Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 14: Annemasse - Morzine, 151.8k

[Eyeballs Out]

Way too much talk about the "horrors" of the 2006 Morzine stage and not nearly enough talk about the real horrors of the 2016 Morzine stage.

Yates going into the stage 19 seconds off the podium. Porte going into it less than a minute off the podium after consistently being the 2nd best climber all race. Froome had just started to show cracks on the previous mountain stage. Everything was set up brilliantly for an incredible showdown.

14 riders finished in the group of favorites. The only gc attacks all day came from the 10th, 11th and 12th placed riders. The sky era had peaked.

GC meh - all those years were a big fat who cares. The stage was won by dropping Nibali on the descent off the Joux Plane and that alone makes it a memorable stage

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Both Yates or one Yates? I just realised they are literally only one second apart on GC. What a twin ride so far!

I'd love to see their parents' discussion at the next family get-together with them both...

 

[Ulle97]

What was the problem with the 2016 Joux Plane stage??

 

[zlev11]

I actually disagree. Oddly enough I think the 2016 was both incredibly bad and had extremely iconic moments. Froomes Peyresourde descent, the Sagan-Froome crosswind attack and Froome running up the Ventoux were all extremely memorable. The problems are:

- I can never forget that whole Peyresourde thing only happened because Quintana let a tiny gap open up, refused to close it again himself, looked around and saw that nobody even remotely cared. Credit to Froome for making that attack but that stage said as much about him as it did about the patheticness that was the 2016 gc battle.

- Froome running up the Ventoux could have been one of the most iconic cycling moments of all time but it was not. Because when you look at the results you see that it never happened. The story of that day was completely detatched from the story of that Tour. A little joke on the side which had no impact on the actual story. Enjoyable while it lasted, forgetable in the great scheme of things.

- Ok Froome and Sagan riding away from the peloton was actually great.

- Those 3 moments were somewhat memorable but that was it. There was like one more okayish mountain stage and the rest was absolutely horrible. Just three weeks of riders striding along in the Sky train.

2016 was the worst Tour de France ever, worse than 2012. there were so many disappointing stages that were completely neutralized by the Sky train. I would argue that the Ventoux stage was actually the lowest point of the race, a straight up farce that ruined what was turning out to be a decent stage.

 

[spicelab]

It's funny to me how the prevailing view that Vinge is a better descender than Pog has emerged based on so few data points.

That aside, it's well impressive how solid Vinge's descending is when he doesn't have any sort of mountain biking or cross background.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Everyone here is hoping for a Pidcock descending masterclass. If you're not, shame on you.

 

[Pirazziattacks]

It's funny to me how the prevailing view that Vinge is a better descender than Pog has emerged based on so few data points.

That aside, it's well impressive how solid Vinge's descending is when he doesn't have any sort of mountain biking or cross background.

Yeah there's nothing other than vibes behind the idea that there's any real difference between them on descents. Last year when Pog put it all on the line Vingegaard clipped a pedal and almost crashed just before Pog actually crashed, they're both good descenders just like 90% of the pro peloton and that's all there is to it.

 

[movingtarget]

I actually do fondly remember the Landis raid. Legendary stuff.

That's how they came up with the idea of an electric bike..............

 

[movingtarget]

Another solid stage by Hindley here will solidify his third place. He probably needs a bad day or a badly timed mechanical to lose third place at the moment with almost three minutes up his sleeve. He is climbing as well as his rivals for third place if not better and he put a few more seconds into the Yates brothers yesterday. Probably time for Ineos to let Pidcock off the leash if he is good enough on this stage.

 

[Savant12]

WVA to destroy most of UAE's domestiques.

 

[jono]

WVA to destroy most of UAE's domestiques.

How would he go about doing that, exactly? Do you think he'll destroy them just by riding tempo on the earlier climbs?

 

[Pantani_lives]

Hopefully there won't be any crashes in the descent.

 

[dacooley]

Way too much talk about the "horrors" of the 2006 Morzine stage and not nearly enough talk about the real horrors of the 2016 Morzine stage.

Yates going into the stage 19 seconds off the podium. Porte going into it less than a minute off the podium after consistently being the 2nd best climber all race. Froome had just started to show cracks on the previous mountain stage. Everything was set up brilliantly for an incredible showdown.

14 riders finished in the group of favorites. The only gc attacks all day came from the 10th, 11th and 12th placed riders. The sky era had peaked.

the way the 2016 stage panned out was disappointing but quite logical. at that point each of 3 potential podium finishers were content with their current placings. froome - for obvious reasons, bardet - brilliant stage win, 2nd in the GC and personal highest gc point and quintana riding a very stressful tour, being quite a below par, enduring a few painful slaps from froome and eventually jumping in on the podium because of mollema's downfall. anyway seeing such a hard climb like Joux plane having been ridden so slowly was very weird. )

So the only rider that made the move on that day was aru who failed to handle even that gentle pace and committed a reverse attack.

 

[Nick2413]

Joux Plane and Loze are the 2 stages JV will have earmarked to win the tour on. They will be all in on this.

 

[proffate]

Another solid stage by Hindley here will solidify his third place. He probably needs a bad day or a badly timed mechanical to lose third place at the moment with almost three minutes up his sleeve. He is climbing as well as his rivals for third place if not better and he put a few more seconds into the Yates brothers yesterday. Probably time for Ineos to let Pidcock off the leash if he is good enough on this stage.

Hindley has not been the third best climber so far this tour. Back out his breakaway gains on stage 5 (?) and he's right there with 4th-7th. Simon would be ahead barring his crash.

 

[proffate]

Who do you consider the podium contenders for the assumed 3rd spot on podium to be? Anyone within 3 minutes of Hindley? 4 minutes?

Given that anything can happen to Hindley (crash, bonk, crack, etc) the next 4 seem like they're in with a shot.

 

[movingtarget]

Hindley has not been the third best climber so far this tour. Back out his breakaway gains on stage 5 (?) and he's right there with 4th-7th. Simon would be ahead barring his crash.

Yet he lost more time to Hindley yesterday. A lot of time to make up. and his TT is not much better.

 

[Savant12]

How would he go about doing that, exactly? Do you think he'll destroy them just by riding tempo on the earlier climbs?

How would he do that? By being WVA! If UAE overcooked themselves yesterday then yes, WVA riding a hard tempo for a long time will be difficult for them.

 

[danielovichdk2]

I think Jonas puts the pedal down today. Takes 2 minutes of pogi.

 

[Cookster15]

Given that anything can happen to Hindley (crash, bonk, crack, etc) the next 4 seem like they're in with a shot.

Sure, but crash, bonk, crack etc can also happen to those who are already at least 2 minutes down on Hindley. So Hindley is in the best position by far. History also shows Hindley gets better in the 3rd week and he has specifically targeted this race.

 

[nightowl]

Just went back and watched the 2006 stage, and I have to say Landis destroying the entire peloton while holding a water bottle in his hands and sipping on it occasionally is pure comedy

 

[search]

a pretty hot day it is. Some will crack spectacularly, I guess

 

[gregrowlerson]

Just went back and watched the 2006 stage, and I have to say Landis destroying the entire peloton while holding a water bottle in his hands and sipping on it occasionally is pure comedy

Andreas Klöden didn't find it funny. Though then again, they say ze Germans have no sense of humour.

 

[Miha81]

I think tables will turn and TJV will set an attack with WVA in front waiting for Pogi to be dropped penultimate climb. UAE will probably be on defensive. But as always I can be very wrong

 

[meat puppet]

Just went back and watched the 2006 stage, and I have to say Landis destroying the entire peloton while holding a water bottle in his hands and sipping on it occasionally is pure comedy

Didn't Bert Grabsch initially"launch" him by grinding 63x11 at 56rpm ?