He did say he exploded “a little bit”, but followed that with “it was a good day”, so I don’t think it’s “exploded” in the sense you’re thinking.
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WVA was ahead of the Trek riders by a considerable margin. It was practically a guaranteed stage win. If he were behind the Trek guys, yes, fall back. But you don’t pull a guy out of a winning position for the stage to chase second place in GC. The stage win today salvages a terrible tour for the team, and now they can refocus on keeping JV on the podium with a win under their belt. Seems like a win-win to me.
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I know what I saw and it’s only that’s happened a handful of times in the last year. It’s very meaningful and will give fuel and ideas to the teams going forward.
Then JV attacking Pog was the wrong strategy, or he needed to do it much earlier so he’d go over the top with a bigger gap. A lot of energy used by JV for no gain.
Similar to when Carapaz attacked earlier in the race, got a gap, and Movistar pulled him back
I think it was a big deal that Pog looked human - hard to imagine him ever loosing a wheel going up hill before today.
He definitely didn’t “crack” but other teams will think the race is on now.
We don’t know if Pog could have found an extra bit of something if he wasn’t already 5 mins up on GC however.
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That was more of a crack for pog than all of last years tour, even though he got back on the descent. He lost some time on col de la lose but he was never hurting like that.
You don’t win races by following the other guy. Vingegaard, like Carapaz before him, needs to try something when he is feeling good to see if an attack will stick. Sometimes it gets you nothing, sometimes it works.
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What’s a good highlights YouTube video? Gcn long highlights showed 20km to go then 4km, dunno how WvA got away or anything in the final bits really.
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He hasn’t posted today’s video yet, but Lanterne Rouge is a good one to follow for highlights and pro cycling content in general.
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NBC Sports has been showing 30-40 min highlights on youtube.
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Cheers dude!
Off topic, gcn highlights are not awesome which is a shame since they have my money.
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Well, of all the people I thought could win the Mont Ventoux stage, I did not think Wout. Awesome stuff. this Tour does not disappoint. 
Also I´m pretty sure Pog was just called back by his DS. There was no reason for him to put in any effort.
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Those finishes are a lot easier logistically. Hauling the entire TdF circus up a mountain is quite challenging (and expensive). Mountain-top finishes also add at least an hour to the transfer to the hotel for the riders. More if you are stuck behind the inevitable traffic jam.
Not necessarily saying these are the best of reason, but you now… organising the tour…it´s a balancing act 
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I like the extra bit of strategy you need to employ with a downhill finish. If you want to put in time you need to do it earlier and maybe drop back a rider from the break. That or really isolate a rider early.
Mountain top finishers are just a just a fitness test (which a GT winner should be able to pass) but there is more to racing bikes than just having the highest W/kg. And personally I find MTF stages pretty boring as that’s all they amount to for the GC guys and maybe a breakaway rider clinging onto the time they were given. If I wanted to watch a pure fitness test I’d watch and Ironman race and even though That’s my sport I hate them because they are soooooo boring.
All in all the variety of a GT is what I love and so far this has been an awesome year! How wild is it that the guy who came in 2nd in a bunch sprint wins the Ventoux x2 stage the next day!!
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I think the downhills help the sprinters make the time cuts. They are usually good descenders for that reason. They might be able to claw back some of the time lost on the climb via the descent.
Pog claimed he cracked a little in the post race press conference.
strap in for some crosswinds for our viewing pleasures!
uuuh juicy. UAEs Achilles heel I would say. Also the Racecenter says the Peloton averages 75 km/h so far