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You are only laughing coz its true. To add insult to injury I backed Kwiatowski to win yesterday only for him to have a ****ing snoozefest in the peleton. If I fell in barrell of tits at the moment I would come out sucking my thumb!

I hope Roglic gets a puncture in the time trial

 

WOUT VAN AERT 11/2 to win the time trial tomorrow. Stonking bet, riding out of his skin and clocked out early today to save his legs!

 

As expected, the two 19 year old athletes ran a sensational race in Rome. They ran the fastest time in 13 years. All three, place men were amazing.

 

Women's 800m.

 

Karsten Warholm is one class act.

 

Time Trial is Saturday. Today is the last big chance for Sagan and Trentin to upset the green jersey. It could all be over in that competition this evening.

 

And then there's Mondo, who's arguably the finest athlete of these times. Since the year 2000, World Athletics has decreed that the indoor and out door heights would not be separate categories when it came to the record. Sergey Bubka's 26-year-old, 6.14 outdoor world record has been eclipsed twice by Duplantis who has scaled 6.18 indoors. That's the official record. But the one height all jumpers want to beat is Sergey's outdoor record. Mondo did just that last night in Rome. He's the only man to do so.

 

I think Pete's a shot duck. With 52 points up sleeve, Bennett pretty much has it wrapped up. Bennett is 1-8.

 

indeed but with one terrible stage it could spin around. I don’t see it happening, but given the nature of the tour, who knows!!

 

My view on today -

It’s going to be one of those days where Bora and CCC try and light the race up and distance the green jersey and the big sprinters. One ‘small’ climb and then hills will make it tough for them to do so.

I don’t think the teams of Sunweb, Bora, CCC or D Quickstep will let the break get too far down the road and as such I expect it to be a bunch sprint or an opportunist attack as we saw with SK Anderson win the other day.

It makes it very difficult to bet on today, you’ve got Wout as favourite or joint favourite with Bennett and then you’ve got other riders who are showing that they are beatable/distanceable at single digit prices (Sagan, Ewan).

The key for the stage is going to be whether Wout is needed for JV duties or if he can ride for the stage. If it’s the former then he makes the market, if it’s the latter then he is value. As such they’ve got the market just about correct.

I’ve had a couple of quid on Boll @ 24.0 and Mezgec @ 21 with savers on Wout and Bennett

 

Do they normally have a time trial so late in the competition? Wout deserves a stage win more than anyone (more than Kwiatowski) but will team orders hold him back, they surely have enough firepower to cut him loose but its all about Roglic and the GC.

 

The individual time trial is a nice end to the competition, it gives them a man versus man finish with the clock rather than the team tactics and breakaway dynamics. It has been placed throughout the tour in previous years, but I do like it at the end. Another massive positive this year is the lack of a team time trial, which we often have seen in the beginning of grand tours.

Generally this year has been a brilliantly set up race, unfortunately the mountains haven't been as explosive as we might have liked, but that is down to the way Jumbo Visma have raced as a dominant team. I think we've missed that true challenge of a Alaphillipe or Froome character, but with Pogacar coming through and a few others beginning to shine, it looks another good few years for this race.

Wout has had his win, so it will be team first today, but he is good enough to be in the hunt with 3km to go, and if they do drop either or both of Ewan and Bennett, then he would surely have to go for the stage. I like Mezgec who finished 2nd in the Anderson stage, outsprinting Sagan and others in that finale, if it comes to a tough long battle for the win, then I do favour him over Sagan and co.

 

In the Tour there is almost always a time trial and in the last two or three days, even one of the most famous episodes in the history of the Tour took place in a time trial that took place on the last day of the race and that was held between Versailles and Paris with 24.5 km of route in 1989.

Laurent Fignon was in the lead on the last day with a 50 seconds advantage over Greg Lemond and it seemed impossible that in so few kilometres Fignon could lose so much time. But it happened and the big surprise came. Fignon lost 58 seconds and Lemond was the winner of the Tour by 8 seconds. It is the Tour with the least difference in history between the first and second classified.

 

You know this stuff better than me Nass, but I'm not sure the stage will end with a bunch sprint. The course looks a bit too lumpy for mine. For me, Bennett and Ewan probably not there (due to the hills) and Bora - Hansgrohe to go all out to get Sagan into a decent position to attempt a win.

 

Tomorrow

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Time trials are known as races of truth , just you against the clock , going as hard as you dare before throwing up , or collapsing due to over exertion , they really are unforgiving .
Done a couple when i was younger , horrid while you’re doing them , but strange satisfaction after you’ve recovered at the end , you only have a personal best time to beat next time , people do these for years , different length 5 , 10 , 20 mile or mountain time trials which involve a lot of up and down , bigger time gaps and more heartache ! Roglic looks too strong to lose it now , but you never know , a shower of rain , greasy road can see a crash that could have catastrophic effect on the placing , but he has enough of a lead to be careful .....

 

How much of a loss will Thiago be to them on the European stage?

 

Today’s tour question


Will they change bikes mid stage? Time trial bikes are heavy and the climb is where key time will be won and lost