In his first Tour de France, Tom Pidcock maintained his breakaway and ate up Alpe d'Huez. Not bad for a kid who won't be 23 for another fortnight! Does he look happy crossing the finish line?
Today's stage was a blast to watch, but it certainly didn't have the fireworks contained in yesterday's stage. The CG contenders were content to let the breakaway go. Calmer cycling and very high temperatures made for much lower average speeds than I predicted, despite some speeds on descents reaching 100 kph (62 mph), and despite Tadej Pogačar attacking Jonas Vingegaard a couple of times on the final climb.
- Stage 12: 4h 55' 24" (actual), 4h 32' 56" (prediction), 22' 28" fast (-7.61% error)
A bad prediction for sure! I was only 2.71% off in 2018 when the Tour de France last had a stage end on Alpe d'Huez. Too much power by about 2% in my model for today. Learning and improving are what are important! Check out Pidcock's average speed.
- Stage 12: 9.32 m/s (33.53 kph or 20.84 mph)
Tomorrow's 192.6-km (119.7-mi) Stage 13 is mostly flat, which means a possible great sprint for the win. Cyclists will start in the French commune of Le Bourg-d'Oisans and head due west to Saint-Étienne. Our prediction is given below.
- Stage 13: 4h 11' 33" (prediction)
I hope we don't have too much power tomorrow. Then again, the last flat stage -- Stage 6 -- blew my model cyclist's power output away!
No comments:
Post a Comment