Originally posted by delicatemoth
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Brussels sprouts a new winner? Tour de France 2019
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostDepends on the team, as that needs to be balanced against the possible loss of time.Originally posted by Sporting View PostIn time trials are the team leaders usually permėtted to spend less time at the front of their respective teams in order to waste less energy for future stages?
Your team leader is likely one of your best time trialists. You need their contribution unless you have a very strong TT team.
So you want him to work. But too hard to undermine him for the rest of the race.
But he still had to put his shift in, as if he streams along too much then the three others he asks to carry with him will get too tired and one of them might get dropped. Which is a disaster. For once the leader must work to preserve his domestiques somewhat.
But equally they can't go to fast for him. If he starts struggling, then a very tricky choice emerges of slow everyone down or changing team leader for the entire race mid time-trial*.
* - an argument for holding the TTT much later in the Tour, this one. If there is no time to recover, someone placed 15th might suddenly become a better bet than a nominal leader in 8th who is going backwards suddenly.
Does the usual 108% of the winners time cut-off applies for the TTT? That would be quite hard to hit for dropped riders, I would have thought. Trains go much quicker than a lone rider can maintain.
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There is a cut off time, though it's quite a hefty one. Jens Debusschere lost six and a half minutes today and is still in the race. Riders have been eliminated in previous runnings - Stephen Roche in 1991 the most famous example when a muddle meant he missed the team start time, started solo well behind them and finished so far back he was out.
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Today is going to be 150k very much for the purist then a 60k finale with several punchy climbs. Three third cat climbs will be enough to detach all the sprinters, whether someone like Sagan can get over them to contest the finish is debatable. Teunissen can get over hills - he's a Colbrelli / EBH type rider - but whether he can manage it in the front group will depend on the nature of the racing and how much the team falls in behind van Aert. Looks like an Alaphilippe day really. Shouldn't have too much impact on GC, although some contender will lose time because of a crash or mechanical somewhere. An ideal first week stage, in other words.
Apparently Cofidis are looking to sign Viviani, with Sam Bennett going to Deceuninck to replace him.
Enjoyed The Secret Pro's line on yesterday's TTT:
The biggest win of the day was that Gianni Moscon didn't get into yellow. I think I speak for most of the peloton when I say that.
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The last 600m or so is at around 8%, with a left turn about 300m from the line - https://i.imgur.com/ijcuajs.png
I wonder if someone like Trentin, Boassen Hagen or Bettiol mightn't go for a late late break.
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There's usually a punchy stage like this in the opening week, something that will produce a change to the race lead but won't generate much by way of gaps among the overall contenders. There's not much by way of full bunch sprints this week, tomorrow will be although there's a climb about 15k from the end and Friday definitely will be - that'll be an absolute belter, 231k on the flat. Sunday might be a sprint though more likely a break.
Today's break has gone after Lotto forced a hard start - Wellens, Rossetto again, Offredo (who always seems to get into a break in the opening days), Delaplace, Ourselin. That's a good composition considering that Wellens is the only World Tour rider, David Millar has said on ITV that he thinks there's a chance that could go all the way.
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- Oct 2011
- 26995
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
ASO have also got wise to the inevitable big crash when they have front-loaded sprints, especially if the town isn't really well-suited to 168 riders hurtling through at 50+ km/h. They've lost a fair number of favourites that way. By having more stages like this, they reduce the risk of that happening as fewer teams will bring the full sprint train.
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Which will also make the sprints safer as the race will have settled into a hierarchy after the Planche des Belles Filles - they're going to that climb the hard way so some GC contenders will lose some serious time that day and therefore won't be trying to stay at the front in bunch finishes.
Thanks to a tailwind they're absolutely rattling along today, they're about quarter of an hour ahead of the fastest schedule.
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Originally posted by Capybara View Post
Irritating Parsnip Man seems to have disappeared also. Perhaps the funeral expenses he took out the plan for have been paid.
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