There is excitement in the peloton as the Tour de France heads towards the great mountains, especially when it is the Pyrenees that begin the action. Promise is a smart selection among team leaders, where some will flourish while others leave. to do this, from time to time you have to spend one or two stages with wind before locating the typical climate of the Pyrenees, which can range from hot, humid and threatening one day, followed by misty, bloody and humid the next.
It is imperative to hit the mythical terrain with the best of your abilities, and then you must adapt to pull the giant circular ring to pedal the interior flexibly – or, as the French say, flexibly. much more sublime expression of the pedaling strategy required, in a way it disguises the effort in question through its trace of femininity.
However, there is nothing comfortable on the climbs and surfaces of the roads, Friday’s level was so typical of the surprises that Peter Sagan can produce, and Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma, nevertheless won some other level victory, showed the leader of Bora-Hansgrohe. why he was the favorite for some other green jersey.
Among the general contenders, everything was perfect until a division in the leading organization captured Tadej Pogaar, Richie Porte, Bauke Mollema and Mikel Landa. It wouldn’t be a Grand Tour if Mikel Landa didn’t start the mountains to chase the other. guys said it wasn’t his fault, but never. We’ll go back to Pogaar’s stage later.
In the French Quarter, everything goes well for Thibaut Pinot et al – provide and correct, attentive and in position for the days to come. At least that press release after Stage 7. Sigh.
Then came the Port of Bales and Mr. Pinot regained his complicated courtship with the Tour. Eight runs, 4 dropouts and lots of tears for your FDJ team along the way. Now the newspapers are complete with Thibault Pinot’s deception, but who is surprised?control of the team, because Marc Madiot promptly had a statement. Anyone who doesn’t prepare is preparing to fail. Of course, they may have some other statement already made, which says how satisfied they are to lead this race, because it is also likely.
I can ask this question when things stabilize around the question of whether the pinot will continue or not, but as a normal guest to my nearest donkey sanctuary, I like someone who has them at home. He is unhappy because this Tour has a very attractive appeal. race, and chances are there won’t be a local driving force on the podium. In fact, there will be level wins, but anything similar to the overall one will be more complicated.
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) are just below podium level and will not be free until they do what former career leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) has and loses 20 minutes. Maybe they shouldn’t lose so much, because it would be disappointing.
On the other hand, Primoo Roglio (Jumbo-Visma) is at all times behind Egan Bernal (Grenadiers of Ineos), with an additional interest from Tadej Pogaar of the United Arab Emirates team: two Slovenians behind a Colombian. Pogaar is the least quantifiable as to how you will handle the rest of the race, because after the pair of mountain stages, it will definitely attack when the road is going up, however, there is Bernal’s confirmation that it is improving every day and every day. suspicion that the new yellow jersey has learned from previous reports and is participating in a more conservative career. Roglio won the Vuelta a España last year with a competitive strategy at all times, but the Tour is another point of stress, and cannot show a weakness, in a different way Bernal will pounce.
The protecting champion wants a decent hole before the La Planche des Belles Filles time trial at the penultimate level if he wishes to resist Roglio, and this is where an alliance with Pogaar can develop. At the moment, this is not likely, yet. Stranger things have happened in a motorcycle race.
I don’t think we can forget that Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) has some influence on the way procedures in the Alps expand. The biggest climbs are yet to come, and those are the herbal terrains of the South Americans. The rise to Marie Blanque’s Col on Sunday would possibly have caused the variety that replaced the head of the race, but it is a fairly special climb to negotiate and is not necessarily suitable for smaller climbers. The way it widens in the last few kilometers requires a fairly hard pilot, which is rarely very Quintana. He was comfortable at the Peyresour the day before while it was Bernal who seemed in difficulty, but it was due more to brutal acceleration than force.
The fact that Landa, leader of McLaren of Bahrain, in Sunday’s combined, and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), not far from doing the same, shows how little Friday’s wind losses were necessary.
Now that we have confirmation that Jumbo-Visma is willing to sacrifice Tom Dumoulin to put Rogli in the most productive position, we can assume that the Dutch team will make the race from the day of rest. They did it anyway, but now that Adam Yates and Mitchelton-Scott have given up the lead, Jumbo-Visma can avoid pretending it’s a matter of protection or positioning.
At Los Grenadiers they will be watching and waiting for the opportunity to turn the race around. Sunday’s level is an indication that grinding tactics had changed. When they put the pilots on a break, it’s after the fact that if Bernal is on the attack, then there are troops to help.
Speaking of the good use of runners, the case of Robert Gesink, who kills his own teammates before achieving the last very important climb, comes to mind, his Jumbo team reconsiders the hierarchical order to take care of Rogli at the last hour of the race. because Gesink obviously has a way to do it, and for a long time too.
Tour tour so far? Marc Hirschi on Sunday stage and Nans Peters the previous day impressive, but the world champion of the magical under-23 2018 road race.
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