Tour de France 2019

How it works

Predict who is going to win each stage of the Tour.

  • Leave your prediction for each stage on the giveaway (they all include maps and profiles and link to the official site).
  • Below is a table with all stages but you can just go the first one and use the "next stage" link there.
  • We're not going to make it too easy so it's not allowed to just spam the same rider for all stages.

Stages

Date Stage (Giveaway) Steam
Saturday, 6 July Brussels to Brussels via Charleroi The Prism
Sunday, 7 July Brussels-Royal Palace to Brussels-Atomium 7th Legion
Monday, 8 July Binche to Épernay Moorhuhn Invasion (Crazy Chicken Invasion)
Tuesday, 9 July Reims to Nancy Bubsy Two-Fur
Wednesday, 10 July Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Colmar Abrix 2 - Brown version
Thursday, 11 July Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles Sixtieth Kilometer
Friday, 12 July Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône 123 Slaughter Me Street
Saturday, 13 July Mâcon to Saint-Étienne Zoo Empire
Sunday, 14 July Saint-Étienne to Brioude Lord Mayor
Monday, 15 July Saint-Flour to Albi The Samaritan Paradox
Tuesday, 16 July Albi Contract
Wednesday, 17 July Albi to Toulouse Chroma Squad
Thursday, 18 July Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre Challenge of the Five Realms: Spellbound in the World of Nhagardia
Friday, 19 July Pau to Pau Coma: Mortuary
Saturday, 20 July Tarbes to Col du Tourmalet Survivalist
Sunday, 21 July Limoux to Foix Dance of Death
Monday, 22 July Nîmes Transport Giant
Tuesday, 23 July Nîmes to Nîmes ASMR Universe
Wednesday, 24 July Pont du Gard to Gap Dragonsphere
Thursday, 25 July Embrun to Valloire Empire of the Gods
Friday, 26 July Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Tignes Pills4Skills
Saturday, 27 July Albertville to Val Thorens Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition
Sunday, 28 July Rambouillet to Paris (Champs-Élysées) The Apotheosis Project

This table/chart is RaChart™ compatible and was created with Giveaways Table/Chart Creator

Preview

Welcome to the Tour of the Missing Favorites. This year there are almost more column inches devoted to those who won't be there then to those who will be. These are just some of the people who we won't see: Chris Froome, Tom Dumoulin, Primoz Roglic, Fernando Gaviria, Mark Cavendish, Arnaud Démare, Nacer Bouhanni.

It's definitely a Tour for the mountain goats; there are 65 cols and 402 kilometres to be ascended, there hasn't been this much climbing since 2010. Pretty clearly the ASO is still trying to get a French victor with Romain Bardet who's time trialling skills are quite poor. With so many favorites missing, this is the year he better produce.

And there have been changes again; there are now 8 bonus seconds to be earned on some cols in some of the stages. No half-stages or Le Mans style starts this year though.

See also the PEZ Preview. Some of the stage descriptions are from them as well.

Sites
Official Site
Wikipedia
A better list of riders than the official site, with thanks to bartwu

General Classification (abbreviated as GC)
This is the one it's all about, who will bring the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) to Paris?

  • Egan Bernal sure is getting the nod a lot; he was 15th last year so he has experienced the circus that is the Tour de France. He won the Tour of Switzerland just weeks ago and also won Paris-Nice earlier in the year; most cyclists would give their eyeteeth just for that.
  • Team Ineos has a choice to make; Geraint Thomas won last year, they can hardly just drop him now for Bernal. They'll probably go for the common solution; "joint leadership".
  • Astana is bringing Jakob Fuglsang; will his third time be the charm? He sure had a good Spring.
  • Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa are the two riders to do it for Movistar, they will likely also wait to see who is doing better. They sure will have some high quality support in world champion Alejandro Valverde.
  • Thibaut Pinot is France's other hope; he might just end higher than Romain Bardet this year.
  • Mitchelton-Scott is bringing the Yates twins, with Adam being designated to lead.
  • Team Jumbo-Visma focused a lot on the Giro this year though it was not enough for Primoz Roglic to win there. Now Steven Kruijswijk will be the man to do it but the team is bringing quite a few men to support Dylan Groenewegen, leaving him in the lurch?
  • When I say "GC rider crashing", we all say: Richie Porte. I so hope this year he won't have any bad luck and good qualification at the end.
  • There's a few more people we can mention but it would take quite something for them to win the Tour this year: Rigoberto Uran, Dan Martin, Vincenzo Nibali, Enric Mas, Fabio Aru, and Emmanuel Buchmann.

King of the Mountain (often abbreviated as KoM)
The maillot a pois (polka dot jersey) goes to the best climber; who will it be this year? Obviously the GC riders will all feature in this classification but there are some others...

  • Julian Alaphilippe won the jersey last year and he is odds on to do it again.
  • Chances should be pretty good we'll have a French winner of this jersey; could Warren Barguil (he won the French title last week) have a remonte or will it be Bardet or Pinot?

Sprinters
Will we have a Tour where one man wins most of the sprints? It's hard to predict this year.

  • Dylan Groenewegen has set his sights on the first stage to be the first Dutchman since 1989 to wear the yellow jersey. He certainly has the skill and class to win multiple stages again this year. He did have a crash a few weeks ago, we'll have to wait and see if that has had any effect.
  • His main rival is probably Caleb Ewan, both of them have had quite a good year so far.
  • Elia Viviani has more experience, can he make it count?
  • And then there's Sonny Colbrelli, André Greipel, Alexander Kristoff, Cees Bol, or maybe Rick Zabel will make his father proud this year.
  • Michael Matthews will be contesting the more selective sprints.
  • Edit: noticed I never mentioned Peter Sagan here. :p

Feel free to leave your predictions for jersey winners and other speculations in the comments below.

Man of the Tour

For the third year running I'm going to say Peter Sagan. This hasn't been his year so far and I don't think he can consistently beat the real power sprinters. But he can definitely make it to Paris and bring home the green jersey again; if he does he'll beat his own and Erik Zabel's record of six. Hopefully he'll show us some of his bike skills and have some real fun interviews as well.

Tour Trivia

More Peter Sagan; this year he lost his national title to his brother Juraj. He's also not the current world champion which means he'll be starting the tour in his regular team jersey. This will be the first time since 13 June 2011 that he has worn it!

The Grand Départ from Brussels honors the 50th anniversary of Eddy Merckx’s first yellow jersey, with two stages in the Belgian Capital - A 192 kilometers road stage starting and finishing in Brussels and a team time trial.

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4 years ago*

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For a change I have the event done a few days before the start of the Tour. :p

4 years ago
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I'll go with a dark horse...just dunno who yet. Poels or Dennis maybe.
It's a shame Dutch riders these days suffer from beep beep team owners that show them little to no support.
Kruijswijk should have had more wins, same goes for Dumoulin.

4 years ago
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We've got some real talents these days, hopefully everything will fall into place. I can definitely see Dutch victories in the Vuelta and Giro in the coming years. The Tour though... That takes something special, like an Sky/Ineos stranglehold. Them winning 6 out of the last 7 Tours says it all.

4 years ago
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Most likely, even without Froome, we'll have another Sky/Ineos dominance. To me Bernal , given what he has shown last year, is ready, there's some (possible) doubt about Thomas due to his recent crash. Being a huge fan of Colombian riders this could put me in the very odd position of rooting for Sky at the Tour :DD

Froome is lucky to be alive after his crash so missing the Tour is the least of his concerns right now, I think. At the other end we have Dumoulin who had a stupid crash (not meaning that it was his fault) which looked to be bothering him for a few days tops, and instead he's out of the Tour too.... Tough luck and he will be missed!

Finally I'm very curious to see what van Aert will be able to do , both in TTs and in some hilly stages. Ah, and I too have the feeling the Sagan is on the way to his usual self after months of disappointments.

4 years ago
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July 6
What a start...

Two crashes and two favorites hit the tarmac... I wonder if the GC chances for Fuglsang have changed now. And how will Dylan Groenewegen do after his crash at 60 km/h... Tomorrow's Team Time Trial won't come at the right time for their teams.

But let's not forget about Mike Teunissen's amazing win!

I thought for sure Sagan had it, with Caleb Ewan not being able to get past the others. And then Mike just powered through as Sagan's speed dropped. We (Holland) got that coveted yellow jersey, even if not as planned.

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Update: First results after the medical check: No fractures, just stitches for @jakob_fuglsang.

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4 years ago*
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Talk about a surprise winner ;). Majestic sprint from him though, he had a chance and took it , chapeau.

I heard that this is the first Dutch yellow jersey since 1989, is that correct ???

4 years ago
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Yes, that is correct. Erik Breukink was the last one to wear it in 1989.

4 years ago
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Wow, unbelievable for one of cycling's great nations and with the amount of talents you guys currently have !

4 years ago
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Yeah, we've been quite unlucky when it comes to the Tour de France.

But as the tv commentators said today; with all this talent there's no way we'll have to wait another 30 years for the next yellow jersey.

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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July 7
Holy shit, I did not expect Team Jumbo Visma to be this much improved. I thought a top 5 might just be possible but them winning by 20 seconds, no way...

The last ten years the time difference between numbers one and two hasn't been this big.

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I had even considered them as my pick, but .... putting 20 secs into Ineos, that's really impressive!!!
Teunissen must be having the form of his life! , not only he held on till the end but he was leading them home together with van Aert.

4 years ago
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July 8
Julian Alaphilippe makes it look waaaaaay too easy...

Everyone (all three) predicted it correctly today. I, too, thought he was one of the favorites but that he would win this easily is just scary. He is the man to beat for the coming years. (Or will Mathieu van der Poel have something to say about that?)

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That was a real masterpiece, he went off so hard that he made immediately a colossal gap and every time the road went up he still gained a a sec or or two. Scary, impressive and something to remember !

4 years ago
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Better being alone than having to deal with Fuglsang (Amstel Gold Race 2019).
But I have to say the way he won was very impressive and surpsising. Resisting to Ineos + Jumbo Wisma during 15 kms.
Surely the possibility to wear the yellow jersey for the 1st time in his career determined his tactic as could have waited the last wall for an "easier" stage win.

4 years ago
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July 9
I wasn't able to see much of today's stage but the sprint looked pretty close with Alexander Kristoff doing really well. Viviani almost finished out of view but he got what he came for. He now joins the club of riders having won in all three grand tours.

The next sprint stage should be really interesting with so many sprinters finishing this close together.

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July 10
Peter Sagan gets his win! I'm amazed no one tried to get away on that last climb. This way they all knew it was gonna be decided between a few men.

Wout van Aert did really great to get that close with people like Trentin and Van Avermaet around. His second place gives him some nice bonus seconds.

Tomorrow we'll get the GC favorites coming to the front!

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4 years ago*
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I expected way more selection and that Sagan would be dropped, instead here he is! Probably not yet at his best, but it's always great to see Peter win :))

4 years ago
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July 11
Great win for Dylan Teuns on his first Tour.

I wasn't sure if that extra kilometre at the end was a good addition, but the gravel and 24% grade sure provided fireworks.

The GC got shook up more than I expected and Geraint Thomas looked real sharp. Bardet is the big loser of the day (even before his antics on the finish line); this is probably not his year either, I don't see him winning the Tour, ever.

Some trivia; the previous three people who gained the yellow here brought the jersey to Paris. Giulio Ciccone is likely going to break this streak.

We'll know more when we hit the Pyrenees.

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July 12
Dylan Groenewegen powers to the line to win by a millimetre!!

That was super close... Good thing that Dylan started his sprint from right behind Caleb Ewan, surprising him and thus securing his victory. Sagan did surprisingly well too; getting third place ahead of some notable power sprinters.

Tomorrow is a day for the breakaway!

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It looks like this year I can't predict a sprint at all ;).
Great and impressive win by Groenewegen, but I really don't understand Viviani , the other day he was perfect, today he had almost the same leadout but got passed by all the other sprinters. Bah!

4 years ago
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Keep the faith, it will come.

4 years ago
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Yes, the day I copy your pick :D

4 years ago
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Dylan Groenewegen finally wins, at the beginning I imagine he would be the man to be beaten in the sprints.

4 years ago
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July 13
Another classic Thomas de Gendt breakaway!

I'm so glad the two pursuers didn't catch him right at the end. I think everyone should have expected Alaphilippe to go on that last climb but weirdly only Pinot was ready to follow.

The discarded bidon that Geraint Thomas and half of the Ineos team crashed over sure could have changed the entire Tour. When I saw it laying in the street I feared the worst but fortunately it looks like no one got injured too badly.

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4 years ago*
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Great stage!
Alaphilippe takes the yellow jersey. Also Nibali's GC hopes are gone.

4 years ago
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Yeah, not that I gave Nibali much chance to begin with.

Now that he is far behind he can focus on winning a stage.

4 years ago
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July 14
Daryl Impey with the second win ever for South-Africa in the Tour. Tiesj Benoot must have known it was going to be real tough to beat his breakaway fellow.

A typical transition stage then; a large group get's the peleton's blessing and they take it easy.

Tomorrow should be interesting!

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July 15
I can't believe today's stage... I just can't.

Let's start with today's amazing winner. Wout van Aert beat some real power sprinters; Viviani and Ewan just couldn't get past him. It seems you need to start in cyclo-cross these days. Just amazing...

And then the GC... They all knew the wind was there, there wasn't that far to go anymore. And still half of the GC contenders (and Dylan Groenewegen) managed to be surprised when the pack broke. They all should have been there; now they lost more time on a flat stage then in two average mountain stages... Oh man.

A well deserved rest tomorrow!

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So disappointed in Fuglsang (and Astana?). He's got the legs to do well, but it seems the head isn't there... Is he not smart enough, not focused enough? Can't keep concentration during a long, boring flat stage? He blamed the team (not the riders) for not telling him about the dangers after the roundabout where he and Luis Leon Sanchez went the wrong way, but c'mon! Big sigh :(

Other than that, fantastic finish! Always exciting to see them take advantage of the wind on this kind of stage :)

4 years ago
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Wind echelons always make for exciting riding, too bad that suddenly the GC looks less interesting but... it's those riders' fault. If small, pure climbers like Quintana and Bernal can hang on and you are a contender, you have to be there too, period.

Incredible sprint by van Aert, I expected something from him in this Tour but definitely not this :)) , he is really becoming one of the most interesting riders around!

EDIT:

I just learned that Landa had made the split but was later involved in a crash, poor Mikel , and apologies to him for the curses I threw him :)

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July 17
Caleb Ewan wins by a tiny margin in a sprint the reverse of the one he lost. Groenewegen was maybe in front to soon?

Nice to see all the power sprinters are quite well matched.

Mostly I am really glad there were no crashes in the last 5km; the track looked incredibly scary, so narrow, the wrong kinds of barrier, etc.

Unfortunately there's also bad news: Nikki Terpstra crashed earlier and from what I saw I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end of his career. :/

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July 18
Simon Yates played it real smart; he managed to lose enough time in the first week to be allowed to go in the breakaway and in the final sprint he left the other two no chance. Chapeau!

As expected, no GC changes. Tomorrow the time trial; Geraint Thomas in yellow?

The story of the day might be Rohan Dennis quitting.

Nice bit of trivia: not since 1994 did we have 12 different winners after 12 different stages.

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July 19
I don't think anyone expected Julian Alaphilippe to win today. Did he practice a lot in secret or did he find some special 'medication'? Darn.

Tomorrow we'll see how well he will do on a real mountain finish and we'll know if he is a contender for the GC or not.

The other GC contenders did about as expected with Pinot maybe doing better than expected.

I'm so incredibly sad for Wout van Aert... I've been feeling bad from the moment of his crash and I don't think that's gonna change till tomorrow. I think the barrier should have been completely on the pavement but what can you do? Maybe you could say he is fortunate that his injuries aren't worse but he was doing so incredibly well in his first Tour. He was doing great today as well and I so would have liked to see where he would have ended up. Team Jumbo Visma is really gonna miss him. I hope he'll recover soon.

Edit: Max Schachmann is out of the Tour as well. :(

https://twitter.com/BORAhansgrohe/status/1152252543533309952

https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1152248934926036992

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Me too was really gutted by van Aert's crash, he wouldn't have won, but who cares, it was still an excellent effort. Watching the replay over and over I was afraid he had severe knee/leg damage, it appears that it's relatively minor but still... it was really nasty and unfortunate.

I expected Alaphilippe to do well but... like this?? That was amazing!! (I'm choosing to ignore reasonable 'medical doubts' and enjoy what I saw). The big question now is how is he going to perform in the mountains?? At this point I have no idea. Other than that , it looks like Thomas is the big favourite now, only Kruijswik and Mas have a decent gap and seem to have a really good shape.

We had the drama of the crashes, but also something special from the one and only Peter Sagan:

his "usual" trick but on a TT bike, just wow

4 years ago
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lol, I missed that Sagan Special. Perfect! :D

4 years ago
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I will never complain when a rider beat an INEOS rider. NEVER!!!
For Van Aert his crash looked very ugly. He is surely taking too much risks on his bike (too much falls). His crashes will become as famous as his wins if he continues like this. He is not Froome, he is cyclo cross specialist and looks nice on a bike so he shouldn't crash like he is doing. We can expect he will correct this with some Xp.
Congratulations to Schamann for reaching the final line with a broken hand.

Would be intresting to know what dutch supporters are expecting from Kruijswijk?

4 years ago
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Personally I am expecting he'll end 4th or 5th. I can't say if my fellow countrymen all expect 3rd.

4 years ago
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I will never complain when a rider beat an INEOS rider. NEVER!!!

:DDDDD Amen to that, you said what I didn't want to say openly ;)

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Yeah.. that was from last year, afaik. :)

And btw, those GIFV/MP4 embeds don't seem to work.

4 years ago
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I don't know if Alaphilippe can hold this form till the end, otherwise this could be the most open Tour in years. One thing looks certain: Sky/Ineos is (very surprisingly) nowhere near as strong as usual, racing should be way more open.

4 years ago
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July 20
So impressive; Thibaut Pinot said he would try, everyone expected him to, but to also do it then, that's not easy.

The French can be really happy, even with Bardet failing hopelessly; they have a man in yellow and another ready to take it. President Macron visited the Tour and told Alaphilippe that this might just be the year a Frenchman would bring the yellow jersey to Paris; no pressure then.

Team Jumbo Visma was really impressive with that many men on the final climb; just imagine if Wout van Aert had been there as well.

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July 21
Simon Yates with his second win of the Tour! His twin brother might not be doing well but Simon sure has a great Tour.

Pinot looks super strong, he so easily got away from the other GC contenders. Bernal, Landa, and Buchmann also did themselves some favors and got kinda back into contention.

We'll know more when we hit the Alps. First a rest day and some transition stages.

4 years ago*
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One of the best Tour mountain stages in years! That's what happens when you don't have a super-strong team like Sky, US Postal or whatever absolutely dominating and crushing the race.

After his time loss in the windy stage I had taken Pinot off the list of possible winners, how wrong I was , he is probably my favourite now, absolutely excellent in these two stages. Alaphilippe finally showed signs of being human, will he crack or not? Looks like for once we are going to have an exciting last week :)

4 years ago
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July 23
An exciting power sprint with Caleb Ewan coming out on top. Those last few turns made it tricky to get a good position and maintain speed. Groenewegen got boxed in and had to go all the way from right to left, giving him no chance.

Caleb certainly positioned behind the right wheel and he's the first of the power sprinters to get two victories. Only the Champs-Élysées left for another sprint chance.

Fuglsang is out of this year's Tour after his crash but it wasn't really his Tour anyway this year. We'll have to wait and see how much Geraint Thomas' weird crash will affect him.

Tomorrow another de Gendt stage? Bring it on!

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4 years ago*
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When in the last few kms they were showing De Gendt at the back of the peloton I thought likewise " There he is resting for tomorrow!" :D.

I always underestimate Ewan (for no exact reason), impressive sprint once again.

4 years ago
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July 24
A very impressive win by Matteo Trentin, powering away from the others instead of waiting for a sprint finish.

Tomorrow we should get some GC fireworks!

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4 years ago
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Impressive was the exact same word I had in mind watching his action, there were high quality riders in the break and he was clearly far superior, impressive indeed. He also had a brilliant interview on Italian TV just after the finish with an insightful tactical analysis of the stage, really jumped up a lot in my own riders 'rankings'.

4 years ago
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His English interview was quite good too, he jumped up for me as well.

4 years ago
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July 25
Nairo Quintana had something to prove; he's so unhappy at Movistar, apparently no one there even talks to him. He sure proved today that any team can still use him these days.

There's been a few GC changes but I expected/hoped for more. I guess tomorrow we'll finally find out who really is Ineos' number one man.

And Alaphilippe is still sitting pretty... Amazing, his team brought Mas for the GC and no real support for the mountains, yet there he still is, three days from the finish. If they don't drop him tomorrow he'll be one of the most suprising Tour winners ever.

I hope Cadel Evans and George Bennet are alright; Cadel's weird crash didn't look too bad but George crashed twice and by the looks of it, quite hard.

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4 years ago
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VIVA COLOMBIA !! ;)
The resurgence of Nairo Quintana (hopefully this is not a one time thing) and an impressive attack by Bernal, who finally showed again what we saw last year.

Anyway, I expected more too, we have more or less the same situation as before. To me it was a big WTF? stage, first with Movistar tactics (I really can't make sense of it) and then Thomas short-lived attack, Bernal was gaining ground and nobody was answering, are you kidding me?

4 years ago
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the craziest stage, no official winner yet...

4 years ago
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