Originally Posted by jyl (Post 12281442)

So when Pogacar and Vingegaard crest the last climb, Vingegaard takes the lead for the entire descent. He did that to control the speed of the descent and nullify Pogacar’s ability to take time with his descending skills. Pogacar knows that, so why did Pogacar let himself be led down the technical, difficult descent by a rider that he could have gapped? Either Pogacar was tired and no longer thought he could beat Vingegaard by much, so he chose to rest and try to pip Vingegaard at the line. Or because his rear wheel slip on the last descent, and knowing this descent was more technical and even wet in spots (surely the team reconnoiters the route every morning?), he didn’t want to descend like a demon?

UAE must be pleased that they were able to burn off Visma’s domestiques and isolate Vingegaard. Pogacar may be wishing he’d attacked one climb later, then he might have reiterated the gains of the Galibier stage (3? I can’t recall). It seems like he can gap Vingegaard on a climb, but Vingegaard can catch him if the climb is long enough. Roglic was saved by the 3 km rule, but it feels like Evenepol is the better bet for third podium spot. Rodriguez descends like an F1 driver!

Curious - when was the last time before the attack we saw Pogacar take on food, gel, drink? Attacking from 30+ km out, he’d want to have loaded up on fuel in preparation, no?

That’s another technology thing I wonder about cycling. Right now, the riders can’t easily take on fuel when they are riding hard. At least, it’s probably difficult enough to reach, get the bottle, drink, and replace the bottle while pushing hard, that they are unlikely to do it much. But ideally, you’d want to be regularly dosing fuel (sugar) during the hard riding, wouldn’t you? Is there some way to make fueling easier?