This Jumbo-Visma team with Dumoulin next year is gonna be fun. I don't know if anyone is rumored to be leaving, and Kruijswijk might be disappointed that he won't be team leader in the TdF anymore (and Bennett won't get to ride for himself at all, but he has some genetic medical condition and doesn't consider himself a GC contender anyway), but if it stays intact they'll have an absolutely insane TTT squad and a GT train to rival anybody. They also have one of the top 3 sprinters and a top sprint train, which actually makes their TdF squad selection kind of difficult. And then, of course, Van Aert is gonna boss mode classics season, and probably a bunch of other stuff too.
They were actually going after MvdP too, but thats not happening. Would've been best super team we've seen in a long time if they coulda pulled that off. In other news, Rohan Dennis has been offered chance to buy out his contract. Bahrain Merida is done with him.
JA is the man for sure, but that descent down to the finish really helped him out today. The next two stages are going to be a big problem for him. Stage 20 especially. At this point I think I like Bernal of the two Ineos riders. He looks like he's bound to gain big chunks of time the next two days. Quintana could conceivably attack the final climb both days and gain big time and pull off something crazy too. He looked insanely good going up the Galibier today. But that team is so dysfunctional, and Quintana is known for let downs in big spots. Who knows if he can go deep enough three days straight. It's too bad Pinot lost time in the crosswinds, because he'd be in a virtual tie for the lead right now. But he could also still pull off something inspirational being a Frenchman and all.
Won't happen. The guys who put in the effort today would be screwed. All options are not good. You can't do "on the road" decisions. The tactics are made for the finish, not some random climb. Total turd.
I know it won’t happen but it is the fairest if all options. That way people could plan for it. You can’t plan for “by the way, today’s stage ended when we decided it did, ‘fuck you, you are screwed if your tactics were for the last part of the stage’” I know in the end it most likely will not matter as Bernal is looking ridiculous. But guess who looked ridiculous less than a week ago, Pinot and then he was injured. Bernal could have literally killed himself at the last of today’s stage but we will never know. He was just handed the benefit of a huge advantage without anyone being afforded the attempt to catch.
it would've come down to Pinot vs Bernal. Bernal is just on another level than Pinot going downhill though, so he probably would've won anyways. Get ready for nothing but Bernal over the next 5+ years.
I get why they had to cut todays stage short. there was litteral rocks on the descend. But tomorrow because of maybe bad weather, get the fuck out.
Nah there are more landslides over tomorrow's route. The descents of the first two climbs tomorrow are completely fucked.
I don't have an issue with how they did it. If you don't want to get fucked by some random shit then be on the front.
Lance gets on interviews and talks about going to the front and needing to be in the front... when he and his team were cheating which is how they could hold the front and use the energy. Obviously if you can always hold the front you win the tour. This tour wasn’t that. It was a crap shoot. Changing the goalposts mid stage/ tour is a turd. In the end, I think it didn’t change the end story.
Yeah it's obviously bullshit for Lance to preach be in the front but he's hardly the only one who advises that. This kind of stuff happens in cycling. If you choose to let someone go up the road by a minute on the second-to-last mountain stage of the tour, because of your "tactics", then tough luck if it fucks you later.
This is not funny but I still laughed when they took the plunge and were playing splashy with each other.
How the fuck do you let MvdP just ride off the front? Lose any chance of winning cause you wouldn't spend 30 seconds of effort to pull him back.
If you're one of the favorites I don't know how you look yourself in the mirror losing the championship to one of these four.
Agreed. Thankfully real racing is coming very soon. Schedule is whacky as fuck though. Could be some insane results.
Any recommendations for good places online to purchase a bike? I probably wouldn't want to spend more than $1000. tia