Friday 11: 12:10–12:25 → 16:40–17:05
Another stage for punchers, with the now classical ending on the circuit of Mûr de Bretagne.
Not sure if it was just the close proximity of the camera, but that crash towards the end sounded like one of the hardest so far. Hope there are no serious injuries.
Yeah, we usually don’t get the sound, so it had a greater impression of reality this time. Pure sound of bikes crashing (and no holler at all). The Jayco guy at the back crashed without being touched by anyone, just thanks to his disc brakes.
I don’t understand what Evenepoel expected to do. He had managed to reach the flamme rouge ahead, by pacing the group on his own terms. This was a tipping point with the slope getting easier after that, so I thought he would attack there as this the exact type of effort where he shines usually when others need a bit of rest. But no, he waited for the sprint. Is this another case of him falsely believing he’s got a sprint? I thought he would finally have understood he hasn’t any.
My impression was that he gassed himself riding on the front in an attempt to distance everyone else and gain some time for the podium. Ultimately he couldn’t maintain the gap and when the sprint opened up he had nothing left and slipped behind everyone else.
That’s possible. Attacking his opponents on the terrain most suitable for them would be another misjudgement of his capacities and the capacities of his opponents, but anyway both our theories imply a misjudgement 😀
Yeah I think he had a bit of a rush of blood to the head coming off the back of his TT win and finding himself up the front on a climb with good legs. It was worth having a crack but he should have swung off way earlier when it was clear that he was just wasting energy.
It make me think of Pacher (FDJ) who pulled the head group before the climb. What was the goal? Did he believe a fast approach would help Grégoire compared to the other guys? Why would it help him?
The actual result is that it enlarged the gap with his leader G. Martin who has crashed… And Grégoire cracked in the climb.
So I imagine, it was simply a case of “Damn, I am in a reduced head group with most favourites, I won’t be able to do anything in the climb, so it is my last chance to act”. Even if the action makes no sense, he showed he worked. That’s my theory for this case 😀
Pogacar’s winning reputation and finishing speed makes some of these guys panic I think. Like they feel they must do something before it gets to the finish, they can’t try to beat him on the line, but they end up playing into his hands anyway.
At the intermediate sprint, Q. Simmons had to wait before the line because he finally noticed that he had significantly dropped all the sprinters whom he was supposed to pull 🤣 He really is in a brilliant form.
Beware: today, the race starts and finishes earlier than on the previous days.