Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 17: Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc - Courchevel, 165.7k

[D. Pecher]

I'm so confused. Yesterday was mental. Today was pretty standard.

Pog just imploded.

The thing is: 'normal' after a mental day is not what you would expect. I actually expected both of them to be happy to let a break go as both opf them were rather 'amazingly fast' yesterday. Just watch Gall tomorrow. He'll probably be lucky to arrive with the main peloton.

 

[burning]

I have to say, whatever homerism exists on this board doesn't come close to the idiocy on Twitter.

I cannot check Twitter for the sake of my health, but the homerism right now is pretty mild compared to Sky or Lance days IMO.

 

[Cagalitroso]

So Pog was Ulrich all along... what a plot twist

 

[Jan the Man]

I'm so confused. Yesterday was mental. Today was pretty standard.

Pog just imploded.

who knows what happened whether it was a hunger knock, a bad day, the crash affecting him more than it looked like, the condensed prep catching up- even though Vigne is by the body of evidence the better high altitude climber Pog certainly under performed significantly as against those you’d expect him to hold his own against. Reminded me of Ullrich’s implosion on the stage to Les Deux Alpes in 1998 though of course Pog was not in yellow today

 

[Aapjes]

So we have our answer with regard to yesterday. Pogacar was indeed already cracking.

 

[GroupDK]

But Ironically this will make him even more popular out there with the neutrals

neutral, in what world?
Are you the so-called "neutral" one your talking about.? https://forum.cyclingnews.com/members/hellodolly.112044/#latest-activity

Sadly the opposite, I reckon this level of radicalism that some display because of "cycling" risk tarnishing the rep of a champ like Pogacar & that's a shame as Pogacar is the exact opposite and a very sympathetic levelheaded fellow with great honesty and self-awareness..

 

[Poursuivant]

He only really took a minute from Yates and Gall who had been in the break

ITV were screaming that Vingegaard was going to win the stage when he was 2:40 behind with 4km of climbing left chasing two top climbers.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

To me it rather looked like he wasn't going full gas anymore at the altiport. I have no doubt that if required he could've managed to stay at Bilbao's wheel.

Ok my take is that Vingo payed for his effort at Loze.
But OK also impressing ride by Bilbao, thinking not only last ramp but since Meribel (i.e. what I've seen of the stage).

 

[RobertCrawley]

So we have our answer with regard to yesterday. Pogacar was indeed already cracking.

When we said that yesterday, we were hammered.

 

[Izzyeviel]

I'm old enough to remember when everyone on this forum mocked AG2R for riding to defend 17th on GC.

 

[D. Pecher]

neutral, in what world?
Are you the so-called "neutral" one your talking about.? https://forum.cyclingnews.com/members/hellodolly.112044/#latest-activity

Neutrals as in so far that there are people on here who don't car much about either Pogacar or JV, even though it seem almost a requirement to take a side when I read some of the posts.

 

[ManicJack]

Neutrals as in so far that there are people on here who don't car much about either Pogacar or JV, even though it seem almost a requirement to take a side when I read some of the posts.

That's rich 😂. I thought you were off to the clinic an hour ago

 

[IndianCyclist]

Even after this really bad day due to the crash, Pogi is still 3 mins ahead of Yates in 3rd. I hope we know if Pogi is ok w.r.t the crash.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

So Pog was Ulrich all along... what a plot twist

Except the one was due to heat and the other due to cold.

 

[ppanther92]

Why the heck was Georg Zimmermann the 6th best climber in the main group today

 

[Trofonios]

Ok my take is that Vingo payed for his effort at Loze.
But OK also impressing ride by Bilbao, thinking not only last ramp but since Meribel (i.e. what I've seen of the stage).

Thought he looked a bit laboured before Kelderman paced him for a while, and the time didn't go down, before he went hard again the last bit.

But of course he was really tired in the end, TJV set a hard pace all day and la Loze is brutal.

 

[skippo12]

Why the heck was Georg Zimmermann the 6th best climber in the main group today

In before German media picks him as the next great GC hope.

 

[saunaking]

who knows what happened whether it was a hunger knock, a bad day, the crash affecting him more than it looked like, the condensed prep catching up- even though Vigne is by the body of evidence the better high altitude climber Pog certainly under performed significantly as against those you’d expect him to hold his own against. Reminded me of Ullrich’s implosion on the stage to Les Deux Alpes in 1998 though of course Pog was not in yellow today

Turns out you can't just go and win the TDF on a whim after focusing on a mega successful classics season - AND breaking your wrist completely messing up your prep.
Meanwhile the defending champ is laser focused on this race with perfect leadup and preparation

 

[dgodave]

I have to say, whatever homerism exists on this board doesn't come close to the idiocy on Twitter.

Interesting. I had to look that up.

"The activity of miming of scenes from one of Homer's epics. It was common in Greek- and Roman-era pagan festivals."

 

[Cagalitroso]

true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1681632971520892928

View: https://twitter.com/LeGruppetto/status/1681632971520892928

 

[theyoungest]

I think we can now safely say that Jumbo have cracked the code regarding Pogacar. There are those who will put it down to the crash, and of course that won't have helped, but this is what Jumbo were betting on for the whole Tour and they've done it. Just perhaps a bit more successfully than even they would have expected.

It wasn't very enjoyable to watch though. Granon was just a blip compared to this. I'm pretty sure we'll see a different Pogacar next year, with a different preparation. Unless he decides to go full classics mode and forgets about winning the Tour.

 

[D. Pecher]

That's rich 😂. I thought you were off to the clinic an hour ago

Does posting in the clinic require to seize all posting in other subforums? What a daft thing to say, which only proves that you don't even understand the definition of the word neutral. Saying something good about a rider doesn't require to be a fan of him and saying something critical of a rider doesn't automatically make you a fanboi of the opponent. Take a dictionary and look up the word...

 

[Didinho]

What’s the time limit? Big group with Philipsen now at 36min already.

Edit. Oh I see another 10min.

 

[theyoungest]

true?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1681632971520892928

View: https://twitter.com/LeGruppetto/status/1681632971520892928

Since it is Richard Plugge who mentions it, it is probably true. Isn't it good news though? Maybe a bit overdone, 4 blood controls in 48 hours for Vingegaard is a bit ridiculous.

 

[Potomac]

Oh well.
Remaining excitement is the stage win for next few days.
I cannot imagine finding the energy to care about the EPIC BATTTLE for 3rd place GC.