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

[fbjim]

Just a hypothetical - Movistar plays chicken, UAE decide to send Majka to the front to pace them home. Pogacar and Mas both lose half a minute to Carapaz.

Is this some kind of tactical coup? What are they getting in exchange for that GC time? Some extra Majka turns in a stage which brutalized the UAE domestiques already?

 

[Koronin]

As Mas typically gets better the longer a Grand Tour goes on (due to good ability to recover well) they want to keep anyone with GC plans as close as possible to him for as long as they can. Also he's a climber and today's stage was to keep him in contention. It was beneficial for them to chase. I'm also sure they believe Mas can beat Carapaz on the final GC if they keep him very close right now.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

He always looks like that after a big effort, while even if he's turned himself inside out, Pogacar is fresh as a daisy 2 minutes after the finish...

What do you expect? Pogacar rides below 50% of his AnT most of the time. Sometimes he ups to 70% (starts mouth breathing) which results in superb performances. Nobody has ever seen his 100% exept bears in Slovenian mountains.

 

[JosefK]

He always looks like that after a big effort, while even if he's turned himself inside out, Pogacar is fresh as a daisy 2 minutes after the finish...

Pogi seen running wind-sprints afterwards. ... kidding! just kidding! (I say this because it's halfway believable)

 

[gregrowlerson]

If they now being tired from this produce interesting racing in two short mountain stages, ASO will just see it as a confirmation that short stages are the way to go.

Unfortunately you are probably right.

 

[Unchained]

This is the best tour in a long time..great stories everywhere..great performances by dozens of racers..I will be curious to see if Roglic can put the wheels back on. He did stay on top of the gear when I thought a regular person would just sit up and crack..
Not sure what that 7ft tall guy from Quickstep is about but he looks like a train engine pulling a 170+ cars w ease..
watching the yellow jersey and Woot take hard pulls each was impressive as they were both smashing an enormous gear..
And seeing elite riders and winners share a handshake,hug or kind words of congratulations..is sport at it's best..saw a rider a double bags in the feed zone get a butt push from a rider from another team while he got himself sorted..
Had that bonehead not crashed Tony Martin I'd be totally happy..

 

[Izzyeviel]

Also Quintana lost about 13 minutes today or something. Before that he was 2:45 down, behind Gaudu and ahead of Nibali.

/whoosh

 

[The Hegelian]

On Movistar: has anyone watched that Netflix series about them?

It explains everything. Watching it I was like "oh, they also don't really know what they're doing/why they're doing it." I would never have assumed this, but alas......

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats MM!

 

[Pirazziattacks]

Pogi seen running wind-sprints afterwards. ... kidding! just kidding! (I say this because it's halfway believable)

He should've gone for a quick recovery jog to see if he could beat Pidcock's 5k time.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

*** Movistar!

Three stars for Movistar?

 

[Summoned]

I have not read much of anything in this thread, but I just want to say I thought that was an outstanding stage. The race that looked like it was reducing to a very limited number of possible outcomes looks a good bit more interesting to me after today.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

On Movistar: has anyone watched that Netflix series about them?

It explains everything. Watching it I was like "oh, they also don't really know what they're doing/why they're doing it." I would never have assumed this, but alas......

Yeah, like the day a team car drove an hour ahead of the stage and it was windy so they insisted they'd start an echelon even though the riders told the team car there was no longer any wind . It was hilarious but somehow I love them for their maverick behaviour. Also, hope Mas podiums.

 

[The Hegelian]

Yeah, like the day a team car drove an hour ahead of the stage and it was windy so they insisted they'd start an echelon even though the riders told the team car there was no longer any wind . It was hilarious but somehow I love them for their maverick behaviour. Also, hope Mas podiums.

Very human, much better than robots/skybots etc.

 

[Blanco]

lol, it wasn't their job to do. They're just giving Pogacar a free ride, and i hope it comes back to bite them in the ass.

And you're here to decide who's job is what?!
They won't let Carapaz gain time, and that's it.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yeah, like the day a team car drove an hour ahead of the stage and it was windy so they insisted they'd start an echelon even though the riders told the team car there was no longer any wind . It was hilarious but somehow I love them for their maverick behaviour. Also, hope Mas podiums.

If Riis had been with the team, he'd just have told the riders to create their own wind!

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

If Movistar think that Kwiatkowski was culpable for Mas's fall (I haven't seen evidence either way) could that explain their determination to punish Carapaz?

 

[gregrowlerson]

I have not read much of anything in this thread, but I just want to say I thought that was an outstanding stage. The race that looked like it was reducing to a very limited number of possible outcomes looks a good bit more interesting to me after today.

You mainly missed multiple posts where people were stating their unconditional love for team movistar.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Very human, much better than robots/skybots etc.

Yes. I’m in the minority on this thread but I just hope Movistar keep doing Movistar things.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

And you're here to decide who's job is what?!
They won't let Carapaz gain time, and that's it.

I'm here to give my opinion. I'm willing to bet you're doing the same, yes?

 

[Blanco]

I'm here to give my opinion. I'm willing to bet you're doing the same, yes?

Of course..

 

[gunara]

If Movistar think that Kwiatkowski was culpable for Mas's fall (I haven't seen evidence either way) could that explain their determination to punish Carapaz?

So actually they have many reasons to chase Carapaz, it's just none of them people here like

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

So actually they have many reasons to chase Carapaz, it's just none of them people here like

I'm cool with Movistar chaos. Otherwise we might as well just have UAE, Jumbo and Ineos in the race.