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Le Tour
- Thread starter Quinny
- Start date
I was watching it live and I initially thought Cav had made a mistake: he was motoring to the line, to me looked to his left to see if there was anyone on his shoulder (there wasn't at that point) and seemed to ease up, which had me shouting "what are you doing" at the screen. Now we know...
George Hincapie was talking on Lance Armstrong's vblog channel before Cav's post race interview, and he said - knowing Cav well - when Cav believes he can win a stage, it's head down all the way: total commitment. That Cav sat down and then got out of the saddle again in the last few yards said to Hincapie that it had to have been a mechanical. He called that right.
- Sep 30, 2003
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Gutted for Cav. Deserves to have gone out with another missile on the Champs.
Reckon whoever finishes today's ITT in yellow will be in yellow come Sunday in Paris.
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Just watched it âas liveâ on catch up. Where did Vingegaard get a performance like that from? Unbelievable, literally.
Yep, too incredible for my liking. But then there has been some muttering generally with the performance of some riders in a somewhat challenging tour (not really been one for the sprinters). But I've been following the sport long enough to learn that if a ride looks too good to be true, then....
- Sep 30, 2003
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Pog is an outstanding TT rider though. His time yesterday was in keeping with being better than others as in 2020. For him to almost be caught with the numbers JV did Iâm not sure all is as it should be.
Exactly this. I think Pog was happy before yesterday being just 10 seconds behind Vingergaard because he knew he'd be strong favourite to turn that over. And Pogacar didn't really have a bad day at the office because he was just over a minute faster than Van Aert in third ... which was to be expected (and only 30 seconds covered Van Aert in third through to Gaudu in tenth yesterday). But even if Pogacar could claim to have had a disappointing ride by his standards yesterday, to have JV smash his time by a minute and a half - over two and a half minutes faster than Van Aert in third ... well, as you said, incredible ...
I'm cynical enough - and old enough - to believe / know that
The bike change was misguided. I think Pog definitely lost some time doing that despite it being done very smoothly. The climb wasn't that steep so the aero benefits of the TT bike would have still come into play.
I agree with you on the bike change - it was unnecessary and Pog would have lost some time in the transition (about 15 seconds) ... but that change was done with over 3/4 of the stage already run and IIR JV was already well ahead on the previous split times before Pog changed bikes.