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Tour de France 2024
Introduction
I'll post some comments, observations, rants about the 2024 edition of the Tour de France.
First week of the Tour de France 2024
The first few stages were mega. I love that way of starting the race with a hard stage. I felt it made the race safer.
I didn't believe Mark Cavendish would be able to win the 35th stage. I am glad he was able to prove me wrong.
Riders of the week:
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Jonas Abrahamsen: the way he fought to maintain the points and climbers jersey was great. I am also happy he opened on his past struggle with an obsession of gaining weight as so many athletes struggle with eating disorders. Basically he used to maintain a very low weight since his teenage years to mimic his GC idols. Later his nutritionist helped him realize it was not healthy and he gained 20kg over the years and also several cm of height during his twenties, having a late puberty. He now realize he is stronger than when he was maintaining a lower body weight.
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Birman Girmay: The Eritrean rider was a revelation in 2022, being the first black african cyclist to win a classic and a grand tour stage. Sadly he had to abandon the Giro d'Italia after that win when the cork of the Prosecco wine he was opening on the podium left him with an injured eye. His 2023 season was not as successful so I am happy of his success at this Tour after an abandon from injury at the Giro again. After his win on stage 3 he is the first black african to win a stage at the tour and he became on stage 5 the first to wear the green jersey.
GC favorites
I have the feeling Tadej Pogačar is desperate to gain precious time over Jonas Vingegaard which leads me to think he is not overly confident to be able to maintain his form for 3 weeks. So far so good he managed to create a small gap but Vingegaard is suprisingly good considering the injuries he sustained earlier this year. I like Tadej Pogačar's way of racing, but I still put Jonas Vingegaard as the overall favorite as I see cracks in Tadej's armor. Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič are the closest we can find from the other two but I believe they will both just fight for the podium and each of them might have a bad day. At least Evenepoel got his stage win in the time trial.
Second week
Second week started with a sprint stage won by Jasper Philipsen. In the first week I found his team support lacking and maybe sensed some lack of motivation from Mathieu Van der Poel to deliver him to the last hundreds meter in front. This time everybody did his job correctly and Jasper Philipsen was untouchable.
Stage 11 was much more eventful for the GC favorites. Despite a successful attack from Tadej Pogačar, he was unable to maintain his advantage over Jonas Vingegaard in the last climb and was unable to win the sprint at the end of the stage. The cracks in the armor I sensed in first week seems to be already showing up. Those climbs were difficult but relatively short. If Vingegaard was able to maintain a faster rhythm in the last climb, surely this means Poggi has a big problem for the long mountain passes of the Pyrenees. Remco losing a ton of seconds in the downhill, the way he takes corners makes me cringe. This is really is Achille heel. Primož Roglič being Primož Roglič ended up crashing. So much talent wasted.