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

[luckyboy]

I agree with luckyboy. However nothing will change the outcome of Pogacar winning. What I don't want to see are the Indurain's tours. Those were probably the worst. Killing everyone in the Time Trials and then defending in the mountains.

Yeah when the best climber is also the best time trialist you can't do anything.

But in modern cycling we've seen it's much easier for top time trialists to limit losses in mountains vs top climbers learning to be world class in TT.

So the reality is that there are a handful of top clas time trialists but a lot of top climbers. And I think GTs should be designed to have as much competition as possible instead of just sticking to a formula that means only 2-3 people can because of tradition. Even the Vuelta this year has too many TT kms for me lol.

 

[fbjim]

People are overly reactionary to the Sky years where it was understandably frustrating that the Sky boys were miles ahead of guys like Quintana and the "other contenders".

 

[Froome]

I honestly don't think Padun will do much, if he still could they would have brought him to the Tour and the nationals and Olympics and not the Settimana Ciclistica.

It's a bit strange because on dauphine he climbed at high level.

 

[Salvarani]

I honestly don't think Padun will do much, if he still could they would have brought him to the Tour and the nationals and Olympics and not the Settimana Ciclistica.

Could not bring him to the Tour. They had not put him on their long list of potential riders to be selected for the Tour that they send months in advance.

Im sure they would have selected him if they could after this performance in Dauphine.

 

[hfer07]

Well....

Pogacar isn't holding back anymore, is he? back to back MTF stage wins ........ Can't make it up


might as well win the ITT to make an statement ...

 

[movingtarget]

Is there anyone else of note?

Padun, Landa maybe.

Hindley and Haig ?

 

[memyselfandI]

Well....

Pogacar isn't holding back anymore, is he? back to back MTF stage wins ........ Can't make it up


might as well win the ITT to make an statement ...

And he will.

 

[Froome]

Hindley and Haig ?

Yeah, hindley is going to la Vuelta. He is at the moment in a training camp in austria.

 

[topcat]

P

I wonder if Pogacar will climb the mythical 14% climb on the big ring.

Well....

Pogacar isn't holding back anymore, is he? back to back MTF stage wins ........ Can't make it up


might as well win the ITT to make an statement ...

Yes, he's holding back a lot

 

[gunara]

I liked to imagine Pogacar's attacks were not all about showing superiority or winning stage again, it's like he's telling Vingegard "Okay, if you can't get rid of him, I'll do it before he does his thing again" regarding the Ineos passanger. He didn't seem to like them equally after yesterday.

 

[Poursuivant]

Castroviejo hasn't stopped getting better, some would never thought he would be more than decent tt-ist and flat/lower slope dom years ago, now he's up there among the best 15 or 20 GT riders while slaving hard and ahead of everyone else in Ineos train hierarchy.

He is amazing

 

[will-10]

Castroviejo hasn't stopped getting better, some would never thought he would be more than decent tt-ist and flat/lower slope dom years ago, now he's up there among the best 15 or 20 GT riders while slaving hard and ahead of everyone else in Ineos train hierarchy.

Last man for his leader in the third week in both Giro and Tour. Super impressive.

 

[will-10]

There are more than 3 riders in the race. Maybe we would have had a proper breakaway with Soulor in the beginning, and different plausible scenarios for how Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden would have been raced. Even the crappy 2011 stage had far more racing than this.

100% agree. The start of the last two days has been really disappointing compared to the uphill starts last week

 

[broppo]

Could not bring him to the Tour. They had not put him on their long list of potential riders to be selected for the Tour that they send months in advance.

Im sure they would have selected him if they could after this performance in Dauphine.

lol naive much?

 

[fbjim]

Yeah, I wonder if they wanted to force a top name winning, given that people don't like it when rando break guys take half the stages at the Giro.

Still a really fun tour, mainly for the end of the first week. Two incredibly fun, memorable stages in Le Creuseot and LGB - and a handful of other fun ones is better than a lot of 2010s TDFs.


2019 still would have been an all-timer if not for....

 

[gunara]

Last man for his leader in the third week in both Giro and Tour. Super impressive.

To the point that he could follow Pog's attack for awhile. I wouldn't think he would ever be more prominent rider in a pointy end of a grand tour than, say, Ion Izagirre or Amador, from among riders who shares history with him. Hell, in this form he might even drop Landa

 

[Escarabajo]

Last man for his leader in the third week in both Giro and Tour. Super impressive.

Don't forget about Dani Martinez at the Giro.
But yes, he has been so strong and reliable.

 

[75Driver]

Armstrong

I know it annoys many when he's mentioned but after watching 7 years, 20,000+ km and almost 150 stages it's hard to erase those rides from your mind even if he was a world class jack azz and clinician.

 

[Anybody_but..]

What a weird tour for Ala.

The organisers teed him up for success which he got, but he immediately became inconsequential and has only been randomly active in hopeless endeavours ever since

Yes, ASO should finally forget about Ala / Pinot winning TdF.
Next time the route should be designated for pure climbers.

 

[Anybody_but..]

Majka to TGH :"abandon kurwa"

a moze nie pierdol?

 

[Anybody_but..]

Can someone explain me ineos tatics? Ridiculous.

Nothing to explain.
They are ridiculous weak.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Doesn't have the Green!

Not yet! Just has to win the next 3 stages and it is his as well.

 

[Anybody_but..]

Amazing win!
And amazing evening with reading the clinic full of BS's about POG.

 

[inri2000]

Maybe he will overheat in the TT with all those jerseys and loose 6 minutes.

 

[Lequack]

Pogacar: "Why not eh?"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1415737586732122112

View: https://twitter.com/PolkaDotRob/status/1415737586732122112


Some more pics: