A legend for sure, and he was the best for many years, but has been showing his age lately. Time to relax and enjoy the sport without the pressures of commentating.
Girmay's accomplishments were my favorite of the Tour, followed closely by Matteo's showing.
Vingo vastly exceeded my expectations. I hope the top 3 and their teams are all healthy next year. Let's see a fair fight.
We'll never know exactly how diminished Jonas is, or what he might have done with a healthy team around him, but Tadej certainly appears to be in top form.
Glad to see Girmay isn't too worse for ware. Loved seeing him grab that point from Philipsen at the mid-stage sprint.
Just watched it. Grrrrrrrrrr. Hope he is able to go tomorrow. He needed a couple of stitches and has a few bumps and bruises, but thankfully no fractures.
The most suspect thing to me is recovery. How they can look so much better than everyone else day after day after day is the "hmmm" factor for me. When it comes to things like that, I just ignore it and enjoy the sport for what it is.
I don't want to know the truth. And don't spoil Santa Claus for me either.
He needs to quit trying to sneak up along the barrier. He got pinched off again today trying to do that, and probably wins if he takes a better line...easier said than done, of course.
At first, second, and third glance, I assumed that was some sort of photoshop fade effect before realizing it was just the dust. It also captures the slightly bad fit of Jan Tratnik's bike for Jonas. Awesome photo.
Criticizing Jonas for behaving like Jonas is one way to go. I hope Pog and Remco keep poking that bear. Jonas has always been very aware of his strengths and weaknesses, and ridden accordingly. Expecting him to go toe-to-toe with Pog and Remco on stages that don't suit him is wish casting.
This is the second biggest hurdle to a Jonas 3-peat (the biggest being the crash in April). I think Jonas is more reliant on his team than Pog. Pog has rarely demonstrated that he has the patience to utilize his team to its fullest potential, though to be fair, this is the first year where he has the strongest team. Not maximizing that advantage is good news for Jonas, but I don't think it will matter.
I'm not as optimistic as Thomas, but I would love to be wrong.
Nice seeing a young rider from a country with no TdF history on a team that hasn't had much success doing well. Two down, 33 to go...34 if he wants the record outright.