OlympicsFan

After witnessing the improvements of Pogacar and Roglic I am really interested to see what time Mismas can run in women’s 3000 m SC tomorrow. I think overall there will be some nice performances at the ISTAF in Berlin tomorrow.

If that was the idea ... then his teammates didn’t do a very good job. They seem to have imitated him too well by doing absolutely nothing for the last 2 weeks. Edit: This also reminds me of a question Someone asked on german Television a couple of days ago after Buchmann lost a lot of time: “So will Buchmann just ride along like a tourist from on?“ Answer by the German tv expert: “Maybe you should try to ride a stage like that before you call him a tourist“ It was quite funny, you almost got the impression that the guy (on his couch at home) saw it as a personal insult that Buchmann wasn’t able to do any better.

They are playing 4d chess while the rest is playing checkers ... just like Johnson with his Brexit strategy.

He was trash until yesterday and still isn’t at his best (from the Dauphine). Hopefully he will be able to take Buchmann‘s place in a couple of years.

Sadly all for nothing. This is the second stage where Bora went all out for Sagan and for the second time Sagan wasted his chance. I think this might be his last chance to win green and it’s not looking good.

German commentators said that he has a role as a mentor, also he had a crash earlier this year, so he clearly isn’t at his best.

You obviously never heard of Milan Erzen ... Also the UCI president seems to think a bit differently ...

1) Currently there is no Irish guy who is even remotely close to being lightyears away from winning the Tour. 2) Kelly never was a tour contender, so the situation is not comparable. 3) Even if Ireland would have had two riders like that I am not sure how that would be relevant here. The fact that it happened before doesn’t make it natural and doesn’t tell us anything about the reasons. Slovenia is poorer than most western/northern European countries + cycling isn’t more popular there + they only have a tiny talent pool, so if they would be doing the same as all the other nations, then the probability of them having the two best riders (by coincidence) would be ultra low. There are only two explanations: 1) They got insanely lucky (like once in a millennium lucky). 2) They figured something out that all the other nations didn’t figure out. Everyone has to decide for himself whether he considers 1) or 2) more likely.

It always depends on the point of reference. I guess compared to Croatia no country is poor, but compared to most of Western and Northern Europe Slovenia certainly is poor(er). I don’t no anything about their sports system, but I very much doubt that they invest nearly as much in cycling as Spain/Italy/Germany/GB/France/Netherlands or even Switzerland/Belgium/Austria, still all those countries combined can’t manage to produce a single contender for the yellow jersey this year while Slovenia produced 2. No French, belgian, dutch, german, swiss or danish rider has won the Tour in the last 20 years, yet Slovenia is able to produce two guys in one year who are both superior to everyone else.

I understand Colombia, but Slovenia is super weird. Small (2 million people) + poor + no tradition -> Completely destroying all the big countries (Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, GB, Italy)

How many world records will be broken? Crouser and Warholm might finally do it, not so sure about Barega.

Sad to see that you have nothing better to do with your life than trolling.

It was Pogacar‘s own fault ...

Amazing stage, heroic effort by Hirschi, i feel really sorry for him. This is the 2nd time he narrowly missed the win, but I am sure that he will get there. This year the tour seems much more open and I find it much more enjoyable that way. Sky dominating every year was pretty boring. I still think that it will only be between Pogacar and Roglic, but hopefully at least those two will really battle it out.

97.76 m! Also had 94.84 m, which is also better than anyone else except Zelezyn has ever thrown. Vetter said that it would have gone over 100 m if it wouldn’t have been in a closed stadium. Edit: He improved his own German record by 3.32 m. I feel really sorry for him, he can only lose at this point. Unless he wins Olympic gold next year everyone will say that he messed up.

I guess it helps that he never wins any stages ...

So what exactly is Sagan's achievement? He collects points by being a better climber than the other (true) sprinters, while still being a horrible climber compared to the top guys. Why should someone be rewarded for being the best climber out of a group of horrible climbers? In my opinion sprinters by definition have to be bad at climbing because they have to carry a lot of extra muscle mass that is bad for climbing but good for sprinting. Normally it should be physically impossible to be good at both (except for a freak like Van Aert) and that's why there should be separate jerseys for sprinters and climbers.

Yes, i think everyone knows that. People criticize it because they think that the green jersey SHOULD be for the best sprinter, not because they think that it actually IS for the best sprinter.

He used to be a very good sprinter, but he never was on the same level as guys like Kittel or Cavendish. In my opinion the green jersey should be for the best sprinter, so there shouldn't be any intermediate sprints. You only get points for finishing top 5 or top 10.

I think Bora will go all out to win the green jersey. They realized that Buchmann won’t be able to make the podium, so they didn’t have to save energy for tomorrow and Sunday. Personally I never thought that someone like Sagan should win the green jersey because he clearly isn‘t and never has been the best sprinter, but I guess those are the rules. Once van Aert will be allowed to go for the green jersey it will be game over for Sagan.

I always asked myself whether the following could work: All the riders of one team ride next to each at the front of the field on a narrow road and then one of them sprints away and his teammates ride very slowly next to each other in order to block the road so that no one can go after him ...

The talent level right now is pretty crazy in my opinion. It should be very exciting to see Bernal, Higuita, Pogacar, Sivakov and Evenepoel battle it out in the next couple of years.

You are acting as if that is some kind of secret ... GB knew exactly what they were doing, it is no coincidence that they went from 1 gold and 15 medals in total at the 1996 olympics to 27 golds and 67 medals in total at the 2016 olympics. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sport/58335.stm

I think the difference is that there was long jump to "practice" before the triple jump was introduced. On the other hand there wasn't really anything to "practice" for the hammer throw/pole vault.

I don't think so. Lima himself said that he would have (probably) been overtaken anyways.