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1 Jul | 1st stage | 182 km | Bilbao - Bilbao | Hilly | Results
I don't know if this community is active enough yet to have a pre, race and result thread per stage, so let's see how we get on with one thread.
Really looking forward to this stage. I think it will make a great start to the Tour de France. My money is on van Aert for this stage he goes up the mountains a bit better the MvdP and he has the best final sprint of whoever will be left.
Interesting WvA didn't really sprint for 3rd, just rolled in. Maybe too tired, maybe just not worth it
i think he said in the post-race interview that he gave everything chasing down the yates
With Adam Yates looking this strong and him heaving the yellow jersey now, maybe UAE can try a one, two strategy like jumbo visma last year
It's better than JV had last year because this time around the team with a sole leader has a poor stable of mountain domestiques. They don't even have to work to isolate Jonas. It will just happen at the end of stages and he will have to mark both riders (assuming yates' form isn't a mirage and noone on JV surprises by stepping up a level)
Btw great opening stage with gc action on day one! Love it!
I haven’t been keeping up on much pre-tour coverage this year, are there any big storylines to pay attention to? Or just kinda expecting Vingegaard and Pogacar to be the favorites for GC again?
Yes, but Pog is a bit of an unknown since he's coming back from an injury and maybe hasn't trained enough. UAE brought Yates in as co-captain. So a bit of uncertainty on UAE.
Yates said in the interview after the race that Pogacar was king. I guess that means he's going to support Pog instead of ride for his own classification from now on.
I think for now the best thing he can do for pog's race is to be a legit GC threat. That he and the team are contradicting each other is really interesting. They're either surprisingly strategically naive or playing a canny game. My money's on the latter.
I think they are all playing a game. Pogi complaining about his hand at the start and then finishing third two days in a row is an example of that too. Or how he sprinted away from Jonas for bonus seconds.
I think they as a team are like cats playing with mice this tour and I love it!