Le Tour 2021

[jyl]

Read that Cav’s top speed on the sprint was 70.2 km (45 mph)! And that his was only the fourth fastest on the day.

That’s about 115 cadence in 54 x 11.

[herr_oberst]

Cav's on fire this tour.

It's good to see, and he really looks happy. The team looks happy. Fingers crossed for his continued health!

(Boy, the pushin' and shovin' at the front of those sprints are really on display for all to see with the overhead shots. It'd be cool if they could mike them up so we could hear what they're saying!)

[jyl]

Stage 7, longest Tour stage in 21 years.

Did Jumbo decide to abandon Roglic, or is his whole team suffering? I don’t remember seeing yellow/black jerseys in the reduced peloton or the groups ahead, except Van Aert. Edit: I was wrong, Kruijswijk and Vingegaard finished in the Pogacar group.

For that matter, Pogacar didn’t seem to have many UAE helpers with him either. Lucky that Movistar chased down Carapaz for him. Edit: wrong again, UAE had one other rider in the Pogacar group.

Ineos and Movistar seem to have the strongest teams left. Ineos is probably riding for Carapaz, whose attack might have cemented his leader status over Thomas even if he didn’t take any time from Pogacar. Movistar is riding for . . . who? Mas?

I’m thinking Ineos needs to figure out how to use its team strength to attack Pocagar instead of just pulling him up the climbs. This isn’t Team Sky days, they don’t have a leader who can decisively drop the other GC guys on mountaintop finishes, there are few mountaintop finishes in this Tour, and Carapaz will lose time on the second TT.

Gotta think some guys will pull out early to rest and prepare for the Olympics. Roglic should do that, instead of hopelessly dragging his injuries around France five or more minutes off GC.

[jyl]

17 kmh at 12% in the BIG RING for miles. Holy jeez.

[jyl]

Absent a bad crash or collapse or other calamity to Pogacar, the GC contest is over. 5 minutes on every conceivable rival and none of them look able to challenge or frankly even match him in future climby stages.

The stage 1 crashes screwed up the GC contest. Maybe Pogacar is simply on a different level to Roglic and Thomas anyway, he seems to be dominating all of the un-injured GC guys too, like Carapaz. But I don’t think the gap would be 5 minutes if the two GC rivals who can time trial were not walking wounded.

So now we watch the battle to get on the podium - Van Aert seems pretty determined, but can he really haul his non-climber heft through the Alps and Pyrénées without eventually blowing up?

[Baz]

I always enjoy the climbing stages - and today was no exception! Tomorrow we have 5 categorized climbs!

Podacar was a machine today!

[Scott Douglas]

Today's race was pretty neat to watch. Their coverage in the rain has gotten a lot better.

[jyl]

You think there will be fireworks tmrw?

I think the other GC guys, especially the wounded ones, will want to just get to the rest day and then try to figure out how to attack Pogacar or each other in a future stage. Ineos and Jumbo are probably praying for an echelon stage.

[jyl]

Stunning how Pogacar crushed his GC rivals.

Only Carapaz had the legs to challenge Pogacar on the Col de Colombiere, Pogacar offered to cooperate, Carapaz declined, and Pogacar put THREE AND A HALF MINUTES into Carapaz in the last 30 km or so.

He then went on to nearly close the FIVE MINUTE lead of breakaway leader Teuns, and didn’t take the stage only because he didn’t want to take chances on the wet descent.

This kind of solo heroics is reminiscent of the olden greats like Hinault, when GC stars went off on their own, “mano a mano”, or in this case, “mano a mouse”.

Or, more recently, Contador on the Mortirolo.

[jyl]

So what do we think, going into the rest day?

The GC battle is over, unless something takes Pogacar out of the race. He could lose his entire 5 or 6 or 10 minute lead over any GC rival, and in this form, he’d just trouble himself to replace it with a new 5 or 6 minutes on the next convenient mountain stage.

I guess there will be a battle for 2nd, 3rd, the mountains jersey. And there will be terrific stage wins off breakaways, like O’Connor today. Otherwise, the excitement will be the green jersey and sprints.

But . . . Merlier climbed off and Demare missed the time cut. While Cav managed the time limit pretty well. So who other than Cav is left to contest the sprints? Griepel, Matthews, Colbrelli, Phillipsen, Bouhanni, who else? Sagan, if it’s an uphill sprint.

[jyl]

It's Highroad all over again! Number 33!

I never know what to think when a sprinter comes up very fast but falls short of the winner, like Phillipsen did. Does it mean that Phillipsen is faster and a decent bet to win a future match-up? Or does it simply mean that Cav didn't fire his second kick because he knew Phillipsen would fall short? I'm inclined to think the latter.

Hoping for more echelons in future stages. If Pogacar has shown any weakness, it seems to be cross-winds.

Double ascent of Mount Ventoux tomorrow!

[jyl]

Wow. The same rider comes second in the bunch sprint on Tuesday and then wins the queen stage with double Ventoux ascent on Wednesday. Talk about Mercxxian! My bet is that GVA finishes the Tour with both a mountain stage win AND a sprint win.

I was felling a little bad for Alaphillipe, alone in the front group with the rest of the DQS team back supporting Cav in the grupetto. But JA blew pretty comprehensively, a teammate wouldn't have helped.

[Baz]

Sad to see Sagan leave the race but the silver lining was seeing his teammate win the stage!

[jyl]

I didn't realize that Sagan had a knee injury or that he abandoned today. Hope he recovers soon. It's been odd to watch a Tour with him not a major player.

I guess DQS planned today for JA in the break? Cav wasn't even wearing a skinsuit. Shame as it looked like a perfect bunch sprint stage.

[herr_oberst]

Note to self: Quit clicking on these posts before I watch the days events.....

[jyl]

Number 34!

Complicated sprint. Apparently the Tour has finished in Carcassone a couple times before but has never ended in a bunch sprint. I can see why. DQS' train was depleted, they burned up JA controlling the break and another engine got caught in a crash. They still had three guys leading Cav into the final 2 km. But it was a really technical run-in, something like 8 turns in the last 2 km with the last turn only about 125 m from the line. All the trains got fragmented, sprinters separated and leadouts trying to find their men. Surprisingly, no crashes. Cav got separated from Morkov, then boxed in, on one of final turns (may the final one?) he dived to the inside and brought himself up to get back on Morkov's wheel. Alpecin was riding for Phillipsen, he had a leadout bringing him up on the right, then he launched from Cav's right and about a bike length behind. Cav then launched around Morkov's right, the three drag raced, Cav led Morkov by half a bike and Phillipsen came in third by half a bike. I don't remember where the other sprinters were, I think most of them never found their leadouts in the chaos and were in the wind on their own. Cav is simply the fastest sprinter here, seems to have something in reserve, and when everything goes topsy-turvy he can surf and skip between wheels better.

One more possible sprint stage, then the Champs Elysees final stage sprint. We've been watching history.

I don't think anything happened on GC. Pogacar was pretty aggressive, kept himself up near the front, didn't get caught out in the echelons that occasionally formed. Was billed as a cross-wind stage but winds weren't that hard so echelons didn't last long enough to drop any contenders. All the teams have been weakened by attrition, Ineos is too short handed to drive echelons, DQS has no incentive to. Uran is sitting in second on GC, I think? He's been like a stealth plane in this tour.

[flatbutt]

I can't get real time coverage, just the highlights. I just finished stage 14 highlights. 12 mph up a hill that would be hard for me to walk up. Pogacar pulled off a few passes that left me stunned.

[Baz]

Just finished watching today's Stage 15....unreal!

CONGRATS to "The Durango Kid"!

Good kid and I couldn't be more happy to see him get the win.

Respect to AV for giving him a go there at the end. 41 years old - and still charging!

Fantastic!

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by KevinTodd

I'd like to have seen what the crowd did to that clueless woman who nearly took out the entire peloton due to her ridiculously narcissistic behavior. ME ME ME.......

you could see her just standing there after it happened for a split second in one of the shots.

she got arrested and charged from what I have seen

[Baz]

Nice moment. Winner Sepp Kuss and runner-up Alejandro Valverde congratulating each other after Le Tour de France Stage 15

https://www.facebook.com/veloncc/videos/289646002948952/