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Morning campers, team time trial day, boring for some, for me, absolutely fascinating. What's in store?
35.5km and if you saw the Critérium du Dauphiné the distance is similar but the course is not. Those with long memories will remember Stefan Schumancher winning the Tour de France’s individual time trial in Cholet in 2008, it was on similar roads but this time they’ve added a few twists and turns to add in more vertical gain. It’s a hilly with a climb straight out of the start in Cholet, a drag up of 10% for a kilometre and awkward for team cohesion. There’s a brief descent and then some undulating and exposed roads on the way to the first time check. There’s more big, exposed roads before another dragging climb up to Romagne. The climb of La Séguinière to the second time check is hard, not quite a wall but real effort with a maximum gradient of 12%. These climbs are awkward for team time trials, the time is taken on the fourth rider so squads have to go at the speed of their fourth rider but who is the fourth rider? The climbs make it easier for riders to go into the red, either on the ascent or the section over the top. Cohesion and pacing count for so much.
Flat, but seemingly lumpier than the last 2 days
Who's in the mix, INRNG, what you got?
The Contenders: BMC Racing and Team Sky are the two prime picks and hard to chose between them. BMC Racing have been near invincible in this exercise for some time now and have their pacing and aerodynamics down to a fine art. Stefan Küng is almost worth two riders but this hilly course isn’t his preferred train. Team Sky have picked Egan Bernal and he’s never done a team time trial in the World Tour although he’s surely done plenty of drills in recent weeks, still he’s a potential weak point but otherwise Sky’s roster looks built for this stage, the likes of Froome, Thomas, Kwiatkowski, Moscon and Castroviejo can take big turns.
Next come Team Sunweb, Quick Step, Mitchelton-Scott and Movistar. Sunweb are strong with the likes of Tom Dumoulin, Michael Matthews and Chad Haga but surely not enough to take on BMC and Sky. Quick Step look cohesive too and will want to ride as fast as possible so that Philippe Gilbert and Julian Alaphilippe sit high on GC so they can take the race lead in the coming days but the win is a tall order. Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates crashed yesterday and we’ll see how he is today. Team mates Luke Durbridge and Daryl Impey also fell, sustaining some sore injuries which are bound to dent their chances today. Movistar may not have the biggest engines but should work well together and can aim for the top-5. Bora-Hansgrohe won’t just be motivated to defend Peter Sagan’s position, they have some solid rouleurs but a stage win sounds unlikely, as does keeping the maillot jaune.
And, as ever, a wee look back on yesterday.
The break, Wanty? of course. A Frenchman? of course.
A throw
Touch of Sagan? Of course.
Sperm Helmets a go go!
Nice Vendee advert yesterday. Get that jersey on the TV for a few hours. Job done for the peloton - cynique? Moi? That’s racing. You do all know the DE team are sponsored by the Vendee? Was not easy to spot on Chavanel’s jersey
Not a bad race, but awful crash.
Can’t see past BMC this afternoon. World Champions at this discipline. G should go well based on his recent solo practice run. And you need to go at the pace of the FIFTH man until you know you can finish.
Perfect advert for the Vendée, such an awesome part of what is a stunning country. Glad Chava went off the front, he’s still a classy rider no matter the lack of results.
TTT’s bore me senseless. Couldn’t honestly care if they dress in clown outfits and ate McDonnalds whilst smoking fags.
Still confused as to why some are riding discs, clearly sponsors this year are pretty much insistent on pizza cutters.
Roll on tomorrow’s stage.
Interesting piece on the TechNerd bit of the Cycingtips podcast about bike fit from a few teams this year. Their observations where that the saddle was slammed forward and had longer stems (150mm / 160mm) from Trek and QStep to get, they guessed, a more TT setup. Judging from that picture above, it looks to be the case. I did think that some of the aero bikes / positioning this year seem more extreme and excruciating. Progress I guess 🙂
RE: Pizza cutters. Demare might have had an issue yesterday with his front wheel change had he been on them.......
Froome should be able to make back a bit of time on some of his challengers that he lost out to on day one. I can see him making up time on Nibali, Porte and Movistar (once they decide who is leading the team). Will have to avoid the thread after lunchtime so that I can watch the highlights without knowing the results!
the 3rd stage and am hooked, same as last year. Looking forward to todays TTT as it always impresses me when a team is working well together. Also to me its a bit of a give away as to how disciplined they are as a team and able to work for the leader.
It amazes me that Movistar can actually TTT given it seems to be a made up of guys who are only out for themselves.
I’d agree with the stance setups, they do look MOAR slammed this year.
Chava didn’t though, I reckon he copied my setup 😜🔥
Sky for the win, today. With Brailsford's attention to detail, they'll know this course like the backs of their hands. Possibly.
different teams sized teams for tdf but should be a good indicator perhaps yellow for G
BMC for me, well oiled machine at this though I think they will take each other close.
With Brailsford’s attention to detail,
We will be suggesting Froome's OTB was a clever trick to avoid yellow after a good TTT win next 😉
"Their observations were that the saddle was slammed forward and had longer stems (150mm / 160mm) from Trek and QStep to get, they guessed, a more TT setup."
They aren't that slammed forward - 5cm behind the BB rule applies for road bikes. You can exceed this on TT bikes with an exemption, but the ends of the extensions mustn't be more than 75 cm from the BB. There is a physiological exception if you have been on the milk as a kid to 80 cm, but saddle position is pretty locked down.
On road bikes a longer stem is allowed, if you like tiller steering, and that will get you lower, so yes it's probably valid, but not the saddle.
I'm actually geekily more interested in Garmin position - in line with the stem or between the extensions. G has his in front of the stem. I assume this will have been tested in a tunnel. Mine is the same. Most people put it between their arms on the extensions, but G has a very open position to allow smooth air flow.
Current thinking is about punching a cone through the wind with mantis position - This is banned by UCI - mid-pad to highest point of extensions cannot exceed 10 cm. So no arms up. They are also restricting arm rest shape from November.
Just seen the start times and BMC go 15mins after Sky so I'd expect them to be getting the sky splits all the way for a little encouragement.
Doesn't give encouragement unless you're close to it... if you're losing time it's likely to give the opposite ?
We will be suggesting Froome’s OTB was a clever trick to avoid yellow after a good TTT win next
Are you suggesting it wasn't part of Sir Dave's carefully crafted strategy?
Doesn’t give encouragement unless you’re close to it
From the top
The Contenders: BMC Racing and Team Sky are the two prime picks and hard to chose between them. BMC Racing have been near invincible in this exercise for some time now and have their pacing and aerodynamics down to a fine art. Stefan Küng is almost worth two riders but this hilly course isn’t his preferred train.
BMC are very very good at TTT (and some ITT specialists too) so if they are not close they should probably stop and have a word with themselves.
Its not unfeasible that G could be in Yellow tonight.
Stefan Kung is currently winning the battle of the stems with a 170mm bad boy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Road_World_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_team_time_trial
My mistake, 1014 and 2015 winners and runners up since then. But yes, BMC are very good at TTT's.
Let's hope Sky aren't running those extra round tri-spoke front wheels. New smooth skinsuit approved by UCI too. No dimples. As opposed to the Endura SST skinsuit that has been used by Movistar for a few years and is now available to the public.
He is awesome though.
*mancrush
I think the only problem BMC face is the fact that many have already signed for new teams, i think Porte is off to Trek Segafredo? So having been messed about over team and contracts for last couple of months, maybe some of the riders loyalties will lie with new team not BMC..
So having been messed about over team and contracts for last couple of months, maybe some of the riders loyalties will lie with new team not BMC..
Lets see how the racing pans out before we start accusing people of not trying. If you need a new contract this is how to get one.
Indeed, the Tour is the showcase CV for new contracts innit.
Porte is off to Trek BTW, confirmed yesterday but can’t sign until Aug 1st.
170mm!
I think the point of the seat position section in the podcast was that they expected the pros to have the saddle far back for the long and low position. I'd totally forgotten about the UCI rule. It sort of echoed the point Steve Hogg makes that sometimes the pros have less idea about positioning than we might expect.
Interested to see what effect the running order has. There’s been much made of it in the press, but that might just be column inches ahead of an otherwise dull event.
Any weather reports?
Hot/rainy/dry/dusty??
I only checked the running order just now. Quite surprised at that, but I'm guessing it's down to the early time losses. I'm intrigued as to how they work it out for the TTT - do they just take the mean average time for all team members?
By team classification I think and yellow Jersey (both held by same team) so they run last
Any weather reports?
Hot/rainy/dry/dusty??
Parent said it was 35 or so degrees yesterday and looking to be the same again today in Cholet
Hope they all stay upright 👍
Usually it's pretty windy there in the afternoons, could be a lot of odd crosswinds.
Sky up on Mitchelton-Scott, no idea if it's a good time or not yet though.
Sky 5 seconds up on Sky up on Mitchelton-Scott and 49 up on Movistar.
Boom! BMC take the lead! That's my tip blown out.
Good result for sky and bmc there