Tour de France 2026 ***Spoilers***

[Legs]

Guernalec's 8s 'lead' at second timecheck has evaporated even before the beginning of the descent.

He'll be a minute or so behind at this rate.

 

[matticus]

Probably wasn’t the stage to try to gift to Del Toro as he was a bit sore after the crash.

My best guess is that it was Del Toro's call. (and Pog was clear that he would always chase Jonas down if necessary, which I appreciate was irrelevant on Sunday ... )
; he chose that stage as is his best shot.

Meanwhile, I'm also in the camp thinking "Pog let Remco have that one." my theory being that it would have embarassed Del Toro if he'd won.
(with possibly a bit of "let's try to keep one fwend in the big teams, guys!"

Maybe ...

 

[T4tomo]

If he wins stage 21 it'd be the first time since Lemond in 89 that the GC winner won the final stage, but that was an ITT. Before that the last GC winner to win a road stage on the final day was Hinault in 82 who won on the Champs Elysees.

(Unless I'm wrong ... I didn't start checking until a way back but there may be a bleedin obvious more recent one that I've forgotten)

that one reason I'd prefer it going back to the normal sprint stage. A reward for the fast guys for getting thru the Alps is a chance to duke it out on the C D'E.

 

[Dogtrousers]

that one reason I'd prefer it going back to the normal sprint stage. A reward for the fast guys for getting thru the Alps is a chance to duke it out on the C D'E.

100% agree

 

[No Ta Doctor]

that one reason I'd prefer it going back to the normal sprint stage. A reward for the fast guys for getting thru the Alps is a chance to duke it out on the C D'E.

Tim Merlier agrees, from his sofa back home, where he'll enjoy the more classic like final stage on the tellybox

 

[Dogtrousers]

Fred Wright powers into 18th position

 

[misforturob]

Looks like a really well paced ride by Tarling. He's going to be in the hotseat for quite a while

 

[Dogtrousers]

Fred Wright powers out of the top 20

 

[Legs]

Looks like a really well paced ride by Tarling. He's going to be in the hotseat for quite a while

2 hours at least, I would think. Only the GC guys are going to be beating that.

 

[Pblakeney]

My best guess is that it was Del Toro's call. (and Pog was clear that he would always chase Jonas down if necessary, which I appreciate was irrelevant on Sunday ... )
; he chose that stage as is his best shot.

Meanwhile, I'm also in the camp thinking "Pog let Remco have that one." my theory being that it would have embarassed Del Toro if he'd won.
(with possibly a bit of "let's try to keep one fwend in the big teams, guys!"

Maybe ...

Agreed. I doubt there are many who think Pog wouldn't have won if he'd decided to win and dropped Del Toro earlier.
His final push was too little but more importantly, too late.

 

[Legs]

Abrahamsen's live timing chip has gone a bit cock-a-fanny on the 'real time gaps'.

 

[Legs]

2 hours at least, I would think. Only the GC guys are going to be beating that.

may have spoken too soon - Bruno Armirail is giving it a good go! His chip is also giving sporadic erroneous times.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Agreed. I doubt there are many who think Pog wouldn't have won if he'd decided to win and dropped Del Toro earlier.
His final push was too little but more importantly, too late.

On that stage, I think if there was any gifting going on by Pog it was to del Toro. Remco just latched on and spoiled the love-in. Pog spoiled his own chances by towing Toro and Remco all the way up there. If he'd gone earlier he could have left them both easily. What he managed to do was to set Remco up perfectly. But even if though del Toro didn't get the stage, Pog still managed to maximise del Toro's gain over Seixas - so still successful.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

may have spoken too soon - Bruno Armirail is giving it a good go! His chip is also giving sporadic erroneous times.

The Visma boys don't necessarily have much to hold back - unless they want to get in the break tomorrow. Even then, after a rest day they might want a proper effort to open the legs up

 

[Legs]

may have spoken too soon - Bruno Armirail is giving it a good go! His chip is also giving sporadic erroneous times.

This is exciting - his big advantage is dropping, but I'm not sure it's coming down fast enough! If he went too deep too early, though...
He lost half of it in just under half of the distance from Point Chrono no2 to the finish...