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Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 9: Cluses – Tignes, 144.9 km

Page 26 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Movistar wasn’t there. Mas only had Valverde with him by the 3rd climb. Verona is injured and MAL is way off the pace with his crashed.

Ineos rode the last climb but obviously Carapaz didn’t have it to match Pogacar.

Astana only had 1 rider. Uran was isolated. Gaudu was on the limit and cracked with Lutsenko.
If all of those teams except for UAE are not strong enough to limit O'Connor's time gap then they are in trouble. He now has three minutes over third place. Team leaders are allowed to chase if they see a rival opening up a large gap. Either they are not strong enough or they don't see him as a podium threat. O'Connor now has a rest day...............
 
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sure, i guess. but hard to imagine healthy Rog and G being that much better than Carapaz... one minute maybe? so they would still be 4-5 minutes back...

#fignon84
I disagree. Carapaz has not impressed this Tour. He hasn’t put any time into Mas, Uran, Lutzenco (I’m sure I butchered that…sorry) on the mountain stages and got crushed in the ITT. Roglic has never concerned himself with Mas and co. They’re not on his level.
 
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I think they let O'Connor take too much time. IMHO he is very likely to make the podium with the way he's been climbing this season.

Vingegaard and Carapaz are my two main favourites for the third podium place.

The fact Carapaz is fighting against one of Roglic's domestiques for a podium says everything about his performance (or lack thereof) so far.

To be honest I believe it's a combination of issues, one of them being the fact he miscalculated his attack on Friday & blew cartridges for no reward (after quickly building a gap). Then Pogacar using him as a human punching bag on wheels yesterday wasn't good for him either.

Completely ignoring Pogacar, I'm thinking if he had the wheel of Roglic to follow, he at least could have distanced those around him right now (because he really should, i.e. Mas, Uran & co aren't his normal level).
 

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