Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
I'm more suspicious of what happened to Evanpoel. I'm surprised you aren't.
Evenepoel had a bad day. The difference is, however, that either Evenepoel, or his director in the team car, is very intelligent. Instead of losing 3-4 minutes, and still being a threat, Evenepoel chose to have an easier day and lose a huge amount of time. By no longer being a threat to the GC leaders he was allowed to get into breaks and win stages.

Proof of this tactical genius is that he changed tack completely mid-race and won the Mountains category, the Combative category, and had Kaden Groves failed to finish he would have won the Points category too. He also won three stages, had three second places, and gained more publicity for his team than any squad other than the yellow and black one.

Quote Originally Posted by Witton Park View Post
As for Pogacar at the TdF, I did make the point at the time that his Spring cost him a serious tilt at the TdF because he was up against a truly great grand tour winner and him being 98% wasn't enough.
I might have agreed with you about Pogačar before the time-trial, but I'm now firmly in agreement with L'Equipe - and they started the Tour de France in 1903 and have been following it ever since.