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Tour de France 2020 | Stage 17 (Grenoble - Méribel Col de la Loze, 170 km)

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Mikel Landa is a simple one to work out. He rides great when there aren't expectations of him to carry the GC torch. He's been great when he's been in shared roles or behind somebody, or the other guys are willing to give him rope to be his mercurial self like when he went out to win the Giro GPM and mountain stages after the whole team abandoned him to ride with Thomas, who then withdrew giving the team nothing to really fight for.

As soon as he has something to lose, he folds.
 
only thing that changed was Uran fell three places.

that's it.

wow!:rolleyes:
I mean, all that shows is that, considering this was basically a pure strength test, that the riders were more or less already in an order of strength in GC. it doesn’t mean differences were slight - which they weren’t. How many stages in the past few Tours have had gaps this big? Ive checked, and since 2016 only the stage to Portet. People complaining about ‘gaps’ today just have massively unrealistic expectations. 1 minute among the top five, and two for the top 10, is a lot.
 
Col de la Loze delivered as I would have it with those 3-4 km of action. Its a great MTF I think which ensures relatively big gaps no matter the race scenario, but its not suited as the queen stage IMO since you will only see 4 km of real racing. To me its very much a glorified Bola del Mundo which without a doubt is the most similar climb to Loze I've seen so far in pro racing - not that thats bad. Should work well with a hard mountain stage the day after with opportunities to go from far out, like tomorrow.. at least in theory.

Anyways, hardest ever in the Tour? Still, probably not. Put Agnello in a spot like todays and I think you'll se bigger differences. Who knows. Its a stupid discussion anyways.
 
I mean, all that shows is that, considering this was basically a pure strength test, that the riders were more or less already in an order of strength in GC. it doesn’t mean differences were slight - which they weren’t. How many stages in the past few Tours have had gaps this big? Ive checked, and since 2016 only the stage to Portet. People complaining about ‘gaps’ today just have massively unrealistic expectations. 1 minute among the top five, and two for the top 10, is a lot.
Also, Porte leapfrogged Adam Yates, though that wasn't unexpected given how close they were before the stage and that Porte had been clearly visibly climbing better.

Mas looks better with each passing stage but will run out of time to make further gains unless either Yates or Urán capitulate tomorrow.
 
That happenned, Jumbo dom attacked that close to finish! Not quite two, though.
Landa not good, Porte quite good, Kuss too good. Pogacar gave hope before the last 300, wonder how he will go tomorrow, and Lopez too. Someone needs to keep the fight for a half decent Tour.
Anyway, how often do you expect that finale to appear in the Tour?
 
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Top3 Kom looks good. Lopez to wear it tomorrow or Pog?
Pog leads the classification, so the polka supersedes the young riders' jersey, which will be worn by Enric Mas.

Yellow supersedes green supersedes polka supersedes white.

That's why you ended up with Amets Txurruka wearing white at one point in 2007 because Contador (in yellow) and Soler (in polka) were ahead of him in the classification.
 
Also, Porte leapfrogged Adam Yates, though that wasn't unexpected given how close they were before the stage and that Porte had been clearly visibly climbing better.

Mas looks better with each passing stage but will run out of time to make further gains unless either Yates or Urán capitulate tomorrow.
I think as MTFs go it’s a good one. Shouldn’t be a queen stage (unless they decide the descent is rideable and link it to another climb in the valley) but it’s certainly the best we’ve had this Tour. And also with some unique characteristics which make it more than your usual 6km at 11% wall
 
Pog leads the classification, so the polka supersedes the young riders' jersey, which will be worn by Enric Mas.

Yellow supersedes green supersedes polka supersedes white.

That's why you ended up with Amets Txurruka wearing white at one point in 2007 because Contador (in yellow) and Soler (in polka) were ahead of him in the classification.
Why can you remember such things... it always amazes me.
 
That happenned, Jumbo dom attacked that close to finish! Not quite two, though.
Landa not good, Porte quite good, Kuss too good. Pogacar gave hope before the last 300, wonder how he will go tomorrow, and Lopez too. Someone needs to keep the fight for a half decent Tour.
Anyway, how often do you expect that finale to appear in the Tour?

I think as a monoclimb sprint stage it would work just fine. Otherwise, the last few km are just too hard to encourage action before
 

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