An uphill time trial less than 11km but will be hell for the short while.
Will be interesting to see which bike type they ride and kit they wear for this one.
Plus a time cut off limit for everyone so no easy-day slackers on this one!
Evenepoel wins ITTs but probably not when theyāre uphill.
PogaÄar is the favourite but will he recover enough from yesterday (?)
Despite who wins today, there is an interesting tussle between Evenepoel, Lipowitz, and Vauquelin, who on GC are within 55 seconds apart but all want a podium position in Parisā¦
Is Pogacar the greatest individual sportsperson (any sport) of this era? He is just a clear class above his nearest rivals, race after race, year after year.
A more flamboyant character would perhaps receive greater recognition outside cycling.
Yesterday was impressive, but more than that it looked inevitable.
Looking forward to Luchon and Superbagneres on Saturday. An area with very fond memories for us, summer and winter holidays.
I think he hung on slightly too long with the Pod group and went into the red. I do wonder if he had taken the Evenepoel approach, if he could have remained nearer to the podium. But I do agree with you, once he had gone into the red by trying to stay with the Pod group that he changed tactics to stage hunting. Getting the Yellow Jersey and hanging on to it for a few days is a great achievement; it was nice that Tadej recognised this. It will be interesting to see how his career develops over the next few years.
Tadej PogaÄar UAE Team Emirates Jonathan Milan Lidl-Trek Lenny Martinez Bahrain Victorious * (does not lead classification) Remco Evenepoel Soudal Quick-Step
There are 645 vertical meters over a distance of 10.9km to overcome today.
171 riders to compete today
First rider start time at 13:10local time (UK time 12:10) Final rider start time at 17:05local time (UK time 16:05)
Out Side Time Limits
A special provision has been made today regarding the time limits for the individual time trial in Peyragudes. The maximum time will be calculated as 40% more than the winnerās time, whereas the rules initially stipulated a rate of 33%.
Assuming that the winning time is around 25 minutes, the margin allowed will increase from around 8 minutes to 10 minutes.
One again an intermediate Sprint is there to tempt the sprinters, at 70km and with 20 points for the winner. MvdP & Milan want them points but on the way there they will need to contend with constant attacks and breakaways.
Meanwhile, although Lenny Martinez will be wearing the Polka Dot jersey he doesnāt lead the Classification, so this is his opportunity to collect KOM Points, and he will more or less need to win the first three climbs to own that jersey if Pog wins the Stage and takes another 20 KOM points on the summit finish.
Michael Woods and Ben Healy may get in on the action too.
Trueā¦ I hope not though. There is a danger that the total dominance of PogaÄar and the ease and distance heās winning by will have a negative impact on the tour. There were a couple of really good stages when he wasnāt involved in the win and we need more of that to prevent it becoming stale.
If he wins everything it will just turn into a formality each yearā¦ Tour de PogaÄar. Iāve found myself this year feeling like I know the result before it happens which takes away from the unpredictability of the tour and the excitement that brings.
Not that odd really. Heās dominated for a few years now. While we can be impressed by his performance we can also feel a little fatigue in terms of the impact of the tour. It becomes all about one rider.
If we look at the impact of Man United in the 1990sā¦ we can appreciate they were the best at that time but at the same time feel bored at the predictability of who will win the league and cups.
Yesterday the time trial was the first time I felt like the lack of variety of winners coming in to play. Lucas Plapp had an amazing ride and took a really good ride from Lipowitz to beat him by a couple of seconds. Then Roglic had a stormer to beat them by 30 secondsā¦ a massive jump up in a time trial.
Then came Vinegaard taking an even bigger chunk out of the Roglicās big chunkā¦ then Pogacar took another 36 seconds out of that crazy time. By then, apart from the top 3, who were well spaced apart, the rest of the tour were 2 minutes behind Pogacarā¦. In a time trial?!?
Normally we would expect a different winner, time trial specialist but with the organisers picking a killer hill climb for the time trial, it effectively took that opportunity away and handed it to the GC / hill climb specialists. I donāt think Pogacar needs any additional help from the organisers to win stages
Just my opinion but a bit of variety in stages would be good!
We enjoy unpredictability and vulnerability for sure. Maybe the Tour will copy F1 and manipulate some sort of handicap system to try to level the playing field-heaven forbid.
It just seems to me that Pogacar is such a quiet and modest figure he doesnāt quite get the respect and admiration he deserves, especially outside cycling. He should make it look more difficult!
I donāt know about thatā¦ youād have to be blind to not see how good he is. Heās a once in a generation athlete.
I donāt think handicaps are required, just a bit more care in stage route planning. Setting a short and very steep time trial route was obviously going to benefit those who could turn out the most wattsā¦ I.e. Pogacar and Vingegaard.
To be honest, I quite like the idea of an all out hill climb time trial. But, it shouldnāt replace one of the two normal time trials that give other riders who specialise in that event a chance of a stage win.
Hopefully there will be more stages that favour the breakaways as this add variety and excitement!
I am enjoying watching TPās dominance in much the same way as I enjoyed watching Cavās when he was at his peak. There is always the chance that someone else will win, and whilst for a GC contender, there isnāt quite the same level of risk, it is there all the same. A damp road or a clash of wheels can change everything for a GC contender, as we saw earlier this week when TP was fortunate to escape with just gravel rash and bruises. Though for most riders this would mean one or two days of recovery, he seemed to gain from it with two empathic demonstrations of his ability.
Itās interesting how the Giro manages to produce so much unpredictability and exciting breakaways but the Tour seems to restrict the behaviour of individuals and teams which can add to that feeling you know the result before it starts. You never know what will happen on any given day on the Giro and I rather enjoy that.
Tadej PogaÄar 
UAE Team Emirates
Jonathan Milan 
Lidl-Trek
Lenny Martinez 
Bahrain Victorious * (does not lead classification)
Remco Evenepoel 
Soudal Quick-Step
TEAMS CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 13
