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Tour de France Tour de France 2022: Stage 18 (Lourdes – Hautacam, 143.2k)

Page 49 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Congratulations to Jonas Vingegaard for winning the stage.

It was a nice and dynamic stage to watch. Pogačar trying but Vingegaard not giving in. After the crash i feel that Pogačar gave up and decided this is it. As Jonas waited and that was i guess it. It's a good thing Vingegaard took time on the last climb. From yellow jersey point of view.

Lets see if JV can bring this one home.
 
I missed every stage that mattered due to work, including this one, and as it relates to today's stage, I watched highlights (well, I still had CN live updates during the meetings ;)) so I may not bring depth here. Feelings.

Bravo Jonas! In my eyes, he earned his Tour today. Hats off to Pog for going down in style, he gained many fans by not being invincible and show the heart of a champion...something that I always found was missing with, say, Quintana. Pog went down with his guns blazing, man-to-man, trying to shake the tree so many times.

There was what looked like a Nibali/Rasmussen scene, Geraint attacked once, the aforementioned Quintana was Meintjes and Meintjes was Quintana, After today, maybe Wout will think about broadening his horizon. After all, he's looking more like Merckx than Remco these days...great stage.

My hometown hero Thibaut Pinot couldn't pull it, he's not at 100%, but at least he's trying. Today, knowing that he would not win he dropped back and paced Gaudu. For David, a 4th place finish in Paris is the stepping stone that he needs.

Gutted for Geschke. He wanted the jersey more than anyone. Cycling is cruel, he won a stage in '15 with some luck, today it fell apart. I was cheering for him.

Great stage. Drama. GC action. I give it an 8 :p.
 
Oh my.
Haven't read the thread (bumped in at page 3 at this moment).
Just watched the full stage and my heart and mind is crowded of all kinds of emotions.
What worthy representatives of this fantastic sport we have been gifted with these years.

A stage to remember as long as we live.

This was my first full stage watch of this edition of Le Tour. And I do hope that the other stages (of which I will enjoy first full stages watch during the upcoming weeks) have not been just as action packed as today (edit: yesterday by now). In that case my heart will break.

Cycling lives.

Vive Le Tour!
 
The shame is I think we don't see Pog doing anything other than pure tour prep next year. No classics. He needs to come correct.

I think this would be a crying shame, as Pog clearly has the potential to win Flanders. Tbh I'm not that convinced his prep was wrong, the biggest difference was the strength of the teams. UAE were not as strong to begin with and lost key riders in-tour. JV pretty much full strength throughout.

You could equally say Pog 'wasted' energy on the cobbled stage or the Longwy stage, but the guy loves to race. And racers love the classics. There's much more to cycling than the Tour imho.
 
JV pretty much full strength throughout.
With Kruijswik and Roglic out? Nonetheless, you are probably correct that J-V has been more impactful in key moments.

This has been a magnificent Tour in terms of team tactics, btw. Not much one-team "mountain train choo-choo" action, but much more varied and creative display. In the past ~5 years we have quite often seen team send satellite riders up the road, Kelme style. But it has been quite rare to see them have any impact. This Tour they have been crucial on many stages.

I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the madness and creativity of this Tour. Weaker teams provoke more creative action? And by weaker, I mean weaker mostly in numbers. You have to play your few aces in a wise way.
 
My hometown hero Thibaut Pinot couldn't pull it, he's not at 100%, but at least he's trying. Today, knowing that he would not win he dropped back and paced Gaudu. For David, a 4th place finish in Paris is the stepping stone that he needs.

I know it probably wasn't the intention - that Pinot was indeed going for the stage win - but I quite like how it looked a little like FDJ was doing a mini version of the "send riders ahead" tactic.
Gaudu attacked Quintana, a bit later he caught up with Madouas, then Madouas got dropped, and a bit later Gaudu caught up with Pinot.
 
I missed every stage that mattered due to work, including this one, and as it relates to today's stage, I watched highlights (well, I still had CN live updates during the meetings ;)) so I may not bring depth here. Feelings.

Bravo Jonas! In my eyes, he earned his Tour today. Hats off to Pog for going down in style, he gained many fans by not being invincible and show the heart of a champion...something that I always found was missing with, say, Quintana. Pog went down with his guns blazing, man-to-man, trying to shake the tree so many times.

There was what looked like a Nibali/Rasmussen scene, Geraint attacked once, the aforementioned Quintana was Meintjes and Meintjes was Quintana, After today, maybe Wout will think about broadening his horizon. After all, he's looking more like Merckx than Remco these days...great stage.

My hometown hero Thibaut Pinot couldn't pull it, he's not at 100%, but at least he's trying. Today, knowing that he would not win he dropped back and paced Gaudu. For David, a 4th place finish in Paris is the stepping stone that he needs.

Gutted for Geschke. He wanted the jersey more than anyone. Cycling is cruel, he won a stage in '15 with some luck, today it fell apart. I was cheering for him.

Great stage. Drama. GC action. I give it an 8 :p.

An 8? Out of 10?

What was missing?
 
Oh my.
Haven't read the thread (bumped in at page 3 at this moment).
Just watched the full stage and my heart and mind is crowded of all kinds of emotions.
What worthy representatives of this fantastic sport we have been gifted with these years.

A stage to remember as long as we live.

This was my first full stage watch of this edition of Le Tour. And I do hope that the other stages (of which I will enjoy first full stages watch during the upcoming weeks) have not been just as action packed as today (edit: yesterday by now). In that case my heart will break.

Cycling lives.

Vive Le Tour!

Be prepared for heartbreak.
 
All the discussion and talk, and all I want to know is this: what did pogacar say to his car after the crash. He called them up through impossible traffic and then seemed to give them a bit of a spray and didn't take anything from the car of note.

Someone get to the bottom of this, it would be entertaining. My feeling is they were pushing him on the descent, and he was not happy.
 
All the discussion and talk, and all I want to know is this: what did pogacar say to his car after the crash. He called them up through impossible traffic and then seemed to give them a bit of a spray and didn't take anything from the car of note.

Someone get to the bottom of this, it would be entertaining. My feeling is they were pushing him on the descent, and he was not happy.

He said next year we take Almeida to the Tour.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: dazaau
All the discussion and talk, and all I want to know is this: what did pogacar say to his car after the crash. He called them up through impossible traffic and then seemed to give them a bit of a spray and didn't take anything from the car of note.

Someone get to the bottom of this, it would be entertaining. My feeling is they were pushing him on the descent, and he was not happy.
He told them : " Guys, I said Vingegaard not Jack Bauer. VINGE-FREAKIN'-GAARD! Now make yourselves useful and pass me some water bottles...."
 
All the discussion and talk, and all I want to know is this: what did pogacar say to his car after the crash. He called them up through impossible traffic and then seemed to give them a bit of a spray and didn't take anything from the car of note.

Someone get to the bottom of this, it would be entertaining. My feeling is they were pushing him on the descent, and he was not happy.
He was asking if Hirschi had made it over the Aubisque yet.