Crash! Kruijswijk sat down in the middle of the road for a period time. He’s holding his wrist/forearm. Looks like he will be out of TdF. Jumbo Visma lost a super domestique.
Confirmed. Sitting on a stretcher and into an ambulance.
Van Aert was also in the crash, but he seemed to be OK.
Wow, Vingegaard and Benoot from Jumbo involved in another crash less than 10 minutes from the earlier crash. Wow, Jumbo-Visma is being cursed in today’s stage.
Just realised that Roglic did not start in today’s stage.
Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the Tour organizer, has chosen to spray melt-prone portions of the route with copious amounts of water to keep the pavement cool and intact. The organization allocated 10,000 liters (roughly 2,642 gallons) of water for pavement-cooling purposes. In light of the wildfires raging through Europe, ASO has had to clarify that it doesn’t intend to use its full allocation of water to cool a single stage of the race, after it was incorrectly assumed that all 10,000 liters would go toward cooling Stage 15, yesterday’s portion of the Tour.
Marc Soler reported to be ill, struggling, riding by himself and 10 minutes behind the Peloton before any more big climbs. Tadej Pogacar probably will lose a major teammate. Could this be an equalizing factor for the depleted Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma?
Don’t understand why Van Aert is in the breakaway, burning away energy instead of protecting Vingegaard’s yellow jersey. Jumbo-Visma is already having too many people dropped out prior to these difficult next few days.
Perfectly played by Jumbo. Having Van Aert wait at the top of the climb basically neutralised any chance of Pog attacking on the climb or the descent. He would have lead Vingegaard back to him .
Note that Van Aert’s only threat to the green jersey is Pog who must win every sprint between now and Paris I think.
It turned out to be okay for Jumbo-Visma. Pogacar stopped attacking as soon as his teammate Majka broke the chain during the climb, leaving Pogacar with no support until he caught up to Mcnulty (like Van Aert, slowed down and waited for his team leader).
I still believe that Van Aert exerted too much energy being in the multiple breakaways. Tomorrow’s and Thursday Pyrenees profiles are horrific. The commentators did say that Van Aert has massive pool of reserve and recovery energies. We’ll see.
His green jersey should be safe with the TT and final sprint at the Champs on Saturday. I do not believe Pogacar will beat him to the green.
Tadej Pogacar lost 2 teammates (Soler from illness and Majka from thigh muscle injury… From the aftermath of the broken chain?) before the start of today’s stage. But still sent one of his teammates to set the pace on the 2nd mountain. Interesting tactics… Already blew one of Vingegaard’s teammates out of the water.
Edit:. 3rd climb… Van Aert blew up. Proved my point from yesterday. Vingegaard and Pogacar each has 1 teammate left. Still has 1 more mountain to climb today.
What a pace set by Mcnulty for Pogacar. Lots of movement by Vingegaard on his bike. I think Pogacar is going to win today’s stage. Just a matter of how much of a time gap.
Wow, I really thought that Pogacar would have left Vingegaard behind based on Vingegaard’s body language on the bike on the 3rd and 4th climbs. In the end, the time gap that Pogocar got was only 4s of time bonus.
Pog may well have burned all his matches teamates wise there so if he’s going to do anything it needs to be tomorrow and could well have to be on his own.
Jonas was my shout before it started and with Thomas clearly getting third at best im hoping he manages it and we don’t see a Roglic-esque blow up in the time trial.
Where did that ride from McNulty come from? Nothing of him until yesterday and then today
Nice bluff by Pog at the end there but only worth the 4 bonus seconds.
Short of something mad happening tomorrow I think it’s Vingegaard’s now. He’s on a par with Pog, Van Aert will hav recovered and McNulty might have blown himself out today. In fact Vingegaard looked the stronger of the two over the line today. Pog had gone super deep for those 4 seconds.
I still think that was a perfect move, it neutralised any Pog attack on that final climb or the decent afterwards to the finish. Worth it with today being a summit finish where Van Aert was unlikely to feature anyway. He may be back tomorrow too.
They are. I love the way Pogacar attacks, just going for it whenever he can. But also, really impressed with how Vingegaard has defended the yellow so far, he looks so strong.
So, what do we expect from tomorrow? And how much time can Pogacar take on the next tempo stage?
Pretty spectacular to be fair but also demonstrates how futile it can be and potentially dangerous. He screwed up on one stage and we’re not sure why. Insufficient food or perhaps his antics in the first week catching up? No idea myself but he certain hit a wall that day. Cruel sport.
Big G looks nailed on for 3rd now barring something spectacular today. I don’t see him catching Pog to be honest. I can’t see him blowing up again. Also fascinating comments from G yesterday. He basically decided to let Pog and Vinny go. McNulty had lifted the pace a little and he could have gone with them but considered the risk too high against cracking on the final climb. Probably right but he still lost 2+ minutes.
