Pancake flat 30k TT, Just started, surely Remco to win and put time into everyone?
My dark horse Yates to Top 3. Other possibilities: Rog, Dennis, Arensman, Cavagna.
Hayter would have been up there but he is a DNS this morning.
Bennett is a DNS. He was tweeting a little while ago about the race so must have been a very, very late decision
Weird
Bennett out of green contention and Hayter out of young rider section: the Velogames situation will be topsy-turvy, like the RAS stages of old! Looking forward to the news on Bennett, could be anything ?
He had a tweet up with his start time and all there a while ago.
In Alicante I always think they are missing a trick not sending them up to the Santa Barbara castle ..... and dare it say it from the eastern side!!!!! 😉
All the 5 or 6 other DNS due to covid were announced before, so I’d assume it must be something else, unless it was just late covid test results or something
Bora tweeting now but nothing on Sam yet
There's a few out with covid, Hayter out with covid.
If a few tested positive would they be doing antigen tests on everybody before they start today?
This happened so late it's unlikely to be an injury.
Mullen says it was Covid
Hoping that it is covid or a late injury rather than some sort of dispute or fall out just as he was finding form again
As bizarre as it sounds, it’s almost a good thing it’s covid as opposed to another injury etc.
Can only imagine the social media **** storm another injury would’ve brewed up
Covid makes sense. A positive test without symptoms most likely. Pity for Affini too. He would have been looking at todays stage.
It was never going to be a fall out. Jaysus
Covid
Ryan Mullen's comment 😄
"I'm pretty sure he would have won the green jersey. Probably now Mads Pedersen is going to walk all the way to Madrid with one finger in his nose with the green jersey. It is what it is but it's a shame though."
Gutted for Sam ☹️
Monster time by Cavagna, 30.9km at an average speed of 54.03kph. To put it in comtext, there's only been 2 TTs faster this year, and they were over 9 & 13.9k
There was to be a tailwind along the coastal section I think from what I read earlier.
Mads might have heard in his earpiece mid-way that Sam was out, 2nd @ 6 seconds at the 10km check then finished over 2 mins behind!
I respectfully disagree with Mullen on Sam. Plenty of stages coming up that would have suited Pedersen. More than one "flat" stage with an uphill finish so I couldn't see Sam winning the green. I was hoping to see him win in Madrid though.
Bob Jungles is here? First I've heard his name mentioned.
Dylan Van Baarle - "I spoke to my coach before to take it easy at the start...basically I fucked it up" 😂
I'm sweating just looking at Roglic and Remco warming up!
Lol Remco, different gravy
This could be a demolition job by Remco. 21 seconds up after the first time check.
It was still all to play for... Another stage or two for Sam with pedersen not finishing in the top three with him and Sam may well have built up a big lead. Could have gone the other way too .. we'll never know unfortunately, but I have my suspicions that mads was starting to show the effects of a long season whereas it seemed like Sam was just hitting his stride.
Why are they STILL testing riders/athletes/sportspeople for Covid when the world has (for the most part) moved on?
This really is nonsense. 3 years ago he'd have carried on with cold like symptoms.
This tomfoolery made sense in 2020. It does not make sense anymore. When will this testing nonsense end? It does nothing to "protect" other people.
It totally undermines the credibility of a sporting event.
If you need a test to tell you that you're sick, then you're not sick.
Funny thing was that Stefanos Tsitsipas was bunged up badly at Wimbledon, but as it wasn't Covid, he could still play. If he had no symptoms, but had Covid, he's out. Makes perfect sense...
Mas not so great when he doesn't have a wheel to follow
Remco has 2:41 now on GC over Rog.
Not really a rabbit hole the thread needs to go, but at this point we don't know whether Sam was symptomatic and that's why he tested (in line with even average Joe public health guidance) or was from one of the test everybody tests. But regardless, UCI rules haven't really kept up with the general advice.
I thought Mas would lose more time today tbh, and Remco would catch him well before the end. So not that bad a result.
Lopez coming 9th on a 30k flat TT is the shock result for me, wtf is that.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w8.vanillicon.com/v2/892f365931e5cb4ba5c9d4ce2c7da299.svg)
