As the Time Trial start time approached the sun came out and the winds dropped to a light 4mph NW (as estimated by the PT meteorologist).  The temperature was around 74 degrees.  Very nice!

Ten TTers rolled to the line to battle the course - perhaps inspired by their favorite TdF rider's effort in Saturday's TT.    Chris Lamothe apparently peaking for the National Tri Championships in two weeks, blazed another PR with a phenomenal FMT of 22:58 (26.13mph).   He lowered his PR by 25 seconds.  I think he's ready.  Tiago Barreira changed to his road rig and summarily crushed the course in a Course record 23:46 (25.24 mph) in the Road bike category.   Amy Kneale eviscerated the course on her stealthy steed in a FWT of 24:13 (24.77mph) which is only 7 seconds from her PR.  The fastest Junior was Kaleb Toscano with a time of 25:52 (23.20mph). He appears to have recovered from his XC camp nicely.  

Other Notables:

Ron Nelson broke 24 minutes for his 2nd time ever -  23:57   only 11 seconds off of his PR

Jon Taber keeps nibbling around his PR -   Only 2 seconds from his PR .    

Ken Toscano rounding back into form after his hiking trip to Colorado -   only 19 seconds from his PR

Thanks again to Wendy for wo-manning the backup timing.

I think this Tour was one of the most exciting in a long time.  The many mano a mano battles in the mountains between Pogacar and Vingegaard were epic.   Pogacar may have believed in his own invincibility with his tactics in week 2 -  too many hard accelerations to match the breaks by Jumbo Visma and combined with the desire for stage wins when he could have been more conservative. Each probably contributed to his meltdown loss of 3 minutes at the end of stage 11.     Kudos to Geraint Thomas who secured 3rd place on the podium with strong mountain top finishes and on the time trial.

Here come the Americans!

7 riders from the US this year.    And they were not shy to display their talents!

Brandon McNulty earned himself a raise as he almost single handedly blew apart the peloton in the Pyranees pacing Pogacar up the final climbs.

Sepp Kuss was almost as effective for Vingegaard in the mtns.    He's the super mtn domestique.

Quint Simmons was the youngest in the Tour - 21 years young.  He was in many break-aways pushing the pace.

Similarly,  Matteo Jorgenson, jumped into many break aways and I think finished top 5 on a stage twice

Nielson Powless was rather prolific in the early stages and competitive in the mountains finished 13th  overall in the Tour. 

As usual, I'm suffering a bit from TdF withdrawals.    I'll have to settle for the Mets crushing the Yankees instead 

Brian

TT Directeur

315-727-1458