NFL Poll, Week Three

I thought Week Two of the NFL was very entertaining.  Here is the latest Top Ten from the AP:

1.  Kansas City:  2-0

2.  Baltimore:  2-0

3.  Seattle:  2-0

4.  Green Bay:  2-0

5.  Buffalo:  2-0

6.  Pittsburgh:  2-0

7.  Los Angeles:  2-0

8.  New England:  1-1

9.  Arizona:  2-0

10.  New Orleans:  1-1

The Football Team (1-1) fell to 20th after being hammered by Arizona.  The Dolphins (0-2) moved up to 27 after a close game with Buffalo.

This week we have a rare #1 v. #2 matchup:  the Chiefs are coming to Baltimore to play the Ravens on Monday Night.  That will obviously be the Game of the Week -- and potentially the game of the year.  

But there's more!  Usually you get only one or two weeks a year with three top-ten matchups.  This week features three top-ten matchups.  We've already mentioned the Chiefs and the Ravens on Monday night.  The Sunday Night game features the #4 Packers at the #10 Saints.  Sunday at noon Central you can watch the #7 Rams at the #5 Bills.  That is a very strong weekend of football.

Cycling Update

 

 If you followed the Tour I think this video does a pretty good job of recapping things.  It was a pretty crazy race with a completely unexpected ending.  It has become rare for one person to be able to rise above a team, but this year the best rider was able to overcome his lack of strong team and beat the best team.  His name is Tadej Pogacar, he's Slovenian and when he won he was 21 years old.  The youngest rider to win since 1904.  He also won the mountain jersey and the youngest rider jersey.  Here is a simple breakdown of how things went if you didn't follow.  

The action started early for the general classification, GC, contenders this year.  On Stage 2 there were actual hills and right away we got a sense of who was going to be contending for the overall.  The young rider for EF Pro Cycling, an American team, that many thought had a shot to win after winning the prior race the Criterium du Dauphine, Daniel Martinez (Col) had a hard fall and that was the end of his chances.  Also the French hope Thibaut Pinot had taken a hard fall in stage 1 and looked to be struggling in stage 2.  Then in stage 4 we had our first summit finish and the strongest team appeared to also have the strongest rider Primoz Roglic (Slo), team Jumbo-Visma.  Roglic won the stage and we started to see who was going to be competing for the overall.  Here were the top 10 after this stage.  

1	Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-Quickstep	18:07:04
2	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:00:04
3	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:00:07
4	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:00:11
5	Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis	00:00:13
6	Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers	00:00:17
7	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:00:17
8	Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott	00:00:17
9	Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic	00:00:17
10	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:00:17

Stage 6 was another summit finish and we saw more weeding down of the top contenders, but the next big day was stage 7 where Jumbo-Visma put their team strength to work and gapped a few of the top contenders in heavy cross winds.  Here was the top 10 after stage 7. 

1	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	30:36:00
2	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:00:03
3	Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis	00:00:09
4	Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers	00:00:13
5	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:00:13
6	Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic	00:00:13
7	Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale	00:00:13
8	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:00:13
9	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ	00:00:13
10	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:00:13

At this point Jumbo-Visma had things going exactly as they wanted.  They came into the race with two leaders, Roglic and Tom Dumoulin (Ned).  Both were sitting well at the top and they had things well under control.  Three of the top contenders Pogacar, Richie Porte (Aus), and Mikel Landa (Spa) all lost 1:20.  A lot of time to make up.  In the very next stage Pogocar would go on the attack and get back 40 seconds on Roglic and the other leaders.  Then he would win stage 9.  Now the leaderboard looked like this.  

1	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	38:40:01
2	Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers	00:00:21
3	Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis	00:00:28
4	Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale	00:00:30
5	Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic	00:00:32
6	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:00:32
7	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:00:44
8	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:01:02
9	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:01:15
10	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren	00:01:42

It's important here to notice a big change.  Tom Dumoulin was no longer in the top 10.  A lot of people questioned Jumbo-Visma deciding to go all in so early for Roglic and they used Dumoulin to support Roglic rather than protect his position in the GC competition in Stage 8.  This will turn out to be critical as the race continues.  

Things would stay settled until stage 13 when Roglic went on the attack and could only be followed by one rider Tadej Pogacar.  Now the top 10 looked like this.  

1	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	56:34:35
2	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:00:44
3	Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers	00:00:59
4	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:01:10
5	Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic	00:01:12
6	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:01:31
7	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:01:42
8	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren	00:01:55
9	Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo	00:02:06
10	Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team	00:02:54

This was a frustrating day for EF Pro cycling as Martinez won the stage having recovered from his injuries, but they saw Rigoberto Uran lose time.  It was obvious now that this was a two man race.  Roglic and Pogacar seemed much stronger than the others including last years winner Egan Bernal who was sitting in third.  In stage 15 this would be confirmed as Pogacar won another stage, this time only Roglic being able to stay with him.  The big surprise was Bernal completely collapsing.  He would withdraw from the race in a few days.  

1	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	65:37:07
2	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:00:40
3	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:01:34
4	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:01:45
5	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:02:03
6	Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo	00:02:13
7	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren	00:02:16
8	Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team	00:03:15
9	Nairo Quintana (Col) Team Arkea-Samsic	00:05:08
10	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:05:12

On stage 17 Roglic would extend his lead and Uran would fall out of the top 3.  

1	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	74:56:04
2	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:00:57
3	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:01:26
4	Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo	00:03:05
5	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:03:14
6	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:03:24
7	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren	00:03:27
8	Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team	00:04:18
9	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:07:23
10	Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team	00:09:31

This order would hold going into stage 20 the uphill time trial.  It is important here to note that Roglic won the last major tour the Vuelta a Espana, with Pogacar coming in 3rd.  In that time trial Roglic won the time trial and Pogacar did not even finish in the top 10.  It was assumed by everyone that Roglic would hold on to win the Tour as 57 seconds would be way more than Pogacar could make up in a short time trial against one of the world's best time trialers.  However, everyone was wrong.  Just look at the stage result.  

1	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	00:55:55
2	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:01:21
3	Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo	00:01:21
4	Wout van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:01:31
5	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:01:56

In the end here was the top 10. 

1	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	87:20:05
2	Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:00:59
3	Richie Porte (Aus) Trek-Segafredo	00:03:30
4	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain McLaren	00:05:58
5	Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team	00:06:07
6	Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno (Col) Astana Pro Team	00:06:47
7	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma	00:07:48
8	Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Pro Cycling	00:08:02
9	Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott	00:09:25
10	Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain McLaren	00:14:03

There were two Americans who had a solid Tour.  One was Jumbo-Visma's Sepp Kuss.  He was a critical ally for Roglic in the mountains, often acting as his last support in the highest mountains.  Another was Neilson Powless of EF Pro Cycling.  He had two stages where he finished in the top 5 just coming short of a stage win on both occasions.