Tour de France Tour de France 2022: Stage 6 (Binche – Longwy, 219.9k)

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Missed almost all of this stage and just trying to catch up. Some Jumbo question marks for sure:
  • Why did Wout do that? He should still be in yellow and likely would have won the stage if he'd just stayed in the peloton. Very strange.
  • Roglic I guess thought he could win the stage and salvage the Tour maybe? If so, he went way too early
  • Glad to see Roglic riding strong though despite the bad crash yesterday
JV explanation:
They didn't want to chase, so the plan was for a breakaway with WvA. They argued that without WvA in the break, the break would have won anyway, and tomorrow they would lose the jersey anyway. So all or nothing for WvA in the breakaway.

In the end, we can't say it wasn't entertaining.
 
Jun 20, 2015
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Jumbo chose the most difficult way to lose the yellow jersey - Matthews could do more but was beaten by a more talented rider.
 

Big Doopie

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Rog this year if healthy would’ve been dang close if not beating Pogi.

sure u can think of it that way and I see how you could.

I feel like Rog has shown signs of decline since the start of the season.

I have also always felt that Pog exudes a class and ease that no one else comes close to.

he also now has confidence in what he can do, unlike Vuelta 2019 and even most of the 2020 TDF.

Rog is a workmanlike top talent (like Cadel Evans) and has not been real competition for Pog for two years now.

it is not close. Not at all.
 
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Interview with the JV directeur sportive is interesting - plan was to get WvA in the big break, because they were sure that if WvA was in the peloton with his current form, that nobody would help JV bring the break back (and presumably they didn’t want to commit riders to do that for the green jersey). Unfortunately a break of only 3 went, which absolutely wasn’t the plan. Clearly WvA gave it his best effort from that situation though.
 
Oct 13, 2021
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sure u can think of it that way and I see how you could.

I feel like Rog has shown signs of decline since the start of the season.

I have also always felt that Pog exudes a class and ease that no one else comes close to.

he also now has confidence in what he can do, unlike Vuelta 2019 and even most of the 2020 TDF.

Rog is a workmanlike top talent (like Cadel Evans) and has not been real competition for Pog for two years now.

it is not close. Not at all.
It is close, the only sign of decline I saw was Dauphine, if you can call it that. Yes Pogi is strong, but Rog is stronger on punchy finishes like today.
 

Big Doopie

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It didn't look like he got any gap. That's probably why he stopped riding after looking back. When it changed to the heli view there was someone not just in his wheel but almost next to him.

My post was unclear.

two separate things. He used energy attacking on the cat 3. But gaudu closed.

I meant he got a gap in the final sprint. Matthews only closed because Pog sat up to celebrate.
 
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sure u can think of it that way and I see how you could.

I feel like Rog has shown signs of decline since the start of the season.

I have also always felt that Pog exudes a class and ease that no one else comes close to.

he also now has confidence in what he can do, unlike Vuelta 2019 and even most of the 2020 TDF.

Rog is a workmanlike top talent (like Cadel Evans) and has not been real competition for Pog for two years now.

it is not close. Not at all.
You're saying these things like they're facts, but they're not. 2021 looked like it would have been close. Pogacar never dropped Roglic all spring, and Roglic was looking stronger in the time trials. 2020 Roglic would likely have won without the crash at the Dauphine. I agree Pogacar is better now. We'll see if he'll show any signs of weakness this year, like he did last year. If he does a Mont Ventoux on an MTF, we might have a race. It's a slim chance, but let's wait and see :)
 
Oct 10, 2012
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I really wanted Pog to drop some time early on in this Tour, if only for the races sake but that looks unlikely now barring a crash or something unforeseen. When you think that he is only 23 years old, we could easily be watching the greatest cyclist ever such is his dominance and you have to admire the way he rides. Unlike some of the dominant grinders of the past he rides with panache and when there is a chance to attack he doesn't turn it down.
 

Big Doopie

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It is close, the only sign of decline I saw was Dauphine, if you can call it that. Yes Pogi is strong, but Rog is stronger on punchy finishes like today.

i saw decline in P-N.

and also Itzulia. I know, I know, the knee. But not sure how much I believe that considering the rest of his season.
 
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My post was unclear.

two separate things. He used energy attacking on the cat 3. But gaudu closed.

I meant he got a gap in the final sprint. Matthews only closed because Pog sat up to celebrate.
Ah I see. I agree that was a pretty supreme sprint at the end there.
 
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O'Connor lost another 2:37 today.

Nice finish for Enric Mas. He was caught out by the Vlasov crash and managed to finish 11th in the same time as the other GC guys. At one point he jumped over from the group that was caught out and rode himself back to the front group.
He's been hanging around the back of the peloton a bit too often. Maybe he's ill or something.
 
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It didn't look like he got any gap. That's probably why he stopped riding after looking back. When it changed to the heli view there was someone not just in his wheel but almost next to him.

Gaudu was actually ahead of him I think.
 
Oct 21, 2012
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It's a shame for the Tour as it's already given us two great stages, which is one more than the entire Giro. The initial excitement of the first week still lingers and the next three stages could be fun. But after that, with GC already decided, it's just a long 2 weeks of French landscape and the KOM competition.
 
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Interview with the JV directeur sportive is interesting - plan was to get WvA in the big break, because they were sure that if WvA was in the peloton with his current form, that nobody would help JV bring the break back (and presumably they didn’t want to commit riders to do that for the green jersey). Unfortunately a break of only 3 went, which absolutely wasn’t the plan. Clearly WvA gave it his best effort from that situation though.
That’s called overthinking things (I know the response will be “no, it’s that they not thinking at all”), by trying calculate whether another team would chase the break. This early in the Tour some teams will always chase.

sounds more like a cover story. But I don’t really care if we can get exciting exciting racing!
 
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Interview with the JV directeur sportive is interesting - plan was to get WvA in the big break, because they were sure that if WvA was in the peloton with his current form, that nobody would help JV bring the break back (and presumably they didn’t want to commit riders to do that for the green jersey). Unfortunately a break of only 3 went, which absolutely wasn’t the plan. Clearly WvA gave it his best effort from that situation though.

Makes it all the more puzzling why he was not called back after the sprint