For much of today's individual time trial, we had a shot at perfection. Stefan Küng came in with exactly our prediction. But the defending champion, Tadej Pogačar, began tearing up time splits. I knew perfection would slip from our grasp. Pogačar's ride was amazing! He looked like a machine on his bike. Check out Pogačar crossing the finish line as Küng sees himself slide into second place.
We still had a great prediction with our third stage under 1% error.
- Stage 5: 32' 00" (actual), 32' 19" (prediction), 00' 19" slow (0.99% error)
Now hold your breath for Pogačar's average speed.
- Stage 5: 14.17 m/s (51.00 kph or 31.69 mph)
He hit a top speed of 74.4 kph (46.2 mph). The 22-year-old Slovenian is amazing! Mathieu van der Poel rode an inspirational final kilometer to hold onto the yellow jersey.
Tomorrow's 160.6-km (99.79-mi) flat stage begins in Tours and takes riders southeast to Châteauroux. Cyclists will have to conserve a little for the three brutal stages that follow. Our prediction is given below.
- Stage 6: 3h 36' 46" (prediction)
I'll be curious to see if there is a lot of attacking to set up positions before the mountains. Will we be too slow with a few breakout riders setting a torrid pace???
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