Excellent conditions for the Tuesday night Time Trial.  The wind out of the SE dropped to less than 5mph.   

Five TTers rolled to the start line for the Race of Truth.  Rob unwrapped his TT bike for the occasion. He crushed the course in time of 22:22 (26.83mph).  He was disappointed that he only took 36 seconds off of his RoadAero time. To quote "that's an expensive 36 seconds...".  But, I failed to remind him that the wind shifted that day to the benefit of the riders of at least 20 seconds.  Also, when he eliminates those massive hill repeats Tuesday mornings I'm convinced a sub-22 min TT is in his future.  Ken is rounding out to excellent form with a time of 25:42(23.35mph).   Sean, Rich and Dick all made incremental reductions in their times from previous 2024 TTs.  

Given the scheduled repaving of Chestnut Ridge, we will take 2 weeks off and start up again on 7/23.  The work is supposed to be completed 7/18.  We shall see.

TdF Notes:
I left off at Stage 2.

Stage 3 (Monday) -  Pretty much a sprinter stage.   There are four riders on the same time at the top of the leader board ;  Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and the crafty/sneaky Carapaz.   The final sprint was won by a rider from Eritrea. A first.     Team managers on  EF Education calculated how many placement spots Carapaz would have to be ahead of Pogacar to take the yellow even if they all finished with the same time in a group finish.  Team EF actually put a sprint train together to shepard Carapaz to finish line.  It put Carapaz in danger of a crash, but, it worked !   He finished enough spots ahead to take the yellow jersey.  Frankly,  Pogacar could not care less.  Carapaz is now the first Ecuadorian to wear yellow.   So, it was a stage of "firsts".    

Stage 4 (Tuesday)  -  the route took the TdF out of Italy and into France.  87 miles and approx 12,000 ft of climbing (approx 140ft/mile) with the final climb up the  Col de Galibier and it's 8300 ft elevation.  This is the highest the TdF will go in 2024.   By the time the peloton reached mid-way up the Galibier, the peloton had shrink to the main GC contenders and some of their team mates.  Clearly, Pogacar's UAE team was the strongest as four of his domestics were in the pack with approx 3 miles to go. The fast pace into the headwind shed top riders Simon Yates, Tom Pidcock and Carapaz.  Good bye yellow. One day and gone!     Adam Yates pulled,  then Almeida, then Ayuso.  The leaders group was down to Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel, Roglic, Landa, Rodriguez, Almeida and Ayuso.    At one point Almeida had to take over for Ayuso and then angrily waved Ayuso to come up and do another turn.   Ayuso seemed to be saving himself and perhaps a spot on the podium.  

With .5 mile left in the climb, Pogacar attacked.  Vingegaard tried to close the gap, but to no avail.  No one else could match the pace either.   Pogacar crossed Col 7 seconds ahead of Vingegaard.  Another 7 seconds back was Evenepoel who was followed by the other five riders 38 seconds back.  On the downhill finish Pogacar rode like a wild man...   extending his lead  by an astounding 30 seconds.   Vingegaard was caught on the downhill by the trailing riders.    All but Landa and Almeida sprinted to the finish line to get bonus seconds.    Evenepoel took 2nd place in the stage and that puts him second overall.   Pogacar leads by 45 seconds in yellow.  

The time trial is on Friday.  Evenepoel is a TT guru.  The best aerodynamics on the Tour.   He may pull back some time on Pogacar to make things interesting.

Amazing stat:   Pogacar broke the record for the ascent of the Galibier by 1:33.  That had been set by Quintana in 2019.   More amazing is the fact that all 8 riders in that final pack also broke the record.   And there was a headwind !!  

Stage 5 (Wed)  I had mentioned in an earlier post that Cavendish may not be recovered enough from the early mtn stage to be able contend in the sprint stages. There were concerns that he would miss the time limit and his quest for a record breaking 35th TdF stage win would not materialize.   His team performed admirably with their leadout and he timed his move perfectly to take the stage and the record held by Eddie Merckx !!   

Pogacar's excellent bike handling skills may have saved his Tour. He had to pull off a Matrix like move to avoid hitting a street sign and not knock over the rider next to him.  Pretty impressive.

Stage 6 (today)  Sprint stage most likely.  

Stage 7 (Friday)   Time Trial !!

Enjoy the 4th!!

Brian

TT Directeur

315-727-1458