TDF 2020 - Stage 9: Pau - Laruns 153 km *Spoilers*

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Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,237

    Anyone else think Bernal is going to blow the race apart in week 3?
    He was looking decent today, though he's not going to match Roglic in the sprints. He needs a nice long climb in the Alps, I think.

    He looked better today than he has this year.
  • I can't quite understand why Bernal and Landa worked in the final few 4k. Surely they need Roglic was the bigger danger in GC and that he and Pogacar would split the bonus.

    Felt sorry for Hirschi! Quickly becoming a very likable rider!
  • Anyway, for all the talk of how strong Roglic might be and how weak Bernal seems, the end of the first week sees Roglic lead Bernal by 21".

    Coincidentally, this is the exact amount of bonus seconds Roglic has (Bernal has none). You could put a piece of paper between them.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196

    I can't quite understand why Bernal and Landa worked in the final few 4k. Surely they need Roglic was the bigger danger in GC and that he and Pogacar would split the bonus.

    Felt sorry for Hirschi! Quickly becoming a very likable rider!

    They were still putting time into other serious GC guys though - they did not want that following group getting back on, which it looked like they might for a while.
  • I can't quite understand why Bernal and Landa worked in the final few 4k. Surely they need Roglic was the bigger danger in GC and that he and Pogacar would split the bonus.

    Felt sorry for Hirschi! Quickly becoming a very likable rider!

    They were still putting time into other serious GC guys though - they did not want that following group getting back on, which it looked like they might for a while.
    It's bloody close up top, and the amount of leaders still in with a shout after a week is nuts. Even Titchy Ritchy has made it to the rest day within two minutes.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    edited September 2020

    I can't quite understand why Bernal and Landa worked in the final few 4k. Surely they need Roglic was the bigger danger in GC and that he and Pogacar would split the bonus.

    Felt sorry for Hirschi! Quickly becoming a very likable rider!

    They were still putting time into other serious GC guys though - they did not want that following group getting back on, which it looked like they might for a while.
    It's bloody close up top, and the amount of leaders still in with a shout after a week is nuts. Even Titchy Ritchy has made it to the rest day within two minutes.
    Yeah so it made sense for Bernal and Landa to try and keep the chasers away.

    They did the right thing making Roglic lead out the sprint though.
  • I wonder how much influence Covid had on the racing today ahead of a rest day.

    A good time to be in Yellow.
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196

    I wonder how much influence Covid had on the racing today ahead of a rest day.

    A good time to be in Yellow.

    A good time to be in yellow unless your team gets the boot :D

    It's too hard to second guess isn't it. If you're in yellow early you win if the race gets stopped, but on the other hand if you spend all your matches trying to get it now and the race does run the full course, you might well not be able to keep it.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,509

    I wonder how much influence Covid had on the racing today ahead of a rest day.

    A good time to be in Yellow.

    I think it is far simpler. Take time of who you can when you can. For example, yesterday Quintana looked very good, but today he lost time.
  • "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,069
    inseine said:

    I'm pretty sure Hirschi will be caught but for a rider Ive never heard of this is an incredible ride.

    He was u23 world champion two years ago.
  • "Effing Cycling" - Geschke

    (open the thread and he responds directly)


  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,215
    I saw him throw his gel wrapper (it was when he took a sticky gel followed by a sticky bottle he barely touched before discarding). That was at around 21k to go, didn't see anything after that.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    andyp said:

    inseine said:

    I'm pretty sure Hirschi will be caught but for a rider Ive never heard of this is an incredible ride.

    He was u23 world champion two years ago.

    He was also second on stage 2
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • DeadCalm
    DeadCalm Posts: 4,099
    RichN95. said:

    andyp said:

    inseine said:

    I'm pretty sure Hirschi will be caught but for a rider Ive never heard of this is an incredible ride.

    He was u23 world champion two years ago.

    He was also second on stage 2
    But, apart from that, what has he ever done before? ;}
    Team My Man 2022:

    Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet
  • webboo
    webboo Posts: 6,087

    More Bianchi fantasticness coming up.

    Not quite.
  • I can't quite understand why Bernal and Landa worked in the final few 4k. Surely they need Roglic was the bigger danger in GC and that he and Pogacar would split the bonus.

    Two reasons:

    - Improving their chances of a podium.

    - More GC riders that are a little further back means more riders that are going to disrupt via long range attacks and the more chance it will force Roglic and JV having to defend. If they were still within 20-30 seconds they are less likely to go for the 'hail mary'

  • DeadCalm said:

    RichN95. said:

    andyp said:

    inseine said:

    I'm pretty sure Hirschi will be caught but for a rider Ive never heard of this is an incredible ride.

    He was u23 world champion two years ago.

    He was also second on stage 2
    But, apart from that, what has he ever done before? ;}
    What has he ever done before …
    Well in 2008, as a 10-year old, when Cancellara was given a public reception in his home town* for having won a medal at the 2008 Olympics, Hirschi, as one of those in the crowd, managed to get Cancellara's autograph.

    Not enough?
    .... Hirschi won various Swiss junior level races, also in some in Luxembourg, in 2016 he got Silver in the U23 European Championships TT, then in 2017 Bronze in the U23 European Championships RR. In 2018 he won the White Jersey in the Tour of Germany, and the U23 World Championships RR (as mentioned above by Andyp).
    In that RR, he did a shorter version of today – being initially in a break then dropping the other members of it.
    Also, he finished third in the 2019 San Sebastian classic.

    * Hirschi comes from the same small town near Berne as Cancellara, Ittigen, their houses apparently only 200 metres apart. In his youth it seems he idolised Cancellara, and Cancellara has now become his manager-cum-adviser, since about a year.
    Here a photo of them training together last April.

    https://img.blick.ch/incoming/15370776-v0-canci-o5i9356-jpg.jpg?imwidth=1000&ratio=16_9&x=0&y=283&width=5472&height=3080

    (Some years ago, I found myself riding next to Cancellara for a short while , as close as on the above photo. It was after a Tour stage he had participated in and I had watched, he was making his way to the team bus. Dense crowds of spectators walking home or to their cars blocked the road, so he couldn't go faster than me, both on our bikes. I was so flabbergasted to see him adjacent me for about 5-6 mins, I couldn't utter a word, just made the nod one cyclist does to another.)
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    edited September 2020
    He actually made me covet a Cervelo again...

    Not done that for a while
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,646
    edited September 2020

    Anyone else think Bernal is going to blow the race apart in week 3?
    He was looking decent today, though he's not going to match Roglic in the sprints. He needs a nice long climb in the Alps, I think.

    I have him going long on the Madalaine
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • Matti66
    Matti66 Posts: 190
    I think the sunweb cervelos look quite good , better than the raw carbon . Its a neat looking package. And i usually prefer a standard frame with clean lines
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Mad_Malx
    Mad_Malx Posts: 4,993
    edited September 2020
    Imagine how gutted he would have been if he had crossed the line first.
    Wait - would he have forfeited the stage?
  • Penalty on GC rather than relegation in the stage, isn't it?


    Weird about Pozzovivo. Presume there's some sort of external reason.
  • alan_a
    alan_a Posts: 1,546
    Mad_Malx said:

    Imagine how gutted he would have been if he had crossed the line first.
    Wait - would he have forfeited the stage?
    GC time penalty not stage time or position?
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,137
    I thought Pogacar would have lost his bonus seconds from the mountain sprint
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Looking at Twitter it's due to the scaffolding in pozzivivos arm and leg

    https://mobile.twitter.com/NTTProCycling/status/1302692002161668096
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348

    Looking at Twitter it's due to the scaffolding in pozzivivos arm and leg

    https://mobile.twitter.com/NTTProCycling/status/1302692002161668096

    😲😲😲😲😲
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • That's more metal than traditional, for sure. I presume that's pinning from his crash last year when he got hit by a car?