Okay, I've lurked here for years, but you finally made me make an account just to call you out. Really? Get back under your rock.
Agreed. Pretty gross, demeaning comment
That was the other epic stage of the century, saw that one unfolding live too.
Difference was that Froome, despite coming from behind, was the top dog in that field. Today we saw the dethroning of the champ who was supposed to be invincible, like Indurain in 96. Always a spectacular sight.
That being said, Finestre was even more spectacular to watch, but this comes damn close.
Agreed. I think the extra satisfaction and thrill of this one was the complexity of it. The suspense with Froome was whether or not he could maintain the watts (he could). But this was JV shaking off the ghosts of the past committing to the yellow jersey with attack after attack, giving the people what they want, giving the race what it deserves, giving the requisite effort to take the yellow jersey and being rewarded for it. To me, this is up there with Fuente De and, I admit, the Froome stage was pretty spectacular.
So when Van Aert brings back Vingegaard in the Cobbles stage he is not a good team member because he left Roglic and when Van Aert brings back Roglic he is not a good team member for leaving Vingegaard. It looks like he can only be a good teammate if he clones himself.
I know you're being facetious and we've all been hard on Wout, and I also admit that TJV
might be able to somehow drink all of the wine, GC, stages, and green, but obviously different decisions make sense in different situations. In stage 5, Wout should have pulled Roglic back onto the wheel so he wouldn't lose time. Today, he probably should have stayed with Vingegaard, although you make the case that Pogacar was clearly so worried about Roglic that bringing him back and sending him to the front dealt a psychological blow to Pogi that cause him to then spurr Majka on to drop Roglic, which in turn further cooked himself. So debatable.
Jumbo effectively killed Pogacar today. He had to respond to so many attacks he cooked himself and probably forgot to eat as well.
Stupid bluff by counter attacking himself as well.
Just brilliant stuff by Jumbo. I wasn't on this thread in real time, as I couldn't watch it until later, so when I read through here afterward, I was surprised that all the comments in the 30s and early 40s of this thread were so negative about Rabofail this and Rabofail that. They played it very, very well overall. I just personally wish it was for Roglic, as a fan.
yes, and yes again, rog was ultimately going nowhere. he sacrificed himself and pog's huuuuuuge mistake was to over-estimate rog. he should have asked me...
Man it just kills me that folks are using today's heroic and selfless performance while injured as evidence that a guy who won the Vuelta in dominant fashion just last year, the gold at the Olympic again just last year, and Paris-Nice and the Dauphine
while injured (how many people have won Olympic Gold, the Vuelta, Paris-Nice, and the Vuelta in their entire career, much less within 9 months?) is somehow no longer a top GC rider. Did you make it through that sentence?
From 2012-2018, we got used to the Tour being a mediocre race and lets face it, mainly due to Sky and the way they (smarly) rode the races. They rode to their captains strengths, but it was extremely boring. We can all agree on that.
Now the scales have tipped towards the Tour again after years where the Giro always outperformed TdF, and honestly, thats how it should be. I watched most Giro-stages this year and was bored out of my mind, but have more or less followed the Tour since stage 4 from the gun on each stage and can't say Im disappointed. Rather the opposite, it has been a great watch so far.
Somewhat agree, although I think it's been back and forth between the Giro and the Vuelta as the GC of the year for a while now. This, though, is the best 11 stages of a GT I've ever seen hands down, despite my guy Roglic going out.
I guess this puts to bed discussions about whether JV could have dropped Rog in the Dauphine.
I mean...if Roglic were healthy and you hadn't seen this stage, how much time would you think he'd put on Quintana, Bardet, Gaudu, and Geraint Thomas? I am not certain he could have hung with Vingegaard, but this doesn't prove anything IMO.
This was another reason today's stage was so great. Probably only Roglic (and maybe his team) knew how limited he might be, but they disguised it well. Roglic had just one bullet to fire to bait Pogi into following hard attacks, and today was the day. Any other stage from here on, and Pogi will just let Roglic go up the road. But today was a different story. Well played by TJV.
Roglic is a consummate professional and good guy, which came through today, and it was also great to see Pogacar learned from Roglic's humility in 2020 and showed extreme class after the finish.
Other thoughts:
- Vingegaard is very, very lean, like peak Froome lean, to a degree that Roglic, Pogacar and previously Nibali, Contador, etc. never are/were. Most can't function that way, but that appears to be the difference for him
- It was tough to watch Quinanta forlornly sign for water and receiving none from the team car, and then to see it play out again with Barguil was too much
- I somehow came away from this liking Roglic, Pogacar, and Vingegaard more, which seemed an impossible outcome
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