Did Vingegaard tell something to explain his mediocre performance?
Thrusday 10: 12:35–12:45 → 17:15–17:40
It looks like another stage for punchers, but will they be stars of the punch again, or could some breakaway men with some punch (like Healy in his in-shape version) compete? Or might a few sprinters (like Groves) make it through the last climbs?
Surely a safe Evenepoel victory
I hope for him that he can turn better than in yesterday's final parts 😜
Wednesday 9: 13:10 → 17:45
French Caen-Caen
The first individual Time Trial. Basically all flat, it is rather long compared to many others nowadays.
Rankings:
1- Van der Poel🇳🇱 & Pogatchar🇸🇮
3- Vingegaard🇩🇰 at 8″
4- Jorgenson🇺🇸 at 19″
5- Vauquelin🇫🇷 at 26″
6- Mas🇪🇸 at 48″
7- Onley🇬🇧 & Almeida at 55″
9- Evenepoel🇧🇪 at 58″
10- Skjelmose🇩🇰 at 1′02″
Well, the gap was kept at the modern standard of 2 minutes, and half of the breakaway was limited when it came to climbing, so there wasn't much of a fight.
L. Martinez tried to go for the mountain jersey, but he missed the first point (attacking very early because the second half was flatter), and then UAE had started a strong pace and caught him before the last 3 climbs. The idea was sound (IMO) but the result is meagre.
Many crashes again. Alaphilippe unlucky to get a puncture right when the peloton accelerated and never slew down again. Healy stopped in a crash. Both of them caught up with the back of the peloton after long (especially for Alaphilippe) and intense efforts, but never had a second to recover and never could go further up.
Lenny Martinez (🇫🇷 Barhein) attacked at km 0, followed by Abrahamsen (🇳🇴 Uno-X). No pursuit, no other attack. After 2 or 3 km, when they had a gap of 25 seconds, Gachignard (🇫🇷 Total) jumped and joined them (the two ahead weren't pulling hard, they were waiting for him, they had hoped for an even bigger group).
And that was it.
edit: Ah! I read that Asgreen (🇩🇰 EF) joined them, starting even later and imposing himself a solo chase of almost 10 km. To each his kinks, I guess 😀
There is a tiny bit less elevation gain than on Monday, but it is more compact, and as you say, there are many turns.
I find Roglitch strangely detached. I also noted this 'zen' appearance on the Giro (between two crashes). Has he planned to retire soon?
Tuesday 8: 13:15–13:35 → 17:20–17:45
The alternation continues: this stage shall be a puncher stage.
And as often on the most boring stages, there are terrible crashes.
As long as tour organisers will keep on designing stages for sprinters only, it will be so.
Yeah, that was fun - getting so worked up over an intermediate sprint. Didn’t even seem like anyone did anything dangerous, yet two different arguments came from it.
It happened several 100 metres before, in the sprint preparation, when they were trying to get positions: Girmay went to 'hit' Milan because the latter was sitting in the former's train. But the bleeding TV director stayed for an hour on the breakaway instead of showing the bunch's sprint preparation and launching, so no viewer could see it on the main stream.
I don't know about Coquard vs Penhoët. But arguments rarely come up for no reason, and when the recipient of a barney/insults doesn't answer and keeps a low profile, it generally means that he knows he was guilty of something.
I concur with all points (even Onley was here!). However the sprint was relatively close to be 'bunchy', as most of the climbing distances were (strongly) paced by (strong) domestiques – Wellens (🇧🇪 UAE), then Narvaez (🇪🇨 UAE)–, and Vauquelin excepted, the other favourites didn't pull/attack much. Van Aert pulled a bit, but he really didn't last long; one could have thought that he would contest victory today as the profile suited him, but he was far from being able to do it.
Alaphilippe better than expected, but not enough to score. This could be the motto of his 2025 season 😀
Lenny Martinez still watching the peloton from behind all day long.
Several stupid crashes during the day. As the peloton was extremely packed most of the time, when the road rose up a hill and the peloton slew down, it was getting even more compressed from the back, and thus accidents did happen at the back.
Monday 7: 13:10–13:25 → 17:15-17:40
Another climb of Mount Cassel, but again 30 km from the finish line. Therefore it should end up with a bunch sprint, among a bunch perhaps reduced by echelons.
we should see the French trio from the Tour of Switzerland (Vauquelin, Grégoire, Alaphilippe) attempting to do it, anyway.
Alaphilippe prepared for this stage, but unfortunately he's been a bit ill for a couple of days and was already struggling yesterday.
A different angle, to understand better the move:
😛
Sunday 6: 12:15–12:35 → 17h20:17h50 (edit: start was delayed by 15 mn)
A stage arriving on the English Channel coast, for punchers normally.
He seems to always start like a maniac, and it always looks like he's lucky not to hit every fence and wall in the first half-mile. It doesn't always translate into a good time however (like Vingegaard seemed to start very quickly today, yet even the first timings were not good).