A combination of factors suppressed the attendance Tuesday night.   The rain did indeed hit the start area with heavy rain around 5:20pm.  Rich O'Neil was there to report that and it curtailed his warm-up.  He left disappointed.    But, by 6:15pm most of the course had dried out with the exception of the first 1.5 miles that had a few puddles that could be avoided.  The wind appeared to shifting around a lot with the passing storm front.

Three riders shrugged off the threat of rain and queued up at the start.  Ken took the Fastest Man Time(FMT) with his blazing time of 26:02 (23:05mph).  He noted that his speed seemed to be exactly 23mph over the whole course, which means he got a push from the west on miles  6-8 but then the wind may have shifted a bit from the south to slow him down the last 2 miles. It was hard to predict. Karen streaked through the course in a FWT of 27:21 (21.94mph) - beating her previous 2023 time by 1 second. 

Dick emailed me he hadn't been on the bike in many weeks and was itching to do the TT.  He said short of lightening strikes at the start he was coming.  Glad you made it out!

WoW! WoW! WoW!   Where do I begin?    These two competitors, Vingegaard and Pogacar,  are amazing.  As well as the teams that support them. Let's hope these two and possibly others (Remco Evenepoel?) will continue these mano a mano battles in future TdFs.  The dominating teams of the Lance and Sky Froome era made for less exciting Tours.

Thursday Stage 12  -   American Matteo Jorgenson got in a break and was definitely one of the stronger riders in the break.  He finished an impressive 3rd place in a sprint finish for 2nd. 

Friday Stage 13 -  Pogacar chops 8 seconds away at Vingegaards lead by taking 3rd  4 seconds ahead of Vingegard an also getting a 4 second bonus.   Pogacar seems to have a bit more kick than Vinge.and now is only 9 seconds behind. 

Saturday Stage 14 -  Super exciting stage.  Pogacar attacks Vingegaard about 2 miles from the penultimate climb!!   Creates a gap!   About a mile later Vingegaard  latches on to Pogacar and then goes to the front.   The crowds close in.   500m  from the top, Pogacar attacks!   BUT, the video and photo motor bikes are in the way and can't accelerate due to the crowds!  Shameful!  Pogacar must back off his attack.   Vingegaard attacks with 100m to go and crossed the peak first and gets 3 seconds bonus.  One more climb to go.     Young first-timer Rodriguez caught and passed Pogacar/Vingegaard on the descent.  He is descending like a mad man!     Poga/Vinge close w/in 5 sec, but,  are more concerned about each other.  They sprint to the line!  Poga beats Vingegaard by a wheel to to take back 2 bonus seconds.    He is now down by 10 seconds.   Rodriguez w/ the stage win moves to 3rd overall.

Sunday Stage 15 -   Another breakaway gets away to the finish.  American Lawson Craddock man finishes the Stage in 4rth.    Poga/Vinge battle but its a draw.  

Monday -  Rest Day

Tuesday -   22.4 km  Time Trial -  rolling 2/3, the last 1/3 is a serious climb inc 1.5 mile at 9.4% !

                    Wout Van Aerts posted the best time of the day.  

                    Pogacar is on the course. He has bested Van Aerts early split times. He is having a good                     start to the TT.  BUT,   Vinge is even better !   4 sec, 8 sec, 16, sec , 31 sec.   the lead grows.    Poga reaches the climb and switches to his road bike like others did.  He down by about a minute.  Perhaps he can do the incredible feat on the climb like he did to Roglic 3 years ago?  Vinge doesn't change bikes. That saves him about 10-15 seconds.  Vinge manages to add time to his lead despite riding a heavier bike up the 10% grades.

              Vingegaard crushes Pogacar by 1:38 !     Everyone is stunned and speechless.  Pogacar had beaten VanAert by over a minute but still lost a huge amount of time to the amazing Vingegaard. Absolutely no on saw this coming !   Adam Yates has a good TT and jumps to 3rd by 5 seconds.  UAE has two on the podium potentially.

Wednesday Stage 17 -  THE QUEENS STAGE  -  almost 18,000 feet of climbing.  A brutal day.

                     The two combatants are together on the last massive climb in a group of about 12 riders.  

                     The final climb reaches 7000 ft in altitude with 20+% grades.

                      Pogacar is dropped.  He literally tells the Team car "I'm dead...."
                      We find out later that he problems with his nutrition...  bloating,etc.

                      Vingegaard continues to possibly take the stage.   He and a team mate hit a super steep section of the course and find it block by a Tour car, several moto bikes and a horde of people.  The cars can move up the steep hill.  Vinge has to gingerly pick his way ... semi walking his bike.  He ended up finishing 4rth in the stage and ahead of Pogacar by 5:30 and now overall by 7:35.

 The cool, professional Pogacar actually accidentally dropped an F-bomb in his post race interview. Can't blame the guy.  It just slipped.  I'm thinking  'did I really just hear that"  or did he something else and with his accent it sounded like an F-bomb.  Bob or Paul confirmed it by apologizing for letting it get on the air.   Another first I guess.

American Sepp Kuss is holding onto 6th place overall.  The super lieutenant has been at Vinge side on every climb.  While not a TdF title contender he probably could finish 3rd if he captained a team.

Amazing that Pogacar is still winning the Youngest Rider award.  He will finally age out next year.  

Neilson Powless provided us another reason to pay attention to the break aways.  Will he rack up enough points to keep the Polka Dot jersey?   Turns out no. But, good for him to be in the hunt for so long.

Matteo Jorgenson will win a Tour stage in next couple of years.

Felix Gall may be a Tour contender in the years to come. He's very young and may get even better.

I'm hoarse from yelling at absolutely unruly, obnoxious fans.  Vengegaard made reference to fans throwing beer at him and others.  Ridiculous.   

I'm done now!

The TDLR version;    THIS TOUR WAS GREAT !

Brian

TT Directeur

315-727-1458

                    

PS: Apologies for any grammar issues or typos.  No time to proof-read.