A horrible mass pile up crash at 12km to the finish brought a sudden end to Rein Taaramäe’s GC leadership, and knocking Romain Bardet’s GC hopes out of contention after he came in over 12 minutes down.
Kenny Elissonde said at the red jersey presentation that it’s not a good way to win it.
The outcome of the crash and finish result is a swop over of jerseys between Elissonde taking the red from Taaramäe, and Taaramäe taking his polkadot from Elissonde
There seemed to a feeling of inevitability with today’s race, in that it wasn’t would there be a crash, but when will it happen. Nobody wants to win like that, but it happens and the impact for any rider can be good or bad depending on milliseconds of pure luck.
I did find myself mildly amused when during the long straight section of the race, the commentator got a bit desperate and started to describe the challenging roundabouts and bends at the end of the course!
The crash itself and the outcome was not the fault of Taaramäe or Elissonde, and is simply the circumstances of an event which neither had any control over.
I would rather the crash didn’t happen and Taaramäe continue the leadership but the cycling gods had other ideas and put la Roja on the back of Elissonde - who was probably more surprised than anyone finding himself in such a position.
In the big scheme of things it mayn’t be a big deal, both of these guys could find the going hard in the coming days and drift downward in the GC leaderboard. Kenny Elissonde is a pure climber, at 5’ 6" tall and a lightweight 52kg, he’s better suited in competing for the polkadot jersey, it’s not unusual for a talented climber to gain the GC lead in a grand tour, but they don’t tend to hold it for very long.
Besides, blue polkadots suit his style and demeanour better than red, and that bright red jersey colour would look perfect on an Italian like Giulio Ciccone
Yes, Debs, I knew you would be pleased to have the Trek rider in red with Ciccone lurking close in the GC ready to step up.
Anyhow I do wonder how the race will play out. Maybe it will be a simple matter and Roglic will just impose himself on the race, as Pogacar did in the TDF. Or maybe it will be more open - how strong are other individuals and do they have the teams to support them - how tired are the potential winners at the end of the season? Bernal must be a potential challenger.
An odd looking mountain stage with a lot of descending to a lot of flat, to the final 2 km of climbing up a category 3 summit finish. Could produce an interesting result.
I’m not looking for an argument - as indicated by the emoji - but don’t feel that the posting was unreasonable . You did - after all - say ‘talented’ and not ‘pure’…
The subject matter [in the same sentence] is about ‘pure’ climbers such as Kenny Elissonde, the subject matter is not about good allrounders who also have the ability to climb well.
Kenny Elissonde is a pure climber, at 5’ 6" tall and a lightweight 52kg, he’s better suited in competing for the polkadot jersey, it’s not unusual for a talented climber to gain the GC lead in a grand tour, but they don’t tend to hold it for very long.
Magnus Cort did really well to hang on at the end of this stage, Roglič left it slightly too late but it still keeps him firmly in the frame. The stages ahead are looking very ominous!
Interesting to note that Rein Taaramäe finished yesterday’s stage six over 12 minutes down, no doubt saving his energy to collect more mountain points on today’s tough stage with six category climbs, the final a cat 1 summit finish. This is assuming he has recovered okay from his stage 5 crash. He is presently in 60th place at 14-50 down on GC so should be let go okay if he gets into a breakaway.
Kenny Elissonde lost his day in la roja in style falling to 34th place at 4-31 down, most of those minutes probably having an easy ride up yesterday’s final climb to deliberately distance himself from the GC contention. Will be interesting to see if he can score any mountain points today…
POINTS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FOUR
Rein Taaramäe (Est) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert
Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Trek-Segafredo (on loan from Taaramäe)
Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers
UAE Team Emirates - Team Classification leader
