Tour de France Tour de France 2024, Stage 9: Troyes > Troyes, 199.0 km

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Extinction

Extinction

Jan 8, 2020
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Hugo Koblet said:
From a pure entertainment perspective, I'd much rather have an entertaining and exciting stage that sees one of the GC guys crash out than another possession stage like the last two have been.
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But I don't think if all come through today unscathed we'll get a simple procession in week three. Whereas if certain favorites crash or flat at critical moments we very well could.
 
Berniece

Berniece

Sep 12, 2022
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Valv.Piti said:
Time losses are not what ruins the races, crashes are. Vingegaard losing 2 minutes or Pog losing 2 minutes would hardly make the racing worse - quite the opposite usually. Same goes for a lot of other riders
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Time loss can also ruin a race when it happens due to bad luck. If you aren’t in the right echelon then that’s your own fault, but having a flat tire and losing connection with the front group that’s just extremely crappy, and feels unfair
 
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hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
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noob said:
How does this stage compare to the giro 2021 gravel parts? It was where Almeida was way ahead and had to wait for Remco. (Not implying anything on Remco here, bc he was just injured.) But Almeida was not bad at gravel.
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With Remco he was genuinely terrible on the gravel but kept catching up on the asphalt sections. With a stronger base condition he would have kept up better but he was going backwards in groups almost instantly as they entered each gravel sector so I don’t think condition was the biggest factor.
 
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CyclistAbi

May 29, 2019
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Kazistuta said:
I think most, if not all, of the "Negative Johns" in here are just afraid they'll lose a rider for the GC on this stage.
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We have big four GC contenders entering this stage in a rather good position for the overall. If any of them gets a Dear John type of letter, before the finish line, i don't know on how that could be considered a positive outcome for this race, race as an overall.

Personally I'm looking forward to seeing a big one-day specialists break form halfway and them juking it out 4-5 minutes in front of a larger field with all main contenders. Everyone should be prepared for punctures on the gravel sections and have enough support riders to manage.
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Exactly. Some just don't get it, that this is GT racing, not one day race intended for specialists. Majority of GT leaders have nothing to do with gravel, hence saying their skill on gravel will be tested. What skill? GT leaders spend majority of their training at some altitude camp, on roads, gravel finishing their GT campaign is hence kinda stupid.

ASO also force sprinters to climb big mountains, which they're certainly not specialists of.
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And how many times do they lose the chances to get what they came for because of that? Cavendish went from vomiting to winning 35th,mountains are hence perfectly doable for sprinters. They are not there to finish any hopes of sprinters to well, contest the sprints in a GT race. The reason they came for in the first place.

Valv.Piti said:
We know what Rackham's agenda is. He's scared to *** that Roglic will once again crash and/or lose significant time , and you can't blame him. Therefore he can't enjoy the spectacle. Its just that simple.
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I can't speak for others, but for me no, this has nothing to do with Rogla. He is good on gravel.
 
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noob

noob

Aug 9, 2021
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hayneplane said:
With Remco he was genuinely terrible on the gravel but kept catching up on the asphalt sections. With a stronger base condition he would have kept up better but he was going backwards in groups almost instantly as they entered each gravel sector so I don’t think condition was the biggest factor.
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Hope Remco has learnt riding on gravel more today then.
 
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KZD

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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I have mixed feelings about this stage. On one hand I like the idea of including gravel in Grand Tours (the Giro already does this for a while) but on the other, the stage doesn't really seem well design as the hills finish some 50-60km before the finish.

I hope that the classics riders go into the breakaway instead of working for a sprint. Van der Poel especially is a rider that has been a bit disappointing during this Tour but I hope that he has the freedom and the mindset to go on the attack today. Among the sprinters, I think this could be a really good stage for De Lie but Girmay should be able to defend himself here as well.

As for the GC riders, Pogacar is in theory the strongest over this terrain but frankly this could end up being decided by luck and also which contender has the strongest team and Visma probably has the strongest team for today. I can't imagine the gaps to remain the same among GC riders though.
 
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Extinction

Extinction

Jan 8, 2020
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wheresmybrakes said:
I really hope none of the top GC guys have a puncture or crash going up or down one of those mountains in the 3rd week, taking away their opportunity of winning/poidiuming the race.
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That's completely besides the point. Flats and crashes are an ever present risk throughout the Tour, however, gravel simply increases (unnessecarily and rather unwisely in my view) the chances for them to occur. Look, it's not Strade Bianche, which is a specialized, consciously contrived vintage-themed modern event. It's the Tour de France in which you want to see all the Bigs make it to fight the great mountain and TT battles of week three. Mostly nobody wants to see a Pogacar, a Vingegaard, an Evenepoel or Roglic (to name the only the front-runners), be taken out of the GC battle or the entire race, because of this type of "gimmick" stage. Doubtless it will be entertaining and if all goes well people will surely be singing its praises. But can you possibly imagine the consequences for the Tour if say Pogacar crashes out, because somebody clipped his handlebars going into a gravel section at 65 kph? I don't think ASO or the fans shall be so entertained then.
 
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AmRacer

Sep 1, 2023
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Extinction said:
That's completely besides the point. Flats and crashes are an ever present risk throughout the Tour, however, gravel simply increases (unnessecarily and rather unwisely in my view) the chances for them to occur. Look, it's not Strade Bianche, which is a specialized, consciously contrived vintage-themed modern event. It's the Tour de France in which you want to see all the Bigs make it to fight the great mountain and TT battles of week three. Mostly nobody wants to see a Pogacar, a Vingegaard, an Evenepoel or Roglic (to name the only the front-runners), be taken out of the GC battle or the entire race, because of this type of "gimmick" stage. Doubtless it will be entertaining and if all goes well people will surely be singing its praises. But can you possibly imagine the consequences for the Tour if say Pogacar crashes out, because somebody clipped his handlebars going into a gravel section at 65 kph? I don't think ASO or the fans shall be so entertained then.
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Ban hay bales
 
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wheresmybrakes

wheresmybrakes

Sep 11, 2016
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Extinction said:
That's completely besides the point. Flats and crashes are an ever present risk throughout the Tour, however, gravel simply increases (unnessecarily and rather unwisely in my view) the chances for them to occur. Look, it's not Strade Bianche, which is a specialized, consciously contrived vintage-themed modern event. It's the Tour de France in which you want to see all the Bigs make it to fight the great mountain and TT battles of week three. Mostly nobody wants to see a Pogacar, a Vingegaard, an Evenepoel or Roglic (to name the only the front-runners), be taken out of the GC battle or the entire race, because of this type of "gimmick" stage. Doubtless it will be entertaining and if all goes well people will surely be singing its praises. But can you possibly imagine the consequences for the Tour if say Pogacar crashes out, because somebody clipped his handlebars going into a gravel section at 65 kph? I don't think ASO or the fans shall be so entertained then.
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It's a 3 week GT. You can't have every stage suiting the big GC riders. as it would become boring having the same riders competing for the stage win all the time. I bet there's some riders absolutely loving the challenge of a stage like this. If any of the GC riders don't like this stage or the route, they can always wait for a route that suits them best. It's a challenge over 3 weeks, like it or lump it.
 
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RobertCrawley

RobertCrawley

Jul 3, 2022
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KZD said:
I have mixed feelings about this stage. On one hand I like the idea of including gravel in Grand Tours (the Giro already does this for a while) but on the other, the stage doesn't really seem well design as the hills finish some 50-60km before the finish.

I hope that the classics riders go into the breakaway instead of working for a sprint. Van der Poel especially is a rider that has been a bit disappointing during this Tour but I hope that he has the freedom and the mindset to go on the attack today. Among the sprinters, I think this could be a really good stage for De Lie but Girmay should be able to defend himself here as well.

As for the GC riders, Pogacar is in theory the strongest over this terrain but frankly this could end up being decided by luck and also which contender has the strongest team and Visma probably has the strongest team for today. I can't imagine the gaps to remain the same among GC riders though.
Click to expand...
Every stage has the potential to be determined by luck. Luck is an essential feature of almost all major sports, But the dirt roads raise the luck factor so that it is far more likely to overshadow the skills and talents of great riders. That's what concerns me.

Also, the DSs must hate this. They are successful because they have a depth of knowledge about how to win bike races on the roads and maybe the cobbles. This is unknown territory for a lot of them.
 
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