Pro-cycling thread

Vingo should counter punch here.

Great stage. Superb first week.

Banger

Pidcock should have gone the other way round Derek gee, maybe

Easier said than done

It's great to have had a whole week of TdF without reading anything about it being a boring year.

Great for Turgis, great stage to have on in the background while working.

Hope Turgis is going to launch into an anti-far right tirade on the podium to celebrate election day.

And thus ends any conversation about sport

In a situation like that you have to pick a wheel and stick to it, he chose well to follow Turgis but didn't quite have it to get past him.

Vingo and Remco are right in it. Pogi will pay for doing the giro / tour double towards the backend of the race.

Pog and his team are so good in the mountains. And he's so good at staying out of trouble. I just don't see anyone putting time into him in the next two weeks. Gravel corners stretch gaps so much that I think today was the only decent chance of challenging him.

Forget the tour, ITV4 is giving us something historic.

It could go anyway in the last week, but from the way Pogacar has raced the first week I would say he feels he needs time on his GC rivals going in to that last week.

What a great stage. Shame about the gravel.

It's how he races every grand tour though, and each time he doesn't win, people point at the constant attacking as the reason for not winning. time will tell.

Just finished watching.
JV did well on the wrong bike for a long time.
MVDP was a bit anti climactic.

Amazing first week of racing. I think JV needs Pog to have a bad day, I think that’s possible (not sure Pog likes sustained pressure) but less likely this year.

not sure Pog likes sustained pressure

I think that's well proven, but I don't think Visma-Lease a Bike have the resources to put him under sustained pressure this year. Today was the first day where they were able to put his team under any pressure and, as a stage, it's an anomaly. On the only high mountain stage so far, UAE had four left in the front group when Jorgensen was dropped.

JV did well on the wrong bike for a long time.

David Millar was suggesting Tratnik was riding one of Vingegaard's spare bikes from the start of the stage, so he could hand it over if required.

What a great stage. Shame about the gravel.

Was good to watch. At the end of the day it's a race for entertainment, and the gravel added a nice bit of entertainment for the stage that otherwise would have been flat and probably quite boring.

I don't hate Adam Blythe but he wears the kind of jewellery one might expect to find on a medium should you wish to visit for a tarot reading.

Glad Turgis won instead of are Tom. (Splitter)

Glad Turgis won instead of are Tom.

#teamturgis

I made the dog jump out of his skin when I shouted for Turgis as he won. He's deserved a big win like that for some time.

I also think it applies for the 3 weeks not just individual stages. Not sure anyone besides Jonas can do that to him.

Yes, I agree. But to do it successfully, it needs the whole of Visma-Lease a Bike to apply that pressure and, without Roglic and Kuss, and with a under prepared Van Aert, they've just not been able to do that this year. Even if they could, it would be a high risk tactic because Vingegaard is more likely to crack under that kind of pressure because of his interrupted preparation.

I really don’t understand how Yates, Ayuso and Almeida outperform Haller, Denz and van Poppel.
If RB/Bora were going to be strong on any day, I thought it would be today.
I screamed when Vlasov crashed, was convinced I saw the Slovenian bands on his arms as he went down.

Would he be allowed to start with the wrong frame number plate?

Errr, he'd have his own number on it, regardless of whose bike it actually was.

Yeah, just not sure Jonas has any other option if he wants to win. Just try frustrate by being a shadow.