Saturday 19: 12:00β12:15 β 17:05β17:45
The second and last mountain stage in the PyrΓ©nΓ©es. A flat start, and then a hell of 4 passes in a row with little (false) flat in between, starting with the Tourmalet and including climbing Peyresourde again from the same side (not sure Evenepoel will fancy coming back on this slope!).
Weather shall be significantly cooler than on the previous days, and it should be drizzling.
Beware: the stage starts earlier than usual (still not in the morning, though).
I don't think so, but we shall see in a few hours π
For the sake of variety, I hope you're right!
After the stage, I still don't know who was right and who was wrong π€·ββοΈ π
I mean, Pogatchar didn't win but UAE led the peloton and never let the gap get over 4 mn. And they led it fast enough in the last climb. But not so much before that climb, losing downhill what they had gained uphill.
Pogatchar probably could have caught up Arensman (not easily though) but he did not nothing but follow in the last climb.
It looked like the goal was to bring back Johannessen and such (showing than no one in the top-10 was allowed to get away), but not necessarily to win the stage unless it fell naturally into their hand.
Some say that UAE wanted to catch the breakaway along as it contained Visma riders, and that this would have been motivated by the team classification.
Dunno.