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

[movingtarget]

They have to but both of them can't outrun the jumbo train. Mollema should lose time on purpose and then go for breaks in the coming stages. Porte already lost time and the real echelon stage is still to come. Let him do whatever he wants, nobody cares anyways.

His wife is expecting a baby

Trek has to try something. Mollema would be better on a downhill finish than Porte probably.

Porte would do better if the stages consisted of twenty one consecutive hill climbs in dry calm moderate weather. Anything different he seems to have trouble with. I have never seen him crash in a feed zone maybe I missed it............his consistency at finding trouble in every grand tour surprises even old cycnics like me..............years of experience racing his bike seem to make no difference to the outcomes. The sooner he gets back to domestique duties the better..........for everyone especially the once hopeful fans like myself. Watching Cadel Evans till 2.00 am in Australia is one thing but this is something else entirely.............

 

[SarahtheDane]

His wife is expecting a baby

Porte would do better if the stages consisted of twenty one consecutive hill climbs in dry calm moderate weather. Anything different he seems to have trouble with. I have never seen him crash in a feed zone maybe I missed it............his consistency at finding trouble in every grand tour surprises even old cycnics like me..............years of experience racing his bike seem to make no difference to the outcomes. The sooner he gets back to domestique duties the better..........for everyone especially the once hopeful fans like myself. Watching Cadel Evans till 2.00 am in Australia is one thing but this is something else entirely.............

Already had the baby.

 

[yaco]

Expect the breakaway to take the stage, though confident there will be GC action.

 

[IndianCyclist]

One interesting strategy would be Ineos using Carapaz to attack. If he gains lost time good, if he wins the stage good. If he loses there is only Plan A. Anyway he can rest till stage 13

 

[topt]

Yeah, unfortunately I think you're right that it's too hard for Alaphilippe otherwise we could see some downhill attacking.

oh, we will see downhill attacking but by Roglic

 

[IndianCyclist]

His wife is expecting a baby

Porte would do better if the stages consisted of twenty one consecutive hill climbs in dry calm moderate weather. Anything different he seems to have trouble with. I have never seen him crash in a feed zone maybe I missed it............his consistency at finding trouble in every grand tour surprises even old cycnics like me..............years of experience racing his bike seem to make no difference to the outcomes. The sooner he gets back to domestique duties the better..........for everyone especially the once hopeful fans like myself. Watching Cadel Evans till 2.00 am in Australia is one thing but this is something else entirely.............

he is a really good climber and has a decent TT. His ability to destroy his position is however even better. I have a notion that once he starts participating in TDU, he will start winning. Just look at Caleb Ewan. Once he went to Lotto from MS, and stopped emphasizing TDU he has won important stages

 

[johnymax]

oh, we will see downhill attacking but by Roglic

I don't think so. Only if he gaps his biggest rivals on the climb and sees the opportunity to take more time. If there are 5-10 riders together at the top of Peyresourde, I don't think he'll make an all out attack on the descent.

 

[Red Rick]

Good winds for aggressive riding

https://twitter.com/x/status/1301921355680690177

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1301921355680690177

 

[Eclipse]

Alright let's do it

fingers crossed we get a good day

 

[Libertine Seguros]

he is a really good climber and has a decent TT. His ability to destroy his position is however even better. I have a notion that once he starts participating in TDU, he will start winning. Just look at Caleb Ewan. Once he went to Lotto from MS, and stopped emphasizing TDU he has won important stages

That might have been the case a few years ago but that ship has pretty much sailed now. Richie has a great palmarès of one week races, but he's 35 now, so even if he sacrifices his beloved TDU, you'd expect him to be declining, and I dare say he's probably into a mindset of expecting something to go wrong for him. He's never added anything to a GT as a leader, the one time he ever made something of a three week race as leader, fan congestions and a motorbike put paid to it before we could really learn anything about what legs he had or hadn't got that day. As such, his most memorable moments in Grand Tours have either been as a domestique (eg Pierre-Saint-Martin) or misfortune (swapping wheels with Simon Clarke instead of his teammate stood right by him because he didn't know the rules, the nasty-looking crash on Mont du Chat). His style of racing in Grand Tours has become increasingly negative, perhaps as a result of expecting things to go wrong and having been touted as a major contender but not amassed the GT results to back that up. As a stage racer, he's Simon Špilak over one week, but Tadej Valjavec over three.

 

[markene2]

Break will win today, if not, Bardet takes it

 

[Broccolidwarf]

UNLEASH THE KRAGHEN!

 

[Broccolidwarf]

A lot of riders want the break today, this may take some time

 

[Broccolidwarf]

The GC teams not wanting a rider in the break....... tells us the captains are riding today defensively.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Zakarin must think this group is perfect - he's pretty much the only real climber!

 

[SarahtheDane]

So, who from the break do we think will win?

 

[Red Rick]

Once again, and incredibly lame break

 

[Breezy1985]

Did any of the green jersey guys try to make the break?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Weird to me that Bennett didn't try to get in the break, with the intermediate ahead of the first mountain..... same with Ewan and Sagan.

Edit: As I write that, Moerkoev is getting dropped on the first little hills

 

[topcat]

Once again, and incredibly lame break

I'm going in the break today. I'm going to go surfing and tune in or not in a few hours.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Zakarin must think this group is perfect - he's pretty much the only real climber!

Hermans ain't too bad. He's won the Tour of Utah and the Österreichrundfahrt (twice), taken mountaintop wins at Kitzbüheler Horn, Powder Mountain, Målselv and Fuscher Törl (Großglockner), and finished 14th in the Vuelta back in 2016. He also finished with the GC group in stage 6 for whatever that's worth, as like Zakarin he's lost a bunch of time too. Zakarin has the higher top end ability, sure, but Hermans' best results are more recent than Kamaz' ones. Zakarin winning the stage and then going for the polka dots later in the race would be mighty entertaining though. He tends to get better and more active later in races, or at least he did in his best years.

 

[Salvarani]

De Gendt solving a rubiks cube in 45 seconds Im not surprised by

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Hermans ain't too bad. He's won the Tour of Utah and the Österreichrundfahrt (twice), taken mountaintop wins at Kitzbüheler Horn, Powder Mountain, Målselv and Fuscher Törl (Großglockner), and finished 14th in the Vuelta back in 2016. He also finished with the GC group in stage 6 for whatever that's worth, as like Zakarin he's lost a bunch of time too. Zakarin has the higher top end ability, sure, but Hermans' best results are more recent than Kamaz' ones. Zakarin winning the stage and then going for the polka dots later in the race would be mighty entertaining though. He tends to get better and more active later in races, or at least he did in his best years.

I actually forgot about Hermans

 

[Anderis]

I came here to complain about the lame breakaway but someone has used exactly the same words already.

At least EF sent Powless there so he can finish 4th on the stage and add to the team classification if the peloton won't chase.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Hermans ain't too bad. He's won the Tour of Utah and the Österreichrundfahrt (twice), taken mountaintop wins at Kitzbüheler Horn, Powder Mountain, Målselv and Fuscher Törl (Großglockner), and finished 14th in the Vuelta back in 2016. He also finished with the GC group in stage 6 for whatever that's worth, as like Zakarin he's lost a bunch of time too. Zakarin has the higher top end ability, sure, but Hermans' best results are more recent than Kamaz' ones. Zakarin winning the stage and then going for the polka dots later in the race would be mighty entertaining though. He tends to get better and more active later in races, or at least he did in his best years.

This is never going to get old