It looks that way, but there are two weeks left. Time for Pogacar to lose form or lose time to some move or other. The one hope the other teams may have is that the racing has been very hard. Three weeks of that can test anyone. But at the moment he looks the strongest by some way. It’s not like they can even take time back from him in a time trial.
All the riders will be thankful for the rest. A flat stage on Tuesday and then Mont Ventoux on Wednesday.
Three in a row for Cav today? There is a small chance that the sprinter’s teams won’t be able to get the breakaway back. The GC teams won’t be helping much. If they do, who can stop Cav? Maybe WVA?
WVA looked knackered on Sunday, but then it was a pretty miserable day for everyone. Colbrelli is in decent form and seems to hang in on climbs well. Hope de Gendt gets in a breakaway, one of my favourite riders. It's a hard one to call Moose...
Yep, Cav with a big chance today. Not a great stage for a breakaway if the sprinters teams control it, not that there are many of them left.
There is a unfortunate whiff about. Cycling has gone through what appears to be its cleanest period for decades, with stringent testing showing up very few cheats. However, whenever you get standout individuals there will be suspicion, which appears to be behind the allegations made by a rival sports director. But so far, nothing to report.
All eyes on Cav tomorrow. If he takes the record tomorrow it will be the biggest story of the race, bigger than the runaway winner. And there will be tears.
Interesting to hear both Cavendish and the ITV guys say there might not be the usual sprint finish as 1. The course is 700m longer so there is a bit of an uphill finish 2. Lots of teams haven't won a stage yet so they might try to stop DQS from getting another victory. Mind you probably suit someone like Van Aert if Cav doesn't win.
That was a good shout. In the end WVA simply had more horsepower. But Cav had a great Tour. Will he be back?
Not to be but beaten by a very special rider who won in 3 different types of race Probably depend on the course . Will he want to go through another 3 weeks of that if there aren’t many sprinter stages and others might be fitter by then ?
What a special day as Fabio Jakobsen wins Stage Four of the Vuelta a Espana. 12 months ago he was in a 10 day coma after the worst crash imaginable. He has overcome immense pain and injury and is at the pointy end again. What a guy and what a story. Last km from about a minute in.
With all the unrest in France right now I fear there could be tragedy waiting to happen as the tour is virtually impossible to protect from anyone wanting to cause it harm