So today was an ITT and an uphill one at that. What this means is that many riders would take it as easy as they could and with what I heard was a 40% cut off that gave plenty of time to the non-GC contenders to take an easy day as was also a short ITT. But let me add that while they could so called take it easy it is still a hard day as they will still have to work. That said for watching for the spectator on TV was not all that exciting early on - did see Luke Plapp go for it and early on crushed the riders before him and get the fastest time and was going to be there for a bit since Lenny Martinez looked close to catch him did not.
Once down to the big guns it did get exciting. With Roglic having a great ride and then seeing Vingegard catch Remco who started 2 minutes in front to take the lead - but owed be short lived. Tadej stormed to the finish gaining 36 seconds on Vngegaard and even more on the others. Remco looked to be struggling and may have been that all the work he did in Stage 12 to limit his losses took it out of his legs today - keeping in mind that while he is a great TT guy this was uphill so not quote his thing. Then there was the sight of Vingegaard with a TT helmet ad bike on a basically up hill stage - haven idea what he was thinking as fro all account I heard his bike was significantly heavier than a climbing bike and the bikes others were using. Will be interesting to see what he has to say about using it.
All in all no big surprises but was good to see Roglic take 3rd on the stage and see Jorgenson have a good day after yesterdays bad day. Also in 7th on the day was Oscar Onley who is having a great tour.
Time to get the rest they can was tomorrow's Stage 14 is another tough stage in the mountains with two HC climbs and a Cat and Cat 1. The start basically goes up hill till they hit the Tourmalet that tops out at almost 90K into the race then ends with the HC climb up to Luchon-Superbagneres - it is going to be a tough day and with the next not as bad bad, but hilly, then a rest day Monday Stage 14 is a day to try and see if Tadej will break - does nto look like it but if you want to win you have to push the envelope and may back fire but what it takes to try and win.
While it would seem that unless he really cracks Tadej is gong to get this - but by how much. Then it looks like Jonas has a pretty good grip on the 2nd step of the podium but likely not going to settle for that and in going for first could totally crack so still interesting. Then there is the 3rd step of the podium with 5 guys with in 1:26 and lots of places to gain and lose that much time.
Race Highlights:
- Winner - Tadej Pogacar
- Yellow Jersey - Tadej Pogacar
- Green Jersey - Jonathan Milan
- Polkadot Jersey - Tadej Pogacar
- While Jersey - Remco Evenepoel
GC W/Time Gaps
1) Tadej Pogacar
2) Jonas Vengegaard - +04:07
3) Remco Evenepoel - +07:24
4) Florian Lipowitz - +07:30
5) Oscar Onley - +08:11
6) Kevin Vauquelin - +08:15
7) Primoz Roglic - +08:50
8) Tobias Johannessen - +10:36
9) Felix Gall - +11:43
10) Mateo Jorgenson - +14:15
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