Vingegaard or Pogacar?

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fan of Ray Williams

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Doesn’t appear as if anything is going to change in the 11th stage today. Still a 17 second lead for Jonas Vingegaard over Tadej Pogacar.
 

For the last several years, been pulling for Jonas V myself, but now I'm not so sure who I'm puling for (pardon the pun). The Jumba-Visma team is just so unbelievably strong, that has to make Vingegaard's job easier than Pogacar, who's UAE team is decent (better than in years past) but not close to Jumbo.

Honestly, probably more hoping for the American, Powless, to keep the polka dot jersey and win a Tour jersey for the states. That would be a boost to US cycling.

Not sure what to think about the Tour being almost entirely streamed on Peacock; I paid my $5-$10 to get Peacock just to watch the Tour. The jury is still out on whether or not I actually like Peacock enough to keep it.

I suspect NBC will be putting more and more events on there so I imagine I'll be keeping it for a little bit anyway?
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
For the last several years, been pulling for Jonas V myself, but now I'm not so sure who I'm puling for (pardon the pun). The Jumba-Visma team is just so unbelievably strong, that has to make Vingegaard's job easier than Pogacar, who's UAE team is decent (better than in years past) but not close to Jumbo.

Honestly, probably more hoping for the American, Powless, to keep the polka dot jersey and win a Tour jersey for the states. That would be a boost to US cycling.

Not sure what to think about the Tour being almost entirely streamed on Peacock; I paid my $5-$10 to get Peacock just to watch the Tour. The jury is still out on whether or not I actually like Peacock enough to keep it.

I suspect NBC will be putting more and more events on there so I imagine I'll be keeping it for a little bit anyway?
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I was a little disappointed with Jonas the other day. Wout van Aert had set it up for Jonas, but in hindsight he also set it up for Tadej and Pogacar took advantage.

Tomorrow looks to be some tough climbs. Looking forward to it.
(I only got Peacock for this event and to catch up on Yellowstone. Going to cancel after the race is complete.)
 

I think that Tadej is the superior climber and that advantage may overweight the advantage that Jumbo has as a team.

To think that Tadej could have 3 wins by age 25 is astonishing. He may become the first legitimate 6 time winner.

Best tour I’ve seen in decades. Maybe since Lemond edged Fignon.
 



The talking heads have a difficult time with figuring out the strategy at times, which is understandable, but they seem to think on the last couple of today’s climbs that Tadej might make a move.

Edit: or not
 
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Pogacar wait too long today to make his move?

Going to turn out better than I originally thought.

Tour de France LIVE – Pogacar outsprints Vingegaard to the line​

Tadej Pogacar storms up the final few hundred metres from Vingegaard who can’t quite keep in touch, and takes perhaps four seconds over his rival on the line – plus a four-second time bonus for finishing third on the stage. That 17-second gap in the GC could be down to less than 10 tonight once that’s all confirmed.
 
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Stage 14 tomorrow. WVA all rested? Thinking there will be some action.
 

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Holy smokes that was an exciting stage!
(Those dang motorcycles)
 
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Another amazing stage. Rest day then a TT, so I expect Jonas to extend the lead on Tuesday.

If Tadej can’t take the lead in Corceval, it might be over, even with one more mountain stage left.
 

Have to say, I was a TINY bit surprised that Jonas stayed with Pogacar on that last attack. Pogacar's explosiveness is pretty impressive, he's already shown that.

Almost wish the TT was a little longer tomorrow? 22km doesn't seem super long but it's a hilly course as well.

Might see some shakeup in the race for the 3rd spot on the podium tomorrow too; 3, 4 and 5 are not separated by very much.

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EDIT: Brutal profile on the TT stage tomorrow. Hard to get my head around a TT course that has an extended 9%+ grade on it, holy shit. I can't say I've ever done a TT that had more than 500-600 feet of total elevation gain over the whole 13-14 miles or so. Gonna be tricky on pacing that TT, leaving enough in the tank to finish that climb strong.
 
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3 crashes in the first 15 riders on the time trails in the first turn?
 
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fan of Ray Williams said:
3 crashes in the first 15 riders on the time trails in the first turn?
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2 of their riders from DSM missed their start, and 2 others were part of the crashers.

Which stream are you watching?

I switch between the stream with Liggett and Roll (better infographics), and the Euro stream with Nicholas Roche doing the color commentary. No commercials, and Roche is better than Roll. Less exciting, but more informative.
 

I stay with the world feed.
Wout van Aert just hammered that finish.
Also, no bike change for Wout.
 




That was just plain insanely incredible.

I just don't know if I agree with the bike switch, even with the climbing finish. The two bikes have such different geometry, different muscles; you've just gone almost all-out in the aero position with those big hip and glute muscles and then you switch to a road bike?

Everyone is different, I know I can't climb for shit on my TT/Tri bike; Tadej is a bigger rider than Jonas, maybe they just figured it was the way to go. I don't think it changed the outcome at all.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Every once and awhile I catch myself saying, “get the f**k out of the way!” with some of these spectators.
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Really surprised that some other spectators just don't yeet them out of the way for the riders.

Amazing ride by Jonas today. I expected him to pick up maybe 20 seconds today, but he just owned the course. Looked so powerful right from the beginning.

Tadej rode a great race today, just not good enough. UAE will need some really good strategy for the two mountain stages to bring this back. But it might be over as of today.
 

I thought Pogacar would be the favorite in today’s stage. Still can’t believe the time difference today. Jonas is so skilled on the corners.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
I thought Pogacar would be the favorite in today’s stage. Still can’t believe the time difference today. Jonas is so skilled on the corners.
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Jonas is a little better TT rider, so I thought he would pick up some time, but I didn't think it could possibly be that much time. I thought the mountain finish would mute that advantage somewhat.

Tadej almost caught Rodriguez at the end, and Jonas almost caught Tadej. Just a shocking result.

Ciccone picked up 5 points on Powless for the polka dot jersey.
 

Unregistered User said:
2 of their riders from DSM missed their start, and 2 others were part of the crashers.

Which stream are you watching?

I switch between the stream with Liggett and Roll (better infographics), and the Euro stream with Nicholas Roche doing the color commentary. No commercials, and Roche is better than Roll. Less exciting, but more informative.
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Yeah, I thought because of the climb at the end it might favor Pogacar. Then, when there were the accidents, thought Jonas might just be concerned about not crashing. Wow was I wrong.
 

For the GC, it'd be nice to see Kuss get into the top 5. Now that there's a big gap, maybe they'll let him ride to do that. The KOM is the last jersey to be decided. It, unfortunately, won't be Powless, but it was fun while it lasted.

Also, just FYI, my daughter went to the start of Stage 14 and sent me some video on the pre-race parade and all the support vehicles. The sheer number of cars, motos, and buses is incredible. What we see on TV is just the tip of the iceberg.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Yeah, I thought because of the climb at the end it might favor Pogacar. Then, when there were the accidents, thought Jonas might just be concerned about not crashing. Wow was I wrong.
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He was all in - really went hard into those first two turns - maybe saving a second or at most two of time, but putting everything at risk with a crash.
 

Tomorrow. I would guess Pog attacks here. Nicolas said it’s a brutal climb. Think they said it the highest elevation in the race.
 

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fan of Ray Williams said:
Tomorrow. I would guess Pog attacks here. Nicolas said it’s a brutal climb. Think they said it the highest elevation in the race.
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Per my daughter - there's a good chance of rain in tomorrow's stage so, with the large time gap, she thinks the attacks will come much earlier - namely in the climb before the one you circled and then that downhill section before your circle. UAE will put it all on the line, hoping Jumbo won't want to take the risk that they will be taking. If UAE can put Pogacar in front coming over the second to last peak, and have support riders behind him, those support riders can effectively block Jumbo from catching up during the downhill (again, wet roads limits passing during a high-speed downhill). It then becomes a mano-mano race up the last hill for Pogacar to maintain whatever gap he's created. My view is that the yellow is already decided. If it was 30 seconds, maybe, but the gap is just too large. But I like my daughter's hope that it's still a race.
 

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