Think the difference to Thomas is that even if Thomas hadn’t put all the pieces together for 3 weeks before, he had spent several years focusing purely on being a GC contender. Stopped doing most of the one day races, lost weight, rode a number of GTs either as leader or as a super-domestique whose job it was to be there for Froome as late as possible on the big mountain days. He was riding like a GC guy, hanging with the select group of climbers on the big mountain days, just he never got high placings because he always either crashed or had to sacrifice himself for Froome and lost time as a result. He also picked up a couple of wins and a bunch of top 5 placings in major one week stage races in the years leading up to his Tour win.
Whereas JA just seems to have transitioned halfway through the season. He won a Monument and 2 Classics earlier in the season, and in previous GTs and even one week races he’s always seemed more interested in stage hunting than GC. He’s had some good TT results but we’ve never seen him hang with the lead group on the big mountains (partly because he’s never really been interested). He always had the talent to be a GC contender, but we always assumed it would be something he needed to commit to over a couple of seasons. Whereas he seems to have just woken up one morning and decided he’s going to give it a crack, and gone straight to winning a TdF ITT and then outclimbing specialist climbers like Quintana, Yates, Uran.
Still think the wheels will come off at some point, there are 4 more big mountain days to come including 6 peaks over 2000m, but he’s hung in there a lot longer than I ever thought he could! And it’s not like there are a bunch of seasoned, in-form GT winners breathing down his neck, all the guys who look strong are either unproven in this situation (Bernal, Buchmann) or have been in similar positions before and cracked or had bad days (Pinot, Kruiswijk, Landa).
For a punchy rider like Alaphilippe, he’s got to be careful how he doses his anaerobic efforts. Kinda by definition, short term anaerobic power isn’t impacted by altitude, but the recovery from it certainly is.
There’s a scenario where Bernal goes on a break, Alaphilippe has to cover, he bridges, but then can’t hold it. Especially if he does not have team members with him.
True about the differences in GC prep, but don’t forget the cyclocross guys who have come over and made huge waves in a discipline that they haven’t trained for. I think there are a lot of parallels between the type of riding JA’s done and this TdF, monuments (a lot of the time) are hard consistent efforts for 99% of the race, and still having enough energy to go with the winning move. Also he’s done well in a number of week long stage races so he has that experience to draw on, and as we say you don’t need ride 199 miles to know you can ride 200.
I’m not surprised by JA hanging with that final group on the Tourmalet though. The only guys who I would expect JA not to be able to hang with were kruiswijk and pinot. Everybody else JA has either been in similar form to all season (fuglsang, buchmann), or has had questionable form either prior in the race or leading up to the race. What would be the surprise, as most people have commented, is if he can keep it up through the end of the race, but after riding so aggressively as he has so far, and still keeping up on the Tourmalet, I don’t see why not.
He’s got a lot of time over kruijswijk who I think is the biggest threat now due to the strength of his team, not sure if they can take 10 seconds here and there out of JA over a couple stages though… might have to go for the full crack, which may put kruijswijk in jeopardy too!
JA is amazing right now. I’ve been an ineos (Sky) fan since their inception, but I’m honestly supporting JA right now. Just watching right now he was going back to his team car to get bottles. He has no teammates in the pack. You look and ineos, lotto, EF, etc all have trains and JA is just out riding entire teams tactically and physically. Truly amazing to watch.
Man, Alaphillipe was blowing up hard. But I love seeing him dig as deep as he can just to survive. He’s riding on will and panache at this point. Hopefully this stage calms some of the illicit discussion, he’s definitely starting to ride above his form. How long he can do that is a question, but he’s got to find a way to recover in the next couple days before the Alps or he will cede the jersey.
Definitely thought Alaphillipe made a big mistake trying to latch onto Pinot. I don’t feel like Pinot was close enough time wise that JA had to go with that attack just yet. I thought he would have been better off just sitting in with Thomas and Kruijswijk since they were holding a steadier pace, and they were 2nd and 3rd in the GC. Maybe he could have mitigated some of his losses and possibly followed Thomas’ acceleration near the end. Hopefully JA can recover enough in the next few days so that he can keep fighting in the Alps. Pinot is looking incredible! Hopefully he still has gas for the alps. I have a feeling that this attack and his move yesterday on the Tourmalet are going to take a toll on him in the Alps. This tour is exciting for sure!
Totally agree. I think this shows his inexperience as a stage racer, compared to a 1-day racer. In one day races, you go with the move. In a 3 week tour (like I’ve done sooooo many in my life ) you have to know when to let someone go and ride within yourself so you don’t blow up (or blow up the next day).
Yesterday, Movistar had Mikel Landa, Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde meet the press separately, with each man giving his own account of the team’s bizarre tactical approach to Saturday’s stage 14.
Thank god I wasn’t the only one who noticed that weirdness!
) you have to know when to let someone go and ride within yourself so you don’t blow up (or blow up the next day).