Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 7: Vierzon – Le Creusot, 249.1 km

[perico]

And there he goes.

 

[Climbing]

Ok, it's happening!

 

[TourOfSardinia]

instinct of the shark

 

[titan31]

Any reasonable explanation why Teunissen is not pulling?

Theres a few with dangerous teammates there who should be burying themselves until this next climb.

Teunnissen, Skujins, Stuyven, Cav and Meurrisse should be smashing it for WVA, Nibali, VDP and Asgreen here.

 

[Rollthedice]

Ok, it's happening!

Just injecting some life in the Van Ders

 

[Kaptain Kool]

It’s Nibali. 2 of the next 3 mtn stages are descent finishes. You don’t give a rider that good a large advantage. Nibali is no Andreu Kivilev. He’s probably the smartest tactical GC (if fading) rider in the peloton. If he has a chance to take yellow, you would have to pry it from his cold dead hands.

At the same time, it seems the main group is falling back to the peloton with the 2 ahead.

Descent finishes are of little help if he starts it 5 minutes behind the real GC contenders. No one in this break is threat for the overall and they aren't going to have the current gap at the end of the stage.

 

[roundabout]

Seems like a half-hearted attempt to thin out the group, but out come the pom-poms.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

UAE doms wishing they were riding for Masnada instead of Pog.

 

[Gigs_98]

So annoying that some teams immediately have riders to chase down Nibali's attack but nobody to chase down the two guys a minute in front...feel like this will go to Mohoric.

 

[roundabout]

Theres a few with dangerous teammates there who should be burying themselves until this next climb.

Teunnissen, Skujins, Stuyven, Cav and Meurrisse should be smashing it for WVA, Nibali, VDP and Asgreen here.

Good Stuyven can contest for this stage as good as Nibali and Meurisse is Alpecin's GC guy.

 

[Escarabajo]

Whatever the outcome of this stage in GC standings, the main objective is going to be accomplished. In 2 years I had never seen UAE working hard at the front.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

VDP's doing a ton of work. Meanwhile Cort hasn't moved from the back of the group and Yates has only done a few half hearted rolls through.

 

[perico]

Descent finishes are of little help if he starts it 5 minutes behind the real GC contenders. No one in this break is threat for the overall and they aren't going to have the current gap at the end of the stage.

You are risking it. Who is to say that Nibali, with his crash and missed training before the Giro, has not ridden himself into form good enough to hang on to the Skineos train in the mountains. Pogacar may be able to dispose of him, but Ineos isn’t going to attack with Carapaz as long as Geraint isn’t out of contention. Who knows how strong Roglic will be after the crashes. I wouldn’t be shocked if Nibali was able to hang onto the leaders group through the Alps and Ventoux, where there is only 1 summit finish.

 

[Netserk]

The spot of Nibali's attack is where Mont Beuvray starts.

 

[perico]

Direct Energie now working

 

[roundabout]

Oil money meets oil money

 

[carton]

I think it should have been a risk worth taking for UAE as well.

So if you have a 70% shot of winning the Tour, you don't want to give someone a 10% shot (say, giving Nibali 10 minutes) and lowing your odds to 60%. If you have 5% at winning the Tour, giving someone that 10% is pretty irrelevant. The trickier math is that by chasing so hard UAE might lower that 70% chance to 65%. But it's still better than handing someone a 10% chance, so you do it. But on the flip side since UAE is tiring themselves out, other teams have even less of an incentive to work.

So yeah, if you're the clearcut favorite your incentives are different. That's the intuition behind the maillot jaune's tam drives the peloton tradition.

 

[limak_]

do I really entirely rule out the chance of him suddenly being really good at limiting his losses in the high mountain?

Even if he could limit his losses in mountains (which imo is impossible to happen), do you really think he's gonna race until Paris? Cause I really doubt it, considering how Tokyo is important for him and how much freedom he has inside his team.

 

[jarvo]

Total Energie ruining this yet again! all for Pierre LaTour to finish the tour 12th

 

[HelloDolly]

They were on the front for 30 seconds right before a tricky downhill section, could we please stop exaggerating the stupidity of that, thanks.

I am not watching just following the comments which seemed to suggest they were chasing

 

[Netserk]

Direct Energie now working

At this point it can only be punishment or GC related. It made more sense in the beginning of the stage.

 

[Poursuivant]

Absolutely ridiculous from TDE

 

[titan31]

Good Stuyven can contest for this stage as good as Nibali and Meurisse is Alpecin's GC guy.

Ya, Stuyven I can make an exception for but Meurrisse is 9 mins down already so he's useless for GC here tbh.

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

Why chase

 

[Netserk]

Oil money meets oil money

Where's Uno-X when you need them.