Tour de France Tour de France 2024: Stage 20: Nice - Col de la Couillole, 20/07, 132.8k

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Jul 17, 2021
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Jonas wanted more time to Remco.

Did he needed it though? Anyway both Remco and Jonas pawed road to Pog's win. Why blame Pog to take what is available.

On second thought. I am still waiting to accidentally land on couple of millions ;)
 
Mar 8, 2024
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Why interview any of the Yates ?

Its always the same breathless bunch of cliches. I could tape it and play it back after any race and who would know the difference ?
 
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Mar 27, 2024
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I have been super critical of Pogi chasing down breaks in order to win grand tour stages when the GC is already sewn up, but anyone saying he should have gifted the stage to Jonas are crazy. Gift a stage to rider that mean a be life changing moment for them, not to a rival, a two time TDF winner who showed you no mercy the previous year
 
Sep 1, 2023
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Did he needed it though? Anyway both Remco and Jonas pawed road to Pog's win. Why blame Pog to take what is available.

On second thought. I am still waiting to accidentally land on couple of millions ;)
If he can get some and make Remco think twice about tomorrow, then it is worth it.
 
Jun 4, 2009
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The reasons Tadej Merckx won.
1. Remco had balls attacking Jonas
2. Jonas showed Remco who has the biggest
3. It was good Tadej didn't interfere in Jonas/Remco battle
+1

It was a gift already in this phase of a stage from Pogi to share short pull with Vingo. to fortify his battle for second place in GC.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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I have been super critical of Pogi chasing down breaks in order to win grand tour stages when the GC is already sewn up, but anyone saying he should have gifted the stage to Jonas are crazy. Gift a stage to rider that mean a be life changing moment for them, not to a rival, a two time TDF winner who showed you no mercy the previous year
It was not crazy when Indurain stayed behind Rominger and didn't contest those stage wins. But then you do like Vingegaard yesterday, you stay back on the wheel the entire way.
 
Mar 19, 2009
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Vingegaard stupidly forced Pogi to the front with 500 m to go. Had he just kept going, it's not unfathomable that Pogi would have stayed behind à la Indurain (maybe 5 % chance). In any case, it'd have looked better to lose after dragging Pogi the entire way.
A half assed pull for 10 seconds didn't change anything about how losing the sprint looked.
 
Jan 8, 2020
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Of course I can't help being accused of Bias due to being Danish, but I really don't see why Pogi couldn't "gift" this to Vingegaard as well as he wanted to gift it to the breakaway? Yes, he is/was clearly strongest, but when the strongest rider wheelsuck (don't like the term, but that's the majority vote) for that long, it would in my book be considered more generous to let another win. I would've thought the same if he arrived with Remco.
I understand why people like to throw back to the romantic old days where such things were more common but as professionalism in the sport increases it should absolutely be left in the past: gifts in general reduce the integrity of the race. No-one wants a stage win with an asterisk. If you apply it to other sports it's easy to see why - gifts in a lot of instances are synonymous with match-fixing so of course don't happen.
 
Jun 1, 2015
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This mostly speaks to the strength of Pogacar and the way guys race now compared to the past, but the gap between Remco in third and Pogacar is bigger than:
  • The gap between Pogi and Vingegaard last year when Pogacar had an epic collapse (“I’m dead; I’m gone”)
  • The gap between G in third and Vingegaard in 2022
  • The gap between Carapaz in third and Pogacar in 2021
  • The gap between Rigoberto Uran in 8th and Pogacar in 2020
  • The gap between Barguil in 10th and Bernal in 2019
  • The gap between Landa in 7th and G in 2018
  • 1.5 minutes more than the gap between Contador, who was a shadow of himself, in 4th and Froome, in his most dominant GT, in 2013
  • The gap between Nibali in 7th and Contador in 2009
Crazy! They do not eff around these days
 
May 9, 2010
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I'm glad Pogacar didn't gift the stage to Vingegaard, and honestly I see it as a sign of respect for Vingegaard, and I think he sees it that way too.

Pogacar vs Vingegaard is probably already the greatest rivalry in the history of the sport (well, Coppi vs. Bartali is hard to beat but that's for many other reasons besides those on the bike) and I'll like it to stay that way. they shouldn't start gifting each other wins.