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

[DFA123]

I get where you're coming from. But every indication out of UAE, and Pogacar himself, is that Aru was expected to be the leader this TDF.

Yes, Pogacar was almost certainly given a free role, but he didn't go into this tour as the undisputed team leader, that only happened after Aru was gone.

This is absolute nonsense.

 

[Brumdog66]

This is absolute nonsense.

Either a troll or Fabio Aru himself

 

[SafeBet]

Why did he get in in the first place though? Did he have some clauses in his contract or something which also guaranteed leadership status or so they just sheepishly brought him and talked out of their ass he was the leader?

Saronni said Aru insisted on being in the Tour roster and there was somebody in the team (he didn't make names, but I've got to assume somebody in charge) who agreed to that even if it was clear he wasn't ready.

The leadership status was crap they told the media, probably to take some pressure off of Pog shoulders.

 

[Red Rick]

Saronni said Aru insisted on being in the Tour roster and there was somebody in the team (he didn't make names, but I've got to assume somebody in charge) who agreed to that even if it was clear he wasn't ready.

The leadership status was crap they told the media, probably to take some pressure off of Pog shoulders.

Well they brought Aru to the Tour as a leader and won it.

Can hardly say they were wrong.

 

[BlueRoads]

A lot has been said about this stage now, I just want to add this is what you get when Tony Martin is not able to intervene and preserve the order of the world. Upheaval, subversion and the overthrow.

 

[richwallone]

I get where you're coming from. But every indication out of UAE, and Pogacar himself, is that Aru was expected to be the leader this TDF.

Yes, Pogacar was almost certainly given a free role, but he didn't go into this tour as the undisputed team leader, that only happened after Aru was gone.

That's why Aru's bib was 132 and Pogacar's 131??? OK then

 

[richwallone]

I watched the race again today to look at the details. It seems like Roglic is definitely losing seconds on several turns early on, as he stops pedalling way earlier than Pogacar, and starts later out of the turn. Is he riding "safe" as he thinks he has the win in the bag ?
Another strange thing is that the helmet on Roglic seems to be shaking. Too hard tyres over rough asphalt ? Watching the helmets on the other guys it's hard to find any of them with shaking helmets, it could of course be that we see them in different places, anyway just a small strange thing.
Amazing performance by Pogacar who seemed to be 100% on and not for 1 second thinking any defensive thoughts, just killing it all the way .-)

Did the same, mostly to see if all the Lazer helmets on JV riders were so grossly misfitted as on Roglic... They were looking weird, too high, on all of them... But for Roglic it was even too high for his time trialling body position, sticking out into wind over his perfectly flat backside...

They all looked like in the Coneheads movie.

 

[Escarabajo]

And Wiggins commentary where he is explaining how Pogacar will slow down any time now. To be fair to him though, nobody expected that performance.

Wiggins is always wrong and then comes back later saying I told you so.

 

[Escarabajo]

Someone in the other thread mentioned this:
Zeeman added to the story now:

Roglic rode better watts on the flat than last years Vuelta ITT (where he took 1'30 on Pogacar). And still he was 40s behind. On the climb he was slightly below par. But not even equalling his best performance would have saved him, that would just only made him lose with 10/20s instead of 50..

Which is probably in line of the same time as Dumo. Or maybe slightly better if we conclude that Dumo should have changed bikes.
So after concluding this they have to go back to the 19 stages where the JV team was so superior and should have made the difference somewhere else. Had they known the future!!!!

 

[bajbar]

And Wiggins commentary where he is explaining how Pogacar will slow down any time now. To be fair to him though, nobody expected that performance.

I mean, I expected the same. Pogi started the TT in the Vuelta very quickly (2nd just behind Roglič) but faded later on. And I also remembered that TT in 2010 when Schleck was faster than Contador for a while, but then it gradually wnet into Contador's favor. I just waited and waited. And the more I waited the faster those seconds ticked off...

 

[Leinster]

So after concluding this they have to go back to the 19 stages where the JV team was so superior and should have made the difference somewhere else. Had they known the future!!!!

Or had they just left nothing to chance, and thought "57 seconds? It's a decent lead, but it's not really a sure thing, is it?"

 

[Armchaircyclist]

Did the same, mostly to see if all the Lazer helmets on JV riders were so grossly misfitted as on Roglic... They were looking weird, too high, on all of them... But for Roglic it was even too high for his time trialling body position, sticking out into wind over his perfectly flat backside...

They all looked like in the Coneheads movie.

Yes, and with JumboVisma now content after finding that the watts they put out were good, maybe it is time for them to check in on rider position/equipment. Maybe their helmet/position combo simply was not good enough, maybe even the bikes who knows. We all remember the Rohan Dennis controversy and how much difference equipment can make, I think Jumbo Visma will ride with different helmets next year.

 

[Koronin]

"The tenth place is no good" - Alejandro Valverde

Yet he said the night before the ITT he'd fight for that 10'th spot. He knew very early that he wasn't going to hold and just literally gave up and and did by far one of if not the worst TT of his entire career. Sorry, but to me his form is still way off by how he choose to ride the TT.

 

[Tigerion]

I wonder how sure TJV was they had this in the bag, and when.
I read somewhere they already knew Pogacar was their biggest rival, not Ineos, very early?
Then why did they never behave like that? Why all the friendliness towards Pogacar? Because Roglic is friends with him? Because they could not do anything against him anyway? Because they decided to pretend to be extremely strong and out of reach anyway?
Or because after all they felt they were just too strong, nonetheless?

I would never have expected Pogacar to be so far ahead of Roglic in the tt, maybe 20 seconds at best, was my guess. I assume they expected something similar for yesterday. But I wonder about their behaviour earlier.

Would be really interesting to read an honest account of this in the future.

Part of the issue is that Rolgic did a much worse TT than expected.
If you were guessing time how much time would you have expected Roglic to put into Porte or Doumolin?
Before the start people were forcasting Roglic and Pog a minute ahead of Porte, so Pog was only 20 faster than that expectation

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

If everything goes to plan, next year we get Pogacar, Evenepoel and an in-shape Bernal contesting the Tour, as well as a Roglic who has learned his lesson, and maybe even a Froome back in shape...... fun times ahead

No Evenepoel because of the Olympics. He’ll be at the Giro(if healthy) or La Vuelta

 

[BlueRoads]

Part of the issue is that Rolgic did a much worse TT than expected.
If you were guessing time how much time would you have expected Roglic to put into Porte or Doumolin?
Before the start people were forcasting Roglic and Pog a minute ahead of Porte, so Pog was only 20 faster than that expectation

I would not have expected roglic in front of dumoulin. I thought Dumoulin or van Aert were going to win. I did not expect Porte like this, but then I did not expect him in the Top 8 before the start anyway. I don't find Porte a good point of reference for me since he exceeded my expectations in the whole race.

 

[Cannavaro]

I think JV missed one strategy of sending Dumoulin up the road on Stage 15 or 17 or 18 forcing Pogachar and his team to work and then counter punching with Roglic. Suprising enough 2019 Movistar did the same to roglic with Carapaz and Landa. But in no way it amounts to a criticsim of JV as what has happened was a 1 in a million chance

First Movistar would chase to protect Mas, then Bahran would help to protect Landa, then Michelton would join for Yates and EF would help for Uran. There is now way that Pogacar would have taken any turn to bring back Dumoulin.

 

[Red Rick]

Yet he said the night before the ITT he'd fight for that 10'th spot. He knew very early that he wasn't going to hold and just literally gave up and and did by far one of if not the worst TT of his entire career. Sorry, but to me his form is still way off by how he choose to ride the TT.

Probably went into WC prep mode after 10 minutes.

 

[Leinster]

First Movistar would chase to protect Mas, then Bahran would help to protect Landa, then Michelton would join for Yates and EF would help for Uran. There is now way that Pogacar would have taken any turn to bring back Dumoulin.

The thing is, the best time to send Dumoulin up the road would have been Puy Mary, stage 13, when he was still only 3 minutes down on GC. The lumpy roads and false flat terrain in the last 40km would have been perfect for him, and if he had take with him one or two others who would not have ultimately represented a GC threat (eg, Porte, Lopez, Uran) and worked together, it would have forced a few other teams and riders (Ineos at the time, Bahrain, Movistar and, of course, Pogacar) into chasing.

Except nobody was to know for 100% until after that stage, and even moreso after the Grand Colombier, that Pogacar was the strongest threat, and that they needed to isolate him more that the rest. And after Puy Mary, Dumoulin was more than 4 minutes behind Pogacar, and represented a bigger threat to others.

 

[Cannavaro]

The thing is, the best time to send Dumoulin up the road would have been Puy Mary, stage 13, when he was still only 3 minutes down on GC. The lumpy roads and false flat terrain in the last 40km would have been perfect for him, and if he had take with him one or two others who would not have ultimately represented a GC threat (eg, Porte, Lopez, Uran) and worked together, it would have forced a few other teams and riders (Ineos at the time, Bahrain, Movistar and, of course, Pogacar) into chasing.

Except nobody was to know for 100% until after that stage, and even moreso after the Grand Colombier, that Pogacar was the strongest threat, and that they needed to isolate him more that the rest. And after Puy Mary, Dumoulin was more than 4 minutes behind Pogacar, and represented a bigger threat to others.

Ineos drilled it that day. Dumoulin is strong, but I cannot see him surviving against the whole Ineos squad.

 

[Koronin]

Probably went into WC prep mode after 10 minutes.

I suspect it was more after about 2 km he sat up when he knew he'd lost the 10th spot because his TT wasn't going to be good enough and then couldn't be bothered to put in any effort at all. I personally don't think "saving anything for the worlds" is what he was doing, because I don't think his form is there for the Worlds and I also don't think he has enough time to get it there either.

 

[hayneplane]

I suspect it was more after about 2 km he sat up when he knew he'd lost the 10th spot because his TT wasn't going to be good enough and then couldn't be bothered to put in any effort at all. I personally don't think "saving anything for the worlds" is what he was doing, because I don't think his form is there for the Worlds and I also don't think he has enough time to get it there either.

do you mean after 2km of the climb because surely nobody can chuck in the towel after 2km of the entire time trial.

 

[Koronin]

do you mean after 2km of the climb because surely nobody can chuck in the towel after 2km of the entire time trial.

Nope, I mean 2km into the TT, maybe 2 to 5km in. It was evident after the first time check he wasn't trying. He's lost over a minute to Caruso at the first time check.

 

[Oldermanish]

This is absolute nonsense.

Very definition of a Stalking Horse. Neigh...neigh....not Tadej. Maybe they had to say that to get Aru to start the race?

 

[Oldermanish]

do you mean after 2km of the climb because surely nobody can chuck in the towel after 2km of the entire time trial.

Almost every time trial I ever did the voice in my head said "this is a stupid sport and shouldn't hurt so much". Fortunately it went away a little bit down the road but 2-4km is the worst.
Again, I kid. We are way too deep into psychological analysis of these guys. I can't imagine how much physical and mental fatigue affects what you do after 3 weeks. We'd need to get 6 beers into Dumo along with some Amsterweed to get the truth.