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Morning all. After a quite ridiculous day yesterday I suspect we’re in for more of the same today.
Due to the difficult weather conditions expected on stage 20 and landslides noticed, the course has been modified. After taking off from Albertville, the race will use the N90 road to head directly to Moutiers to reach the planned route at the N90-D915 roundabout 36km from the finish. The start will be given in Albertville at 14.30 for a total distance of 59km. The KOM prize at the finish in Val Thorens remains.
The Val Thorens climb is 33.4 kilometres at 5.5%, although that statistic is biased by a number of downhills on the way to Europe’s highest ski resort (2,365 metres). The steepest kilometre slopes at 9.1% and is located 5 kilometres before the finish.
Val Thorens high altitude finish was included only once. In 1994, Colombian Nelson Rodriguez climbed to victory on the hors catégorie slopes.
Time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds are awarded to the first three riders on the line.
The profile is clearly new to the Tour website so isn’t great, but...
VT
Th contenders?
The Contenders: Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) is in yellow and en route to winning the Tour de France only he hasn’t won a stage, only seven others have won the Tour without a stage win and if his team’s priority today is to guide him to the finish they’ll surely want to set him up for the win today too and show what he can do. The course suits him with the long climb to altitude.
The breakaway has a chance today, think Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) but they’ll need to deploy their whole team in some kind of team time trial to tow the break away. But Jumbo-Visma and Bora-Hansgrohe still trying to place their respective leaders Steven Kruijswijk and Emanuel Buchmann on the podium in Paris they have a shared interest in cracking Julian Alaphilippe and seeing if they can overhaul Geraint Thomas as well and this should see a high pace
And as ever, yesterday.
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for a total distance of 59km
So a total team time trial up hill then! Will GT be under Team instruction or will it turn in to a Team mate race to the top (if he can keep up)
There are going to be some very very exhausted riders at the finish line in VT
ASO should earn their money and re-route. 59km isn't worth getting out of bed. What's wrong with going up and over the Madeleine before the VT climb?
Tour is over. Well done Bernal.
Bardet to win the spotty dress.
Bernal to win the Tour.
Sagen to win the jolly green giant pullover.
It’ll be rather like a climbing ITT I reckon. Stage win could be any climber with even the slightest amount of red corpuscles left that haven’t been smashed to bits, so I’m not going to even attempt to offer up just one person... could be anyone.
Sadly, the bunch will just fracture and be all over the road.. probably with some riders still leaving the K0 whilst others have finished.
Bonkerz..
ASO should earn their money and re-route. 59km isn’t worth getting out of bed. What’s wrong with going up and over the Madeleine before the VT climb?
I think they probably know the logistical difficulty of last minute re-routes, road closures, signage, marshals etc. better than any of us on here.
They had a ~64km mountain stage last year, everyone got out of bed for that one.
team oleaginous greenwash to smother it today.
CHARGE!
It’s going to be a smash fest - Bernal will want to win to prove he is worthy of the jersey, Thomas will want second on the podium - as will Kruijswijk and Buchmann and Alaphilippe
Anyone know what channel it might be shown on in France?
Probably all of them.
any idea of revised timings, I have to run several errands and was planning on being back for the finale but can't work out when that will be now. Normally it's about 40kph average and I think I read 1330 start (UK time) so allowing that it's mainly uphill but short, I reckon 25-30ave so a 2-2.5hr stage? Means the climax will be say three onwards?
Let's hope the weather doesn't throw further spanners in the works.
So it’s got to be a mad crazy charge.
Empty all tanks in a mass team trial to as far up as the teams can take the climbers . Hopefully.
I’m cheering Bardet on for the spots & I hope juju’s team can muster an effort to make it really exciting.
Hope g makes it on to the podium at least.
theotherjonv
Should be quite a bit faster then that closer to one hour 45 minutes. Budget a largish half an hour to Moutiers and then a bit over an hour from Moutiers to the finish.
ITV coverage changed from 12.30-17.00 to 13.10-16.00
Cool. I've never witnessed an uphill mass start race before.
Nickjb, it's on fr3 from 1 til 3, then switches over to 2.
Apparently they might be cancelling the whole stage 20, decision incoming in the next 10mins or so.
Such a rubbish last two days. 🙁
60km uphill time Trial would be good! Winner would be the deserved winner of the Tour.
Apparently they might be cancelling the whole stage 20,
Where did you read that?
https://twitter.com/nedboulting/status/1155055887310106624
Assuming they actually start, I think the uncertainty of it all will make for even more hectic racing. If the stage finish is moved 10km further back down the mountain or something, there's no option for teams to leave it to the last, they'll HAVE to go from the gun - taking every point on the road as though that's the actual finish just in case something happens again and they shorten the stage or stop it mid way during the race.
It also has the potential if the weather is bad to be horrendously dangerous... 🙁
Some videos on twitter now of the conditions - it is absolutely torrential.
https://twitter.com/carltonkirby/status/1155059697847869440
I'm beginning to think that if they ride at all it'll be a neutralised run to the bottom of the hill then a hill climb race.
Don't they know about rules 5 and 9?
theotherjonv
Should be quite a bit faster then that closer to one hour 45 minutes. Budget a largish half an hour to Moutiers and then a bit over an hour from Moutiers to the finish.
Official Tour website has averages of 26, 28 and 30kph; as you say a long half hour to Moutiers but they then reckon 90 mins +/- to the top, for more like 2:15
So in old money, it all kicks off proper around quarter past two UK time.
Interesting what they'll do with the possibility of another curtailment - no bet hedging to be done!
Just seen an aerial shot of part of today's original route being bulldozed clear of mud and rock. It might have been possible to clear the route if it had happened two or three days ago but unlikely in 24hrs.
It might have been possible to clear the route if it had happened two or three days ago but unlikely in 24hrs.
The year I did Etape du Tour (2016, Megeve to Morzine) they took out Col de la Ramaz for our ride due to landslides but they'd managed to repair everything by the time the race went over there about 3 - 4 days later.
This is going to be insane. The riders who want the KOM Jersey will be going for the stage win because it's relatively close on points at the top.
The riders on GC will all be going for it too because of the time gaps - it wouldn't be that difficult to throw the entire podium on its head at this stage - a badly timed mechanical, shortening the stage, a rider suffering in the conditions and the whole podium could change.
They've said on the live feed that there is a possibility of losing the last 11km. They'll make the decision with 39km to go (i.e. the bottom of the official climb)
sorry - 33km to go
Here we go! Jumbo are off.
Here we go! Jumbo are off.
Minus their team leader, forcing a slight recalibration.
Movistar levels of cooperation!
At least the brightening weather has meant we get the full climb.
Pretty spectacular speeds so far! I haven't looked at Strava, but I'm guessing every record will be broken today 🙂
Woohoo 🤪🤯
Hi Julian, can we show you out via the back door? Thanks.
Blimey, he may just stay in the top 10.....
How dull is this though! Hopefully some fireworks imminently
That looked like a big blow up there. How much time will he lose?
How much time will he lose?
40" already and he's still got 11km to go!. I reckon it'll be the thick end of 2 minutes.
There's a weird part of me that wants nibbles to hold them off
I want Yates to bridge across and win. Not a fan of Nibali.
Just bunged a fiver on Nibali.
Tipped for several riders yesterday and technically one of them won, but Sky bet doesn't pay out as the stage wasn't completed. Bullshit.
Someone get Nibali a bib
Getting tense now.
Can G hold onto his 2nd place? Will Yates get the polka dot jersey?
Will Bernal go for the stage win?
Racing: Pretty Awful
Coverage: Absolutely awful
I suppose the previous 3 weeks do mitigate somewhat mind
Yes the coverage was awful for the final 1km,missed it all
Nibali had a good race/win ... overall a very boring stage, and anti-climax to the TDF-2019
shame nobody had a go at the end. Must be all pooped. At least we don't have to listen to Kirby any more.
Great performance by jumbo visma. Kreijsvijk has a super poker face as clearly he didn’t have it at the end. Hard one for the tv. Show the breakaway winner or the possible action as the GC duke it out. I think they got it right.
I don't think the ITV commentators mentioned Valverde once the whole episode and then he ride's in to second
shame nobody had a go at the end. Must be all pooped. At least we don’t have to listen to Kirby any more.
I hate to break it to you, but ITV have been running live coverage all Tour so you never had to listen to Carlton Kirby's inane babbling in the first place 🙁
Surprised Valverde didnt try and get his team to catch Nibbles as he was easily the fastest finisher. Then I remembered it was Moviestar!!!
Bardet.....is it just me or does that feel like a really 'easy' Polkadot win? He's not exactly looked great at any point in the race.
Yeh surprised Inneos didn't try and get Bernal to chase so he could pick up Yellow, White and Polka dot
Agree with crazy-legs about not being a Nibali fan and I really hoped Simon Yates would win the stage. Simon was robbed yesterday (wink).
So pleased for Geraint, he won his 2nd podium place fair and square, lets hope he doesn't have a massive crash tomorrow and get hospitalised.
Valverde in it for the bonus seconds. Classic Movistar tactics!
yeah, I don't understand how Bardet managed to claim the polka dot jersey, seems the least deserving 'win' for a while now.
Gutted for Allaphillippe, he had an amazing run in yellow when he and his team were pretty much written off as stage hunters from the word go. His TT effort was exceptional as again people had written him off and assumed that would be his last day in the lead.
When will the other sprinters work out that you have to hoover up all the intermediate points possible to be on a par with Sagan and not just shoot for the stage wins? The inconsistency of his rivals is incredible, stage winners one day and anonymous the next.
I really though G was going to come good in the final week however his more measured and metered approach to the climbs didn't seem to work, last year when the others were fading on the crucial climbs he seem to be able to maintain his pace a lot longer, this year that didn't seem to be enough.
It was good to see other teams getting the hang of having their own 'Team Ineos train', in the past it was always team sky dictating matters on the front however there seemed to be far more organisation from the opposition teams this year plus whatever Movistar was doing - did anyone work out their tactics?
Congrats to Bernal, one of the youngest tour winners for quiet some time, a third different TdF winner for team Ineos which must be quite the nice embarrassment of riches to have.
A slightly flaccid ending to what’s been a great tour. I’d been holding out hope that G could somehow pull a win out, but he was just missing that last ounce of firepower needed to go with Bernal.
So moving forward, who will Ineos put their weight behind for next years tour? I can’t see them putting up up a triple header like Movistar
Congrats to Bernal, one of the youngest tour winners for quiet some time, a third different TdF winner for team Ineos which must be quite the nice embarrassment of riches to have.
I'm assuming you mean three different winners still with the team?
I was meaning Bernal, Froome and G. Is one of them leaving that I missed?
Nice combinatorics problem. 3C2 for the three tours. Bernal and G for the Giro, Bernal and Froome for the tour and Froome and G for the Vuelta.
Assuming they all say upright. Which is no mean feat. G is the only one who (just) managed to not rule himself out through injury.
INEOS have Carapaz next year too. Their support riders mostly looked a bit second hand this year so I reckon they were lucky to take Bernal to the win.
I wonder if G will have a go at classics next year and Alaphilippe a GT win.
Yeh surprised Inneos didn’t try and get Bernal to chase so he could pick up Yellow, White and Polka dot
The problem with that approach is that you stand to lose everything rather than gain one thing. Blow up or make a tactical error that drags your opponents with you and you lose the lot. I'd imagine there may also be a sort of "honour" thing where you don't needlessly deprive an opponent of valuable airtime and exposure by taking something you don't really need.
EB didn't NEED to do anything other than sit there in amongst the main group and defend. The riders pretty much all seemed on the absolute limit - even Nibali turning onto that final ramp dropped down to about 8mph.
Bit like how F1 has become a measured tactical approach of tyre and fuel saving with less of the do-or-die overtaking. Everyone has reache dthe same plateau of aero / marginal gains.
When will the other sprinters work out that you have to hoover up all the intermediate points possible to be on a par with Sagan and not just shoot for the stage wins? The inconsistency of his rivals is incredible, stage winners one day and anonymous the next.
Easier said than done. Sagan reaches the places pure sprinters can't by being able to climb better than them.
So moving forward, who will Ineos put their weight behind for next years tour? I can’t see them putting up up a triple header like Movistar
Froome if he's recovered, which I'd kind of put money on. Bernal if he's not.
I listened to R5SX on the way “ooooup norf”
I have to say, from listening to the coverage, that th stage was rather unexciting and rather a 1 Nibble stage to loose.
Still, we’ve had one of the most interesting Tours in recent years. We’ve a couple of French riders who’ve been pretty much exceptional in both attitude and talent, other riders who’ve never done much come to the for.
I’m very happy for all of the riders for showing the Tour off to what it should be.
More tomorrow...
But for now, I’ll succumb to ITV4’s prattling on about today’s stage.. I may turn down the volume and just watch the pictures.
I'm not sure Froome will be fully fit by this time next year. Hopefully I'm wrong.
It was sad that Cummings was ill for a day or 2 and couldn't quite get into a break that was hoped for by his fans.
The Yates are looking better and better as time goes on, hopefully with their team support, their talent will have them on the TdF podium for the Yellow jersey.
La Vuelta Espana starts 24th August.
La Vuelta Espana starts 24th August.
Which isn’t that far away is it 🤪
I’m not sure Froome will be fully fit by this time next year. Hopefully I’m wrong.
you know he's going to ride the Vuelta right?
One legged froome wagon...
I love that video of froome: the grin at the end says a lot if you ask me.
And he hardly looked at his stem at all!
I was meaning Bernal, Froome and G. Is one of them leaving that I missed?
Not that I noticed - just that Skyneos have won the tour with 4 different riders, hence assuming you meant 3 winners in their current team (unless you forgot that beady bloke on Eurosport).
I (perhaps foolishly given the conditions) rode up Cormet de Roselend and bivvied at the top on Friday night
Hard to imagine a bigger anticlimax for the few hundred folk up there on Saturday morning
What was shocking was there was no signage or comms down in Beaufort, and as most people headed down off the mountains, there seemed to be an equivalent stream of fans heading up there