Vetplant

Fair point, would you mind making a new thread on the Topic? Would love to know more. I think most people on here would like to keep this thread limited to the race itself, thus the need for a new thread.

Yeah, agree. That is a Non-Cycling-Related issue. NCR for short. It needs to be discussed, but not here, IMHO.

7min lead with 90km to go... If only they had two more riders with them, they could play cat-and-mouse with the Peloton and maybe even sneak a win if they held back and put the happer down at 50km-to-go. But, alas, we will wait some more for a proper Breakaway stage 7' 15'' lead 15:21 7'15'' lead for Cort and Perez with 91km to go

Exciting 10 minutes we just had Quick Step speeds up 14:19 Quick Step puts the hammer down in the downhill after Cassel. It looks like they want to split the bunch. 20'' between the two pelotons 14:26 There are two pelotons now, with 20'' difference between them. Van der Poel and Co back to the pack 14:29 The group of van der Poel, Martin and Pinot has joined the peloton. There are still about 20 riders off the back.

Well, not exactly... Back to work until they reach the coast it seems.

Only real interesting GC item on the menu today is the potential of crosswinds in the final 30 odd kilometers. But I'm not convinced the windspeed will be high enough to have any real impact. The route profile seems interesting enough to entice riders to go on a jaunt with the Polka dot wearer MCN...

Hectic, she really gave it a good go to try to evade arrest.

I can see something similar to what MvdP did in Amstel Gold a couple of years back....

Word on the street is WvA will be chained to Rog and Jonas on those cobbles, but that doesn't mean he cannot sprint if he happens to be in the lead group going to the Finish line.... I think Wout will win on Stage 4 and will then be happy to work on Stage 5. PS.Gotta love sport, we have no idea what is actually going to transpire.

The course seems more inviting for a Breakaway to succeed on Stage 4 and even more so on the Arenberg Stage 5. Luckily my calendar is clean for Wednesday, but tomorrow afternoon requires some creative thinking...🤔

Thanks 🤦‍♂️

Yep, that is exactly the thing that made me nervous. If he'd gotten out of the car immediately, they would have shown it. So the fact that nothing was shown, told me they were unsure of his condition, which was concerning. Seems Albon got off worst though, as he had to go to Hospital, where Zhou was cleared at the track.

Also, our species is doomed to go extinct... Only one Human in this shot has the presence of mind to run away from impending doom 😱

Terrifying! Seeing that car sliding on the HALO in the Live feed had me worried. And then they decide not to show a single piece of video thereafter, had me thinking the worst.

From what I understand, he had a collision with some debris, that caused damage to he floor, which impacted his downforce significantly. Credit to Mick as well, he got his first points and really tried to get past Max but did it in a safe manner to make sure they both reach the Checkered Flag. Those last 10 laps were mental. You needed so many additional screens to be able to follow all the action on the track.

Maybe I was wrong and they all get the same conditions....

I've only tweaked my teams twice in the past hour, proud of myself..... Good luck with making your final picks, it is going to be great fun to see who knocks it out the park these 21 stages.

Refresher of what is on the menu for today. If I judged this course purely on the elevation Profile, I'd have said no-one will come close to Ganna. BUT, with all these corners, I think one of the Cyclocrossers are going to upset him. MvdP is starting 40mins before Ganna, Wout and Pog. There is a chance that MvdP can complete the course in the dry, and 40 minutes later it can be pouring. Significant clouds blowing-in from the south in the next couple of hours if you look at Sattelite imagery. Windy - Copenhagen A fair fight would be if it starts raining before the first rider rolls off the ramp, but the Weather never plays fair. EDIT: I see Bissenger starts 4 mins ahead of MvdP, also in with a SERIOUS shout today.

🤔???

Sooo much detail in the start list...

Reading into how teams have staggered this, one can quickly see the priorities of each team, or can we? Alpecin: MvdP->J Phillipsen TJV: Roglic-> Vingegaard ->WVA Ineos: D Martinez-> G Thomas -> Ganna (Does this mean they agree that Martinez is their best bet on GC?) UAE: Bjerg-> Laengen -> Pog (Interesting, they might be planning to sus out the way the coarse rides before launching Pog)

FYI, Top contenders will start sooner rather than later:

And then we get cases like this: