Tour de France 2023 ***spoilers*** Warning in OP

Great interview with Pello Bilbao afterwards. Really delighted for him and his team. Hope they can win again this year. Come on Fred Wright!

Stage 11

This is a true classic type stage. Good climbs early on and then short little kickers over the second half of it.

I don't think WVA and MVP will miss the break this time. Mads Pedersen will fancy his chances in this one with no serious gradients.

I jest, I jest. This is almost certainly a sprint stage. There'll be a breakaway but the sprint teams will be fully focused on bringing it back.

There is a chance late in the stage that somebody could make a move ala Victor Lafay on stage 2 but it's unlikely as the term once bitten, twice shy comes to mind as regards the peloton.

So there's all the usuals. Mads Pederson, Dylan Groenewegen, Phil Bauhaus, Caleb Ewan, Fabio Jakobsen, WVA and Girmay.

I think I forgot one there. Oh yes it's my pick for the win Jasper Philipsen.

Sam Bennett

am I the only one deriving a smidge of satisfaction in seeing the lad who replaced him well down the points jersey classification? is that terrible of me?

I feel bad because I know they all deserve massive respect for just being there, nonetheless....

Yes, even by the standards of having to fill 'static' parts of the stage where nothing is changing in positions.

You'll be pleased then with today... not in Top 10 :)

that wasn't a proper sprint stage though was it, bit of an uphill finish? Pederson was favourite to win it

Of course it is unfair. Not trying to pretend it is anything other. And yet... it's there. That's sport.

Maybe the decision was actually Mullen vs another climber?

Though DVP & Sam would have throwing a good fist at the sprints so far.

I think you have a point here and I believe his absence from the the line up demonstrates Mullens value to the Bora sprint train. There was a lot of commentary that Sam's performance were so disappointing because he had the best leadout team in the World Tour. Mullen does a lot of the donkey work in the 3km to 1km to go part of the stage where van Poppel takes over (excluding today because it looked like van Poppel had a bad day and didnt feature at all in the lead out). If I was looking to build a world tour leadout train for next season I would be seriously looking at Mullen (and Morkov for one season at least now that it appears he is leaving lotto Soudal).

Now it is also worth remembering that when Meeus was announced in the tour team the 8th rider was A.N Other which obviously meant it was a last minute decision to swap out Sam with Meeus. The dilemma for Bora was then whether to bring Mullen as a third member of the new sprint strain or pick an extra support member for Hindley which they had not originally planned for and ultimately chose Konrad who had just completed the Giro. A Bora sprint train of van Poppel and Meeus was a complete unknown as they rarely raced together beforehand and not bringing Mullen as the third member of the sprint train compounded that mistake.

Morkov-Mullen-Cavendish at Astana for #35 😅