"I think stage 9 will be a breakaway. And if it's not, then I don't know what's going on anymore," Pinarello-Q36.5's Fred Wright told me on the morning of stage 7.
As the peloton trembles beneath a Tadej Pogačar at the peak of his powers, the result is an increasing sense of uncertainty on the morning before a Tour de France stage begins.
Flat stages for sprinters were already less certain due to the increasing difficulty of catching a breakaway, although the somewhat meagre offerings for sprinters this year has meant the teams with fast men really made sure not to mess it up.
But for anything with a decent-sized lump on the profile, brace for Pogačar. His ennui at having to hold back last year has been transferred to many of those watching as the Slovenian has been unleashed, winning whenever he fancies.
"It's getting harder and harder to predict, I think," XDS-Astana's Aaron Gate explains. "In general, I think profiles get more and more blended, like even now what may have been a breakaway in the past will probably become a sprint now, because teams are going to be so invested with the sprint, because they have to keep it controlled when the opportunity is there to do so."
But can one still predict which days Pogačar will try and take for himself? Can they be separated from the days where he (and subsequently the rest of the GC contenders) will sit up and allow a breakaway to triumph?
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