Tour de France 2020 | Stage 18 (Méribel - La Roche-sur-Foron, 175 km)

dastardly00

I would guess that they decided to give Morkov an easy start since he will have a good bit of work to do later on in the stage helping Sam. And Jungels can do a decent lead out job and then stay in the breakaway

donfers

Hopefully Morkov is not suffering as Sam will need him tomorrow and Sunday

Sagan out the back of the peloton with Ewan now.

EDIT: They have him in the Alaphilippe group now.

MPFGLB

So Kwaito came on a said there would be no action on GC because everyone will be waiting for TT on Saturday

Then Nico comes on and says the opposite that he can see movement on GC becasue of the type of climbs today ?


Just goes to show cycling os so hard to predict

redlead

Whats Alaphalipes game? He seems to throw himself into every breakaway and for the lack of a better way of putting it, blow his load early for no real reason. It just seems like there is no real strategy for him and he's allowed do what he wants. He's explosive but only in short bursts.

lawrencesummers

A world of pain awaits Sam.
Fair Fawks to him.

Anyone know what the time limit is?

dastardly00

redlead wrote: »

Whats Alaphalipes game? He seems to throw himself into every breakaway and for the lack of a better way of putting it, blow his load early for no real reason. It just seems like there is no real strategy for him and he's allowed do what he wants. He's explosive but only in short bursts.

To use your analogy, maybe he's just really horny :pac:

mr spuckler

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Anyone know what the time limit is?

It won't be known until the end as it's calculated from the finish time of the stage winner.

http://www.velofacts.com/cx-laps/tour-de-france-2020-time-limit-calculator.html

lawrencesummers

Sam and Sagan are going to have each other for company soon...

De Bhál

Griepel gone, one lad less for Bennett to worry about in Paris

lawrencesummers

mr spuckler wrote: »

It won't be known until the end as it's calculated from the finish time of the stage winner.

http://www.velofacts.com/cx-laps/tour-de-france-2020-time-limit-calculator.html

I always wondered how that was calculated. Nice one.

dastardly00

The scenery is amazing

mcgratheoin

Deleted User wrote: »

Sagan out the back of the peloton with Ewan now.

EDIT: They have him in the Alaphilippe group now.

Ewan out the back on his own according to the website - 5 minutes down already. This could be a bridge too far for him today..

Dodge

redlead wrote: »

Whats Alaphalipes game? He seems to throw himself into every breakaway and for the lack of a better way of putting it, blow his load early for no real reason. It just seems like there is no real strategy for him and he's allowed do what he wants. He's explosive but only in short bursts.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. He’s given a free enough role. He’s a classics rider who can climb. To be fair he’s won 5 stages in his last 3 Tours along with the Polka Dot jersey in 2018. Worn yellow for a good few days too

He’s an attacking rider and sometimes they don’t come off but the peloton is much better for riders like him

Mefistofelino

mr spuckler wrote: »

It won't be known until the end as it's calculated from the finish time of the stage winner.

http://www.velofacts.com/cx-laps/tour-de-france-2020-time-limit-calculator.html

The expected winning time today will be around 5 hours, so the cut-off will be around 35 minutes later

lawrencesummers

Online race tracking has Bennett at the back alone, TV just showed Sagan as the rear admiral.

Maybe the mountains are playing havoc with the GPS?

JazzyJ

40 in the gruppetto - already almost 5 minutes down.

Viviani and Coquard going out the back of that.

dastardly00

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Online race tracking has Bennett at the back alone, TV just showed Sagan as the rear admiral.

Maybe the mountains are playing havoc with the GPS?

It's not always reliable. Like there's no way that Caleb Ewan is ahead of Sam on the road

Mefistofelino

Tracker now showing Sam in a group at 5 minutes (3 minutes behind peloton) and two minutes ahead of the Ewen group

North of 32

mcgratheoin wrote: »

Ewan out the back on his own according to the website - 5 minutes down already. This could be a bridge too far for him today..

He did admit in a rest day interview that he's lacking a lot of resilience this year because there was obviously no racing prior to the tour. He said last year he felt himself getting stronger day by day, but this year he's feeling worse and worse as the race goes on. Having said all that I reckon he'll be there in Paris.

These are the roads I love seeing the most in a tour. Amazing sight.

JazzyJ

Sagan going out the back of the peloton.

Bennett in the grupetto 3 mins back from peloton.

Ewan 2 mins behind that.

JazzyJ

North of 32 wrote: »

He did admit in a rest day interview that he's lacking a lot of resilience this year because there was obviously no racing prior to the tour. He said last year he felt himself getting stronger day by day, but this year he's feeling worse and worse as the race goes on. Having said all that I reckon he'll be there in Paris.

He's gonna have a hard day today - at least he has 2 teammates.

mcgratheoin

North of 32 wrote: »

He did admit in a rest day interview that he's lacking a lot of resilience this year because there was obviously no racing prior to the tour. He said last year he felt himself getting stronger day by day, but this year he's feeling worse and worse as the race goes on. Having said all that I reckon he'll be there in Paris.

He has 2 men with him to help him out but losing that much on the first climb of 4 doesn't bode well. You may see some epic descending as he tries to limit his losses.

Anyone else think that following the grupetto for the tour would make a great documentary?

lennymc

mcgratheoin wrote: »

He has 2 men with him to help him out but losing that much on the first climb of 4 doesn't bode well. You may see some epic descending as he tries to limit his losses.

Anyone else think that following the grupetto for the tour would make a great documentary?

I think it was jens voight's biography spoke about how he was blown away by the descending skills of the grupetto, trying to make a time cut:)

mcgratheoin

lennymc wrote: »

I think it was jens voight's biography spoke about how he was blown away by the descending skills of the grupetto, trying to make a time cut:)

I'm going to try to keep an eye on Ewan's gap at the top to see how much he pulls back on the descent.

Sam about 6'30" down and Ewan another 2 minutes back at the top

lawrencesummers

North of 32 wrote: »

He did admit in a rest day interview that he's lacking a lot of resilience this year because there was obviously no racing prior to the tour. He said last year he felt himself getting stronger day by day, but this year he's feeling worse and worse as the race goes on. Having said all that I reckon he'll be there in Paris.

On Newstalk or gameon radio sport show someone was interviewed about how the lockdown would effect performance, one thing that I remembered amongst a lot of waffle was how he was saying older athletes would find it harder to get up to speed, how the pausing of competition and time to get to top speed again is longer the older the person is.

Cycling could be the perfect example of younger riders being fresher But getting back to “fighting weight” faster and the older being more effected by the lay-off.

Inquitus

mr spuckler wrote: »

No love lost between him and Bennett at all, Trentin was quick to acknowledge Bennett straight after the sprint.

Gotta hurt being beaten to the Green Jersey by the team mate you never allowed to ride the Tour!

dastardly00

Ewan almost 9 minutes down

Inquitus

dastardly00 wrote: »

Ewan almost 9 minutes down

The rules:

Category 1 - stage with no particular difficulty
4 percent if the average speed of the winner is 21mph (34kmh) or less
Up to 12 percent if the average speed of the winner is greater than 30mph (48kmh)

Category 2 - stage presenting medium difficulty
6 percent if the average speed of the winner is 19mph (31kmh) or less
Up to 18 percent if the average speed of the winner is greater than 26mph (42kmh)

Category 3 - stage presenting intense difficulty
5 percent if the average speed of the winner is 15mph (26kmh) or less
Up to 18 percent if the average speed of the winner is greater than 24mph (38kmh)

Category 4 - individual time trial
Must be within 25 percent of the winner's time

Category 5 - team time trial
Fifth man crossing the line must be within 25 percent of winning team's time

Cat 3 today