Tour de France Tour de France 2022: Stage 12 (Briançon – Alpe d’Huez, 165.1k)

[Samu Cuenca]

The battle for 10th is heating up. Only 7 seconds between Vlasov and Lutsenko.

 

[red_flanders]

Kinda boring stage honestly. Would have preferred Jumbo trying to win, but plan for Vinge all along was obviously just to shadow Pogacar and well, all he needs to do is simply just shadow him and then he won the Tour. But as we learned in 2020, that might be a risky strategy to rely upon if you have just one off-day. Oh well.

I would assume they realize this. I think they did a good job isolating him again, and then tried to see how strong he was. If they could have taken time, I think they would have but he was strong today.

 

[RobertCrawley]

Pidcock finally showing some climbing legs. Good show. Especially after a hard chase. I wonder if he's going to try and stay close in GC, or go for another stage.

He's over 7 minutes down so probably not a GC hopeful. But he's got a lot more respect in the peloton now. I expect we'll see him win or get very close to winning another stage in the Pyrenees.

 

[Extinction]

Pog's dilemma now is that he was strong enough to handle Jumbo, but not strong enough to drop Vingegaard and this could be his biggest obstacle to winning his third Tour.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

The battle for 10th is heating up. Only 7 seconds between Vlasov and Lutsenko.

It's kind of a sad battle considering that nobody behind them is actively trying for GC anymore. Well, Meintjes might if he gets in one or two more breaks, but still, it would be more fun if that kind of rider battled for the polkadots with, er, all those other climbers who are all totally targeting those mountain points this race.

 

[Sciatic]

You have to wonder if people are bored by the Tour de France if they ever watched the Tour de France before.

This is what you get when you watch the Tour de France.

Pro tip: Do other things while watching the race.

Laundry done. Check

 

[Cookster15]

True, but Vingegaard is stronger then ever before. If he doesn't have a bad day, then it will be difficult for Pogacar to drop this Vingegaard in the Pyrenees. Plus Vingegaard has the strongest team. As I see it, based on the Tour thus far, Vingegaard wins if he doesn't have a crisis or, put differently, he will have to have a crisis (or crash or mechanical in a bad moment) for Pog to beat him now.

I generally agree. But Pogi isn’t out of this yet. We forget he is younger than Vingo so in theory if his prep is similar he too should be a stronger rider this year than we have seen. I think what happened yesterday was poor decision making on the Galibier which really cost him. I doubt he would make that mistake again.

 

[75Driver]

Jonas‘ achilles tendon could endanger everything.

Is he still suffering from an injury? Sure hasn’t looked like it so far.

 

[RedheadDane]

not a chance

I'm not using my spleen for predicting results ever again!
My head or heart(s) weren't very useful either.

 

[GroupDK]

Jonas.. I suffered today... so hot.. 35 degrees at the bottom..
Its was extreme moves Pogacar came with.

He doesn't need to be inside half a minute to stand a chance, the TT is 40km long and if Vingegård has a bad day he can definitely lose more than one minute to Pogačar there. Still Pogačar needs to take at least minute before the TT to have a realistic chance to win.

Vingegaard ain't bad at TT.. beated Roglich at the opening time trial here in 2022 TDF and not far after Pogacar (short one) and also distanced Pogacar in the 2021 Tour de France time trial . at 31km (stage20).. and Jonas took a little under ½ minute to Pogacar and managed a rank3 in that ITT 31km stage20, where Pogacar managed rank8.. who likely also played it safe and calculated to Jonas..
Jonas landing a P3 on the final 31Km in TDF2021 stage20 from a P2 placing.. speaks volumes about his time trial ability...
I don't see much difference between them in TT.

Tour de France 2021 Stage 20 (ITT) results

Wout van Aert is the winner of Tour de France 2021 Stage 20 (ITT), before Kasper Asgreen and Jonas Vingegaard. Tadej Pogačar was leader in GC.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[RobertCrawley]

Pidders hit 105 kmh on the descent!

 

[madthebad]

I would assume they realize this. I think they did a good job isolating him again, and then tried to see how strong he was. If they could have taken time, I think they would have but he was strong today.

if Mas finished alongside Ving and Pogi , it wasnt much of test then .

 

[Lorzenz08]

Even if he did...the few seconds are not worth it when we're only half way through the Tour.

True that, but realistically there's only 3 stages left for both Vingegaard and Pogacar to do something.
2 mountain race and the TT.

 

[Bolder]

I agree. Pidders has real GC potential. He's also an excellent bike handler, having won the mountain bike gold in the Olympics. It's crucial skill that's missing from Roglic's game and has cost him dearly.

Agree 100%. Those Cx/MTB guys like Wout/MVDP are a joy to watch. Today Pidcock was 82 kph downhill on a curve and just casually sat up, took his hand off the bars and took a drink. He was counterbalanced with his left knee.

 

[Phillip O'Garner]

Froome now 29th on GC.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Is he still suffering from an injury? Sure hasn’t looked like it so far.

Officially, it‘s considered as healed, luckily. Probably, it won‘t be an issue within the remaining time until Paris (at least I hope so). It‘s something that I have in the back of my mind, however, when I watch him.

Fingers crossed all stays good…

 

[madthebad]

I'm not using my spleen for predicting results ever again!
My head or heart(s) weren't very useful either.

not on this version of Froome anyway .

 

[RobertCrawley]

Froome now 29th on GC.

The Dawg and Dawg's Powermeter are going places!

 

[madthebad]

Froome now 29th on GC.

next year he will win his 5th

 

[Unchained]

What a great race, seeing a new name cross, first TDF, impressive..Wout doing some serious work, forgetting for many kilometres that he is not a climber.. Froome good day.. Kuss calming down and getting back after getting gapped a couple of times..great ride..and the GC close enough that a crack or crash can change everything..Pog..w lots of heart

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Btw, guys: today‘s sprints in the finale (White vs Yellow) reminded me very much of Contador vs Rasmussen at Peyresourde 2007… These explosive sprints - fun to watch. Battles of the best of the best, in top shape.

 

[Phillip O'Garner]

next year he will win his 5th

It's on. Nibali had the bag. Froome has the holdall.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I would assume they realize this. I think they did a good job isolating him again, and then tried to see how strong he was. If they could have taken time, I think they would have but he was strong today.

I mean, hopefully they do, but I have seen Jumbo ride like this before and I saw the result. Not entirely impressed, but maybe Vingo felt it was impossible today.

 

[RedheadDane]

Btw, guys: today‘s sprints in the finale (White vs Yellow) reminded me very much of Contador vs Rasmussen at Peyresourde 2007… These explosive sprints - fun to watch. Battles of the best of the best, in top shape.

Vinjebo was making the same comparisson during the stage.

 

[RobertCrawley]

next year he will win his 5th

I would not be at all surprised if Dawg hung it up after this year.