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Tour de France 2020 | Stage 20 ITT (Lure - La Planche des Belles Filles, 36.2km)

The last deciding stage before the Sunday's procession to Paris. It's now or never for any GC shakeups.
36km individual timetrial with a mountain top finish.

Starts @ 13:00 CET, last man to start is Roglic @ 17:15 CET.

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Profile:

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Climb to the finish:

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GC:

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Points:

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Youth:

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KOM:

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Teams:

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Tour de France stage 20 time trial start times

13:40:30 T. Martin
13:45 Asgreen
15:26 Schachmann
15:28 de Gendt
15:50 Jungels
16:04 Alaphilippe
16:18 Kwiatkowski
16:36 van Aert
16:50 Carapaz
16:58 Dumoulin
17:00 Uran
17:02 Yates
17:04 Mas
17:06 Landa
17:08 Porte
17:10 Lopez
17:12 Pogacar
17:14 Roglic
 
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I hope nobody minds me quoting myself from late in the thread of Thursdays Stage thread; The copy/pasted Quote

"My two cents, and my opinion is worth you you each paid for it LOL

I think that a good solution to the problem of riders taking it east on the flats could be using this example..... Lets say the average for the field over the flat part and to keep the numbers even lets say..... the first 30K flat is on average ridden by all those riding 45 minutes so that anyone lower than the average time would not be eligible for the KOM Points. Maybe I am over thinking it but I think that minimum would be a good solution, it would still give an advantage to those not worried about their ITT time but they would have to be careful not to be below that moving average. They wouldn't know what the actual time would be until the end so they would have to be on the safe side just in case."

Just an Idea to make the KOM points for this type ITT more equitable. Just a suggestion I am sure there are good arguments against it but putting it out there. :)
 
I hope nobody minds me quoting myself from late in the thread of Thursdays Stage thread; The copy/pasted Quote

"My two cents, and my opinion is worth you you each paid for it LOL

I think that a good solution to the problem of riders taking it east on the flats could be using this example..... Lets say the average for the field over the flat part and to keep the numbers even lets say..... the first 30K flat is on average ridden by all those riding 45 minutes so that anyone lower than the average time would not be eligible for the KOM Points. Maybe I am over thinking it but I think that minimum would be a good solution, it would still give an advantage to those not worried about their ITT time but they would have to be careful not to be below that moving average. They wouldn't know what the actual time would be until the end so they would have to be on the safe side just in case."

Just an Idea to make the KOM points for this type ITT more equitable. Just a suggestion I am sure there are good arguments against it but putting it out there. :)

That is not a good idea because if I understood it right it would make Carapaz more unlikely to gain the dots, and I want him to get them. :D:D

Anyway, Dani Martínez is going to snatch this, you all know that, right?!
I'm not sure it's steep enough for Sepp Kuss to take second. If not, Marc Hirschi will make it, Cancellara-style.
 
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Hoping but doubting Richie can get on the podium.

Wouldn´t be suprised if MAL actually gains time. Feels like Richie never reaches his peak level in TTs when he is climbing as well as he did this year. MAL on the other hand is hit or miss. Wouldn´t be suprised if he finishes inside the top 10. Wouldn´t be suprised if he loses 3 minutes.
 
If everything goes smoothly, the top 3 will keep their positions.

However, if any of them have a flat, or a badly botched bike change, they are in danger of losing their position.

Roglic 57 seconds < Pogacar 30 seconds < Lopez 1 minute 39 seconds < Porte.

I assume Porte is so much better on the TT bike than Landa, that even if his gap is the smallest (22 seconds), he will keep him behind him comfortably with a defect..... but Mas 1 minute 13 seconds behind Porte could be a problem.

And yeah, chances are there will be no such drama, but I am a Dane, and I remember when Michael Rasmussen crashed 3 times on the same TT, and lost a Tour podium :D
 
It's gonna be interesting if Dumo and WvA will go for the bike change. But I guess they want their best chances for a stage win. Assuming everyone who is a favorite goes for it, head says the following top5:
  1. Rog
  2. Dumo
  3. Porte
  4. WvA
  5. Pog
I think the climb is too steep for WvA although he is in monster form. He might also be tired after all the work.
 
For anyone interested in reading a short book on twitter. Alex Dowsett just wrote one on this TT.

View: https://twitter.com/alexdowsett/status/1307059676060753923

Good write-up.

I would presume the teams who are serious about winning this stage would have also modelled the hybrid TT/road bike/clip-ons setup, or tried to work out something with a higher base bar and lower aero bars, or getting a TT position on an aero road frame if their bike sponsor's TT setup is too heavy, (10kgs he says!) etc etc.

If it was me, I'd certainly prefer to work out a way to do the full TT without getting off. The time and momentum lost from jumping off at 50kmh can't be inconsequential, and the risk of a botched bike change has to be worth at least a few extra points in the cost-benefit analysis. And all the aero analysis out there consistently tells us that the rider's body position, skinsuit, and tire rolling resistance are where the big gains are to be made, much more than the shape of the frame.
 
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I hope nobody minds me quoting myself from late in the thread of Thursdays Stage thread; The copy/pasted Quote

"My two cents, and my opinion is worth you you each paid for it LOL

I think that a good solution to the problem of riders taking it east on the flats could be using this example..... Lets say the average for the field over the flat part and to keep the numbers even lets say..... the first 30K flat is on average ridden by all those riding 45 minutes so that anyone lower than the average time would not be eligible for the KOM Points. Maybe I am over thinking it but I think that minimum would be a good solution, it would still give an advantage to those not worried about their ITT time but they would have to be careful not to be below that moving average. They wouldn't know what the actual time would be until the end so they would have to be on the safe side just in case."

Just an Idea to make the KOM points for this type ITT more equitable. Just a suggestion I am sure there are good arguments against it but putting it out there. :)
In fairness, though, your ability to maintain speed on the flats should have absolutely nothing to do with your right to wear the polka dots. The maillot à pois is for the king of the mountains, so in an ITT situation it absolutely should reflect time spent between a time check at the base of the climb and the time check at the summit of the climb (on this occasion, the finish) only. If riders take it easy for 30km to be able to go nuts for the last 6km to get the mountains jersey, so be it. I mean, isn't that exactly what Richard Virenque, Rafał Majka, Mikel Nieve, Mikel Landa, Stefano Garzelli, David Moncoutié, Franco Pellizotti, Julián Arredondo, Giulio Ciccone and countless others have done to win the mountains jersey in the first place? Lost time voluntarily on the parts of the course not relevant to their GPM bid (once their GC bids failed in some instances) and then bided their time until the part of the course that's important for the mountains jersey before expending their efforts?

The system already biases heavily toward HCs and adds the double point summits while reducing the relative value of cat.2 and below compared to the pre-2011 system anyway, which was with the intention of improving the calibre of GPM winner and having more GC riders in contention for it. To me it's more of a farce that there's so many points in stages 17 and 18 relative to the rest that the competition for the jersey doesn't come alive until the final week anyway, but with that in mind, I don't see why Carapaz riding within himself to then go hell for leather on Planche des Belles Filles would make him a less worthy KOM than Pogačar. In fact, Carapaz' current GC position between 10th and 20th is a pretty reasonable spot for the king of the mountains to be in, and he fits the profile of a traditional KOM better than most of the riders who've won it in recent years - he's a top drawer rider and a specialist climber whose own GC ambitions have gone awry, who has then late in the race sought to rectify this and bring the team something from the race with attacks from distance in the mountains. He hasn't won it almost by accident as a by-product of battling for the GC like Froome, and he hasn't won it by dropping continual time and just collecting summits while not influencing the race at all like many we see nowadays. For being one of only four riders to have actually made the jersey a goal at one point this race (one of whom crashed out on stage 3), being the best climber of those and being visible throughout the mountains of the last week, Richard Carapaz is a more than worthy winner of the polka dots, even if he has to ride the first 30km of tomorrow's TT at cyclotourist pace to do so.
 
Haven't Jumbo had issues with the weight of the Bianchis? Hence them riding rim brakes and unbadged wheels, etc (and switching to Cervelo next year?). I don't know the weight difference between the XR4 and their TT bike, but I'd imagine if their road bike isn't very light, it tilts the balance back in favour of just staying on the TT bike right through.
 
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Some proper “u wot mate?” comments from riders after yesterday’s stage. Trentin complaining that Sagan didn’t work in the group when he should have because of the battle for Green. Trentin was also in the battle for Green and had a teammate unlike Sagan yet neither Trentin nor his teammate GVA worked. Then Oliver Naesen went on a rant about the Sunweb way being to put riders in every move who don’t work and then attack when others are tired. Oliver, did nobody ever explain the sport of cycling to you? You see, there’s a thing called a slipstream, and...

The race has been so hard that some rider’s brains have been tragically starved of oxygen
 
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  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
I like TT and considering tomorrow a Slovenian will likely win the Tour de France riding a TT. It's like saying tomorrow first Slovenian will walk on the moon, going there in a DIY rocket made in a garage. Will for sure watch with great joy and may the best man win.

P.S. Hopefully no mechanical or similar issues involved, pure power.
 
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