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Morning all, all well?
TT day today, one for the kit geeks and perhaps those who love a GC shakeup.
The Tour de France serves the first of two time trials on the fifth day of action. At 27.2 kilometres, the predominantly flat race is the first real test for the GC contenders. And, obviously, an opportunity for time trialists to shine.
It is a first for Changé. Never before La Grande Boucle visited the place in the Mayenne department, just outside Brittany.
As the crow flies start and finish are just 5 kilometers away, but the riders make a detour so that the race adds up to 27.2 kilometres. The intermediate time checks appear at kilometre 8.8 and 17.2.
It really is a course for pure specialists who can push a big gear, although there are some uphill sections also – three, to be precise, with gradients hovering around 4%. With stretches at 7%, the hardest hill appears shortly after the start.
Laval hosted the Tour de France before, but is has been awhile. We have to go as far back as 1999, when Tom Steels outsprinted Erik Zabel and Stuart O’Grady.
A sprint finish will not happen on Wednesday 30 June. The likes of Stefan Küng will have it their way on the route between Changé and Laval.
The first rider, Amund Grøndahl Jansen, starts at 12.15 and yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel is expected to finish at 17.22 local time (CEST).
The contenders?
The Contenders: let’s tour the specialists first. Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quickstep) has a good chance today, third in the Dauphiné on a hilly course, today’s the course suits his big power. Two Swiss riders in Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Stefan Bississger (EF Education-Nippo) are the specialist contenders, Küng won the Tour de Suisse opener but just and perhaps took more risks plus he’s been doing more work so it looks like advantage Bississger. Søren Kragh Andersen (DSM) can surprise but probably needs a more daredevil course. Astana had a 1-2 in the Dauphiné with Alexey Lutsenko and Ion Izaguirre but today’s course isn’t as technical nor hilly so they could be close. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) has been avoiding the sprints to save himself for today but sits just fourth overall at 31 seconds. Max Walscheid (Qhubeka-Nexthash) is becoming a time trial specialist but a win is an upset. UAE have two outsiders in Mikkel Bjerg and Brandon McNulty.
Among the GC riders Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) has won a Tour time trial but that was behind Pau in the Pyrenean foothills, a stage win is going to be tough. But the form is there, so much so that when he rode the Tour de Suisse earlier this month he did the final time trial on standard road bike out of politeness because he planned to leave the race to attend the birth of his son and so he couldn’t really win that day and back on his TT bike he’s got a shot at yellow if he can take back eight seconds on Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and hold off van Aert. MvdP is good at everything but he’s never won a time trial although he can be close, he’d really prefer a more technical course with ramps to sprint up and corners to carve.
Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) is under the radar so far but looked spritely at Mûr de Bretagne. Normally Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) would have been a big pick for today but he must be smarting from his crash, just avoiding a further time loss to rivals would be a small victory. The same for Geraint Thomas (Ineos). Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) won the last time trial in the Tour but there’s no mountain-top finish today, he can be very close. Rigoberto Uràn (EF Education-Nippo) is one to watch to see if he can confirm the ride he did in the Tour de Suisse where he won the mountain time trial to Andermatt.
And as ever, yesterday.
That familiar pose from Cav really brought a lump to my throat *again*. Such a pleasure to see
That familiar pose from Cav really brought a lump to my throat *again*. Such a pleasure to see
Indeed. Nice to see Bouhanni annoyed as well!
WvA has some pressure on him today having missed the sprints due to concentrating on this stage so it'll be interesting to see what he can do.
I'd like to say that this is a course that suits G but it depends on how recovered he is from that crash. Top 10? Wonder how Carapaz will do? Highest Ineos rider on GC and potentially the de facto leader so if he has a bad day and tumbles down the rankings and G can't do much to recover time, it could leave Ineos in the position of hunting stage wins rather than a comprehensive bid for overall.
Bouhanni is carrying on Cav's rivals experience. There are many other pics of Cav with arms raised and the losing sprinters banging handlebars in frustration.
I’m interested to see how MvdP does today. I don’t think he’s ever had any big incentives to race a TT full gas but if he puts an effort in he could do well. I guess I’d just like to see someone do well on power and instinct as a contrast to the practice & prep usually required
Really hope that 'G' can claw some time back.
Gonna be tough one for Geraint, lot of weight on shoulder on TT bars i guess...
I find it funny that some people are still surprised that MvdP doesn't do much TT training; why would he? He's not a full time Road rider - he does more training on a motocross bike than a TT bike; just like a lot of MTB-ers.
His main goal the last 3-4 years is on the Olympics on his MTB, not his road bike....
interesting that the first time check is before the drag up to Louverne, the 2nd timecheck will be more instructive for the riders, and the hairpin at Laval could be a banana skin if the riders or the team car aren't paying attention
Will be interesting to see how the climbers like Carapaz, Mas, Pogacar go, and will Roglic make up any of his minute deficit on Pogacar?
what would G, Roglic and all the other wounded be allow to use for pain relief ? In Gs' case would a localised injection be allowed ?
I’m interested to see how MvdP does today. I don’t think he’s ever had any big incentives to race a TT full gas but if he puts an effort in he could do well.
He certainly has the physical capabilities!!
Will be interesting to see how the climbers like Carapaz, Mas, Pogacar go, and will Roglic make up any of his minute deficit on Pogacar?
I suspect Carapaz will have improved his TT since joining ineos. Pogacar has *some* previous form in TTs 😀
froome back on the asymmetric/oval chainrings on his tt bike.... hadn't noticed whats on his road bike but he was definitely on round rings @ the Dauphine.
light rain
nice save!
getting very wet now !!!
someone bigs going to lose time today
you mean G ?
dunno someones going to push too hard and go down could be G, Roglic, Podj, Julian, WvA MvdP etc...
McNulty has been down. (will struggle to make the time limit)
the objective for G will be to stay upright, given his reputation.
nice save!
you mean G ?
I think he's referring to Stefan Bisseger
https://twitter.com/LeTour/status/1410214265961816066
looks like the rains easing off
dunno someones going to push too hard and go down could be G, Roglic, Podj, Julian, WvA MvdP etc…
Cliched, but you'd sort of hope, given their CX palmares, that WvA and MvdP are able to handle bikes in the wet...
I know that's a very Phil Liggett thing to say about "former MTBer therefore good bike handling"
looks like it's going to be dry for the favourites now.
Kung running 58x11 😀
58x11?!?!?!
Back when I was fit, if I was in the 53 ring then the bottom half of the cassette was redundant 98% of the time!
58×11?!?!?!
Commentary saying there's actually about 800m of climbing within the 30km which is a lot - it's just disguised as a whole load of drags and rollers rather than definitive climbs.
G setting off now. He's only on a 56x11. 😉
Podj is flying
the yellow jersey has an amazing effect!
Looks like he just barely defended it!
GC is over then? Pog in yellow and I can't see him giving it back.
MVdP still in yellow, TP 8 secs back. Great to see WvA jump up to 3rd in the GC too.
Ah yes, misread that. Either way, MVdP won't hold yellow in the mountains and WvA won't either unless he is the new leader (Rog is 1:48 back).
Outside bet on Uran anyone?
Or a wildcard on Quintana?
He's been pretty strong in these first few stages and is currently only 2:45 back going into the mountains. Strong position for him so far this tour, early days though.
I was hoping someone might take a bit of time out of Tadej Pogačar and spice it up a bit. Hopefully there'll be some attacks in the mountains, I'm just not sure by who? Fair play though, that's a brilliant ride.
A long way to go yet though.
Looking down the GC, and you realise how bad it's been from Froomey so far: 165th place and 32mins 49secs down already. I know he wasn't racing for yellow this year but still that's a long way back for a rider of his calibre.
There is another ITT on the last day before Paris which could prove to be more closely matched if some of the main candidates have healed and not fallen off again. The mountains will re-shape the GC a lot over the next two weeks (can't see WvA or MvdP being quite so high up after those), but barring accidents it now looks like Pogacar's to lose.
Quite a few potential sprint stages though, and fingers crossed for Cav continuing this vein of form.
this year but still that’s a long way back for a rider of his calibre.
Former calibre. . calibre isn't a state you achieve. It's a state you maintain and unfortunately after sustaining the injuries he did he's lucky to be on the start line never mind race at his previous level.
Commentary saying there’s actually about 800m of climbing within the 30km which is a lot – it’s just disguised as a whole load of drags and rollers rather than definitive climbs.
I heard that but given that it's almost a loop with just 40m elevation difference between start and finish it seems way out. I've a 30km loop around home with 1000m of elevation gain and there's simply no way the two are comparable. Look at the stage profile in the first post, about 50m elevation difference between the lowest and highest points of the course, to get 800m ascent the route would have to do that 16 times. Somewhere between 200m & 300m of ascent seems more realistic.
he’s lucky to be on the start line never mind race at his previous level.
I believe there is another rider in the peloton this year who you could say the same about, now what was his name? 😀
a quick reconstruction of the route in google maps suggests about 250m of climbing
a quick reconstruction of the route in google maps suggests about 250m of climbing
I.e. around 800 feet
Quite a TT for a cyclo x rider eh ?
Unusual to see cav beat froome in a TT. Ineos and JV must be in a zoom meeting planning their mountain attacks, because TP is looking utterly dominant.
And of course MvDP and WVA can TT look at those engines. Get them aero and it’s always going to fly.
On geeky technical note, those arm rests serve as a windshield/arm fairing. Should be banned. In fact CTT did some years ago, interesting that they are back. And discs on TT bikes. Lots of disks. Look awful since you can’t really hide a rotor.
I gotta say, that stage was boring even without comparing it to the drama of the last few days.
Nice to see a mountain biker sticking it to (most of) the creme de la creme of the road biking world though 😉
Pogacar is clearly the class of the field, and they are racing for second...
..but that also means Jumbo/Ineos et al have to attack him relentlessly, and see what happens.
Could the riders that end up being Pogacar's biggest rivals be Porte and Uran?
Uran has never risen, but is always there anyway in the mix. Consistent. Porte needs to stay on his bike but showed his TT class today. Think they are all racing for second too, personally.
MvdP there proving that if you're good a riding bikes you're good at riding bikes.
Absolutely. But dont underestimate what he did yesterday. 31 seconds off the pace of the leader in 5th is pretty good for a tour debutante on his first individual TT, a discipline he has rarely touched. But when that leader is a cycling phenomenon on top of his game and mvdp was only 12sec off second thats epic!
I'm not convinced it's a massive shock though is it? He's an immense power beast of a rider often TTing away from a bunch of riders in Belgium who are all flat out... He's strong and powerful on anything remotely flat, so essentially as long as he can get the position, he's never likely to be slow on a course like yesterdays. It's like Ganna, there's no shock why he's a TT god... he's got massive legs and lungs....
Pog left the ramp 1 sec early