Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 16: Passy - Combloux, 22.4k (ITT)

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If you're a Vingo fan, this is a day to celebrate.
If you're a cycling fan, this is a day to either laugh or cry for the sport.
What about the third option, people that laugh their a'zz off from sizes like you and that glorious primitive butt-hurt some people can rally because things didn't go as they wanted,

That's fascinating to watch (at least for a while) when it comes to something as relative & indifferent as "sport/entertainment" mindbending the butthurt some people can muster, and almost like their whole world just shatters, and there is no tomorrow - if things don't go as they want :eek: - and in lack of better will jump to stigmatizing name-calling or see "ghosts" left and right, trying to tarnish this bad bad "thing" [reality] that didn't flip the way they wanted.

Vingegaard was the one that took the most risks today, amongst the GC riders, - I like a yellow jersey going berserk, and not playing it safe, - Jonas was the best today, hands down, - and been it for a long time on grand tours, - current TdF2022 champ and runnerup in 2021 and favorite for TdF2023, not least after a Dauphine where he was in a league of his own

So this aint some unknown dude that pops up overnight with a weirdly good level' like some clueless people love to indicate.. he is the highest-ranked Stage-Rider rider on UCI's stats and got the most point, and has been nr1 for quite some time.
Pogacar is the highest-ranked rider on UCI One-day race stats.

Its mostly Pogacar's unreal explosion just before the finish that often got the better of Vingegaard, though the only person that topped Vingegaard today, seems to be Ciccone that was faster on the climb and landed 5 points,
Jonas got 3 points as the second fastest on the climb and Yates got 2 points & Pogacar 1 point as the fourth fastest, if Ciccone can keep it up tomorrow, Polka his way..
 
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Just speculating here ... maybe today's ITT outcome was brewing for a while. Pogacar lost a lot of quality training and proper buildup to this TDF because of the LBL injury. He punched back in grand fashion on stage 6, but each of his showdown encounters with Vingegaard after that stage yielded less and less time gains, till he began to look possibly more tired than Jonas on stages 14 and 15 (when compared to the vintage Pog we've all come to know). Jonas has been trending up, while Pog has been losing steam.
 
Just speculating here ... maybe today's ITT outcome was brewing for a while. Pogacar lost a lot of quality training and proper buildup to this TDF because of the LBL injury. He punched back in grand fashion on stage 6, but each of his showdown encounters with Vingegaard after that stage yielded less and less time gains, till he began to look possibly more tired than Jonas on stages 14 and 15 (when compared to the vintage Pog we've all come to know). Jonas has been trending up, while Pog has been losing steam.

But Pog smashed the ITT in his own little world, i.e. he demolished Wout van Aert like it was 2020 LPDBF all over again.

This was a huge improvement for Pogačar compared to last year's week 3 ITT in the Tour. There's not much else he could have done, save for hopping over the first climb like a kangaroo.
 
Pog and Vinge have been neck and neck for over 2 weeks ....Vinge is the better TTer but not by this much hence I think Pog is tired

And I am not your mate mate
I don't think they were neck and neck. Pog is stronger on a 3-4 min effort. Vingegaard is steonger on anything longer. Problem is he can not drop Pogacar from the wheel, and when he is behind him they are going so fast the draft actually makes for their strength difference after 5min full effort.
Imho.
 
This TT is after a rest day. Fatigue is not that important. They all rested yesterday (of course they are not fresh, they have 2 weeks of hard racing) so this performance is not just the capacity of Vingegaard to recover better. This is not a stage 20 like the other two TT where he beat Pogacar (but were longer TT with way lesser margins) so this is not about recovery, this is about 30 seconds of cornering and bike changing but more than a minute of pure power against a good Pogacar. Don't tell me Vingegaard handles better fatigue (it may well be true) when yesterday was a rest day.
 
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One thing I've seen is that Pog has looked human this tour, not his usual ethereal self. On stages 15 and 16 in the mountains, he looked tired. On stage 16, his usual powerful kick did not drop Jonas. So think he just might be little out of gas. If he was in top form (Peak Pogi, if you will), he maybe would have turned in a similar performance to Jonas. But it's all speculation.
 
I was surprised by Vingegaard's agility on the technical parts of this TT. It scared me to death the way he was taking corners, but clearly it was the fastest way to go. He looked to be gaining time on descents very much, as well as everywhere else.
What I found interesting was in spite of how he was laying it all on the line I didn't get the feeling of someone on the edge; he is an awesome bike handler and shockingly solid on his TT bike today. I pronounce him the Anti-Chicken!!
 
What I found interesting was in spite of how he was laying it all on the line I didn't get the feeling of someone on the edge; he is an awesome bike handler and shockingly solid on his TT bike today. I pronounce him the Anti-Chicken!!
When Jonas took those seconds on the first two corners, it was clear he was going to work.

Or as Mark Jackson says when an NBA player takes control: "Mama, there goes that man."
 
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