2024 Tour de France, Week 3

Stage 15, Sunday, 7/14/24, the Queen Stage AND the first stage of week 3 (with the 2nd rest-day on Monday). Even BIGGER MOUNTAINS than yesterday, holy smokes! FIVE categorized climbs, four Cat-1s and an HC to finish off the day, with over 16,000' of climbing! 

The day literally starts off at Km 0 on the bottom of the Col d' Peresourde (which according to Phil was one of the very first Pyrenees climbs added to the Tour back in 1910, which is when the Pyrenees was first included into the Tour). Other than the one stage years back when they did an ITT up the Alp d' Huez (which Lance won I seem to recall) I can't remember a stage when they started a categorized climb right from the start. 

1st item: boy did Bimi get screwed on the midpoint sprint. For one thing, WTH was Matthews doing going for it? I thought it was QUITE OBVIOUS that Bimi didn't even know he was sprinting when he opened up his sprint (and subsequently cut the corner by the barricades shutting down Matthews). Yes he did shut down his sprint, but why oh why was he even doing that? It was REALLY SHITTY of him, and by chance if Bimi were to lose the Green in Nice by 5 or less points, wow, that would be really bad. But in the end, yes, he DID deviate from his line, so that is that. At least he didn't get ZERO points, THAT would have been a travesty.

OK. So for today my MP's are Bimi's foiled Mid-point-sprint-win, and then Pogo. Just wow. I was certainly waiting/hoping for a vintage Vingo HC climb attack, but it's now quite obvious that he isn't quite the rider he was the last 2 years. He's still GREAT (evidenced by beating EVERY OTHER RIDER, putting in 2 minutes on the young'un upstart Remco, but compared to Pogo he's definitely a level down this year.

And just a note: boy is my sleep-schedule out of whack! I was WIDE AWAKE at 2am! (and quite conveniently, the stage started at 2:30am...what a coincidence!) Here is my Tour viewing Team, all VERY hard at work (NOT!) It's still only 5:30am when I took this. They are obviously quite tired after getting up so early and walking ALL THE WAY FROM THE BEDROOM TO THE KITCHEN to get breakfast.

 

 And one final note: Boy are Bob and TJ Hilarious (about the crew points contest, among other things). Bobke is SO funny, and gotta hand it to TJ: he's growing into the role and getting a bit looser every day. (still have to love Bobke's advice to TJ the other day when TJ picked a breakaway winner...Bobke told him "TJ, to do well in this game, on Sprint days you have to actually PICK a sprinter!" And TJ came back w/ something like "they were all taken", and Bobke came back and said "there's SIXTEEN OF THEM in the race TJ!" That was a seriously funny bit! You gotta love Bobke, he's really doing well w/ Phil in the booth (that said, I still miss Paul). They have a good crew tho, CVDV and Steve Porino rounding out the crew, CVDV is seriously doing great on the Moto! Week three is underway, and I'm already getting a bit sad at the inevitable end next weekend.

Stage 16, Tuesday, 7/16/24. A 'flat' stage. LAST CHANCE for Cav! My biggest Memory Point for today's stage was at km 19.6 from the finish, as the peleton was splitting apart for a 2nd large roundabout, and out of the blue and quite plainly Bobke says "What the H#!! do you think you're doing?" Then a moment later Bobke says "What the FU#$"? Phil is quiet, and then they just go on like nothing happened. Then a few minutes later Bobke 'apologizes for his recent language', and said "an overzealous spectator trying to get into the commentary position a moment ago, had to wave them off with some emphatic language, and I apologize profusely". Glad he explained, I backed up and watched the minute or so before the blip several times, couldn't figure out what he saw that I wasn't (assumed it was something in the race video). Pretty humorous actually, that was new! How on earth did that make it first on the air (there's always a delay and SOMEONE is supposed to be monitoring for such things, and then secondly, after making it out on the live broadcast it ALSO made it into the replay, which is what I was watching. Heads are gonna roll! (or not).

And then my sad MP's for today's stage (two of them actually) is Bimi CRASHED at 1.2k to go! He was up on Phillipson by about 80 points for the Green jersey, really just needed to get SOME points. So not only did he get ZERO, but Phillipson won the day, so now there's only 30-something points separating them! DANGDANGDANG! I'm REALLY rooting for him to win the overall, I LOVE that he's won 3 already, and was hoping it would be him or Cav winning today (really wanted Cav). And that brings me to my 2nd sad MP...once again, Where the HELL was CAV? His team was all lined up at 10k, looking good. As it gets closer to the line they start to get separated and pushed further and further back. All I know for sure is he/they were NOT EVEN VISIBLE IN THE VIDEO at the 1k point. Not sure if he lost his nerve for the 'argy bargy', but his team certainly sucks in the sprint-lead out. Obviously that's NOT in Astana's talent-list. Sad, I REALLY wanted him to pull off ONE MORE! But hey, at least he got #35, that in itself was a miracle! 

Stage 17, Wednesday, 7/17/24. A 'mountain' stage with a Cat-2, a Cat-1 and a finish atop a Cat-3. All in all a somewhat boring stage, tho for a change the Peleton (ie: UAE/Pogo) let the break go to 8+ minutes out! Finally...only the 2nd stage (so far) that the break won the day! And today it was Carapaz/EF Education! He had tried over and over to get into the break (like he did on pretty much every other day that was hopeful for a break to have a chance) but missed the one that stuck. So his teammate dropped back and pulled him to the break, very well done! From there he was able to gap his co-leader (Simon Yates) near the end and ride to victory solo! Boy did EF need THAT! They've been skunked until today! Also of note, Remco attacked from the Yellow group when he saw that Vingo was struggling and with no teammates. Pogo obviously didn't chase cuz he's up over 5 minutes on Remco. So Vingo struggled but was losing time, even when he caught up with his teammate from the break who pulled him as best he could. Then near the finish Pogo did attack Vingo and put a few more seconds on him, Vingo had no answer for neither Remco nor Pogo today. So the GC is now Pogo at 0, Vingo at 3:11, and Remco at 5:09. Pogo (barring some disaster: a crash or gets sick) is likely to win, but Vingo still needs to contain Remco in the final TT, and he now has LESS than 2 minutes on  him. As of right now I'd be afraid if I were Vingo! We shall see how the next 3 Alp stages goes. As of right this moment I'd think 2nd and 3rd can go either Vingo/Remco, or Remco/Vingo (he would have to lose around 7 more minutes as things currently stand to be off the podium). 

Stage 18, Thursday, 7/18/24. 'Hilly' stage, five Cat-3's today! Turned into a breakaway day, 3 guys broke away from the massive 'mini-peleton' break and held it to the line. Viktor Campenaerts (Team Lotto) won the day! It was his FIRST Tour win, beating out Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos, who still is winless in this years Tour). Kind of a boring stage but honestly it was pretty great to see Viktor pull off the win over a seasoned veteran, good on him! He does owe Kwiatkowski a few beers tho as he did the majority of the work, including initiating the strong attack to form the 3 man break. But hey, that's racing!

Stage 19, Friday, 7/19/24. Mountains. Er, I mean MOUNTAINS! 3 categorized climbs, Col de Vars (HC), Col de Bonette (HC), and a summit finish on the Cat-1 Isola 2000 (ski resort). The Bonette was the high-point of this years race, over 9000', and the highest paved road in France. And boy oh boy, the day was amazing! (I slipped out from work at lunch, feeling sick (cough cough) and was able to watch the replay pretty much entirely. All I can say is that whatever your feelings for Vingo, Remco, and ALL the other racers in the Tour this year, Pogo is just from another galaxy! Vingo did everything right, had 2 guys in the break all day setting him up for a launch to the front, but Pogo had his team on the front of the ever-reducing-peleton and the pace was just too much for either Vingo or Remco, they just held the wheels. Finally on the final climb w/8.7k to the finish Pogo had enough and lights it up (again), the gap to the leader was over 3 minutes. NOBODY can respond, and he just gobbles up all the riders in front like they are stopped, wins the stage (again, this is #4), putting ANOTHER 1:42 on Vingo and Remco (who finish together). It was flat-out an amazing ride for Pogo, and I'm only sad about it because one of the 3 Americans (only 2 left as of this morning) in the race, Mateo Jorgenson was one of the 2 Visma riders in the break all day, and he had attacked the break and was soloing on to a victory (if only Pogo would let it). He did not. Jorgenson takes 2nd (this is his 1st Tour btw). No matter, it was a seriously heroic and amazing ride by Mateo, who wouldn't normally have that opportunity (think of Hincape with Lance...in his entire career he only won ONE Tour stage when he was far enough out that the team let him go for it, loved that moment). Watching the Post-race analysis, TJ needs to lighten up on Pogo (for winning when he doesn't need to). He just said "Leave something for the little guy". Why? Cycling can be a cruel sport. You want a Tour win, you need to WIN it (just my 97 cents). A stage-win-gift is when the yellow is working to put time on his rivals and another rider works with him, pulls him to the line helping him increase his lead, and he lets that rider have the win. There are no other riders (other than his team) helping him, why not win? He now has 15 Tour wins at 25 years old! Back after Stage 5 when Cav won #35 I thought I wouldn't live to see anyone beat that. Now I think that if anybody in my lifetime can do it, Pogo will be that guy. GC standings now: Pogo 0, Vingo 5:03, Remco 7:01. WOW!

Stage 20, Saturday, 7/20/24 (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!) Mountains AGAIN. One Cat-2 and THREE Cat-1s, with 16,000' of climbing and a Summit-finish...AGAIN! (that's 3 Summit finishes in a ROW!) After today there is only ONE categorized climb left for tomorrow (that will be interesting). So at the end of the day we finally have a new KOM jersey-holder: Carapaz, Team EF Education! Well done!!! Carapaz missed the early break(s) and didn't get over the Cat-2 for the points, but he (and his team) fixed that and got him into the break, and he then took the top points over the next 2 Cat-1's, cementing the jersey (as long as he finishes in Nice tomorrow). Hooray for him and the team, that's quite an accomplishment for EF! 

I won't go crazy with all the details of today, suffice to say that Carapaz was off the front of the break giving the Stage-win a shot, but Remco and his team had other plans and the GC riders broke away (Remco doing the attacks on Vingo). It didn't work, and Vingo was not only able to hold on but to then attack Remco (w/ Pogo on his wheel obviously). After dropping Remco they went on to the line together with Pogo sprinting away to take his FIFTH Stage win this Tour! I consider it a huge morale-win for Vingo, as he looked a LOT better than yesterday, AND managed to put 53 more seconds on Remco! But you have to love it that Remco tried...he could have just sat where he was and finished w/ Pogo and Vingo further back, (likely w/ no time gaps), and letting the break have the day. I'd say going into the ITT tomorrow, unless Vingo crashes or just completely falls apart, his 2nd place is secure. And unless Pogo gets hit by a meteorite or the earth opens up and swallows him whole (or something equally unlikely), he will win the overall with a nice buffer and the final podium will stand as it has been for a while now. Other than Vingo looking much better, of note to me in today's stage was Mateo Jorgenson having ANOTHER spectacular ride (especially considering how hard he worked yesterday) and was able to finish far enough up that he moved from 9th to 8th overall! All in all it was quite an exciting stage IMO! Good to see Vingo do well  near the end of a LONG HARD race and get some confidence back, he was definitely shaken after yesterday. All I can say is WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR! Can you imagine what this year would have been-like had Vingo not been hurt and was in his proper Tour form? I think Remco would be down by about 15 minutes (or more) if he and Pogo were both in top form and attacking each other all along. Hopefully next year that will be the case. And Remco, he's had his wake-up-call...he now knows what the new Tour A-game looks like, and he needs to up his game to compete with them. We can only hope he can...a TRUE 3-way fight all the way to Paris would be AMAZING!

Stage 21, Sunday, 7/21/24. NOT in Paris (for the first time in the history of the Tour) but Nice, for a 34k Time Trial (haven't done a final stage ITT since the year Lemond beat Fignon who had small lead and took the overall Yellow).

Sorry I didn't get here to post my final comments after the ITT on Sunday (lots going on, Jeannie is back home now from her 'girls trip' to Sarasota FL for 9 days). Finally finished watching the TT last evening, a bit later to bed that I'd like but now that the Tour is over I can get my sleep-schedule back to 'normal'. Also get riding again, that always suffers in July as I have a stage to watch for 21 days. ANYWAY...having an ITT as the final stage was different...if I were there in person it would be awesome! I'd find a good but uncrowded spot and have a nice little camp and get pics of every rider (preferably on the climb and not the descent as I'd have a better shot). I did miss the ceremonial ride to Paris and all the stuff that goes on there, and then the serious business of the Champs laps and final sprint finish. That said, the TT its-self went about as I figured (I didn't see Remco winning this one, not with Pogo on FIRE and still getting stronger every day). I also figured Vingo would beat Remco as he has been improving, but Remco has shown repeatedly that he's just not yet up to either the "insane" level of Pogo nor the just "really good" level of Vingo. Isn't that something, that Pogo is SO good that he makes Vingos rides look bad? If you were to take away Pogo, Vingo would have won HIS 3rd. Just as Pogos 'insane' level seems impossible, IMO so is Vingo's 'really good' level, considering he's had so little training after his crash, hospital and recovery. Broken bones, punctured lung, 12 days in the hospital starting in mid April, and in just 9 weeks after the CRASH he's the 2nd best on the planet? Seriously? Boy, these guys are now making my LA-era 'rose colored glasses' seem pretty lame by comparison.

But hey...they aren't testing positive, so who am I to throw suspicion around (cuz nobody ever goes pretty much an entire career doping and not getting caught, right?) It did make for amazing stages tho (IMO). And I think this years Tour was the physically hardest route they've done since the 'old days' when the racers were coming to the finish in the dark on their ludicrous heavy bikes of the day. But to me, even better than the race for 1st and 2nd was the OTHER stories from this year. 

Stories like Biniam Girmay, winning not only his but his teams, AND his Country's FIRST (and 2nd, and 3rd) Tour stage wins! And then holding off an improving Phillipson for the overall Green jersey! Had he not crashed in Stage 16 he assuredly would have got-finish points (and possibly won, we will never know).  Crashing out in that turn (and we have no idea how the crash happened, there were several riders down) and Phillipson winning brought his huge lead down to what, 32 points I think? And we had no idea how badly he was hurt...when he crossed the line he was being pushed by a teammate, so that was scary. But him then going out for the intermediate sprint the next day against Phillipson (and winning it) proved he was up to it, and Phillipson realized he had no chance after that. Loved that story!

Stories like Richard Carapaz (and his Team EF Education). Coming out of the blue to start getting KOM points over a week into the race, and after that trying for or being in nearly every break there was where KOM points were on the line. And finally eeking the jersey off of Pogo right near the end, and THEN holding it thru Pogo winning the last THREE stages in a row (which hasn't been done since 1930 per Phil)! That was great for him and the team (gosh, how many times did Neilson Powless end up in the break after Carapaz had tried several times, and then had to drop back to pull him up to the break shattering himself doing it each time). But you have to admit that to Neilson and the team, that effort was repaid by his efforts and success, which was no small thing.

Stories like CAXXV getting that elusive 35th sprint win (and at what, 39 years old I think?) I really thought it wouldn't happen, he was just not aggressive enough in the bunch-springs like when he was younger...(but hey, who can blame him, those are just nuts). 

Stories like Matteo Jorgenson on Visma. He was just WOW the entire race! His first Tour too! Gosh what a breath of fresh air he turned out to be! Considering that Sepp Kuss wasn't able to come (what a blow for the team) he ended up being Vingo's last man standing pretty much every day in the mountains. Especially considering that Wout van Aert wasn't up to his usual form (not even close). Loved the back story on Jorgenson,, and meeting his family out on the road (Steve Porino was amazing as always out there).

And speaking of Porino, how about the rest of the crew? Paul was as always, the consummate professional driving the conversation, while Brent and TJ added personal experience to the mix (same for Christian VDV, who also once again was awesome out on the moto). And Phil and Bobke in the booth, not much else you can say about them. I did notice that Phil calls Bobke "Paul' every now and then, and Bobke has the good sense not to say anything...Phil and Paul were together for oh-so-long in the booth, it's going to happen. But Bobke is just wonderful in that spot, his character shines thru every day. I really love his laugh when something goofy is said or done, he always cracks me up...he's really found his place!

One thing different this year was that after the final stage was over, we got to see pretty much ALL the presentations for a change, loved that! Like when they called Cav up for his special award, the framed Black shirt that just said "CAXXV" and the very nice video compilation of him over the years. That was beautiful!

And then to close out the entire race broadcast (and this post) they made a very nice video and narration by Phil. That was super-classy IMO. Nothing further after that would be appropriate, and when it was done, that was it. Very nice ending!

Doping (or whatever else is going on) between top riders aside, I do hope next year Vingo stays healthy in the early season, and comes back with the Visma 'A'-team, and we get the dog-fight we were hoping for this year. And I also hope Remco ups his game and gets a bit closer to the stratospheric condition Pogo was in. A true three way fight all the way to Paris would be crazy awesome! 

And finally, Susie (and finally Rae), thanks for stopping by and helping blow the cob-webs out of the place...it was seriosly musty in the Asylum. and that's nobody's fault but my own. I must do better.

OK, time to turn off the lights and let the Asylum go to sleep. Good night!