I thought the whole point of shorter stages was to encourage fast racing.
Personally I would love to see a tour that included epic stages from the 80's:
230km in the alps, 340km flat stage, 80km individual TT and 140km Team TT.
The inclusion of just the latter would mean more of the top riders would have to go on long raids since they and their teams should ship minutes to the best TTT teams.

@ian ellis You think everything was better in the 80s

Mark Taylor said:

@ian ellis You think everything was better in the 80s

Max agrees

mugwump said:

Mark Taylor said:

I bet ALP goes real hard on the finish tomorrow🤞 

I think this is the benefit to everyone.

Mitchelton-Scott will ride to keep yellow.  D-QS will ride to regain yellow.  Jumbo-Visma will ride to crush Ineos.  Ineos will wait to see if they can blitz Jumbo late.  Pinot is regaining form.  Martin has the taste of attacking.  

Because it's a mountain stage with points late, Sagan and Cosnefroy will be riding to get into the break, so should all the teams that have gotten nothing out of this year's tour.  Like CCC.  Chaves will ride for the break to support Yates.  

I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure the summit of the last KoM hill will have a time bonus, too.

I think tomorrow will be an excellent stage.  

It will make up for today's yawner.  

Don't discount Quintana, I think that he's the dark horse in this race.

^if you mean “they’re gonna make glue out of him”  then i agree 😂

@Mark Taylor With the exception of some of the obvious fashion mistakes of that decade - you are correct. I do.

Best Quintana joke I've read: 

we can't really tell from today, but Quintanita is still there, riding strong. Certainly looking better than Uran

Sure does seem like Roglic’s to lose this year

I'm curious about Landa, seems like so far he avoided "doing a Landa" , by self sabotaging himself

Can't keep track, what's Landa's team?

-- Gotta say yesterday stage was fun. This weekend in the Pyrenees should be fun.

Bahrain,
 scratch what i said early ( today's stage is bonkers)

Mark Taylor said:

Bahrain,
 scratch what i said early ( today's stage is bonkers)

came here to post that today's stage is delivering on the Landaness. haha.

and Porte , pulling a "Porte"

OTOH,
     None of the French hopes failed today.  Ala', Bardet, Pinot all made it.  Particularly striking that a classics team like Quick Step failed here.  or maybe just Bennett can't climb.

BTW, a theory on why there might have been increased crashing on stage 1 this year.

http://jralong.com/2020/09/04/le-tour-de-crash-a-theory-on-increased-carnage/

tl/dr: bike position.

Days like today are much more entertaining than mountain stages.

mugwump said:

BTW, a theory on why there might have been increased crashing on stage 1 this year.

http://jralong.com/2020/09/04/le-tour-de-crash-a-theory-on-increased-carnage/

tl/dr: bike position.

I saw an interview with Sepp Kuss , he crashed because he was looking though the map on his Garmin

mugwump said:

OTOH,
     None of the French hopes failed today.  Ala', Bardet, Pinot all made it.  Particularly striking that a classics team like Quick Step failed here.  or maybe just Bennett can't climb.

Local knowledge , specific to the time of year?

Mark Taylor said:

mugwump said:

BTW, a theory on why there might have been increased crashing on stage 1 this year.

http://jralong.com/2020/09/04/le-tour-de-crash-a-theory-on-increased-carnage/

tl/dr: bike position.

I saw an interview with Sepp Kuss , he crashed because he was looking though the map on his Garmin

Link?

Mark Taylor said:

mugwump said:

BTW, a theory on why there might have been increased crashing on stage 1 this year.

http://jralong.com/2020/09/04/le-tour-de-crash-a-theory-on-increased-carnage/

tl/dr: bike position.

I saw an interview with Sepp Kuss , he crashed because he was looking though the map on his Garmin

Well, there is that.  

Jules said:

Mark Taylor said:

mugwump said:

BTW, a theory on why there might have been increased crashing on stage 1 this year.

http://jralong.com/2020/09/04/le-tour-de-crash-a-theory-on-increased-carnage/

tl/dr: bike position.

I saw an interview with Sepp Kuss , he crashed because he was looking though the map on his Garmin

Link?

Check flo bikes archive 

Me telling myself every year this is going to be the Tour where Pinot figures it out 

Ah Pinot. Le Sigh.

Jules said:

Ah Pinot. Le Sigh.

Le Sigh.

There seems to be a rule wherein if Bardet is on a good Tour Pinot isn't and vice versa.  

Surprised that Martin helped Yates chase in the final kilometer.  

Good to see Uran looking frisky; could see in the final meters of the Peyrusorde that Uran was boxed in when Quintana attacked.  

And how is Zakarin such a terrible descender?  It's good to recognize there's a skill component in bike racing, of course, but for Zakarin, he knows this is a problem, his speciality is climbing, and yet...

There was a story that Dumoulin made a remark over the team radio that he didn't come to get 10th and then he set a tempo that ended up sacrificing himself.  While it's a noble sentiment.  I wondered if it's not as good for the team--still got two weeks to go and Ineos is already down to two, having Dumoulin as an option in case his form improves strikes me as better, especially when there's a TT at the end.  

But maybe that's what keeps the race so durn interestin' (though I've never seen the queen in her damned undies as the saying goes)

today was the hotness — was awesome to see so many different riders willing to throw down 

the Zakarin downhill is hard to understand, like this is his job — there’s plenty of things on my job I am not good at, but if it is something i need to do daily, I seek help and get better at it. C’mon now, he could have won a mega stage. Kudos to Peters!! FIRAH!

Jani has opinions — so I might rescind my previous message

ouch

I don't know what you guys feel but this Tour is the most Vuelta like which is a great thing. 

Good to see Sam B win today. Looked like a hard stage for everyone, I'm interested to see how Rabobank go in weeks 2 and 3 as they don't seem to have rested anyone on any stage so far...