Roglič and Remco losing 39s on first day with a flat stage. I would expect better from a veteran and GC contenders. Better in the sense of forecasting this possibility and riding near the front of the peleton like Pogačar did. But perhaps I expect too much from Bora, known for not the best tactical decisions. I don’t see any of them recovering that time.
I don’t see any of them recovering that time.
As far as Evenepoel is concerned, he should recover this time rather easily during the Time Trial: it is long (compared to other TTs these days) and flat. It could be that Pogatchar and perhaps Vingegaard resist him, but he’s got his chance.
So, with the number of comments on this thread already I think we need to do daily threads.
I will rename this thread to a race thread for stage 1 and post a new thread tomorrow!
I will rename this thread to a race thread for stage 1 and post a new thread tomorrow!
I’ve done it! (That’s OK?)
I’ll try to do it earlier from now on.
That’s perfect 👌
Very good, hopefully the level of activity rises even more the coming days!
Thanks!
Ganna and Bissegger out, that hurts
This stage was strangely eventful. A few good events, a few bad ones…
What happened with the crash at the polka dots line? Oddest crash I’ve seen, I think.
If you look closely, you see how both rear wheels were sliding left and right, and the finish line, which adds to the slippery surface, did the job.
A different angle, to understand better the move:
😛
The two French riders tried to make us forget Bardet and Pinot, by surpassing the most awkward disputes between them. 😅
Anybody here betting on somebody else than Pogačar?
Wouldn’t put my money against him. Hard to see anyone beside Vinge able to really push him hard and even he isn’t quite on the same level i think.
What is that comparison based on? Not necessarily disagreeing that Pogacar is favourite, but the way I see it they haven’t raced each other properly in the Tour for the last two years. Pogacar had a fractured wrist and then Vingegaard punctured both his lungs. In both cases, the other clearly had a massive advantage over the 3 weeks and won quite easily.
Mostly Dauphine, i think it showed that Pogacar is ahead. Not by much but still. I hope Vingegaard rides a great Tour, because otherwise it will get boring.
Pogacar is a better all-around GC rider, but I do have doubts as to whether he is the better high mountains climber in a Grand Tour. And if Vingegaard is slightly better there, maybe that’s the difference that will matter at the end. I really need to see the mountain showdown this year to make up my mind, I can’t really separate them at the moment!
Wouldn’t put my money against him.
It seems to be the opinion of bookmarkers too. They give Vingegaard a relatively reasonable chance, but they put all others far behind.
Unless there are crashes changing the destiny, it is a pretty closed race which is expected to reproduce last year’s podium in the same order. Naturally, the changing moods of Evenepoel may half-open the 3rd place, if he decides to ditch GC and ride for stages at some point (to the detriment of other stage riders).
Not betting on a Frenchman, anyway! 😅
If everything goes as planned, Bernard Hinault will celebrate the 40th anniversary of his last win, the last French win, in the end of July… 🙄
No, but I hope Vingegaard will take it in the third week. I don’t expect it, but I hope so.
1st stage (Saturday 5, 13:10–13:40 → 17:35–18:00)
A few punchy climbs including Mount Cassel which was ridden as a circuit on the Four days of Dunkirk this year and on the National Championship two years ago, but way too far from the finish line seem to promise a bunch sprint (and crashes?). There might be echelons earlier in the race.
I think Philipsen will take this one. Milan and Merlier have arguably better results this year but this sprint will be so crowded and nervous, Philipsen thrives in that situation. Also Alpecin got a mad train with Groves and VDP.
I think Philipsen will take this one.
The scenario with an echelon in the end of course wasn’t really expected (the mid-course was more likely to create them), but as he was in the good group, the result was the same! 😀
A group of 5 including Armirail broke away at km 0. No chase, not a single counter-attack, and the peloton started pissing at km 2. Switched the TV off, will come back after a couple of hours.
Not sure whether if fits here, but WTF is wrong with Max Eurosport streaming starting to serve ads during TdF now? It’s going from bad to worse since GCN…
Not sure, haven’t noticed it on Danish Max - but then it’s been on in the background, so I could easily have missed it. Where are you located?
Enshittification is strong
7.10 No matter which Subscription plan (or PPV Content) you select, live Content may contain advertising, sponsorships, product placement or other interruptions.
Yes, people who had paid for ad-free Max were really pissed with this trick 🤣
@Mihies @EvilCartyen I also got served ads on the streams with Danish or English commentary but not on the multiscreen option.
Slovenia. Ads are shown in main stream, here and there, not in multimonitor one. When ad is shown, going back to main page and forward to stream again, continues with stream, not with ads. Hence this is frontend crap I guess.
It was the same in France during the Giro (I only took Max+Eurosport for one month then). On a few days, there were less than 10 minutes between two series of ads… There were also technical issues for several days, where a stream or two, depending on the day, was jerky (for every viewer, not a problem on my side).
It’s first time I see the ads since the forced change from Eurosport player. I fear it’ll become like YouTube with huge ad blocks. To make it worse, there is no streaming alternative. Also the paragraph I posted is buried in huge TOS, not mentioned anywhere else AFAIK. There is actual mention of the ads on sport add-on webpage, but it says that the ads are there in case they are part of livestream, which is not the case here.
Do you guys think van Aert will contest the bunch sprint tomorrow?
If it is a bunch of two riders, maybe 😀
He hasn’t looked like he has the guts for the fight for position for a while, plus he hopefully has other duties like keeping Vingegaard out of trouble.
Also, if he wants to try his own luck, there are this week several better occasions with punchy/rolling profiles, starting with stage #2 already.
Fun with a bit of waaiers, though they could easily be caught again
