:-) It's only downhill from here!
I'm going to go for Van de Poel or Bilbao. But it could be anyone!
SECOND WEEK AS IT STANDS
GC is a completely split race. Pogacar and Vingegaard are so close it is hard to pick a favourite. All to play for. There are then another 15 riders probably in contenion for a top-5/top-10. One good breakaway could move any of them up and they are all far enough back that JV and UAE won't chase them.
Points Classification looks wrapped up. Without something dramatic happening it is hard to see anyone closing the >100pt lead that Philipsen has. He obviously needs to get to Paris though.
The KOM competion has barely begun. Powless's points tally so far is insignificant compared to the points available in the Alpine stages to come. It is perfectly possible that it comes down to a battle between riders who are still on zero. Probably the bigger question is whether the breakaway taking the Puy de Dome sets a precedent or whether the Alpine mountain finishes are taken by the GC contenders. If the latter, then another year of the GC winner 'accidentally' winning the Polka dots too is certainly on the cards.
That's a good idea. Would you or anyone else like to be a mod and help with this. I've not much idea what can be done!
Smoked salmon looks "raw" largely because it is raw. It has never been heated.
Smoking the fish does indeed give a very different flavour to non-smoked fillet. That shouldn't be any great surprise.
Why is it safe? Well good quality raw salmon is also safe (see sushi). But the smoking does have an effect of preserving the fish and making it less of an environment where bacteria would thrive.
Pinot from the break? A man can dream.
Despite the shake up and sizable gaps today there are still lots of riders in contention - 9 riders within 1:20 of Vingegaard; 19 within 3 minutes.
I'm guessing that with the long shallow climb to end tomorrow there won't be any big attacks so it will still be all to play for up the Puy de Dome on Sunday.
Huge break with lots of interest for both the stage and the classifications. Let's go!
Stage one: Lafay escapes with Pog and Ving on the climb.
Stage two: Lafay beats Van Aert to win the reduced bunch sprint.
Stage three: Lafay wins the intermediate sprint from the peloton.
Stage four: ????
I'm happy to help.
I'm a bit confused - I didn't see Victor Lafay do anything remarkable today. Is he done?
It's pretty hard to do "deliberately".
You could crash into them I guess, but that would seem fairly obviously poor form!
Other than that, you could try to drop them from the peloton on an early climb, but then you would need to drive hard for a long way to keep the pressure up. And even then, if the sprinter has their whole team around them to pace that is probably enough.
Most OTL's are either when the rider is a bit ill or the team just don't care.