Le Tour 2024

[CurtEgerer]

[flatbutt]

Aero de jour

[Baz]

[jyl]

F u c k y e a h

[Baz]

History......

[jyl]

Okay, that was a great sprint.

The Astana train stayed together and held Cav near the front until a little over a km out, then Cav got swamped down to P12-15 ish, alone on the left side of the arrowhead, with Morkov behind him. Alpecin was the only well organized train, on the right with two others plus Van Der Poel leading Phillipsen out. Jakobsen and his DSM leadout were at the head, followed by Kristoff (? red jersey) and De Lie (Belgian champ jersey).

Just inside 1 km Cav was alone in P16 in the middle of the bunch, Girmay next to him with one teammate, and Alpecin was moving up on the right. The bunch shifted to the right, Girmay dropped back, DSM was still on the front, and Alpecin kept moving up with Phillipsen on Van Der Poel's wheel with clear road to his right. Cav squeezed right, jumped onto Phillipsen's wheel as Alpecin was taking the lead. The DSM leadout blew, Jakobsen was in P1 way too early but had to launch, Van Der Poel got on Jakobsen's wheel followed by Phillipsen and Cav. Kristhoff still had a leadout, Jakobsen was quickly overtaken by Van Der Poel on the right and Kristhoff on the left. Van Der Poel faded pretty quickly, Phillipsen went around VDP on the left, and Cav went into the space that opened up in the center.

At about 500m Cav was in P5, even with Phillipsen, then Cav saw a hole on the left, lit the afterburners and accelerated into P1 with Phillipsen jumping on his wheel. Phillipsen chased but couldn't make up any ground on Cav who won by a bike length and a half, a convincing win that he made look easy. Kristoff was third and De Lie was fourth, Jakobsen somehow held on for fifth as Pedersen crashed out on the barriers.

A well-organized leadout for Phillipsen vs an improvised wheel-surfing for Cav, but Van Der Poel wasn't the dominating force of last year and Phillipsen didn't have anything on Cav when they were head to head. It reminded me of the 2021 Tour de France, when Cav beat Phillipsen repeatedly. It was baffling to me that Quickstep didn't bring Cav to the 2022 Tour, instead choosing Jakobsen who won one stage and then left the team.

So, the greatest road sprinter of all time becomes the winner of the most Tour stages, and I don't see anyone challenging that record.

Anyone think Cav is going to notch more wins this Tour? There are three more flat stages (6, 8, 10) before the next mountain stage, then two more (12, 13). I don't know which of those are nailed-on sprints, but there are a number of sprint teams this year - Alpecin (Phillipsen), Astana (Cavendish), Lidl-Trek (Pedersen), Uno-X (Kristhoff), DSM (Jakobsen) - to catch the breaks.

I'd like to see Pedersen win one and Girmay win another. I'd like to see Phillipsen get blanked - he's been crowned the dominant sprinter but I think he's a top ten sprinter who sometimes has the most powerful leadout imaginable. When Van Der Poel had a mechanical on stage 3, Alpecin's leadout fell apart. Today, Van Der Poel got Phillipsen into P5 instead of slingshotting him into P1, and he saw Cav's heels the rest of the way.

[CurtEgerer]

Well boys, we saw history today. That was a completely LEGIT straight out sprint win with all the best sprinters in the top 5. I didn't think it was going to happen. He lost Morkov early and then seemed to be boxed in but found a hole and did what he does. Wow Any reason he doesn't get a couple more before this concludes?!

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

Well boys, we saw history today. That was a completely LEGIT straight out sprint win with all the best sprinters in the top 5. I didn't think it was going to happen. He lost Morkov early and then seemed to be boxed in but found a hole and did what he does. Wow Any reason he doesn't get a couple more before this concludes?!

If he stays healthy I see no reason why he wouldn't take another. I'd love to see the wattage output of those guys in the midst of a sprint.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

If he stays healthy I see no reason why he wouldn't take another. I'd love to see the wattage output of those guys in the midst of a sprint.

I think like 1500w-ish peak (1 second) power.

[jyl]

https://youtu.be/V-ZVrkjck_E?

This video has complete overhead footage of the sprint. I hadn’t noticed how far back Alpecin were with a couple km to go, and I guess having to come up up from so far back cost energy, maybe more than they saved by hanging back there for so long. I also hadn’t noticed that Phillipsen contested the intermediate sprint, although it makes sense he’s going for the green jersey.

[look 171]

I just saw it. What a clean sprint. I am happy for him

[jyl]

Girmay takes the green jersey!

He and Cav were back there together, Cav got to the front, Girmay didn’t but finished well enough to pull on green.

[WSH]

Originally Posted by Baz

Context of this photo ?
Unfortunately I've seen little of the Tour this year...

[flatbutt]

Chucking down rain right now....yikes.

There's some interesting dialogue going on now regarding the use of flat stages like today. They're going back and forth on how the flat stages are boring, present no real challenge other than the sprints and the riders just chill through them.

[jyl]

I do not like these glasses with the nose tents. Nice to see Gronewegen on top, it’s been a while for him and this must be the first ever TdF win for Jayco? He came from a ways back and convincingly overhauled Phillipsen who got the best leadout from Van der Poel but was not the best sprinter. Girmay did well and keeps green. Nice to see Gaviria up there, when I see him I think of the Milan San Remo he would have won but for a careless wheel overlap on the last bend. Kristhoff’s train was impressive for such a small team as Uno-X. Astana’s train fell apart in the last km, got swamped, and Cav sat up, Cees Bol got 15th. Bol was a sprinter before converting to leadout; I wonder if Astana will keep its sprint focus after this season? It seems hopeless to go for GC if you’re a team that is expected to win at the biggest races and don’t have Pogacar, Vingegaard, or Evenepol - I don’t think of Astana as a great talent-spotter like, say, Quickstep or like Sky used to be.

[jyl]

Phillipsen relegated to last for pushing Van Aert into the barrier. Girmay now 2nd and his green lead larger, Gaviria podiums.

I re-watched the sprint. https://youtu.be/pzss8j2Yc9E? Looks like a deserved relegation, Phillipsen had plenty of room to go straight but closed the door on Van Aert who was a threat to come around him. I guess he didn’t see Gronewegen overhauling him off to the left, because squeezing out Van Aert wasn’t what he’d needed to be doing. There is grumbling that Phillipsen’s big move to the left chasing Cav’s draft contributed to Pedersen’s bad crash on stage 5, which I don’t think, and a budding revival of the “Jasper Disaster” moniker.

TT tomorrow. Could be a big GC day.

Yeah, the flat sprint stages are snoozy until the end, but maybe the GC riders need the rest to really light up the mountain stages? I wonder if there is a way to design the flat stages to encourage strong breakaways, increase the chance of echelons, something to spice them up.

[jyl]

Interesting, UCI warned both Cav and Phillipsen against further line deviations on the morning before stage 6 started. That’s why Phillipsen got relegated when he deviated . . . on stage 6. Was he so anxious about Van Aert overtaking him that he decided to move on Van Aert despite having been warned that morning?

“Wielierflits reports Cavendish and his sprint rival Jasper Philipsen were issued slapped wrists by the governing body ahead of stage 6 on Thursday after they were ruled to have deviated from their lines in the melee of Wednesday’s record-breaking finale.
Officials were seen Thursday morning meeting with Astana-Qazaqstan and Alpecin-Deceuninck staff to threaten sanctions for any further irregularities.
The UCI’s move comes after safety concerns rattled through the Tour peloton in the aftermath of two fraught, crash-marred bunch finishes.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Intermarché-Wanty, Israel Premier Tech and several other teams are reported to have complained of dangerous sprinting after both stage 3 on Monday and Cavendish’s big day into Saint Vulbas on Wednesday.”

The UCI sprint rules say that after you launch your sprint, you cannot charge your lane in a manner that endangers other riders. Super vague and enforcement is inconsistent and usually meaningless (fine, relegation), with only one or two riders a year getting any stiffer penalty. Gronewegen got a huge suspension (for taking out Jakobsen), Bouhanni got a two month suspension.

[jyl]

Pretty tight TT among the GC guys. Evenepol, Pogacar, Roglic, and Vingegaard in that order, all covered by 37 seconds on a 28 min course.

On GC, Poagacar has 0:33 on Evenpol, 1:15 on Vingegaard, 1:36 on Roglic. https://www.letour.fr/en/rankings

Tomorrow should be a sprint, Sunday a hilly stage, then the first rest day. Tuesday another flat stage/likely sprint, Wednesday a mountain stage, Thursday another flat/sprint.

Oh wait - tommorrow has rollers and 1 km 3% climb near the finish. So if it’s sprint, it’s more for the sprinters who can climb a bit. Pedersen, Phillipsen, Girmay, Gaviria, Matthews, etc.

[Baz]

Been a great tour so far!

2024 Tour de France standings for the yellow jersey, green jersey, white jersey and polka-dot jersey through stage 8 of 21 ...

Overall (Yellow Jersey)
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) -- 31:21:13
2. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) -- +:33
3. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) -- +1:15
4. Primoz Roglic (SLO) -- +1:36
5. Juan Ayuso (ESP) -- +2:16
6. Joao Almeida (POR) -- +2:17
7. Carlos Rodriguez (ESP) -- +2:31
8. Mikel Landa (ESP) -- +3:35
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) -- +4:03
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (RUS) -- +4:36
11. Adam Yates (GBR) -- +4:56
12. Egan Bernal (COL) -- +5:25
19. Jai Hindley (AUS) -- +6:24
26. Richard Carapaz (ECU) -- +7:57
29. Geraint Thomas (GBR) -- +9:33

Sprinters (Green Jersey)
1. Biniam Girmay (ERI) -- 216 points
2. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) -- 128
3. Jonas Abrahamsen (NOR) -- 107
4. Arnaud de Lie (BEL) -- 92
5. Bryan Coquard (FRA) -- 86

Climbers (Polka-Dot Jersey)
1. Jonas Abrahamsen (NOR) -- 33 points
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) -- 20
3. Valentin Madouas (FRA) -- 16
4. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) -- 15
5. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) -- 12

Young Riders (White Jersey)
1. Remco Evenepoel (BEL) -- 31:21:46
2. Juan Ayuso (ESP) -- +1:43
3. Carlos Rodriguez (ESP) -- +1:58
4. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) -- +3:30
5. Santiago Buitrago (COL) -- +5:20

[flatbutt]

Abrahamson was so close to being a Titan today. What a lead out! If he had won the stage as well......