Another fun stage. The Yates brothers being 1 second apart on GC is cool

After all that 1 second change, oof!

Impressive resilience from Jonas. It did feel like that motorcycle cost Pog the 8 seconds at the top of the climb (and the polka dot jersey) but we’ll never know

So evenly balanced between those two. And Rodriguez was v impressive too. I’d assumed Pidcock might emerge as the lead Ineos guy this year but that looks wrong

Does anyone know what has happened to Bernal this year? He doesn’t seem to have featured at all

Bernal is still recovering from a crash that almost killed him, it's unknown if he'll ever get back to the level he was before that.

I’m a stage behind but the last couple (won by Izaguirre and Kwiatkowski) have been nuts. Fast from the start, not much of a gap for the breakaway, so hard.

Really expected Jumbo to be stronger as a team than they have been, at least this week. VingeGOAT isn’t dependent too much but he’s had a lot of time with nobody left but Kuss.

I've rewatched the WvA-Majka back from the dead kilometer like 6 times already

despite there being a tt and two more mountain stages, I feel like Sunday’s stage is gonna decide the tour

The thing that tilts me the most is that dickheads with their phones out are ~0% to get a decent picture as well as endangering the riders. Just ****ing watch it

Couldn't watch today but I get the feeling that Tuesday will decide the Tour. Seems like neither guy can decisively drop the other, ITT could then make the difference. I have no idea in which direction though.

Whatever happens though the guy behind after the ITT will try something on Wednesday. And I really hope that whoever is behind after that will try something really crazy on stage 20.

I keep hearing about how Col De La Loze is going to be in Jonas' favor but every time I thought one had the edge in this tour, I've been wrong.

Yet I'm going to throw another clueless guess that Vingegaard gains 22sec on Pogcar in the TT and the rest is going to Pogacar trying to attack Vingegaard unsuccessfully

Only watched the 30 min condensed recap today but boy this is great stuff

felt slightly meh about today's stage. Not sure if it was just the Aus coverage but it was so bitty...so many different groups and the coverage was jumping between them all. Really hard to get into a flow of the stage for much of it.

also a little disappointed Pog didn't go harder or earlier. Maybe he had nothing today, maybe he fancies his chances next week, or maybe just the final climb wasn't tough or long enough? Probably the latter. IDK.

I guess having such a tiny defecit means he doesn't feel he needs to take any risks at this stage of the race. I'm expecting a small Jonas win in the TT but I can't imagine there'll be much between them on Weds but then Weds and probably Sat will be higher risk, all out earlier stages

Just checked the betting markets and we have

Pog $1.80
Jonas $2.00

couldn't be much closer

I agree with them, I think Wednesday will be a win for Jonas. Before yesterday, I had it virtually even with a miniscule lead for Vingegaard (something like 51-49), but after Sunday I'd say it's more like 55-45.

Before the race, no doubt Wednesday was the stage Jumbo most emphatically considered to be Vingegaard-Day. It's an extremely difficult stage, it is very late in the race, and de la Loze is the highest altitude climb of the Tour, each of these three circumstances, in theory, favor Vingegaard.

Apart from the first two mountain stages where they dropped each other, the general development of their relative strength has IMO been unsurprising. It was expected for Pogacar to be (relatively) better earlier, while Vingegaard's super human recovery ability would mean the balance would gradually shift to favor him in the third week in the Alps. The difference between them has been microscopic, and the shift of balance has been extremely slow, but I would argue that we have seen Pogacar struggle more with dropping Vingegaard each day.

Obviously, there's a difference between not getting dropped and then yourself dropping Pogacar, but the Wednesday stage is practically tailored for Vingegaard - and it bears mentioning that in every Tour Pogacar has raced, he's been dropped on the highest altitude climb - including the very same one they're going up on Wednesday. On the other hand he wasn't exactly struggling on Tourmalet which is also quite high, but that was also early in the race.

How Wednesday will play out depends entirely on the TT, because if Vingegaard does not lose time, I doubt Jumbo will take a very attacking approach Wednesday - and, obviously, if Pogacar puts 45 seconds into him the above analysis goes out the window, as it will be a good indicator that he is just at a better fitness level currently.

I expect the TT to be close, but I favor Pogacar for it, as I consider him to be a better time trialist in general, and I think the stage suits him well. If they are relatively speaking at an equal level form and fitness-wise, I'd expect Pogacar to win, although not by more than 10-15 seconds.

Although this analysis is probably (at the very least) what I hope as much as what I actually believe. No doubt it is still anyone's game and it will likely be extremely close.

The TV direction was notably bad at the end yesterday albeit in a tough spot with lots happening along the road.

I put a little bit on Jonas at evens last night, as you say I think he's >50% to win

first rider finishes the TT with an average speed of 33kmh. The course must be tougher than it looked on the stage plan

These giant aerodynamic helmets look comical

Did you take a look at the % numbers? TT profiles can look a little weird because you have 20km stretched to the same length that is occupied by 150km for a regular stage.

Seeing Kung just change from TT bike to road bike shows that it must be tougher than it looked to you

Also keep in mind that stage is an active recovery ride for a lot of riders. Would be cool if they could put power numbers on the screen for a couple of domestiques and riders going for the stage win without any implication on the GC.

Almost a collision on a ITT course, you don't see that very often.

Used the time before the last couple riders productively to grab the Cote de Domancy jersey on Zwift.

Vingegaard is absolutely flying.

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What the hell was that

Looked like he was pretty fast.

That was impressive.

I figured he'd win but not by that much.

That was Armstrong-y...