La Super Planche Des Belles Filles
Words that most likely trigger severe PTSD for Primoz Roglic and the rest of the Jumbo Visma team as they saw their tour hopes unexpectedly shattered by the current Yellow Jersey, Tadej Pogacar in the 2020 tour’s final time trial.
Today however it comes at the end of a the stage and is preceded by two Cat 3 climbs and it’s not the standard Planche Des Belle Filles, it’s SUPER! By super they just mean longer, harder with steeper ramps and of course mainly unpaved gravel. The “Super” adds more than 100m vertical gain in the last kilometre, we suspect most riders with not find it super.
Whether the stage win comes from the break or the main bunch we will definitely see a GC shake up on the first summit finish. Yesterday gave a good glimpse of which riders have good legs, surprisingly Nairo Quintana is showing great form, he handled the cobbles well and was up with the main protagonists yesterday. The Ineos boys will most likely see a clearer picture of their pecking order after today with three riders currently in the top ten.
We have not been great with our predictions but think today Tadej Pogacar will take the win in Yellow. Given the gut wrenching 24% gradients we might see the like of Primoz Roglic, Mike Woods and Dylan Teuns throw their name in the hat. Teuns won here in 2019, the only other time the “Super” was ridden in the Tour.
Our summary would be amiss without quoting Tom Pidcock when asked about Wout Van Aerts insane breakaway in Yellow yesterday.
“He’s playing with our balls, isn’t he? I don’t know what to say to be honest. He’s taking the piss, isn’t he?”
Top picks for today:
Tadej Pogacar
Mike Woods
Primoz Roglic
Outside Bets:
Dylan Teuns
Adam Yates
Leonard Kamna
Our winner:
Tadej Pogacar
