mark

Hard to predict this one. Tough day, but lots of flattish roads between the mountains, so expect it hard for an attacker to stay away. Maybe another massive breakaway day?

"disraceful" - I think your typo is strangely appropriate. In the end, this is a race, and riding as fast as you can is exactly the normal way to race.

The teammate aspect and birthday aspect are pretty overblown. If the team have told them to race and not to wait for each other, then they should do exactly that. And the scheduling fluke of having a big stage on your birthday - is that really relevant?!

If Kuss manages to win it will be because he was strong enough, not because riders who could have beaten him decided not to try. Surely that is more worthy of respect than the strongest riders deciding to give him a gift.

"he will always be just a domestique" - I mean that is true, and has been for a while. He is clearly not as good as Roglic and Vingegaard. If he wants team leadership then he would have to go elsewhere.

That said, the 'best' rider doesn't always win Grand Tours and he may well still win this race. It would certainly be the best story. If he doesn't win, it will be because he wasn't as strong as the winner. That may be a bit harsh, but very hard to argue that it is 'undeserved'.

I don't get this take.

"Putting yourself ahead of the team" might be a bad thing. But in this case Primoz and Jonas aren't putting the team's win in jeopardy.

Maybe Jumbo Visma decide that three different winners is fun, maybe they decide that Jonas needs a better palmares, maybe having Kuss win will motivate him in future, maybe they decide to simply see who is strongest on the road, maybe they play rock paper scissors. Ultimately, between the three riders and the team management they'll make a decision. And frankly any are fine. Internal team politics doesn't seem like something to get worked up about.

PREDICTION: Big fight for the breakaway, maybe 20+ riders get away. Gregoire and Kron again get narrowly beated by a better climber - maybe Bardet.

And it's up. Poor Lorenzo Milesi. Race leader one day, 171st the next.

Alas this is generated the old fashioned way.

Really sad for Oscar Onley DNF.

Hopefully eventually they'll work out the GC standings.

I probably have the skills, but not sure I have the time. I'll see what I can do if no-one gets there first.

I'm a bit wary that too many auto-gen'd threads that don't get engaged with would be bad. Maybe starting with one thread per stage for grand tours and one per race for other World Tour races.