Thought van de Breggen might have been in the wrong gear on that ramp. Also think this is a different finish from when they've been to Le Grand Bornand before, pretty sure they usually drop off the climb and finish in the centre of the village (somewhere round where they hairpin past the church with about 3k left), so that ramp is new for the men later.
Oi, that cheered me up. Had no idea it was on, turned on Tiz out of habit and there were 2km to go. Super stuff.
Ursus, I'm guessing the answer is no and it is probably something to do with the Gira Rosa and please don't spoil any further as I haven't caught up with said race yet!
I'm calling today's TdF stage as one for the puncheurs, or possibly even the break if there are some strong riders involved. GC contenders will be too wary to go all in imo. Would be great to see Jungels do one of his charges.
There are 45-50 minute broadcasts of each stage with (unintentionally funny) Italian commentary on YouTube. Annoyingly, they begin with 10-15 minutes of dead air, but do eventually start.
The same source (PMG Sport) have five minute highlights of each stage, and then there are the official UCI highlights (w/English commentary) of about seven minutes each.
Getting ahead of myself but if we do get a women's TdF of, say, 10 stages, there could be scheduling issues with the women's Giro, which has had its early/mid-July slot for some time.
Indeed, I agree - and I think there would be something neat about the men and women having their two biggest tours at the same time, but in the other country.
Problem with having a women's TdF in mid-late May is that there's no guarantee that the high mountain passes would be open. Dauphine sometimes cuts it pretty fine and has a tendency to avoid the really big climbs to be safe.
Re good weeks, a couple that spring to mind. Armstrong "winning" four stages and the GC in the last week of the 2004 Tour, or Sean Kelly in April 1986 when he was runner up in Flanders, won three stages and the overall at Pais Vasco then took Paris - Roubaix.
Tony Gallopin (AG2R), Elie Gesbert and Amaël Moinard (Fortuneo-Samsic), Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), Jack Bauer and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Julian Alaphilippe and Philippe Gilbert (Quick Step), Peter Sagan and Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Serge Pauwels and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data), David Gaudu, Rudy Molard and Arthur Vichot (Groupama-FDJ), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Lilian Calmejane and Rein Taaramäe (Direct Energie), Guillaume Martin and Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
But now we're hitting the first cat.1 climb of the Tour.
Comment