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

[MrTea1976]

I predict a big break with at least two of positions 9-15.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Oh man, it's gonna be a carnage. Pog motivated to explode the race while Vinge to beat Mr 60's record there.

 

[Lequack]

Unfortunately it's going to be sunny and hot again. The global warming weather is always the same.

 

[jimmy_8888888]

How dare you accuse the French of creating a course that suits Julian Alaphilippe.

Given Giro used to did that for Moser and Saronni in the 80s, why not?

 

[KZD]

Unfortunately it's going to be sunny and hot again. The global warming weather is always the same.

And the worst part is that there will be rain and much lower temperatures tomorrow

 

[Lequack]

And the worst part is that there will be rain and much lower temperatures tomorrow

That really is a slap in the face to everyone.

 

[gregrowlerson]

TGBM will win this bike race.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

I think most of all, Vingegaard has to attack. 2:18 mins before the final TT might not be enough. He should have three minutes of an advantage.

I hope for an epic stage. Sadly, the first part of the stage is flat. From Aubisque on, we might see some good racing.

Bora, Bahrain, Astana need their stage win. Vingegaard and Pogacar want to win the Tour. That might become a good stage (I hope).

 

[spalco]

How much time does Pogacar need to take back on this stage to give himself a chance in the time trial?

I think he needs to be on par with Vingegaard to have a realistic chance. Last TT of a GT is often weird, but since I've seen no evidence whatsoever of Vingegaard fading in form, I doubt Pogacar will take much time (if any) off him in the TT.

 

[spalco]

I think most of all, Vingegaard has to attack. 2:18 mins before the final TT might not be enough. He should have three minutes of an advantage.

Vingegaard beat Pogacar in last year's stage 20 TT. How's he going to lose 2 minutes this year, being much stronger, unless he crashes?

 

[SarahtheDane]

I think Vingegaard wants the stagewin today. Whether he'll succeed is another question.

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1549313967230799873

View: https://twitter.com/TheFlashMMA/status/1549313967230799873?s=20&t=BUN-nkgyHCqHAYMPS_DDNQ

 

[SafeBet]

According to Gazzetta, Caruso DNS.
First time he doesn't finish a GT in his career (this is his 16th GT).

 

[ciranda]

Given Giro used to did that for Moser and Saronni in the 80s, why not?

Tour de France as well no? Hinault was strongest in the time trials so they threw in like five time trials each year.

 

[JohnWayne]

McNulty: "We had a plan to accelerate on the second climb: Pogacar asked me to go for a quarter of an hour flat out, and it turned into almost an hour ."

Man, I would love these kind of legs. Go flat out for 15min, then continue with roughly the same watts for another 45min!

 

[roundabout]

Erviti has COVID and is out

 

[Breezy1985]

I switch to a Monday - Friday job for the first time in my life. ASO suddenly decide that mountain stages belong on midweek days . F&$k you ASO

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I think most of all, Vingegaard has to attack. 2:18 mins before the final TT might not be enough. He should have three minutes of an advantage.

I hope for an epic stage. Sadly, the first part of the stage is flat. From Aubisque on, we might see some good racing.

Bora, Bahrain, Astana need their stage win. Vingegaard and Pogacar want to win the Tour. That might become a good stage (I hope).

2'18 should be more than enough (baring accidents of course). I favour Vingegaard slighly over Pogacar in the last time trial but I think they will be within 30 seconds of each other one way or the other. Vingegaard just seems to be the stronger of the two right now as evident by Pogacar not really attacking yesterday. That's the thing when you say you're gonna attack all the time and you don't, everyone knows that you just don't have it.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I think that Vingegaard wants the victory today and he will get it. He's the strongest in the race and wants to show that. It's also not too bad to take 20 more seconds out of Pogacar and he can recover tomorrow. Making the race harder also favors Vingegaard I think, as he seems to recover better in GT's than Pogacar.

 

[Red Rick]

I think the big question is if Pogacar will try on Aubisque or Spandelles really.

 

[spalco]

I think that Vingegaard wants the victory today and he will get it. He's the strongest in the race and wants to show that. It's also not too bad to take 20 more seconds out of Pogacar and he can recover tomorrow. Making the race harder also favors Vingegaard I think, as he seems to recover better in GT's than Pogacar.

Oof, the last statement is questionable imo, considering Pogacar already has two Tour victories, and I don't think you can really say right now he's gotten weaker over time this year compared to Vingegaard - he has been the more attacking rider after all. I do agree with the rest though.

 

[SafeBet]

Erviti has COVID and is out

Another anomaly after Caruso.
Erviti had finished 26 out of 27 GTs in his career thus far.

 

[tobydawq]

I switch to a Monday - Friday job for the first time in my life. ASO suddenly decide that mountain stages belong on midweek days . F&$k you ASO

I really don't think that was a sudden decision...

 

[tobydawq]

Another anomaly after Caruso.
Erviti had finished 26 out of 27 GTs in his career thus far.

Only the massacre in Metz had gotten the best of him before.

 

[Salvarani]

Another anomaly after Caruso.
Erviti had finished 26 out of 27 GTs in his career thus far.

Wow... he has spent about 1,5 years of his life riding GTs.