Tour de France Tour de France 2022: Stage 14 (Saint-Étienne – Mende, 192.5k)

[GroupDK]

Vingegaard just said on danish TV he didn't go to his limit. Must be nice to just be on a Sunday ride, easy.

Stated it was hard as.... and it would be for everybody when a champ like Pogacar goes deep.
and then he was asked about the team, and if it was worrying that Pogacar had so many teammates when he was alone, and Jonas didn't see it as a problem, as Pogacar teammates also dropped the moment Pogacar turned up the pace.

- If one was not pressured at the time Pogacar attacked, I think something was wrong. He drove really fast and of course it was hard. I don’t think I was on limit, but of course it was insanely hard.

 

[Netserk]

That was Then, This is Now

 

[Põhja Konn]

Vingegaard didn’t even remotely look like being dropped, UAE must be worried now.
Maybe best bet would be to do what TJV done to Pog: make it really hard, isolate him, and continually attack from early on, in the hope the accumulation is enough to crack him.

He indeed didn't look like dropping, but for me at least it looked like he had to put in a serious effort to stay on Pogs wheel a couple of times when the latter put in some serious accelerations out of the saddle. Vingos position on the bike changed, becoming visibly more hunched over the bike with some serious power going through the pedals. Maybe even the lack of a counter attack showed something, but Jonas is still such an unknown quantity that its impossible to say if it was a result of lacking the killer instinct or just not having legs to do it. He did actually counter Pog in a similation situation on PDBF, but I'm not sure how much relevance that comparison has.

 

[ashhutch1997]

When you have Chicken 2.0 in your team it doesn't matter.

Ah yes, but don't forget that the chicken had the legend that is Thomas Dekker in his team....

 

[Andy262]

Even if Pog is essentially stronger in the Pyrenees he doesn't have the support to properly tee him up to attack Jonas. Majka and Soler < Kuss, Wout, Rogla and Kruiswijk..

 

[RobertCrawley]

Last year, Pog was the boss of the peloton. This year, it feels like it's Wout.

He indeed didn't look like dropping, but for me at least it looked like he had to put in a serious effort to stay on Pogs wheel a couple of times when the latter put in some serious accelerations out of the saddle. Vingos position on the bike changed, becoming visibly more hunched over the bike with some serious power going through the pedals. Maybe even the lack of a counter attack showed something, but Jonas is still such an unknown quantity that its impossible to say if it was a result of lacking the killer instinct or just not having legs to do it. He did actually counter Pog in a similation situation on PDBF, but I'm not sure how much relevance that comparison has.

I agree. I wonder why he didn't take a dig at Pog just to see what would happen. Maybe he was listening to instructions from the team car.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

This time you can't criticise Matthews as wheelsucker

A completely uncharacteristic display and - hey presto - a big win. Just a shame he's wasted so many years of his career riding so negatively

 

[Lorzenz08]

The climb was way too short to drop Vinge.
I don't think it will happen, but if it does it will be when Vinge will be at his limit. Once Pog smells blood, and feels like Vinge is really pushed, that's when he will attack hard.
But as I said, I don't think Vinge will ever be really at his limit.

 

[GroupDK]

He indeed didn't look like dropping, but for me at least it looked like he had to put in a serious effort to stay on Pogs wheel a couple of times when the latter put in some serious accelerations out of the saddle. Vingos position on the bike changed, becoming visibly more hunched over the bike with some serious power going through the pedals. Maybe even the lack of a counter attack showed something, but Jonas is still such an unknown quantity that its impossible to say if it was a result of lacking the killer instinct or just not having legs to do it. He did actually counter Pog in a similation situation on PDBF, but I'm not sure how much relevance that comparison has.

A Jonas-counter is exactly what Pogacar is hoping for... POgacar also told that about Alpe dHuez that he hoped so much that Jonas would counter, as then he could counter Jonas' but Jonas played it smart.
I personally had expected Pogacar to gain some seconds today (fx 20s) with a flat 1½ km to the line, as Pogacar got a wicked acceleration, but Jonas was able to hold him and in a very convincing manner
+1 to Jonas, and -1 to the Jumbo Vista team today, where UAE looked quite a bit stronger...though when Pogacar opened up, the UAE tm8 played no role and only Jonas could hold him.

 

[Poursuivant]

Jumbo certainly

UAE can attack four ways to Sunday.. Jonas Wingfarm just needs to concentrate on the champ Pogacar.
UAE lacks other GC contenders that are a threat to Jonas, as we saw with Roglic..

The biggest worry for Jumbo today. where how alone Jonas were at the final climb, and where Pogacar had 2 or 3 riders with him, until he opened up.
But Jonas looks strong as.. the way he just glued himself to Pogacar going all out.

Yes but if Vingo is isolated and Pog keeps attacking, and Vingo keeps following, all of a sudden someone like a Quintana, or Bardet could go up the road and he could be in trouble. I have to say it doesn’t look like he’s going to be dropped, he looked so easy on that last climb.

 

[Oldermanish]

The climb was way too short to drop Vinge.
I don't think it will happen, but if it does it will be when Vinge will be at his limit. Once Pog smells blood, and feels like Vinge is really pushed, that's when he will attack hard.
But as I said, I don't think Vinge will ever be really at his limit.

I don't think Tadej was, either. He'd take a serious risk to go red-zone when isolated and no one near to close the gap in the last kms. Jonas could gain some seconds and serious confidence points in that situation. That said; Jonas didn't have a situation where he could have gained more than a few seconds so it served to drop other contenders, too.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Gaudu's beginning to remind of Froome at this Tour. What's the French for yo-yo?

Not sure about the French, but in Australian I'm guessing it's "oy-oy".

 

[gregrowlerson]

It was an attempt to confuse Vingegaard, but he had his eyes on Pog the whole time and didn't fall in to the trap.

Sounds like something for the (Dorothy) Dot thread.

 

[StryderHells]

Well that yellow painted road added nothing to the climb… Awful! Simply awful!

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Pretty quick today by Pogacar and Vingo.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1548358123517161475

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1548358123517161475?s=21&t=35ParEsP0TxWtD9Mm3oMzg
6 seconds off of Pantani’s record
8 seconds faster than Roglic in 2018 and Armstrong in 2005

 

[tobydawq]

Inspired by Pogacar once again leading Vingegaard to the line, I counted how often Vingegaard has actually beaten Pogacar on a Tour stage. They have faced each other 35 times, and remarkably, the score is 30-5 to Pogacar.

Last year, Vingegaard finished one position ahead of him on the Le Creusot and Andorra La Vella stages and beat him in the final TT. This year, Pogacar was impeded heavily by the crash on stage 2 in Nyborg and got his worst ever result by far (only second time he has been outside top 100 since turning pro (the first was stage 2 of the 2019 Tour Down Under (his second race day as a pro))), and then of course Granon.

So if you see a head-2-head between these two, always play Pogi (unless it's for the GC)!

 

[RobertCrawley]

Pretty quick today by Pogacar and Vingo.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1548358123517161475

View: https://twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1548358123517161475?s=21&t=35ParEsP0TxWtD9Mm3oMzg
6 seconds off of Pantani’s record
8 seconds faster than Roglic in 2018 and Armstrong in 2005

Are these really comparable if you don't take into account the number and difficult of the climbs prior to this climb?

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Sure they’re comparable but far from perfect

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Monster ride by Pogacar on the last climb, gaining 30-40 sec over the rest quickly and being only slower than Pantani. Unfortunately for him Vinge is super-strong as well and this status quo may continue until Paris.

 

[RobertCrawley]

Hug of the Day goes to Alberto Bettiol, UAE.

 

[Tonton]

I wanted PInot to win, I'll have to wait. That was too little too late, the two up were very strong, and Matthews was the best rider of the day: he deserved the win. I had missed three stages in a row due to work and Le Tour gave me great entertainment on my day off.

Vingo is going to win this bike race, it appears. And Pog will give it all AND the kitchen sink. Geraint is fast and paced, and after him there's a small group. This could become a great edition of Le Tour.

 

[RobertCrawley]

Sure they’re comparable but far from perfect

The 2015 edition began with the climb.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

The 2015 edition began with the climb.

It feels good to for once be the corrector rather than the corrected. That’s the wrong stage. I remember stage 14 2015 quite well for Contador trying to get Valverde to work with him to get back on terms and instead Valverde attacked him. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/2015/stage-14

 

[RobertCrawley]

It feels good to form once be the corrector rather than the corrected. That’s the wrong stage. I remember stage 14 2015 quite well for Contador trying to get Valverde to work with him to get back on terms and instead Valverde attacked him. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-france/2015/stage-14

Thanks. I'm good with being corrected. I was looking at the next day, when they left Mende, so I'm wrong about that.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Profile_stage_15_Tour_de_France_2015.png

 

[Danskebjerge]

Yet another eventful stage. Brilliant! After years of being less interesting than the Giro and the Vuelta from a sporting perspective, the Tour de France has overtaken the other two.

Or you could say: Why in the world did the organizers keep the principle of starting out with ten boring days of flat stages for so long?