Very interesting early race development. Huge and really strong group got away, but whole of UAE chasing hard to close it down.

This is the kind of stage that makes you happy that the Tour has live coverage for the whole day.

I got a late start figuring I wouldn’t miss much on such a long stage with a flat start. Did not expect a 28 man breakaway with the yellow/green/WvA/Nibali 6 minutes up the road.

Not sure what is going to happen here, which is a delight.

Lol I just turned the TV on and thought Pogacar fell and was 6 minutes behind everybody

How can Roglic be dropped in a 2nd category climb when he did 7th in the TT 48h before.. i'm confused

Wow roglic is toast this weekend

Vingegaard or WvA for TJV now?

Injuries just catching up to him over time probably? Seems plausible that he'd be able to rally for a while but at some point it just becomes too much.

My guess would be that they'll back Vingegaard for GC but relieve van Aert of domestique duties and give him freedom to do whatever he wants.

Love these guys. Come to the Tour de France and still just have a two man battle.

It's very unusual imo. If legs aren't there for whatever reason (bad form, injury) usually that translates in a pretty linear way. He looked good at the beginning (finishing with Pogacar on the first couple hilly finishes), then got inured, then looked good in TT and now can't follow the peloton on a small climb? That's just an unusual pattern, I'm thinking something must have happened since the TT.

Maybe he just forgot his shot today

I don’t think it’s that simple.

It's very possible that his ITT performance was already affected by the injury and he'd have been close to Pogacar without it.

There's a big difference between riding 30 km on flats and 250 km, which has been high pace all day with lots of climbing as well.

The physical pressure is entirely different when you have to perform over 7 hours compared to half an hour. The longer time you're in the saddle, the worse most injuries get, but you can put out pretty much the same power over a short period if your injury isn't particularly bad (and Roglic probably still does better at the TT if he wasn't injured).

The Danish commentator actually pointed out early on the stage that Roglic was sitting "wrong" in the saddle, which is typical if you're injured. Stuff like that might not something you feel for the first 100 km, but after 7 hours, your body will ache that much more of you have an injury than if you don't. Sometimes riders have to abandon because they hurt their hand after trying to race on, just because the pain levels get gradually worse over a whole day, and when it's painful enough, your performance level will drop, which might be what happened to Roglic. It might not even be something he notices until he's performing close to max for an extended period.

Edit: it obviously varies depending on the injury, too. I remember Dan Martin a few years ago, when he was racing with two fractured vertebrae, but finished 6th overall, his highest ever. Brian Holm (Quickstep sporting director) said he was fine when he sat on his bike, but he could barely walk or stand up straight when he wasn't, and he needed help to get on and off the bike.

Is there a dominant climber these days? sunday's stage looks nice

Probably Pogacar.



Great win by Mohoric, who now joins the club of riders who have won stages at all GTs. Really good stage overall, so many things happening everywhere all the time. I think we've had a really entertaining first week of the Tour, even on the flat stages we had some ambitious breakaways with some tight finishes. That said I'm obviously still looking forward to the real mountains.

Roglic is done, so the Vingegaard dream lives. I hope he wasn't hurt when he crashed.

Week 1 was unreal. It had it all. Ala day 1, amazing strategy and execution by MvdP to get yellow, Pogacar dominance in the ITT, two Cav wins (!!?) and now this.

Sucks for TJV so bad. Gesink out and Kruiswijk too far back. Roglic may abandon now. Hopefully they can at least pick up a stage win (Kuss one time plz).

Tomorrow could already be nice, the climbers need to start pressuring WVA et al, and the Romme+Colombiere combo is brutal (and beautiful).

Sunday's stage is less suited to big manoeuvres because the last climb is made for boring big trains (jumbo, ineos) asphyxiating potential attackers. It's very "flat", very regular, and very long. Main chance of a sunday funday is if (big if) a contender decides to YOLO on Col du Pre, which is a tough ascent.

I can see Carapaz trying something this week-end, or at the latest on the Ventoux on Wednesday.

Maybe his ITT performance was the last performance that he could really dig in and get everything out of his body before his body shut down completely from being able to stay with the peloton. He'll probably be dropped early in tonight's stage especially with the hard start.

For tonight's stage, there is some suggestion that Nibali can win especially if it is wet but the solid money seems to be on Carapaz which I think after last night's stage realises that he needs to attack at as many opportunities that present themselves especially because he knows that Pogacar at that point in a stage will be by himself in the peloton without any team support.

But who are they protecting though for Jumbo and Ineos to be on the front of the train keeping the pace high (especially Jumbo as Roglic is done). I really honestly don't see anyone from those teams wanting to take the front of the train and it will be left to those other teams that want one of their riders who really are no chance of winning overall to win the stage by setting them up for an attack where they leap out of the group and solo it alone to the stage win.

This tour could be one that goes back to the pre-train days where it was 5 to 6 riders from different teams being left on mountains where they are eyeing each other off and waiting for each other to attack which makes for the best viewing.

That’s the hope! It shows the importance of having a well-designed first week (see 2021: small ITT, long ”classic-like” mid-mountain stage without summit finish) which allows for some gaps.
The usual scheme 7 sprints, then summit arrival on the second Saturday allowed the dominating team to kill the Tour since 1999 (Us postal, sky, etc) except in years where there was no such team.

only problem this year is that Pogacar is head and shoulders above the rest, and already has time on all GC contenders. You cannot take time on him on highway climbs like Sunday. Downhill finishes like next Wednesday could be an option, or a windy stage in the south next week- only stage he lost time last year.

We used to say the same about Contador but I agree there doesn't seem to be any real competition for him but tonight's stage will give us the first indication if there is anyone else.

My suggestion for a well-designed tour is to put cobblestones on each stage and ban anyone not named MVDP or WVA from entering the competition

These descents in the rain are scary jfc

Advantage the shorter riders

Pogacar is live to win the tour right?