Tour de France 2023

[willipp]

This is turning into a great tour

The Pyrenees are going to be superb watching them battle it out.

 

[BTH]

What a tremendous Tour it's been! Have I left it too late to tell you all that I went to Copenhagen the other week for the start?

 

[Manc in London]

The Pyrenees are going to be superb watching them battle it out.

I think they have eight Cat 1 or HC mountains to climb between Tuesday to Thursday during a heatwave. It's going to be brutal.

With LJV now missing Krushweak and Roglic, Vingegaard is lacking help in the high mountains. Forget about Kuus. The most overrated rider in the peloton. He's only useful when the tempo is fairly mild. He's was dropped at the start something like twice in three days.

Most riders have a jour sans. Something Vingegaard has not had yet. This week certainly has the potential for some twists.

If Yates is feeling good, surely Steve Cummings should give him the opportunity to try and chip off the front one day as UAE and LJV lack bodies for the mountains.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Poggy had to go for it today. Unfortunately Vingegaard went with him and finished close second. Last chance saloon for Pogaca tomorrow really, even though there is another flat stage to go on Friday. He's got to pull something spectacular out of the bag because he doesn't really have much in the way of support so he'll be doing it all himself. If he can get to within 30 seconds or so going into Saturday's TT then he could be in with a shout.

Anything can happen though (weather/mechanical/crash), and that would be a cruel way to settle it at this point in the race. Hopefully Thomas can hold on to third place (currently 2'57" ahead of Quintana).

 

[chesterbells]

Yeah, I mean that’s game over now isn’t it. In reality it’s probably been the case for a while, but I’ve kept believing something might happen. The gap is just too large. It would have been such a nip & tuck competition between them both otherwise, possibly the closest tour ever. Was it down to lost UAE team mates early on? Certainly those 1-2 punches JV and Roglic kept throwing at Pogacar that day when there was just the 3 of them isolated looks like an encapsulation of the critical moment of the whole 3 weeks.

I reckon G will be, and can be, pleased with securing a podium place.

Real star of the tour this year for me though is not the yellow jersey winner, but the green. Amazingly prize money is €500K vs only €25K - seems a bit unfair to me.

 

[m7mcfc]

Yeah, I mean that’s game over now isn’t it. In reality it’s probably been the case for a while, but I’ve kept believing something might happen. The gap is just too large. It would have been such a nip & tuck competition between them both otherwise, possibly the closest tour ever. Was it down to lost UAE team mates early on? Certainly those 1-2 punches JV and Roglic kept throwing at Pogacar that day when there was just the 3 of them isolated looks like an encapsulation of the critical moment of the whole 3 weeks.

I reckon G will be, and can be, pleased with securing a podium place.

Real star of the tour this year for me though is not the yellow jersey winner, but the green. Amazingly prize money is €500K vs only €25K - seems a bit unfair to me.

The yellow Jersey winner splits the prize with his Domestiques. They are all under contract. Not footballers wages but they ain't skint. The money cyclists earn is not through the competition. They are paid by there team sponsors.

 

[chesterbells]

The yellow Jersey winner splits the prize with his Domestiques. They are all under contract. Not footballers wages but they ain't skint.

No I realise that mate, and you make a good point, and of course Green jersey winners have often won money for a number of stages too, it just seems a massive disparity that’s all.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

2 HC climbs today with a high end Cat 1 in between; I hope they've had their Shredded Wheat.

Both of the GC front runners looked strong yesterday. Thomas, not so much but still hanging on to a solid third place. This could get interesting as Poggy only has 2'18" to make up, and if Vingegaard has a bit of a wobble today it could be all to play for going into the TT.

It will be a MONUMENTAL achievement if he can reel him in and beat him to the top step.

Edit - Also just realised the sadist b@stards have positioned the intermediate sprint finish just before the start of the first HC (Col d'Aubisque).

 

[willipp]

Wish Vingegaard would just give a hint of cracking. He's like a terminator and just never looks like remotely giving Pogacar a sniff.

 

[Gray]

I don't know how these guys do it, bloody terrifying decents and steep uphill gradients.

They must be made of iron.