7/20/23 10:26 PM

nothing exciting enough to discuss on todays stage?

Was pretty cool win came from breakaway...

7/21/23 1:23 AM

That was a great finish. Over the final hour or so it always looked like the bunch was going to catch the break, but Campenaerts, having a team-mate in the break with him, absolutely buried himself in the final kilometre to keep the them ahead of the bunch. Nice interviews with both Campenaerts and Asgreen afterwards.

7/21/23 7:18 AM

That stage to La Loze was crazy! The climb is horrendous and the finishing climb at the altiport is 18%! Landing and taking off must be a hoot . . .

Props to Vingo's team. They played it perfectly, giving Vingo a couple of teammates up the road who were able to help, albeit briefly, when Vingo caught up.

7/21/23 9:40 AM

Yesterday's break should not have succeeded by any typical analysis. The peloton, and by that I meant the sprinter's teams, played that very badly. Never having more than 1:30 on the bunch there's really no excuse other than they screwed up.

But what about the guys in the break....never having more than 1:30 and they kept going the entire stage...that's either huge chutzpa or rank stupidity, lol.

7/21/23 12:48 PM

"that's either huge chutzpa or rank stupidity, lol."

I bet we all know what Jen's would say about that...

;)

7/21/23 2:22 PM

LoL, when things are getting tough on my hard or long rides I mentally repeat "shut up, legs, just do what I tell you" to the cadence of RATM's lyrics- "eff you, I won't do what you tell me" from 'Killing in the name of'

7/21/23 2:34 PM

Doing a 2 day ride led by Jens at the Dempsey Challenge was one of my highlights. He’s exactly as you would expect.

As to the break, a teammate said Jens “would attack his shadow” :)

7/21/23 6:54 PM

The break does it again. Once more, they never had a big lead and yet they still held off the chasers. It seems that accumulated fatigue played a big part, as the chase was pretty feeble and the strong guys made it to the line first. The interview with Matej Mohorič after the stage was pretty telling. He was so emotional that he couldn't even smile on the podium.

7/21/23 8:06 PM

I think they didn’t want to tow Philipsen to the break and then have him win.

7/23/23 1:26 AM

Great interview with Mohoric after his win. Skip to ~5:30 for the interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgVp-CfNRrs

7/23/23 9:42 AM

The mohoric interview is getting a lot of play on reddit for its humility, authenticity, and vulnerability. It's nice to see.

So for next year, will Pog cool his jets in the spring and focus on the tour the way Jonas did or keep hammering the classics? Only time will tell..

7/23/23 11:27 AM

Early season I was wondering if Pog was after a double peak season frankly. Seemed he was all "I'm winning everything" out of the gate.

Mader's teammates gotta be having a hard time of it, hard to see how it could be otherwise. Mohoric really went to pieces after that stage win. I assumed he may have been close to Mader and that was the root of how deeply he's genuflecting.


Meeus 1st TDF, takes Stage away from Phillipsen... just.