Yeah, that didn't work, was unlikely anyway, And the energyless (he wasn't THAT dead either) did his work the day before, delivering the lazy non-riding later winner to the last difficulty of the dayflockmastoR wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 4:09 pmWhat the donkey forgot to mention is, that he wanted to destroy the group to get Gipfel help in his (not promissing) GK attack. This also had effect, he went out and T-Mob went out too. Great to see him destroying groups were he didn't contribute a single km of tempo to bring his energyless guy to a point where he can fight for the stage win!
Last stage, pretty much everybody for sprint it seemed.. Messerli at 1000 at the end of the downhill, nobody else, Brotcorne at 970. But since everybody was for the sprint it was never a problem that the team was not that fit.
Sprint, Celestino stole my wheel, he got to go on Hershko. Damn, didn't expect that. Boulanger, ok, there I'd have said yeah, it's +3, he is stronger, no doubt, but thought I'd be better than Celestino. Bah. So chances to win close to 0 soon. If I go at 150 probably Boulanger gets me, if I wait till 50, I don't get anybody, wasn't sure what to do, went late, should have tried going at 150 though. Just that I did that in every sprint somehow, so hoped Celestino would anticipate and go there himself, because if I go at 150 then most likely he loses green... but well, didn't happen, so finished 3rd. Bah. Hoped to beat Hershko once in a sprint for the win... grr.
Tour in general:
Route, I basically stay with my assessment from before the tour. Generally like it.
-Nice to have a difficult start. But after riding it think stage 3 had a few laps too many on top, it really became more of an exercise in saving energy. In our group at least. With a more typical Donkey team, older climber at this point 85-86, most likely 55 reg on the other hand it I can do more action, so other editions might have seen more there. But that then risks already deciding the tour then?
-Too little towards the end. Hard start nice, but the Canyon much later would have been much better, to have a second possible topform spot. We really knew who had won after the Canyon in our group. Suspected who will win after stage 4.
-Anti sprinter! Last day at +3, with the hill sprinters already having a few stages before, really seems too hill sprinter friendly then. At least give the sprinters their 4 days, fully, not with +3 on the last day. Ok, Hershko, flat sprinter won, but probably had to do with the fight for green as well.
-4 IS on the last day? Grrr, I like it the same every day.
So in the end 2 stages for the Donkey, ok, would trade them happily for the GC win, but since that isn't there I take the 2 stages. Second and third on the podium, who cares, youth jersey, same, team classification somehow,
While the number of teams was ok, more still better, the biggest negative IMO was that again the number of climbers was really low, like everytime this year in the afternoon. Very few top climbers or top GC contenders that make the race mostly a 1 vs 1 fight. Which I manage to lose each time, hihi. Giro 2, Tour 2, Vuelta 3, Dectour 2,5. I miss the time when we had 5 or more strong climbers, then one has the best team and is the favorite, sure, but there's x others who can challenge, not just 1.