The peloton was riding like maniacs despite the fact that there was no one ahead. That's a (relatively) new habit, riding at excessive speeds in downhill false flats, side by side in relatively tights pelotons, when there are still dozens of km to go and no real reason to go nuts like that.
It started raining a few miles before the gravel sector near the end. Marcellusi (🇮🇹 Bardani) crashed into a meadow or wasteland, his bike flew in the air; while he looked physically OK, he also looked quite shocked.
Ganna (🇮🇹 Ineos) lead the pack a good while, but he couldn't find a teammate anywhere behind him. So after his effort on the asphalt, he also had to represent his team on the gravel section.
There were several falls on the gravel section, especially on dirt areas that the rain had made slippery. Notably, Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) fell as he was trying to follow Van der Poel's (🇳🇱 Alpecin) acceleration; his crash slew down Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) who was right behind him. Anyway, a trio broke away, with the Dutchman, the Mexican and Pellizari (🇮🇹 Bora) joining up.
Del Toro🇲🇽 did all the work once he caught up with **Van der Poel🇳🇱 ** and, after a bit of sliding here and there, he was himself caught up by Van der Poel🇳🇱. At Bora, there must be a religion of never relaying anyone 🙄 , for Pellizari🇮🇹 stayed in others' wheels 100 of the time, until he attacked in the last hectometres. It looked like he could make it, but luckily, the other two outsprinted him in the last yards, so that Van der Poel🇳🇱 got his stage victory and Del Toro🇲🇽 the GC position for which they worked.
Johanessen (🇩🇰 Uno-X) detached from the group behind a bit.
First Frenchmen were Champoussin🇫🇷 (Astana) and Lapeira🇫🇷 (Décathlon) around position 10 in that group 2, about 15 seconds behind the winning trio. But they hadn't done well in the TimeTrial the previous day, so they're rather far in GC.
Cosnefroy (🇫🇷 UAE) only arrived with some sort of gruppetto after almost 5 minutes...
Ah, well, I support that but the Norwegians are strangely against it. I think they felt a need to paint Denmark as villains when they achieved independence, but in reality it was a true dual kingdom with plenty of Norwegians in government and powerful army positions. Like, most of our (shared) naval heroes were Norwegian born.
Got exciting there in the end! It's been a while since I've seen Valgren at his best level, but this was impressive. Makes you think back to his Omloop and Amstel victories in 2018 - or maybe rather his Coppa Sabatini victory in 2021.
Yeah, that's the kind of guys whom you used to consider as dangerous as soon as they broke away from the bunch (a bit like the semi-mutants nowadays); then demonstrated again and again that they were quite harmless; and yet, on a blue moon, may still surprise you the other way by being efficient, enduring and clever on some special day.
On the other hand, had the circuit climb been 200 m longer, he would have seen Del Toro and Jorgenson pass by him. It would have been sad (but a common event), but with several teams pushing like maniacs, the peloton went very very fast in the last loop, they really wanted to snatch the victory. It is a good thing Valgren had kept Alaphilippe with him to maintain some gap and save some strength for the final climb. Alaphilippe is generally a good comrade with breakaway colleagues (if they can tolerate his 20 tics per minute), even though I wasn't convinced that him attacking the Alpecin guy after his (Alpecin) teammate had done all the previous work was a very good or fair idea.
Today's profile is pretty similar, but the main climb is much higher & longer, and the circuit's climb a bit steeper.
I was very very impressed with Tobias Lund today, his victory after such a long race and against such competition was the most impressed I have been with him. And the leadout was sublime, great work from Decathlon.
Stage 2
The peloton was riding like maniacs despite the fact that there was no one ahead. That's a (relatively) new habit, riding at excessive speeds in downhill false flats, side by side in relatively tights pelotons, when there are still dozens of km to go and no real reason to go nuts like that.
It started raining a few miles before the gravel sector near the end. Marcellusi (🇮🇹 Bardani) crashed into a meadow or wasteland, his bike flew in the air; while he looked physically OK, he also looked quite shocked.
Ganna (🇮🇹 Ineos) lead the pack a good while, but he couldn't find a teammate anywhere behind him. So after his effort on the asphalt, he also had to represent his team on the gravel section.
There were several falls on the gravel section, especially on dirt areas that the rain had made slippery. Notably, Jorgenson (🇺🇸 Visma) fell as he was trying to follow Van der Poel's (🇳🇱 Alpecin) acceleration; his crash slew down Del Toro (🇲🇽 UAE) who was right behind him. Anyway, a trio broke away, with the Dutchman, the Mexican and Pellizari (🇮🇹 Bora) joining up.
Del Toro🇲🇽 did all the work once he caught up with **Van der Poel🇳🇱 ** and, after a bit of sliding here and there, he was himself caught up by Van der Poel🇳🇱. At Bora, there must be a religion of never relaying anyone 🙄 , for Pellizari🇮🇹 stayed in others' wheels 100 of the time, until he attacked in the last hectometres. It looked like he could make it, but luckily, the other two outsprinted him in the last yards, so that Van der Poel🇳🇱 got his stage victory and Del Toro🇲🇽 the GC position for which they worked.
Johanessen (🇩🇰 Uno-X) detached from the group behind a bit.
First Frenchmen were Champoussin🇫🇷 (Astana) and Lapeira🇫🇷 (Décathlon) around position 10 in that group 2, about 15 seconds behind the winning trio. But they hadn't done well in the TimeTrial the previous day, so they're rather far in GC.
Cosnefroy (🇫🇷 UAE) only arrived with some sort of gruppetto after almost 5 minutes...
Johannesen is Norwegian! :) Though I do concede our flags and names are very similar...
I will keep on making those mistakes until the 2 kingdoms reunite 😉
Ah, well, I support that but the Norwegians are strangely against it. I think they felt a need to paint Denmark as villains when they achieved independence, but in reality it was a true dual kingdom with plenty of Norwegians in government and powerful army positions. Like, most of our (shared) naval heroes were Norwegian born.
Stage 5 (Friday)
This profile, lumme! There isn't much flat there.
Got exciting there in the end! It's been a while since I've seen Valgren at his best level, but this was impressive. Makes you think back to his Omloop and Amstel victories in 2018 - or maybe rather his Coppa Sabatini victory in 2021.
Yeah, that's the kind of guys whom you used to consider as dangerous as soon as they broke away from the bunch (a bit like the semi-mutants nowadays); then demonstrated again and again that they were quite harmless; and yet, on a blue moon, may still surprise you the other way by being efficient, enduring and clever on some special day.
On the other hand, had the circuit climb been 200 m longer, he would have seen Del Toro and Jorgenson pass by him. It would have been sad (but a common event), but with several teams pushing like maniacs, the peloton went very very fast in the last loop, they really wanted to snatch the victory. It is a good thing Valgren had kept Alaphilippe with him to maintain some gap and save some strength for the final climb. Alaphilippe is generally a good comrade with breakaway colleagues (if they can tolerate his 20 tics per minute), even though I wasn't convinced that him attacking the Alpecin guy after his (Alpecin) teammate had done all the previous work was a very good or fair idea.
Today's profile is pretty similar, but the main climb is much higher & longer, and the circuit's climb a bit steeper.
This time, the peloton leaders had their revenge on the breakaway survivors.
I was very very impressed with Tobias Lund today, his victory after such a long race and against such competition was the most impressed I have been with him. And the leadout was sublime, great work from Decathlon.