2nd rest day is done, and now Stage 16 (the ITT) is done, and not only done, but WELL DONE! Wout had the 3rd best time, Pogo had the 2nd best time, and HOLY SCHMOLY, Vingo just left FLAMES in his wake, beating Pogo by 1:38!! NOBODY expected that! I was thinking 5 to 10 seconds, and that being either way...but this? I think I will drop the rest of the extra letters from both of their already shortened name, now they are just V and P...they are both too good! The rest of the peleton is just wondering what planet they are from! One thing I will say, after watching V finish and pull his helmet off, that man can suffer like nobody I've ever seen! Riding a bike hard and fast requires that, and to be a pro endurance athlete in any sport requires that...but sheesh, to endure that amount of pain when you are all alone, no teammates or even enemies to draft behind and use for morale, just you and your heartbeat banging in your head, legs screaming in agony, and to hold it to the end. #1 and #2 in the GC standings going 1 and 2 in the ITT, that's pretty rare (usually one of the TT specialists spoils the party for most of the top GC guys). P set the fastest time of everybody at the moment he crossed the line, so it's not like he had a bad day or was slacking off...he beat ALL of the rest of the peleton, and then about 20 seconds later his world was rocked by V's scorching ride. Seriously...that's incredible...I will shut up my fingers now...I'm speechless after that performance!
Stage 17 in the books. And OMG! I NEVER expected THAT! Total collapse by P, and V just rode away from him without even making an attack out of it. Almost SIX MINUTES ahead at the line. SIX MINUTES on ONE CLIMB, after only TEN SECONDS after 15 stages! I can't help but wonder what happened...is he sick? Something happened...even yesterday in the ITT he rode great, he just got trounced by an even greater ride. But today, devastation. Maybe it was the heat? And he did fall over early in the stage...maybe he was hurt more than he showed? Or is he just done after almost 3 weeks of HARD racing? We shall see what he says, I'm sure all the press wants to talk to him. Today Christian and even Phil said that P sounded very deflated in his pre-race interview...Christian even said he had never seen him like that before, usually he is so up-beat. Or maybe he knew he wasn't at his best? No matter how you look at it, his chance to win this years TDF just rode away on the final climb (unless J gets hit by an asteroid or something). Man oh man...that makes me sad. I was really enjoying the super-close race. Yesterdays ITT was something to watch but it also was a crushing blow to that race. And today was the death-blow. How about that moment on the final climb when J was stopped by the crowd (who had stopped a moto and the red-officials car) for a bit...THAT was pretty crazy! Don't think I've ever seen THAT before! OK...bed time...it's late (for me) and I'm working long days this week...later gators. Game still ON, but now it's a different game.
ReplyDeleteStage 18 done and done...and HELLO! A Surprise Breakaway win!! From FOUR GUYS! (3 of them out all day!) LOVE IT! Alpecin wanted everybody else to help bring them and their man Phillipson back to the breakaway, not wanting to commit their heavy hitter leadouts to help in that (saving them to lead out Phillipson to the win), and they LOST IT because of that! Everybody knew Phillipson would win if it came to a bunch sprint, why would they kill themselves for that? LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Every once in a blue moon someone does that...I don't recall the last time I saw a tiny break hold off the charging sprinter teams...also I loved it when Asgreen said in his interview that all the guys really worked hard and they all deserved it, he was just lucky...VERY COOL! And Lotto hasn't had any wins this year (in le Tour), their sprinter Caleb Ewan dropped out in what, stage 13 I think? That right there just shows that just like buying a lottery ticket (or not), you can't win if you don't play! You may have astronomical odds against you, but sometimes you win anyway. WAY TO GO breakaway guys, that gives hope to all breakaways! IT CAN HAPPEN! Also love it that the 4 guys didn't break-down into posturing and infighting and not working trying to give themselves a better chance than the others...they ALL worked right to the very line, it was just beautiful! I think they should come up with some kind of medal or trophy for the others, as that was really rare and special! The dream of every domestique on the planet! And now..getting a bit sad, only THREE MORE STAGES to go. After yesterdays sad implosion of P, this took my mind of that entirely! What a great stage that turned into!!!
ReplyDeleteIM STILL IN SHOCK over the TT & Wed’s stage! But before I get to that - RAE! So glad you’re here too & thanks for the retirement wishes. Last week went better than I feared but it just felt like I was on vacation. This week has been more difficult but that’s mostly because I scheduled too many appointments, thinking it would be good to distract myself when it just led to stress. Anyhoo, I’d been looking forward to last weekend as the course LOOKED like it would be impactful but then nuthin from the top 2guys! SO disappointed. At least there was movement with the rest of the top 10 GC guys. I was thinking the course had been too damn hard the 1st 12 days & that’s what we get - exhausted top 2 guys at the moment we should be seeing great action. But that didn’t prepar for that time trial! Babyface actually rode a great TT - beat everyone in the race but one guy…. But that guy then smashed him & everyone! I kept flashing back to the 1st Tour Babyface won when it was HE that smashed the leader in the TT & snatched victory from poor Roglic! The Tour victory then seemed almost impossible after that, being down 1:48 I think. Like you said above Matt, did THAT lead to what happened the next day on the final my? Or was it his injury before the Tour? Or was it that he wasted too much energy racing/winning so many Spring races? Or is it that he doesn’t have Alan Peiper on the team ( directing) as he did when he won his Tours? Maybe it was all that, but wow, seeing him CRACK like that on that final mt & hemorrhage time, just heartbreaking!
ReplyDeleteBTW, it was funny on Tuesday that when I was watching Vingo obliterate the entire peloton, I never thought about….dundundunhhhhh. in fact, it wasn’t I was sitting in the movie theatre a few hours later, waiting for Mission Impossible to start that it hit me that in the past if I’d seen SUCH a domination, I’d have been at least suspicious! Hmmm, no idea anymore but wow, that was certainly “otherworldly”. Since I barely got to see any of the TDF last year or muchcycling at all the past 2 years, I don’t know if Vingo is just a once in a generation guy & that much better than even Babyface.
I have been thinking about ....dundundunhhhh myself since the TT...I mean, seriously...P did a fantastic TT! Had V not been there he would have won it! But for the time gap to V being more than just a handful of seconds, gosh...is that possible (I mean 'legally' possible?) We did learn from "The Devil" that when something seems too good to be true, it probably is. And I hate that I think this way now...distrustful of anybody's superman days. But I also like to think the testing is SO MUCH BETTER now...we hardly hear of it anymore, and I can't remember when the last rider tested positive for some banned substance and was DQ'd from a race...maybe I've found and re-donned my rose-colored-glasses, but I totally believe neither of them are doing anything like that...but in the back of my mind, if news came out today that the "A" sample of V came up positive for something, after that TT I wouldn't be surprised. That all said, I still believe it was just a heroic amount of suffering by an amazing rider. PleasePleasePlease let it be so.
DeleteOh, and what were your thoughts about MI4? I've heard it's fantastic (you have to admit, Tom Cruise is just pure Box Office PLATINUM covered with DIAMONDS, in a GOLD box! Anything he does is amazing...and doing his own stunts, some of which are amazingly dangerous...yep...he's the Vingo of the box office!
DeleteBabyface can’t win the Tour tomorrow unless Vingo falls off the mt, but will he attempt to win the stage to at least give him some of his confidence back? I’d love to see it. And the 2nd& 3rd steps on the podium are not locked if Babyface has yet another horrible day.
ReplyDeleteOoh, gotta go. hope to chat again tonight after my workout! 😎
Stage 19, done. And as always, SPOILER ALERT!!! (usually I don't get to finish watching till late in the evening...but I have today off so got to watch most of it LIVE!)
ReplyDeleteWhat a crazy stage! Rae, you nailed it...FAST! (haven't confirmed it yet, but to think it's just a hair below the fastest stage average speed EVER!) How can these guys do it? And this late in the race? And the multiple breaks all day, just agony for them all! Well done for Mahoric on Team Bahrain...he worked hard all day, no slacking, and barely eeked out a win by the width of a tire from Asgreen, who would also have been quite deserved (and after his heroic breakaway win yesterday, how on earth did he have the energy to do it again today?) Another day that was very exciting and totally takes the eyes off the GC guys...fast or not, I'd think they had about an easy a day as they've had this Tour.
And Stage 20, done. A fun hard fought Mt Stage. Lots of possibilities, riders going for it with nothing to lose, last actual stage of this years Tour. Tomorrow it's champagne and celebration for making it to Paris. Early today tho, the crash by Rodriguez on a downhill turn with Sep Kuss right behind him, going over the top and down hard, both smashing their face into the tarmac...OUCH! Rodriguez managed to not only continue but to fight his way back to within what, 35-40 seconds of the final 5 at the finish (the final 5 being of course V and P, Gall, and the Yates twins). You have to hand it to P, he doesn't quit, has a great attitude even after his bad day, wins the stage and is back to his normal self, happy and appreciative of the teams hard work. And still so young, I hope we have lots of years of Babyface yet to come fighting for wins, not only in le Tour but in Spring Classics too...he isn't the usual mountain-goat TDF winner type for sure. I fly to Hawaii early tomorrow morning, will watch the final stage sometime in the coming days, knowing that shy of some disaster to the Jersey-holders, the die is cast for all four winners jerseys. It's been a fun and different TDF, that's for sure. So glad you all came back to chat, I miss that. OK...time for house-chores (Jeannie has been in Hawaii for over a week already...girls trip, so I have to get the house presentable for when we get home). Later Gators, Viva le Tour!
ReplyDeleteI've not yet seen yesterday's stage or today's, so I am skipping Matt's comments for those two....Stage 18 is just about my favorite stage this year, and I think the entire breakaway of 4 should have been given the "most combative" award for the stage! It was beautiful to see!
ReplyDeleteI've loved to see the exploits of our American riders, a 4th place on a stage for Craddock (which surprised me, I really didn't expect more than routine domestique work from him), SUPER domestique Sep, a week+ of polka dots for Powless, and Jorgenson twice coming so close to stage wins! Hopefully they will get some publicity here at home to re-ignite the cycling fandom!
As for duh-duh-duhhh.... I didn't want to be the one to bring it up, but it has been in my mind since Roglic and P burst on the scene at the same time, different teams but same home country (Same as Mohoric, too). I really hope that the crazy performances, high speeds and such really are due to improvements in nutrition and training science, as well as in the bikes. I heard that P's team had actually been on tenterhooks all race because he had missed some major training, so they feared his condition wasn't up to the level needed. I truly hope that was it.
Has anyone else noticed V's expressions on the podium? He is smiling but not really. Exhaustion? bad teeth? what is it? The smiles pre-race seem much more genuine.
Back from Hawaii, it was horrible...in a fantastic way. Day after day, perfect weather, sitting in shorts, t-shirt and sandals sipping my coffee early in the mornings, wondering what the day will bring. I did finally finish watching Stage 21, every second of it. I didn't want to miss a moment of the final day...all the banter and comments/thoughts from all the team. I do miss CVDV and Chris Horner in the booth, tho I guess Sam and Brent are growing on me. Glad they kept CVDV, and whether he truly was good with being on the Moto or just made a great show of it, it was good seeing and hearing from him...and honestly, I think he has a lot to add and has a great rapport with active riders...that was cool to see. Paul in the booth is becoming as iconic as Phil...he's done well, and is a good fit. Gosh, remember the 'Troutface' year? That was a horrible experiment! Paul is very good in his position. I do miss Paul with Phil, and that will never change, but Bobke is as expected as Phil is. I think he is the best possible fit in the booth with Phil, that was surely a tough act to follow. The final finish was fun to watch, and I can only say it was Alpecens race to lose, and they did. Nothing whatsoever agains Phillipson, but it was nice to see someone else win, and especially in Paris. For a rookie rider the team gambled on, well...he hit it out of the park! Nipping a guy who's won FOUR stages this year....quite a coup for him and Bora! I was sad not to see Cav have a chance, he ALWAYS made it to Paris. I SO wanted him to get that record win. Alas, some things aren't meant to be. Being tied with Meryx, well...that's pretty awesome too.Jumbo and Vingo, what can be said but well done...again. Flawless. And getting such a lead on the day Pogo fell apart let Wout depart the Tour to go home for the birth of his child with no regrets...bonus win all around! Had it still been a 10 second Tour, well...he's a pro on the top team, I don't think he would have gone home. Sep was his usual fantastic self, and huge kudos to get up after the face-plant on the Pavement to not only finish the day but finish in Paris too. And hey, while I'm throwing kudos around, let's give UAE big props for bring a great team this year. The TT win for Vingo really seemed to dash Pogo to the rock, how could it not. I can't help but wonder how that next stage (when he fell completely to pieces) would have gone if had still been a race of seconds...despite his amazing resume already at the tender age of 24, he took a mental crushing from the TT. That said, he did put it together after the BAD day and looked like the Pogo we all know and love. And speaking of the overall win record shared by Cav/Meryx, if ANYBODY will beat it in the next decade or so, I'd say it would be Pogo...and doing it ala Meryx...winning Classics, Monuments and Tour stages. It will be fun to see how he matures and his career progresses. On a sad note, Peter Sagan. He was there in name only. Nothing whatsoever done on any day to make us think of the Sagan of old. He finished in Paris with barely any air-time...an occasional moment on the road, middle of the pack. You can't blame the guy for wanting to still ride, and it must be something to be able to do that after what he has done...to just ride day after day with the team and finish in Paris...that's no small thing but so not the way we would hope one of the greatest all-around cyclists of all time to be racing. I would surely think it will be his last Tour. I was really hoping day after day that he would leap out and take a stage, or a climb, or anything.
ReplyDeleteFinal thoughts, part II. I sure wish I could put in paragraph spaces and such like the old days, but the blogspot software takes them out no matter how I try...so it's just one big blast of typing. I meant to add all this in Hawaii, but it was honestly down to nearly the last day before I finally finished watching the entire stage. Somehow the days FLY BY as they always do. Jeannie came down with a head-cold on Wednesday and missed some events and dinners, and then I started feeling the twinges on Friday evening, and yep..it was on me for our long travel-day home. But I'm fighting it and hope to knock it down today into the background...and tomorrow is back to work and reality for us both. I really enjoyed having the Peacock Plus subscription for July...it is so much better than trying to catch the stages live and or delayed on the DVR...for only $10 it's quite a deal! (only 5$ if you just want the basic subscription, the extra $5 gives you ad-free for all replays...so it's only when watching the stage live that the usual commercials are present..IMO it's WELL worth that 5 bucks as I almost always watch most of the stages on the replay). I figure to keep it for another month to watch other stuff...I've already finished catching up on Yellowstone, and I've already watched both 1923 and1883 (both are prequel series to Yellowstone, and IMO both are even better, with 1883 being utterly fantastic!) Well, I'm sure I'll think of more after I post this, but for now I have a zillion things to do today (got home around 10 last night, boy were the babies happy to see us!) I'll probably toss some pics up here, re-living the last whirlwind week.
ReplyDeletePart III. I just LOVE Hawaii, despite it's flaws. It just has so many things going for it..nearly perfect weather year-round, almost never gets a hurricane hit (usually gets glancing blows, due to the currents and such creating a natural barrier...any approaching storms peter out or veer away from Oahu. It doesn't take a lot of veer to change between total destruction vs a glancing blow of shore-surge and higher than normal winds. Iniki was the last such that I can remember (I was there...my 2nd tour on Ford Island, 1990 to 94). Oahu still had damage but Kauai was leveled. The Navy pulled a submarine in to provide power to the island, their infrastructure was just gone from a dead-center hit..the storm sat over the island demolishing it. Thankfully there's not many people on Kauai..had that happened to Oahu it would have been billions if not trillions of damage. What else...no earthquakes, no snakes, no mosquitoes (there are SOME mosquitoes but very very few...over my 10 years and all my trips I can't tell you when I last had a bite...and the LOVE to bite me). And back to the weather...99% of the time the trade-winds of 10 to 15mph provide cooling, moderate humidity (also due to the winds). It is such a unique spot in the world. No great white sharks (they are in the area but in the deep cold water, I've never head of a sighting from shore). Millions of beach-goers every year from all over the planet...and any attacks are SO infrequent as to be unmentionable. The sharks of danger are Tigers, and make no mistake they are there..but humans aren't on their list of prey, and it's only a case of mistaken identity when a human gets bit (almost always in murky waters after a storm when the shark has the advantage on seals and turtles). The very few attacks are almost always on the other islands. Bethany Hamilton (famous pro surfer) lost her arm to a large tiger on Kauai...she was surfing in "shark infested waters" (per Wikipedia). I lived on Oahu for 10 years, did countless scuba-dives, was a mediocre surfer, and had zillions of hours in the ocean (rough-water swims, snorkeling, etc) and have only ever seen ONE shark in all that time...a small tiger in Kaneohe Bay (deep water, the shark was well below us cruising the bottom for food as we were working our way up). Seeing a shark in Oahu is like seeing a Mt lion here in CA...rare. They are there but we don't see them. Anyway, I'm really diverging from le Tour, aren't I. OK. I'll close this now but come back, hope to see you all re-visit and toss out your thoughts and such. bye bye.
ReplyDeleteAll in all it was a really good race this year! My watching has changed - I am not as entranced as I was the first several years that I was able to watch, plus busy enough to skip some stages (except to watch the highlights) but it is still worth my time in the enjoyment of the scenery, the competition, the tactics, and the commentary. I did warm up to Sam Bewly (I still am not sure who he was as a rider), I thought that his comments were interesting and presented well. Brent Bookwalter got much better by the end, not so obviously reading his comments, but still wasn't top-notch. I agree with you about Paul... CVV did a fantastic job on the bike! I loved that they gave him so much air time - seemed like a lot more than the guy they had before (can't even remember who that was!). I also much enjoyed the color by Steve Porino. Yes, I think that eliminating Horner was a big loss (I read that he had made some comments praising a rival stream source, maybe that was why) and still wonder why they sent CVV to the bike...
ReplyDeleteNext are the Worlds -- still have to figure out how to watch. Hopefully I can find a source with a replay option. I may have to try to use the VPN that comes with my antivirus. I'd like to see Mads Pederson win again, but it may be a battle between Remco and Tadej - as usual I don't think anyone on the USA team has a chance (Sep Kuss isn't competing, & Jorgenson isn't at that level - yet) It looks like a great Classics style course between Edinburgh and Glasgow!
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