We start heading South. Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) has already crushed the race: with 2 victories in ~~-4-~~ 3 stages, he leads the 3 classifications...
Rankings after stage #4.
General time classification
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
- Primoj Roglitch 🇸🇮 Bora @ 3′21″
- Enric Mas 🇪🇸 Movistar @ 3′32″
- Sepp Kuss 🇺🇸 Visma @ 3′44″
- Oscar Onley 🇬🇧 Ineos @ 3′45″
- Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF @ 3′50″
- Felix Gall 🇦🇹 Decathlon @ 3′57″
- Matias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek @ 4′06″
- Jarno Widar 🇧🇪 Lotto-Int. @ 4′06″
- Jay Vine 🇦🇺 UAE @ 4′11″
Points
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 82 pts
- Ethan Hayter 🇬🇧 Soudal-QS: 37
- Matthew Brennan 🇬🇧 Visma: 30
Mountain
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 23 pts
- Lorenzo Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana: 10
- 4 riders with 6 pts
Stages
Stage 5, Wednesday 26
173 km, D+ 1700m*
Whith the hills that start 60 km from the line and end 20-30 from it, this should be a game of sprinters vs punchers. Therefore we should see punchers-sprinters having their day.
NB: the profile exaggerates the steepness of the slopes.
Stage 6, Thursday 27
177 km, D+ 3000m*
Another mountain stage, another Pogatchar day. To make sure of it and remind him of his 3 Stade Bianche victories in a row, there will be 2 km on a gravel road at 12% near the summit of the last climb. Shall the first group to ride down towards the finish line be a one-man group or shall he get a few companions?
Stage 7, Friday 28
150 km, D+ 3600m*
I am not sure how to name this stage. There is quite some elevation, but the vast majority of slopes are smooth. Probably a day for breakaways, coming after an UAE stage.
Stage 8, Saturday 29
172 km, D+ 1300m*
I assume this stage is designed to create a fight between punchers and sprinters. However it didn't work on Wednesday, as everyone wanted a sprint; and this time the slope may be insufficient to get rid of all sprinters.
Stage 9, Sunday 30
188 km, D+ 5000m*
A mountain stage fo finish the week. All sorts of climbs, steep or smooth, short or medium-length, precede a 22 km long final climb. This stage will be very hard, there is no flat section and it is rather long.
Stage 8, Saturday 29
172 km, D+ 1300m
Nobody but a poor Burgos rider (Fernandez🇪🇸) volunteered for a breakaway.
The peloton was musing around. There was a first crash after a guy at the front took a satchel from a supply assistant and he dropped it or the satchel was ridded, and anyway its whole content went in the middle of the peloton, ultimately causing a crash probably near the back.
Then the peloton started pushing like idiots before the Intermediate Sprint (that basically nobody disputed, Van Aert (🇧🇪 Visma) just did a 30 m sprint for the points, and Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) at a distance for the last time bonus) and kept on pushing after, for no reason at all.
Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) was on the left side of the (straight) road, and suddenly moved rightwards, collided and crashed badly. His shoulder was badly hit, he couldn't get back on his bike and had to withdraw. There is no clear explanation to why he lost control his bike, there was nobody on his left, he didn't seem to be on the asphalt limit, the only hypothesis I could make is the rider behind touching his backwheel, but in such cases it is most of the time the rider behind who crashes, and the rider ahead barely feels it. Other than that, something in or on the road.
Nobody did anything in the climb.
Azparren (🇪🇸 Q36.5) did a nice solo after the summit: he was only caught 1 mile from the line.
The sprint result was weird for a flat sprint: 34 y.o. Coquard (🇫🇷 Cofidis) beating M. Pedersen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek)! The favourite Brennan (🇬🇧 Visma) was stuck in a wrong place during sprint preparation while his teammates were leading, and when the real sprint started, he sat down after a while.
There was another mass crash in the sprint. Ladies and gentlemen, this was a sprinters stage: sportingly useless, boring for the watcher, and causing many injuries to riders for nothing ðŸ˜
NB: there had already been a crash causing withdrawals before the real start...
Morality: when half of the riders have tasted the asphalt during a stage, French riders stand a chance. That's what it takes 😀
All classifications are now 'reset' due to Pogatchar's accident:
Pogacar’s exit blows the race wide open, but I hate to see it happen like this. I’m not saying the eventual winner will need to defend their title in any way, but they will have won after Tadej had absolutely dominated everyone in the field earlier.
I enjoy sprint finishes where several people have an opportunity right up to the end, but you’re right. At what point does this just become too much of a blood bath to put up with?
Pro cycling has to be close to if not the most dangerous pro sport there is surely?
It was a rock Pog hit FYI. Nasty crash before this, and again in the sprint. Not what anyone wants