Call me a pedant but I dont think it was Pagacar chasing after Pogacar! Maybe it was someone like Porte?
It was very interesting Nass. I can't help but feel that a lot of the big name climbers are already showing signs of weakness, but with so much mountain stuff still to come, any of the serious chances can blow up big time. Pogacar did look impressive though, and if he he wasn't bullshitting, the 48 seconds deficit might not be too much of a problem. You know much more about this than me, but at this early stage, it looks like a race in three at the moment ... Roglic, Bernal and Pogacar. I've been impressed by the young American Neilson Powless who's contesting the great race for the first time. Anyone having a having a quick look at the general rankings and seeing the number 43 beside his name, could easily be forgiven for believing Powless isn't going all that well. But they'd be mistaken. I'm hoping like crazy that by the time they reach Paris, the number will be in the teens. I think he has a nice career before him.
It shows how having competition when young drives on improvement!! To me I’d say the podium in France would look - Roglic Quintana Pogacar However we’ve really not had that big stage yet which breaks the race open.
Good call that, he’s been impressive in breaks and was unlucky not to finish top 3 on his birthday. He is out looking for stages wins which is good to see. Hopefully he can rest a bit and attack a few more stages in the next couple of weeks.
I’m also still amazed to find odds against on Sam Bennett winning the green jersey. I’ve got him as an 8/11 shot at worst looking at what’s left and how poor Sagan has been in the bunch sprints. I think it’s a right old mistake in the market. Today is one of Sagans last chances to pick up sprint points as the intermediate sprint is after some climbs, if he doesn’t get into the break then he is in big trouble. I expect Sams team will be doing everything they can to stop him going up the road!
In an interview this week Sagan said "Sam Bennett is faster then me", could be mind games of course. Had a little bit on POGACAR for the outright. He was testing the big boys out yesterday and I think he is confident. 9/2 looks a bit of value in a two horse race.
good to see an open race , not sure you can call it a two rider race just yet , lots can happen in next week
It’s different attacking when in deficit, the second time they let him go. Now he’s close they will be attacking and counter attacking him too. it’s a shame we’ve got a time trial at the end, otherwise I’d be with Quintana each way, but he’s not in the same class as Roglic or Pog in a time trial.
I have two bets from a couple of weeks ago: T. Pogacar winner 14/1 R. Bardet King of The Mountains 9/1.
Tomorrow the coronavirus tests are carried out on all the runners and assistans. If in any there are two or more positives, that team will go home.
As long as he gets to the finish it looks another positive day for Sam Bennett with both him and Sagan missing out on points in that intermediate sprint. It currently looks like a race that could all come back together, although Hershi is trading at 1.7 in the run. At that price he surely is a lay, he's still got climb to come and the peloton look so strong. If someone attacks then he could be reeled back in very quickly
Out to 3/1 and Roglic now the favourite for the stage. Hopefully they catch him and I can take away a nice profit for the stage.
Sagan is becoming my favourite quote machine at the tour - todays one - “I’ve tried to break away but I spent a lot of energy and I didn’t have much left to do more later on. So we rode quietly in the grupetto. Every day, I see how I wake up in the morning. We never know what can happen at the Tour. Sometimes we can lose big. Better think of the present but not of the future.”
WTF has happened with Djokovic at the US open? Taps a spare ball away in disgust at his last shot at the line judge goes down like Mike Tyson has just connected with a left hook. Did someone spy their 15 minutes of fame? Novak disqualified.
Forgive my cynicism, but it seems the main aim of this weekends race was to stop Hamilton winning yet again. Yes it is a bit boring when the same guy keeps winning (anyone remember Schumacher?) but unless you make everyone drive an identical car then the teams with the deepest pockets will always have the edge. Changing the rules halfway through a season - a move that the F1 boss openly admitted was to try to bring the chasing pack closer to Hamilton (from today and including Monza, in-race engine tweaking was banned - there is a technical name for it but I've forgotten what it was) He was then hit with a very harsh penalty for entering the pit lane when it was officially closed - it took several slow motion replays to spot the indicator of this fact. A 10 second stop-go penalty put him at the back of the pack with just 12 laps left. Very disappointed, although I can share the sentiment that it was an exciting race,albeit somewhat engineered IMO
Hammo was as guilty as buggery Reebs. These guys all know where the lights are. He and the team blew it. It seems some in the team knew not to enter whereas others were caught with their pants down. There was no major plot to bring Hamilton unstuck yesterday, it was just a Merc mistake. Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi also made the same mistake, but every other driver in the race got it right. Hamilton after the race: "They just quickly showed me the onboard, and there were two signs that had an X on it. I actually didn't see them, because I was looking elsewhere."
