Tour de France Tour de France 2024: Stage 19: Embrun - Isola 2000, 19/07 144.6k

[BeachBum]

Pog will attack on the Bonette then extend his lead to the finish at Isola. UAE will then control tomorrow's easier on paper but still dangerous stage.

Tomorrow, sure, agree with everything you say.

Saturday, eeehhhh... UAE team bosses will WANT to control Saturdays stage, and the team meeting will be just about that.

However, Teddy is still channeling Hinault 'As long as I breathe, I attack'; and he is gonna attack anyway.

 

[memyselfandI]

Those talking about Visma and Jonas for tomorrow are watching a different race from me. Jonas is done for this TDF. He looks 100% cooked. He ain’t doing a damn thing because he can’t. Visma riders been jumping in breaks left, right and centre because they know as well. Wouldn’t surprise me if Visma try and win from break with Matteo tomorrow

This.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I expect some insane climbing performances. After all Benji Naesen just climbed La Turbie and Col d'Eze at 162 watts. I believe that should be around 1,5 w/kg - I assume we might see some even more crazier performances tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

 

[Taxus4a]

I hoping for this stage amost one year and just tomorrow i have a issue that will make me can follow properly at least


For me is the queen stage despite been short

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Quiz time! Where did Slovenian small-ball man attack on this stage?

 

[Izzyeviel]

The climb before the cote de saint-Hillaire

 

[Lequack]

Pogacar will attack on Isola to take the stage and close the GC

 

[Andre]

Remco for the stage victory. Let's hope Tadel and Vingo crack, and Remco can take yellow.

 

[BullsFan22]

Rememba when mountain stages weren't meme distance?

What year is that from?

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

I want to see Healy, Bernal, and Bardet in the break tomorrow.

 

[Cookster15]

Hot again tomorrow? After dropping Vingegaard on PdB Pogi credited his UAE teammates with keeping him cool. As we know he doesn’t like the heat I am wondering if Visma might try to isolate Pogi early so he might become susceptible to the heat?

 

[movingtarget]

I would expect Vingegaard to lose more time based on the past week. It would be a huge turnaround to see him drop Pogacar. Is this where the Giro catches up with Pogacar ? Probably not this year, he has a good lead and he rarely cracks badly enough to lose a grand tour in this position. So it's about Pogacar's fatigue and if Vingegaard has anything left after coming into the race with a less than ideal prep. As for Evenepoel it's harder to know how he will go but so far he has done well with damage control in the mountains. Condition wise he's looked as good as Vingegaard. Break won't survive this one.

 

[Nick2413]

Been waiting to see if Gall will heat up. 8th last year and top 3 3rd week climber, currently in 11th.

 

[hfer07]

D-Day:
Do or Die for Jonas & Visma

BTW Let's see what Remco can do....

 

[jono]

Been waiting to see if Gall will heat up. 8th last year and top 3 3rd week climber, currently in 11th.

I expect he'll leapfrog Gee and possibly one or two others.

 

[Psycat]

Pogacar will win obviously. Question is if Vinge will keep up with Remco or not, my bet is that he will be behind but only by 30 sec or so.

Would gladly be wrong but don't see much else as realistic.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Pogacar will win obviously. Question is if Vinge will keep up with Remco or not, my bet is that he will be behind but only by 30 sec or so.

Would gladly be wrong but don't see much else as realistic.

Are you The Clinic version of @topcat ?

 

[how yes no?]

I think Pogačar will (try to) go no later than the step part between col and cima de la Bonette and go mostly solo from there ("this stage will not be decided by seconds" to paraphrase Vingegaard).
Problem with Evenepoel (and Pogačars plan) is his descent so he will probably not come solo to the last climb, but then drop whoever is with him there eventually.
I feel weird imagining Vingegaard will be dropped by Evenepoel, because as much as I have gained deep respect for Evenepoels (GT) climbing abilities and him "growing up", I also have deep respect for Vingegaard who can go pure "what is dead may never die" and like he should never be counted out, but maybe the formula of shortened preparation getting you in trouble after nearly 3 weeks of hard racing will repeat itself as it did with Pogačar last year and emerge as a pattern.

 

[houtdffan]

What year is that from?

1993

time gaps were surprisingly fairly small on that stage. They were much larger the day before over the Galiber

 

[Unchained]

I want to see Healy, Bernal, and Bardet in the break tomorrow.

I agree with all those.. was really hoping that Oscar Onley could shine for one day!!
Pogacar post race interview has him slightly more serious.. He went ahead and said he considers tomorrow the queen stage and he just so happened to be training using these mountains for " a few months " and he says he is very familiar with the climbs. UAE going split personality w riders looking pretty cooked, regroup and then get on the front and water down and ice pack their champion, their leader..UAE will need to do a ton if Pogacar plans to use tomorrow as punctuation for his dominance. It looked to me like he wants tomorrow.. We will see. I will bet that another UAE rider is in the mix tomorrow if Pog allows it

 

[Pantani_lives]

Today is Friday, the day of reckoning. A lot of things can be decided in the queen stage.

Girmay can secure his green jersey. Even if Philipsen wins the early sprint, the Eritrean only needs to be in the top 8 to keep a lead of more than 20 points.

The polka-dot jersey is a different matter. There are 20, 40 and 10 points at stake on the three climbs. It's absurd that the Col de Vars is worth twice as many points as Isola 2000, but ASO decided to disadvantage the GC riders. This means that Lazkano, Carapaz or even Gaudu can still win the KoM.

The Cime de la Bonette is a beast: the highest paved mountain pass in France, the highest point in the history of the Tour. Isola 2000 is the second toughest MTF in this Tour. These two climbs were already lumped together in the 1993 Tour, when Rominger won the stage after dropping everybody except Indurain.

It's the last chance for a major GC attack. It can be important to still have at least one teammate with you in the valley, so sending someone up the road might be a good idea. Somebody who has a bad day and gets isolated too soon can lose ten minutes here. The most likely outcome is that the top 3 stays the same, but you never know.

 

[Rob5091]

Oppenheimer googles at the ready and reinforced lead shielding on the TV.

Vingegaard has been struggling and even losing time to Remco so things don't look well at Visma. What will be interesting is how team UAE do. Yates and Almeida are the ones i'll be keeping an eye on. Pogi can win without them, but it'll be risky. Remco to yoyo.
Outlandish tip of the day, Onley and Little Lenny M sprint for the stage win - remember where you read it first!

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

Today is Friday, the day of reckoning. A lot of things can be decided in the queen stage.

Girmay can secure his green jersey. Even if Philipsen wins the early sprint, the Eritrean only needs to be in the top 8 to keep a lead of more than 20 points.

The polka-dot jersey is a different matter. There are 20, 40 and 10 points at stake on the three climbs. It's absurd that the Col de Vars is worth twice as many points as Isola 2000, but ASO decided to disadvantage the GC riders. This means that Lazkano, Carapaz or even Gaudu can still win the KoM.

The Cime de la Bonette is a beast: the highest paved mountain pass in France, the highest point in the history of the Tour. Isola 2000 is the second toughest MTF in this Tour. These two climbs were already lumped together in the 1993 Tour, when Rominger won the stage after dropping everybody except Indurain.

It's the last chance for a major GC attack. It can be important to still have at least one teammate with you in the valley, so sending someone up the road might be a good idea. Somebody who has a bad day and gets isolated too soon can lose ten minutes here. The most likely outcome is that the top 3 stays the same, but you never know.

I don't get why today is the last chance for a major GC attack. Tomorrow is only up and down and also about 4500 vertical meters of climbing. Sure the moutains are more shallow overall, but it's still 4 of them and there's no valley in between them. It's also the stage after today and the penultimate stage after a pretty hard Tour. So I'm not saying there's going to be major action, but why would you discount it as an opportunity?

 

[Oldermanish]

Hot again tomorrow? After dropping Vingegaard on PdB Pogi credited his UAE teammates with keeping him cool. As we know he doesn’t like the heat I am wondering if Visma might try to isolate Pogi early so he might become susceptible to the heat?

That would assume Visma has enough bodies to be in Tadej's neighborhood. Not likely any UAE climber will leave his side until it makes tactical sense for a relay. He's gonna have an escort that assure that 3 minute lead doesn't suffer from some random situation.

 

[Oldermanish]

I don't get why today is the last chance for a major GC attack. Tomorrow is only up and down and also about 4500 vertical meters of climbing. Sure the moutains are more shallow overall, but it's still 4 of them and there's no valley in between them. It's also the stage after today and the penultimate stage after a pretty hard Tour. So I'm not saying there's going to be major action, but why would you discount it as an opportunity?

It's basically a vertical kermesse peaking around 6,000 ft at each summit. Your chance to rest is a crazy descent and then you need to get your legs under you to do it again....and again after 3 weeks of abuse.
Someone's gonna cramp up and it'll be big gaps unless all are heroic and the next stage will seal the deal. The TT will be an afterthought with Remco taking that if he loses more time tomorrow.
He'll want to get a gap and ride his pace; I think Tadej will be happy with that and force Visma's last big effort. Then he'll sprint to Remco's wheel and shake his hand when Evenpoel wins that mountain stage.