Another year has flown by!
I don't particularly want Ineos Grenadiers to do well but I think that Geraint Thomas will be there or thereabouts on the Champs Elysees in three weeks time.
Another year has flown by!
I don't particularly want Ineos Grenadiers to do well but I think that Geraint Thomas will be there or thereabouts on the Champs Elysees in three weeks time.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
I agree with that but I don't expect him to be a serious threat to Pogacar or Roglic.
It's hard to see beyond the Pog/Rog show but a position on the podium would be great for G. This year's tour stages suits him well - I just hope we don't see a return of his rotten luck from year's gone by. I guess a lot will also ride on Ineos' choice of leader - Dani MartÃnez looks in great shape too.
Outside of those 4, I'd like to see Jonas Vingegaard do well but I guess that depends on whether Roglic has a bad day again and he takes over a team leader. Ben O'Connor has impressed me too.
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
Yeah, the cobbles created the drama that the organisers wanted. Interesting how the pre-stage chat on the itv highlights focused on UAE's relative lack of experience on the cobbles and whether the other GC teams could use it to their advantage to gain time on Pogacar.....
Pogacar is so far ahead, it makes the viewing less interesting especially now Roglic has lost time.
This could be embarrassing unless Pogacar has a wobble somewhere.
Matthews probably should have won yesterday, but sat too far off the back approaching the final few hundred metres. There's a reluctance by most to be bold and you can see in many of the new breed they are real racers who love to attack and be aggressive.
Richard Taylor
"William Tell could take an apple off your head. Taylor could take out a processed pea."
Sid Waddell
I see Chris froome has been given the old heave ho from ineos. Perhaps they're going to win it all and this time they're definitely going to do it cleanly, no messing about with inhalers this time, last time was a dry run bit of a warm up, now we're clean once and for good. Anyone caught with an inhaler has to sing the Marseillaise with their pants down.
What a stage that was yesterday. A tactical masterclass from Jumbo and good to see G hanging in there too.
I'm not writing off Pog just yet - I'm sure it hurt but he will hit back.
Looking forward to Alpe d'huez today and hopefully more fireworks.
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast
Great to see the main contenders getting stuck in against each other, rather than the usual boring team tactics.
I think G is in a strong position and now will hopefully be Ineos's No1 rider and have the others working for him.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Pete Shakespeare - U/A
Going downhill fast