow would seem to be a good day to begin recovery/therapy.)
He was smiling and joking, I think he hopes to try for a stage win but he's running out of time. I don't see it happening anyway. He said when the race started his back was better than it was but still a problem. Sounds like Ineos had no healthy team leaders or in form leaders for the Tour and Carapaz was aiming for the Giro so his form wasn't going to be great either. Maybe they should have just stage hunted and put Bernal in the Giro with Thomas or left Carapaz in the Giro and Thomas in the Tour.
 
I don’t know, because I don’t know if the uncategorised climb is hard enough to drop anybody. If it’s only slightly tougher than false flat there isn’t much purpose in going berserker and the energy is better saved. If there’s any terrain where they could get rid of Bennett than it will be full gas from the start as usual.
It will be full gas anyway because Bora cant let the break go unless Sagan is in it in which case DQS will go full gas unless Bennett is in it in which case Bora will go full gas
 
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