Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 13: Nîmes – Carcassonne, 219.9 km

[skippo12]

Was the entire field just cooked with 300m to go or was it the usual case of waiting to long because Cav wasn´t moving.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Cocked up leadout - 2nd sprint stage in a row where they left Asgreen on the front way too long - risked getting swamped last time and it actually happened this time. Not sure why Ballerini feels he can't go before 600m - they end up with Morkov never actually having a role

Morkov is going for the most top 10s without a win.

 

[75Driver]

Super happy for Cav and even though it was a messy lead out DQS came through again when it was very dodgy. Great finish!

 

[Red Rick]

Where was van Aert in the end?

 

[titan31]

What are they supposed to do? Just not participate in the sprint?

Go in the bloody break and don't bother chasing. If QS want and can bring it back for a sprint fine, but don't make it easy for them.

 

[SarahtheDane]

Morkov second, lol. He was probably the only one who could have beaten Cav today if he went all out.

I actually think he could.

 

[perico]

What a champion. Greatest sprinter of all time.

 

[Wvv]

Cavendish matches Merckx. Unimaginable a year ago, or months ago, even a few weeks ago.

Cursed a little in honour of Eddy, for some reason I don't want Cavendish to break the record. Today I would've liked a Morkov win more, haha. But kudos, Mark, u're a great one.

 

[Amazinmets87]

Congrats to Cav, but you kinda wish he had someone to race against...

 

[Red Rick]

Odds people would complain this much about the sprinting field if it had been Bennett winning 3 stages instead of Cav 4?

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Now take Eddie's record on the Champs Elysees wearing green.

 

[Rollthedice]

Cavendish is pure positional magic in that final km

Just follow the carrot (Morcov in Romanian means carrot).

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Green lead over 100 points now, no need to bother with intermediates now, he just needs to finish.

 

[luckyboy]

Chapeau to Cavendish but christ if Morkov is going to be finishing second...

 

[Leinster]

Cocked up leadout - 2nd sprint stage in a row where they left Asgreen on the front way too long - risked getting swamped last time and it actually happened this time. Not sure why Ballerini feels he can't go before 600m - they end up with Morkov never actually having a role

They just didn’t panic and adjusted on the fly. DSM “swamped” them, but Bol ended up finishing behind Ballerini, so what was the point in chasing them?

If your final leadout man finishes 2nd to your primary sprinter, you haven’t done it wrong.

 

[Lequack]

Imagine not taking Cavendish to the Tour.

 

[titan31]

Odds people would complain this much about the sprinting field if it had been Bennett winning 3 stages instead of Cav 4?

If you had Bennett and Ewan fighting against each other, it'd have been ok. Take them out and it looks weak. I mean top 5 today had Morkov, Garcia Cortina and Van Poppel. That's not a good field.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Odds people would complain this much about the sprinting field if it had been Bennett winning 3 stages instead of Cav 4?

The difference of course is that Cav has 4 wins from 4 sprints. None of the superstars we keep hearing about who would eat him for breakfast ever get more than a 50% hit rate at a grand tour.

 

[Leinster]

The top 10 looks more like a belgian 1.1 than a TDF sprint stage. Sprinting level must be the worst since a very long time

Movistar got 4th! Is that their best stage finish so far?

 

[Sciatic]

Wow, Cav is wasted (seeing him in interview).

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Movistar got 4th! Is that their best stage finish so far?

Erviti finished second yesterday, so no.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

They just didn’t panic and adjusted on the fly. DSM “swamped” them, but Bol ended up finishing behind Ballerini, so what was the point in chasing them?

If your final leadout man finishes 2nd to your primary sprinter, you haven’t done it wrong.

They did a perfect leadout for Morkov but a pretty sub-par one for Cav. Alls well that ends well, but if you look at where they were with 900m to go, and the resources they had left, this should have been a total cake-walk with no one ever allowed to get past Cav's rear wheel.

 

[movingtarget]

I think Ewan would have been the only sprinter to challenge Cavendish at the moment. Having the best and most organized sprint train doesn't hurt either. Matthews and Sagan have lost some top end speed in flat sprints. Positioning isn't Colbrelli's strong point and Demare didn't seem to be in great form. Looks like the record will be broken.

 

[ice&fire]

Movistar got 4th! Is that their best stage finish so far?

Erviti was 2nd yesterday

 

[titan31]

Movistar got 4th! Is that their best stage finish so far?

They came 2nd yesterday