And stage 10 is along the coast, it could be cross winds all day!
2019 PRO thread
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- Dan Gerous
- Posts: 2413
- Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:28 pm
Oh well, not like it’s a race or anything... uhhh, oh... say whaaat?Kjetil wrote:IIRC he got a new wheel from a Mavic service moto and forgot to take the axle out of the bad wheel (you know, the axle must be compatible with the frame with disc) and that, as well as getting the wheel in, took time.
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Dan Gerous wrote: ↑Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:43 pm2020 Tour de France stage profiles side by side, the climbers will like it. Only one TT (stage 20)and it finishes up La Planche des Belles Filles.
I wonder if Sagan will even show up for this one.
Why wouldn't he? He climbs better than most sprinters.. Another green jersey in the bag.AJS914 wrote:Dan Gerous wrote: ↑Tue Oct 15, 2019 2:43 pm2020 Tour de France stage profiles side by side, the climbers will like it. Only one TT (stage 20)and it finishes up La Planche des Belles Filles.
I wonder if Sagan will even show up for this one.
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It looks like a lot of suffering for only a few chances to possibly win a stage. But maybe not too many other sprinters will show up?
As I said to a mate yesterday; Bardet is a bad copy of himself and this situation is going on for some time now, Pinot is still complaining about his leg problem while Alaphilippe is an atomic bomb that could explode any minute now.
Tony’s mainly been drilling on the front recently with some decent itt results in between. Valuable team member at tjv.
Why wouldn't he? He climbs better than most sprinters.. Another green jersey in the bag.
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I'd like to see Caleb Ewan try for green - he climbs OK and was second this year "just" going for stage wins.
I'd love Sagan to do the Giro
IMHO there are two possibilities: many interesting riders might skip Tour knowing most of the stages will be "GC only", OR - on the contrary - they will bet on GC riders watching their backs and hoping for even more 5-10minute breaks reaching finish lines..
so it's either gonna be mighty interesting, or mighty boring. I'm affraid it's rather the latter, because the route looks super hard, SKYNEOS will come prepared this time around and pace the main favourites' group up on most of those "crucial" stages. and even if Lotto-Jumbo matches their strenght, nobody's suicidal enough to tear things apart having so many upcoming climbs. sure, less ITT time should be an incentive to attack for some, but in my magic sphere I'm seeing a very conservative racing, and lots of 2nd and 3rd tier names as stage winners
as for the French - first of all they need a strong French team. then, a bright French star, who can do it all. it's not going to be Bardet, definitely not Barguil, and sadly not Pinot either. Alphaville has potential, but maybe this Tour was his "Voeckler Tour". in order to do better - and he needs to do A LOT better to win - he'd have to re-focus entirely his whole training and racing programme, and I'm not sure it's worth the shot, given his team isn't exactly "grand-tour's-general-classification-friendly".
IMHO there are two possibilities: many interesting riders might skip Tour knowing most of the stages will be "GC only", OR - on the contrary - they will bet on GC riders watching their backs and hoping for even more 5-10minute breaks reaching finish lines..
so it's either gonna be mighty interesting, or mighty boring. I'm affraid it's rather the latter, because the route looks super hard, SKYNEOS will come prepared this time around and pace the main favourites' group up on most of those "crucial" stages. and even if Lotto-Jumbo matches their strenght, nobody's suicidal enough to tear things apart having so many upcoming climbs. sure, less ITT time should be an incentive to attack for some, but in my magic sphere I'm seeing a very conservative racing, and lots of 2nd and 3rd tier names as stage winners
as for the French - first of all they need a strong French team. then, a bright French star, who can do it all. it's not going to be Bardet, definitely not Barguil, and sadly not Pinot either. Alphaville has potential, but maybe this Tour was his "Voeckler Tour". in order to do better - and he needs to do A LOT better to win - he'd have to re-focus entirely his whole training and racing programme, and I'm not sure it's worth the shot, given his team isn't exactly "grand-tour's-general-classification-friendly".
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.
I think it'd be quite funny to see the INEOS and Jumbo mountain trains half-wheeling each other up the climbs until it was a sprint between the leaders but something tells me it won't happen quite like that.
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afaik the pace imposed by a strong mountain train makes it pretty impossible to attack. if both main contenders (Roglic and whoever skineos picks) have 2-3 strong domestiques, it's 5-6 guys riding tempo only a handful of riders can withstand, and quite possibly no one can challenge. sure, not every stage has looked that way in the past, but that's a scenario that's being repeated over and over again, and we're talking years with only one dominant team (I don't count Movistar in, because with their *tactics* they notoriously threw away any shred of advantage).
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.