General Race Thread 2022 **spoilers**

Mefistofelino

J-V catch the break and immediately drive a 20 rider echelon off the front, with 60km to go. Sam appears to have missed that.

Mefistofelino

Sam and Ryan in the second or third group. Sam appears to be making heavy going of it.

retalivity

Just turned on, how many groups are there on the road, 4?

mr spuckler

From CN

This is absolute carnage... The yellow jersey group has split once again into three echelons, with Sam Bennett and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) among those caught out.... Again, Jumbo-Visma and QuickStep are making the running. Ineos have Adam Yates, Luke Rowe and Daniel Martinez up there, while Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) also look smooth. 

Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) is in the second group with Simon Yates (BikeExchange) Oliver Naesen (AG2R) for company.

The peloton, meanwhile, is at 1:15. Guillaume Martin and Biniam Girmay are among the riders back there after their earlier incidents. 

happytramp

Kind of hoping Jakobsen doesn't win it now.

Mefistofelino

Sam back with the front group - but at what cost? BORA rightly stuffed that up. Sprint stage with echelons a certainty and BORA missed the split. Mullen & Bennet had to spend a lot of energy getting back on. I think Max Schachmann has lost ~ 2 minutes already.

Even Quintana made the initial split

retalivity

Quintana has a great knack for getting the right side of splits though

Macy0161

In fairness I don't recall Quintana ever getting caught out in the wind.

Mefistofelino

Quintana isn't some Watt-monster like Ganna and as he was on his own in the initial split, it wasn't a case that he was dragged over by other Arkea riders. So it was just a case of "road-smarts" that got him in the first echelon. Something that BORA should also have.

TBF, Ineos missed the first split, but drove hard to get it back together and then split it again once their own riders were there.

mr spuckler

Sam was nowhere :(

Their positioning was very poor in the last couple of kms although I suspect he wouldn't have had it anyway.

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118746004#Comment_118746004

He was miles back, looked like Mullen pulled out and left him alone with about 600m to go.

EDIT: Quintana outsprinted him! 😁

EDIT2: Actually, it looks like it was Sam himself that pulled out, left vlasov to sprint.

happytramp

He's been quite open about his lack of form/fitness and even predicted he'd cop a bit of flak for it earlier in the season.... But yeah, Jakobsen looks on a completely different level right now.

Mefistofelino

Errrr, Cyclingnews - are we not doing phrasing anymore?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118751268#Comment_118751268

Glad I'm missing today's race 🤭

I had to ask my wife to explain that one to me. Sorry I asked now 😂

Mefistofelino

Paris Nice Stage 3

1) Mads Pedersen

2) Bryan Coquard

3) Wout van Aert

Sam, Fabio dropped earlier

The yellow jersey crashed with about 300m to go. Took a little while to get going again but no time lost

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118751529#Comment_118751529

Did she explain or demonstrate 😁

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118751668#Comment_118751668

I declined the offer of a demonstration lol 😄

De Bhál

nice sprint in TA, a lesson in drafting

Another podium lockout for Jumbo Visma today in the TT.

In Italy Pog, Soler and Alaphilippe kicking on after the intermediate sprint.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118757949#Comment_118757949

Soler going for the glory 😝

Mefistofelino

Very tidy win for Caleb Ewen in T-A

Wow 18 non starters in Paris Nice today, and another 3 abandoning during the stage so far.

mewso

Israel have one rider left. Jay Vine is a loss. One who could have nabbed a win over the next few days. Some good riders in the break. Should be an interesting finish. Personally would like to see Madouas win.

Shake of the head and a nope from Morkov when McNulty went there 😄

Wow WvA out the rear already.

mewso

Very strange. WvA and Kruijswijk dropped and Dennis still there. Gaudu looks to be in very bad shape based on yesterday and today. My man Madouas couldn't even stay with the main chasers of McNulty. Big problem now is whether to switch over to Tirreno because you know Pog or Evenopoel will be lighting up things as usual.

retalivity

Simmons beard is not very aero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118763464#Comment_118763464

I remember we had some discussion on beards here ages ago when I botched a trim on mine and shaved it off and someone linked to a piece suggesting it made no difference. See if I can find it now.

Jeffery Soup has the best beard in cycling hands down.

mewso

Shock winner at Tirreno :)