Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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This Highlights even more what a shame G's crash was, assuming he lost a similar amount of time on blockhaus as Dumoulin it'd be all set up as a great battle between the pure climbers and the TT up a mountain guys.
I really hope Dumoulin can do it, assuming he can be even remotely within touching distance on the final day then it really could be his for the taking.
Also interesting that Adam Yates finished the TT ahead of Pinot, all the commentary has been talking about Pinot's time trialling so a good result by Yates (again a shame he was caught out in the crash too)
Dumoulin will go pop long before the final TT.
You have the likes of Movistar and Sky who will be wanting to go full gas on the mountain stages for Quintana and Thomas and i dont think he'll be able to hold on, he certainly doesn't have the team to do it.
From 2nd to 12th there is only 3 minutes and each position is a different team bar 2 for movistar so they are all in with a chance of a podium at the moment which makes it even harder for Sunweb to counter each attack.
From stats I've seen Dumoulin normally takes anywhere between 2-5secs/km out of Quintana. Quintana will want 3 mins and a couple of pizzas to weigh him down the night before if it's downhill.
Most of the climbs and summit finishes are a bit steeper than the TdF so not having Kelderman shouldn't be too big a deal for Tom.
OK, calculators out. How many seconds will Quintana need to have before the last, flat to down hill 29km TT on stage 21? I'm thinking unless his lead is more than 2:10 he'll be under serious pressure. So effectively he needs to take 4:30 in 6 mountain stages call it a round 45 seconds per stage. He'll need to attack. This could be the best tour since the Vuelta back in 2015. Once again it will come down to how well Sunweb are able to protect their man prior to the final climbs. If they still had Wilco Kelderman in play you could almost suggest Dumolin was favoured. But now it's an open race.
what an incredible ride by Tom Domulin - the time trail wonderman