Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 18: Pau – Luz Ardiden, 129.7 km

[bob.a.feet]

ITV saying that Vingegaard is the most surprising podium in a GT since 2011...

Have they forgotten Jai Hindley? It was only 9 months ago for goodness sake.
Or Damiano Caruso literally a month and a half ago?

 

[will-10]

ITV saying that Vingegaard is the most surprising podium in a GT since 2011...

Have they forgotten Jai Hindley? It was only 9 months ago for goodness sake.
Or Damiano Caruso literally a month and a half ago?

It was just an excuse to talk about Froome again.

 

[SafeBet]

Bahrain riding as if they have police chasing them.

 

[Escarabajo]

Bahrain just heard Contador's prediction for Theuns winning and started chasing Mohoric.

I have no clue what this team is doing now. I guess they want to go head to head against Pogacar!

 

[Red Rick]

Apparently Gilbert, Juul Jensen and Froome saw an amateur fan crash descending Col de Portet yesterday after the stage and they spent 20 minutes climbing down and dragging him back up to the road.

 

[inri2000]

ITV saying that Vingegaard is the most surprising podium in a GT since 2011...

Have they forgotten Jai Hindley? It was only 9 months ago for goodness sake.
Or Damiano Caruso literally a month and a half ago?

No sure if ITV covers the other GT's but I bet they meant Le Tour even though they said GT.

Hindley was an exiting surprise btw, a shame he wasn't able to win last year, not sure how much crashes held him back this year.

 

[Bolder]

I have no clue what this team is doing now. I guess they want to go head to head against Pogacar!

Riding for Poels I assume, mohoric can help over the Tourmalet

 

[BlueRoads]

loool, Jens

"The only reason I can think of for what we are seeing: Mohoric will leave the team and goes against the team order here."

 

[BlueRoads]

Ala gave everything to be in a break and only just found out that was a joke.

 

[ice&fire]

I have no clue what this team is doing now. I guess they want to go head to head against Pogacar!

Do they have any former Movistar employee in their staff?

 

[bob.a.feet]

It seems Bahrain's tactic is to attack on the Tourmalet. If so, why? Trying to break away when the peloton will probably be going hard doesn't seem smart. Unlikely they will get a big gap. It also makes it easier for Pogacar to pick up KOM points on the Tourmalet, as well as almost guaranteeing that the stage will go to a GC rider.

Movistar have a phrase for this: 'Tactically Perfect'.

 

[spalco]

loool, Jens

"The only reason I can think of for what we are seeing: Mohoric will leave the team and goes against the team order here."

I think Mohoric was bitten by a mosquito on an annoying spot last night, and he's riding hard so he doesn't feel the itching as much.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

ITV saying that Vingegaard is the most surprising podium in a GT since 2011...

Have they forgotten Jai Hindley? It was only 9 months ago for goodness sake.
Or Damiano Caruso literally a month and a half ago?

It's pretty damn surprising to me, this is a guy who looked like the team's 4th strongest climber going into the race. In terms of indicators there was his performance in the Basque country this year and that's about it.

 

[saganftw]

i think bahrain wants to ride really hard pace on that 4h cat climb to drop cavendish and colbrelli to take points at intermediate sprint, then immediately attack with poels and go for KOM on tourmalet

 

[IndianCyclist]

Bahrain - Everyman for himself- head for the hills... or mountains in this stage

 

[BlueRoads]

Risible situation.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

loool, Jens

"The only reason I can think of for what we are seeing: Mohoric will leave the team and goes against the team order here."

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we need Jens and Wiggo in a team car. Can you imagine how confusing the instructions over the radio would be?

 

[sir fly]

Easy on Bahrain, guys.
Not easy to be sound after a bad sleep.

 

[BlueRoads]

Tim D laughing.

 

[broppo]

i understand bahrain, the only chance they realistically have to get the kom, is for poels to finish first on the tourmalet and then hope pogacar doesnt win the race. So right now they just want to try and make sure poels has a chance to reach tourmalet first.

 

[spalco]

It's pretty damn surprising to me, this is a guy who looked like the team's 4th strongest climber going into the race. In terms of indicators there was his performance in the Basque country this year and that's about it.

Of course, I certainly didn't spend a thought on him before the Tour.

However, looking back his race results are really, really solid for a 24-year-old. Maybe he should have been considered before the race. Of course we probably wouldn't have seen how strong he is if the race had gone better for Roglic.

 

[Eclipse]

It's pretty damn surprising to me, this is a guy who looked like the team's 4th strongest climber going into the race. In terms of indicators there was his performance in the Basque country this year and that's about it.

I think it depends on how you determine the surprising nature really.

That Giro was incredibly unexpected and for pure surprise factor it's unequalled, but it ended up being a function of basically all the favourites imploding, and in a way became everyone's game.

If you told me before this tour that only Roglic of the big favourites was going to have a major issue I'd not believe for a second that JV was going to be on the podium, and this was certainly not the option I'd have jumped to if you told me they managed it

 

[SafeBet]

This might actually turn out to be interesting.

 

[glassmoon]

Was that Token?

 

[dgodave]

That is one heck of a castle.