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Tour de France 2020 | Stage 8 (Gazeres-sur-Geronne - Loudenvielle

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The lack of social distancing on the road is a joke, not only didn't the Gendarmes do a thing on the final climb, they didn't even have their noses covered...
Zakarin's decending is also hard to watch, the guy has been a cycling for a really long time, has no team every really bothered to work with him on his descending skills. The RAI commentators said that seeing him descent gives them anxiety and I can't blame them. There are clear cut technical mistakes that you can fix.
 
24 Big Photos from Stage 8 (more to come) — corvos/aso/reuters
http://www.steephill.tv/2020/tour-de-france/photos/stage-08/

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Some might not like it, but if a rider like Froome saw Bernal in the trouble he looked today he would have destroyed him, Roglic needs to take advantage of these situations

No. Froome would have ordered Porte/Poels to destroy him.

Roglic could maybe have put time into Bernal today, but others (Landa, Quintana, Pogacar, Lopez) who may be a threat down the line would have got the most benefit from it.
 
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Just realized that there were little or no posts from Gigs. That explains a lot about today's stage.
Say whaaaaat

Anyway, I think we can conclude Pogacar is definitely overrated after his 3rd place in an exceptionally weak Vuelta last year.
He's just another Enric Mas, right?
Finally people agreeing with me. Was about time.

In all honesty though, super happy to have been wrong about Pogacar. Really exciting rider and right now honestly looks like a very reasonable pick for the overall.
 
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I'm surprised people find Roglič's style of riding boring. Maybe his interviews yes, but he's a very aggressive rider on most days. He just fares significantly better on the punchy climbs. And lest we forget he's already won a stage at this year's Tour. Riding conservatively today to me is a sign that maybe he just doesn't have the legs that Pogi has on these types of climbs. Which doesn't mean he can't still win the race. He looked like he could cover Pogi's attacks but if you look closely as soon as Pogi sees who's coming up from behind he flicks his elbow and Roglič just didn't want any of it. Either because of team tactics or he saw his watts and decided against it. Vaguely reminiscent of last year's Vuelta stage finish in Andorra. Pogi had time to make up. Set off by himself. Blew the race to bits. Roglič lost some time.
 
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I'm surprised people find Roglič's style of riding boring. Maybe his interviews yes, but he's a very aggressive rider on most days. He just fares significantly better on the punchy climbs. And lest we forget he's already won a stage at this year's Tour. Riding conservatively today to me is a sign that maybe he just doesn't have the legs that Pogi has on these types of climbs. Which doesn't mean he can't still win the race. He looked like he could cover Pogi's attacks but if you look closely as soon as Pogi sees who's coming up from behind he flicks his elbow and Roglič just didn't want any of it. Either because of team tactics or he saw his watts and decided against it. Vaguely reminiscent of last year's Vuelta stage finish in Andorra. Pogi had time to make up. Set off by himself. Blew the race to bits. Roglič lost some time.

I actually think he had the legs to go with Pogi. I think the difference is, he wasn't willing to take anyone who was close in GC with them and preferred to let Pogi go if it wasn't just the two of them or the two of them and someone else who was down on time like say Landa.
 
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I actually think he had the legs to go with Pogi. I think the difference is, he wasn't willing to take anyone who was close in GC with them and preferred to let Pogi go if it wasn't just the two of them or the two of them and someone else who was down on time like say Landa.
He bridged effortlessly but at that point you just had Pogačar, Roglič and Quintana (who's been riding brilliantly btw) left and a gap to the rest. That's probably the ideal scenario yet he preferred to sit up and let everyone else get back on. The second attack I agree he let go but had they committed to the first one they could have done some major damage to the GC. And Roglič can be confident he can take time off Quintana in the ITT even if it's a MTF on the Planche de belles filles.
 
I actually think he had the legs to go with Pogi. I think the difference is, he wasn't willing to take anyone who was close in GC with them and preferred to let Pogi go if it wasn't just the two of them or the two of them and someone else who was down on time like say Landa.

It looked like it, yes. Pogačar attacked. Roglič looked around. No one reacted. He jumped and closed down the gap easily, thinking it will be only the two of them. But then a certain Naironman did so as well. And there is where all chances of cooperation ended unfortunatelly-
 
Dumoulin himself said he didn't feel good so he told the team he was going to work because they are here to win the tour

I think that's clear.
Wether it was smart to work so soon or so hard? idk, it only makes sense if Roglic wanted to try something, but he didnt really?

Yea why would they make the pace, Bennett, Kuss and Dumoulin aren't at their best. Roglic is happy just to stay with the group of favorites. They don't have the yellow jersey either. Didn't make any sense unless Roglic wasn't as good as they hoped either, being unable to really create a decisive gap to the other favorites.
 
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About the whole Roglic situation, I can't be the only one who thinks that today he looked a lot like in the giro a year ago. Closing down moves at first, then not cooperating and never going to the front, resulting in a contender a little further down in the gc gaining a decent chunk of time. I tell you, the reason he didn't follow Pogacar or kept the pace up when he had a gap with Pog and Quintana was because he couldn't. Again, in the giro last year people were also thinking Roglic was just waiting for the proper moment to show his cards (hell even Nibali thought that and in the process threw away a giro win) and only after the third mountain stage or so they realized he wasn't bluffing, he just wasn't strong enough.

Let's go through this. Two days ago JV allowed a 50 men peloton over the Col de la Lusette because they didn't want to attack and therefore thought it smartest to ride as slowly as possible. Today they set the pace for dozens of kilometers, ride fast enough for helper after helper to fall back and they even sacrifice their 2nd gc option to drill the peloton. The plan works, the yellow jersey and crucially last years winner and 2nd biggest favorite Bernal get into difficulty. Pogacar attacks and only Roglic and Quintana follow.
So little recap, if Roglic wants to gain time today absolutely everything has gone in his favor. All his rivals are isolated, his biggest rival dropped and he has a gap with two guys willing to work with him of which one is even quite far behind him in the gc. The situation is perfect. All he has to do now is to either attack and drop the two remaining riders or work together to distance everyone else.

Roglic chooses to do neither. Roglic takes a halfarsed pull, the others regain contact and everything is coming back together. Roglic then allows Pogacar to just ride away. Roglic then allows Porte and Landa to just ride away. Yeah he followed Quintana's attack at the end which led to everyone other than Pog to come back together but that was not Roglic's work. If Quintana doesn't attack there Porte and Landa probably gain 20 seconds as well. If you are really strong and are able to control things you don't ride like that. You can't f#cking tell me that Roglic of all people, after the whole Carapaz story in the 2019 giro, thinks it's the right tactic in this position to gift guys a bit down in the gc time because they don't look that dangerous anyway. You can't f#cking tell me JV rides this way, sacrifices their 2nd gc option, if the plan was to keep the group together. Roglic's shape might be good, but it's not great. He does not have this under control in any way.
 

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