Cycling race predictor · Tour de France 2026

Stage 16 — 2026-07-21

The same production stack priced under 4 course readings, against the bookmaker's pre-stage line. Each scenario is one opinion about what kind of day this is; the results section settles the argument.

4 scenarios 166 riders priced models retrained 2026-06-28 book snapshot markets_1634.json

The fork

4 readings of the same road

Course profile is an input the model can't see from a map — it's set from reference races (or overridden by hand). Different readings redistribute the same probability mass across rider types.

GC engines

The GC engines' course — the hill decides, the lake road confirms
sprint0.00
mountain0.00
hilly0.00
rolling0.00
break0.00
TT1.00
The base case and the course-true read. Evian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains is the Tour's only individual time trial: 26 km and ~500 m of climbing, and the organisers went out of their way to avoid the flat 11 km lakeside drag — the course climbs 9.6 km at 4.2% to ~800 m, descends 7 km on technical roads, and only then flattens for the final 9 km along Lake Geneva. That opening climb is too long and too real for a pure drome position to survive, which is why the book prices it as a two-man race between the riders who just dropped everyone on the Solaison: Evenepoel 1.5 (53.5% devigged) and Pogacar 2.8 (29.2%), with Ganna at 15 (5.3%) the only specialist inside 50. After the rest day this is also round two of the new GC fight — Evenepoel starts it 5:00 behind Pogacar and historically takes ~1s/km from him on courses like this. References are ITTs decided among GC riders at comparable effort lengths (20-28 minutes of racing, against Evian's expected ~32): Pogacar Suisse'26 s4, Almeida Suisse'25 s8, Vingegaard Algarve'25 s5, and Evenepoel's Dauphine'25 s4 and Romandie'25 s5 — the first of those two a head-to-head he took from Pogacar three weeks before this Tour. Model semantics note: every ITT in the database carries an identical profile fingerprint (time_trial=1.0, all else 0) — the profile axes cannot distinguish a hilly TT from a flat one, so what separates this read from the specialists' read below is the reference stages' finish-structure features, not the profile vector.
Top 5 (blend): Pogacar Tadej 53.1%; Evenepoel Remco 21.0%; Tarling Joshua 11.3%; Seixas Paul 9.7%; Lipowitz Florian 7.3%

Pure power

The specialists' 26 km — position and raw watts hold off the hill
sprint0.00
mountain0.00
hilly0.00
rolling0.00
break0.00
TT1.00
The counter-read: 4.2% is a power climb, not a selection, and 16 of the 26 km — the descent and the lake road — are pure specialist terrain where Ganna and Tarling take time back hand over fist. On this reading the big engines stay in the fight: Ganna (15.0, one Vuelta'25 and one Giro'26 ITT win in the last twelve months), Tarling (51.0), and the strong rouleurs — McNulty, Plapp, Vacek, Foss, Armirail — are live rather than filler. References are flat power ITTs won by the specialists or the biggest engines: Ganna Giro'26 s10, Vuelta'25 s18 and Tirreno'25 s1, Tarling Giro'25 s2, and Evenepoel's Caen win at TdF'25 s5 — that last one a reminder that the man the book has at 1.5 wins this read too; the question the read asks is who fills places 3 through 10. The honest caveat from the deck's own history: with every ITT fingerprinted identically in profile space, this board and the GC-engines board may barely differ — if they don't, that is itself a finding about the model's time-trial axis, and it is exactly the blind spot a dedicated TT head (backlog) would close.
Top 5 (blend): Pogacar Tadej 53.6%; Evenepoel Remco 21.4%; Tarling Joshua 13.1%; Lipowitz Florian 11.9%; Seixas Paul 10.4%

Hills bite

Week-3 legs — the hill bites harder than 4.2% suggests
sprint0.00
mountain0.10
hilly0.00
rolling0.20
break0.00
TT0.70
The stress-test read. Fifteen stages and 3,900 m of Solaison are in everyone's legs, and a 9.6 km climb ridden on day-16 fatigue selects harder than its gradient — the 2025 Tour's hilly Peyragudes TT put minutes, not seconds, between riders the flat TTs rate as equals. This read pushes the course away from the drome deliberately: synthetic override time_trial 0.7 / rolling 0.2 / mountain 0.1 over the GC-reference base, the same mechanism as Solaison's Climbers' wall read. The test is specific and checkable, in both directions: does mixing climbing weight into the TT axis demote the pure engines (Ganna, Tarling, Foss, Armirail) and promote the climbing GC men (Seixas, Lipowitz, del Toro, Martinez) relative to the two clean reads — or does the board barely move, as the Climbers' wall barely moved on Solaison? After a stage where the road sided with our numbers over the book's archetype story on exactly this kind of question, the deck owes the axis another controlled probe.
Top 5 (blend): Pogacar Tadej 54.3%; Evenepoel Remco 21.1%; Seixas Paul 8.1%; Lipowitz Florian 7.0%; Tarling Joshua 5.3%

Hindsight (post-hoc)

Hindsight — the day as raced
sprint0.00
mountain0.00
hilly0.00
rolling0.00
break0.00
TT1.00
Post-race reconstruction, never logged. The five DB time trials whose finish-gap curves most resemble today's (1 within 30s, 2 within 60s, 9 within 120s, near-full field inside 10 min): Pogacar's Perugia Giro'24 s7 and Peyragudes TdF'25 s13, Ganna's Giro'26 s10, Evenepoel's Alicante Vuelta'22 s10, Vingegaard's Combloux TdF'23 s16 — GC-decided TTs with real gaps, exactly today's shape. Because every ITT carries the identical profile fingerprint, the ONLY thing this run can vary against the pre-race reads is the reference stages' finish-structure features — so if this board still puts Pogacar on top, course knowledge was never the constraint and the miss is the model's rider prior, not its course read.
Top 5 (blend): Pogacar Tadej 54.0%; Evenepoel Remco 19.2%; Lipowitz Florian 10.3%; Tarling Joshua 9.1%; Seixas Paul 8.2%

The board

Win probabilities, scenario by scenario

Blend win probability per scenario (cascade × LambdaRank, DNF-adjusted at the pricing layer), next to the devigged Kambi (Unibet) win line captured the morning before the stage. "Max edge" compares the most favourable scenario against the book — treat it as scenario-conditional, not a free bet.

Read "Max edge" as directional, not as a price. The blend is a set of per-rider marginals and does not sum to one book — across this field each reading totals GC engines 139%, Pure power 152%, Hills bite 127%, Hindsight (post-hoc) 135% — while the devigged book column sums to exactly 100%. Putting the two side by side flatters the model, and Max edge is inflated by about that factor: divide a rider's probability by his reading's total before calling anything an edge. Of our heads only the LambdaRank one is natively book-preserving.

RiderTeamGC enginesPure powerHills biteHindsight (post-hoc)Book oddsBook devigMax edge
Pogacar TadejUAE Team Emirates-XRG53.1%53.6%54.3%54.0%2.7529.2%+25.1pp
Evenepoel RemcoRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe21.0%21.4%21.1%19.2%1.5053.5%-32.1pp
Tarling JoshuaNetcompany INEOS11.3%13.1%5.3%9.1%51.001.6%+11.5pp
Lipowitz FlorianRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe7.3%11.9%7.0%10.3%201.000.4%+11.5pp
Seixas PaulDecathlon CMA CGM Team9.7%10.4%8.1%8.2%101.000.8%+9.6pp
Ganna FilippoNetcompany INEOS3.9%4.6%2.2%3.2%15.005.3%-0.7pp
Ayuso JuanLidl-Trek3.9%4.5%2.8%3.9%101.000.8%+3.7pp
del Toro IsaacUAE Team Emirates-XRG1.6%1.7%3.0%1.7%201.000.4%+2.6pp
Vacek MathiasLidl-Trek2.7%2.9%1.6%2.2%201.000.4%+2.5pp
Foss TobiasNetcompany INEOS2.5%2.6%1.9%2.1%301.000.3%+2.3pp
Arensman ThymenNetcompany INEOS2.3%2.0%1.9%1.5%501.000.2%+2.1pp
Pedersen MadsLidl-Trek0.9%2.0%0.6%1.6%751.000.1%+1.9pp
Wærenskjold SørenUno-X Mobility1.0%1.6%0.7%1.3%1001.000.1%+1.5pp
Vauquelin KévinNetcompany INEOS1.2%1.3%0.9%1.2%301.000.3%+1.0pp
Jorgenson MatteoTeam Visma | Lease a Bike1.1%1.2%1.0%0.9%201.000.4%+0.8pp
McNulty BrandonUAE Team Emirates-XRG1.1%1.0%0.9%1.0%201.000.4%+0.7pp
Hoole DaanDecathlon CMA CGM Team0.8%1.1%0.4%0.8%601.000.1%+0.9pp
The GC engines' course — the hill decides, the lake road confirms — top 30, all heads
#RiderBlendCascade LambdaRankPodiumTop 15 Book odds
1Pogacar Tadej53.1%53.8%38.0%81.1%90.8%2.75
2Evenepoel Remco21.0%17.2%16.0%49.3%82.5%1.50
3Tarling Joshua11.3%13.2%7.6%29.0%66.6%51.00
4Seixas Paul9.7%11.5%6.5%23.7%67.6%101.00
5Lipowitz Florian7.3%3.0%6.3%13.3%68.4%201.00
6Ayuso Juan3.9%1.9%3.3%7.9%53.6%101.00
7Ganna Filippo3.9%5.2%2.5%18.9%54.6%15.00
8Vacek Mathias2.7%1.9%2.2%7.9%51.1%201.00
9Foss Tobias2.5%1.2%2.1%5.3%30.1%301.00
10Arensman Thymen2.3%1.4%1.8%5.5%33.6%501.00
11del Toro Isaac1.6%1.2%1.2%4.4%33.2%201.00
12Vauquelin Kévin1.2%1.2%0.9%3.7%32.1%301.00
13McNulty Brandon1.1%1.4%0.7%4.7%32.9%201.00
14Jorgenson Matteo1.1%1.2%0.7%4.6%23.8%201.00
15Wærenskjold Søren1.0%1.4%0.6%4.6%36.8%1001.00
16Skjelmose Mattias1.0%1.1%0.7%5.6%49.8%501.00
17Gee Derek0.9%0.7%0.7%4.8%26.8%601.00
18Pedersen Mads0.9%1.3%0.5%4.0%28.5%751.00
19Hoole Daan0.8%1.1%0.5%6.5%41.2%601.00
20Asgreen Kasper0.7%1.6%0.3%3.3%31.2%751.00
21Vermeersch Florian0.7%1.3%0.4%4.2%36.6%751.00
22Van Wilder Ilan0.7%0.7%0.5%3.6%35.1%401.00
23Martinez Lenny0.7%1.4%0.3%4.4%35.9%601.00
24van der Poel Mathieu0.6%1.0%0.3%10.4%26.0%201.00
25Armirail Bruno0.6%0.5%0.4%1.6%26.5%301.00
26Wright Fred0.5%0.6%0.4%3.8%24.8%1501.00
27Grégoire Romain0.5%0.4%0.4%2.5%14.7%1001.00
28Castrillo Pablo0.4%0.5%0.2%1.5%15.8%1501.00
29Affini Edoardo0.3%0.4%0.2%3.2%34.5%601.00
30Healy Ben0.3%0.7%0.1%1.5%8.5%501.00
The specialists' 26 km — position and raw watts hold off the hill — top 30, all heads
#RiderBlendCascade LambdaRankPodiumTop 15 Book odds
1Pogacar Tadej53.6%53.7%35.3%81.3%90.8%2.75
2Evenepoel Remco21.4%15.9%15.4%48.3%80.7%1.50
3Tarling Joshua13.1%13.4%8.5%30.0%67.1%51.00
4Lipowitz Florian11.9%6.6%9.2%23.1%74.7%201.00
5Seixas Paul10.4%11.7%6.5%22.8%65.1%101.00
6Ganna Filippo4.6%5.6%2.8%21.2%56.7%15.00
7Ayuso Juan4.5%1.9%3.6%8.2%51.2%101.00
8Vacek Mathias2.9%2.1%2.1%8.9%52.0%201.00
9Foss Tobias2.6%1.1%2.1%5.0%29.5%301.00
10Pedersen Mads2.0%5.1%0.5%10.7%49.8%751.00
11Arensman Thymen2.0%1.0%1.5%4.7%31.1%501.00
12del Toro Isaac1.7%1.2%1.3%4.4%31.5%201.00
13Wærenskjold Søren1.6%3.6%0.5%12.8%35.4%1001.00
14Vauquelin Kévin1.3%1.0%0.9%4.1%30.1%301.00
15Jorgenson Matteo1.2%1.5%0.7%5.2%25.3%201.00
16Hoole Daan1.1%1.4%0.6%7.6%45.9%601.00
17McNulty Brandon1.0%1.1%0.6%4.4%34.1%201.00
18Skjelmose Mattias1.0%1.0%0.6%5.8%49.5%501.00
19Vermeersch Florian0.9%1.8%0.4%5.3%36.8%751.00
20Gee Derek0.9%1.0%0.6%4.0%23.9%601.00
21van der Poel Mathieu0.8%1.5%0.3%9.8%25.2%201.00
22Armirail Bruno0.7%0.6%0.5%3.8%35.4%301.00
23Van Wilder Ilan0.7%0.7%0.5%3.6%35.0%401.00
24Martinez Lenny0.6%1.4%0.2%4.0%36.7%601.00
25Wright Fred0.5%0.8%0.3%3.4%24.4%1501.00
26Asgreen Kasper0.5%0.7%0.3%4.3%32.4%751.00
27Grégoire Romain0.5%0.4%0.3%2.5%14.0%1001.00
28Affini Edoardo0.4%0.5%0.3%4.2%40.9%601.00
29Matthews Michael0.4%0.9%0.1%2.3%23.8%1001.00
30Castrillo Pablo0.4%0.5%0.2%1.9%16.4%1501.00
Week-3 legs — the hill bites harder than 4.2% suggests — top 30, all heads
#RiderBlendCascade LambdaRankPodiumTop 15 Book odds
1Pogacar Tadej54.3%56.4%42.3%79.8%90.4%2.75
2Evenepoel Remco21.1%15.8%18.0%48.3%82.7%1.50
3Seixas Paul8.1%8.2%6.3%17.5%64.0%101.00
4Lipowitz Florian7.0%3.4%6.4%14.0%69.2%201.00
5Tarling Joshua5.3%4.9%4.3%16.2%54.5%51.00
6del Toro Isaac3.0%2.2%2.6%9.6%49.8%201.00
7Ayuso Juan2.8%2.0%2.4%7.4%51.2%101.00
8Ganna Filippo2.2%2.7%1.6%12.1%45.1%15.00
9Arensman Thymen1.9%1.5%1.6%5.6%30.5%501.00
10Foss Tobias1.9%1.1%1.7%4.1%27.4%301.00
11Vacek Mathias1.6%1.7%1.2%7.2%44.0%201.00
12Gee Derek1.0%0.9%0.8%5.1%25.3%601.00
13Jorgenson Matteo1.0%0.7%0.8%2.7%24.8%201.00
14Vauquelin Kévin0.9%1.0%0.7%3.6%28.4%301.00
15Skjelmose Mattias0.9%0.7%0.7%3.9%39.0%501.00
16McNulty Brandon0.9%1.2%0.6%4.4%29.7%201.00
17Martinez Lenny0.8%0.9%0.6%3.2%35.0%601.00
18Wærenskjold Søren0.7%1.6%0.3%8.4%22.6%1001.00
19Van Wilder Ilan0.7%0.8%0.5%2.9%34.5%401.00
20van der Poel Mathieu0.7%1.3%0.4%9.3%21.0%201.00
21Pedersen Mads0.6%0.9%0.4%3.4%22.9%751.00
22Grégoire Romain0.5%0.5%0.4%3.2%14.7%1001.00
23Hoole Daan0.4%1.3%0.1%2.0%21.7%601.00
24Pidcock Tom0.4%0.8%0.2%4.4%30.6%1501.00
25Johannessen Tobias Halland0.3%0.3%0.3%2.4%18.5%2501.00
26Castrillo Pablo0.3%0.4%0.2%1.5%14.8%1501.00
27Vermeersch Florian0.3%0.7%0.2%2.9%18.7%751.00
28Healy Ben0.3%0.7%0.1%1.5%7.5%501.00
29Bernal Egan0.3%0.8%0.1%1.5%11.9%2501.00
30Armirail Bruno0.3%0.4%0.2%1.0%14.1%301.00
Hindsight — the day as raced — top 30, all heads
#RiderBlendCascade LambdaRankPodiumTop 15 Book odds
1Pogacar Tadej54.0%51.1%40.8%83.2%92.3%2.75
2Evenepoel Remco19.2%14.9%15.4%51.6%83.2%1.50
3Lipowitz Florian10.3%5.3%8.9%23.0%75.9%201.00
4Tarling Joshua9.1%8.7%6.8%22.4%57.7%51.00
5Seixas Paul8.2%9.2%5.8%18.4%65.8%101.00
6Ayuso Juan3.9%1.9%3.4%8.4%51.6%101.00
7Ganna Filippo3.2%3.4%2.3%13.5%45.7%15.00
8Vacek Mathias2.2%1.7%1.7%6.5%41.6%201.00
9Foss Tobias2.1%1.0%1.8%4.1%28.3%301.00
10del Toro Isaac1.7%1.3%1.4%4.9%34.9%201.00
11Pedersen Mads1.6%4.9%0.4%10.2%45.4%751.00
12Arensman Thymen1.5%1.1%1.2%4.8%29.6%501.00
13Wærenskjold Søren1.3%3.5%0.4%12.2%31.9%1001.00
14Vauquelin Kévin1.2%1.1%0.9%4.9%32.3%301.00
15McNulty Brandon1.0%1.3%0.7%5.0%34.7%201.00
16Skjelmose Mattias1.0%1.2%0.7%6.1%51.6%501.00
17Jorgenson Matteo0.9%0.5%0.8%2.3%23.7%201.00
18Gee Derek0.8%1.0%0.5%4.9%25.3%601.00
19Hoole Daan0.8%1.2%0.4%6.8%39.3%601.00
20van der Poel Mathieu0.7%2.0%0.2%11.5%30.7%201.00
21Vermeersch Florian0.7%1.5%0.3%5.0%36.6%751.00
22Asgreen Kasper0.6%1.6%0.3%2.9%28.7%751.00
23Van Wilder Ilan0.6%0.7%0.4%4.2%36.8%401.00
24Armirail Bruno0.6%0.7%0.5%4.1%33.3%301.00
25Martinez Lenny0.6%1.6%0.2%5.0%39.5%601.00
26Grégoire Romain0.4%0.4%0.3%2.4%14.9%1001.00
27Wright Fred0.4%0.6%0.3%3.0%21.5%1501.00
28Castrillo Pablo0.3%0.6%0.2%1.6%15.5%1501.00
29Affini Edoardo0.3%0.3%0.2%2.9%29.6%601.00
30Matthews Michael0.3%0.8%0.1%2.2%19.5%1001.00

Angle

Behind the big two — the specialists' race for the podium

There is no break to price on a time trial, so the conditional this table answers is different: P(win | the winner is NOT in the GC top 9 on actual standings after stage 15). The book gives that pool 14% of the unconditional market, almost all of it Ganna; our GC-engines read holds 41% raw blend mass outside the GC nine. Ineos' time-trial unit dominates the table — Tarling, Ganna, Foss, Arensman and Vauquelin are five of the first six rows — with the Lidl-Trek and UAE rouleurs (Vacek, McNulty, Vermeersch) behind. Read it as the race for third: on every one of our boards the two GC leaders hold over 70% of the win mass between them.

RiderTeamGC engines win pP(win | not GC top 9)Book oddsBook devig
Tarling JoshuaNetcompany INEOS11.3%27.6%511.6%
Ganna FilippoNetcompany INEOS3.9%9.6%155.3%
Vacek MathiasLidl-Trek2.7%6.7%2010.4%
Foss TobiasNetcompany INEOS2.5%6.2%3010.3%
Arensman ThymenNetcompany INEOS2.3%5.6%5010.2%
Vauquelin KévinNetcompany INEOS1.2%3.1%3010.3%
McNulty BrandonUAE Team Emirates-XRG1.1%2.7%2010.4%
Jorgenson MatteoTeam Visma | Lease a Bike1.1%2.7%2010.4%
Wærenskjold SørenUno-X Mobility1.0%2.4%10010.1%
Gee DerekLidl-Trek0.9%2.2%6010.1%
Pedersen MadsLidl-Trek0.9%2.1%7510.1%
Hoole DaanDecathlon CMA CGM Team0.8%1.9%6010.1%
Asgreen KasperEF Education-EasyPost0.7%1.8%7510.1%
Vermeersch FlorianUAE Team Emirates-XRG0.7%1.8%7510.1%

Angle

The book's card — its favourites under our readings

Shortest book prices for the stage, with our blend win probability (and rank) under each scenario. 'free' = outside the excluded GC pool (top 9 by the latest GC-model blend (tdf_gc.json)), i.e. the type the peloton might let up the road.

RiderBook oddsDevigGC enginesPure powerHills biteGC status
Evenepoel Remco1.5053.5%21.0% (#2)21.4% (#2)21.1% (#2)GC #3
Pogacar Tadej2.7529.2%53.1% (#1)53.6% (#1)54.3% (#1)GC #1
Ganna Filippo15.005.3%3.9% (#7)4.6% (#6)2.2% (#8)free
Tarling Joshua51.001.6%11.3% (#3)13.1% (#3)5.3% (#5)free
Seixas Paul101.000.8%9.7% (#4)10.4% (#5)8.1% (#3)GC #4
Ayuso Juan101.000.8%3.9% (#6)4.5% (#7)2.8% (#7)GC #6
Lipowitz Florian201.000.4%7.3% (#5)11.9% (#4)7.0% (#4)GC #2
Vacek Mathias201.000.4%2.7% (#8)2.9% (#8)1.6% (#11)free
del Toro Isaac201.000.4%1.6% (#11)1.7% (#12)3.0% (#6)GC #5
Jorgenson Matteo201.000.4%1.1% (#14)1.2% (#15)1.0% (#13)free

Angle

Where we disagree with the book — the inverted favourites

Model column is the GC-engines read RENORMALIZED over the field (blend / 139.1%), directly comparable to the devigged book. One disagreement dwarfs the rest and it is the day's headline: the book makes Evenepoel the 1.5 favourite (53.5%) with Pogacar at 2.8 (29.2%); every one of our reads inverts that — Pogacar ~53% raw to Evenepoel's ~21%. The book is pricing the man who just beat Pogacar up an 11 km wall, the reigning world TT champion, on a course with a real climb in it. The model is pricing two seasons of head-to-head dominance everywhere else, and it does not know Solaison happened — its snapshot features end at the Dauphine and its within-race state carries standings, not yesterday's watts. After stage 15 settled a 16x disagreement our way, this is the sharpest test yet of the same prior in the opposite direction: this time WE are the ones fading fresh evidence for structural form. Below the pair, the pattern is the stage-15 one again — the model spreads real mass to the strong GC men the book has at three digits — Seixas (101), Lipowitz (201), Ayuso (101) — and to Tarling at 51, while among the book's own favourites it is colder only on Ganna.

RiderTeamModel (renormalized)Book devigBook oddsDifference
Pogacar TadejUAE Team Emirates-XRG38.2%29.2%2.75+9.0pp
Tarling JoshuaNetcompany INEOS8.1%1.6%51+6.5pp
Seixas PaulDecathlon CMA CGM Team7.0%0.8%101+6.2pp
Lipowitz FlorianRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe5.3%0.4%201+4.9pp
Ayuso JuanLidl-Trek2.8%0.8%101+2.0pp
Vacek MathiasLidl-Trek2.0%0.4%201+1.6pp
Ganna FilippoNetcompany INEOS2.8%5.3%15-2.5pp
Evenepoel RemcoRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe15.1%53.5%1.5-38.4pp

After the stage

Results — won by Evenepoel Remco

PosRiderTeamGC engines win pPure power win pHills bite win pHindsight (post-hoc) win p
1Evenepoel RemcoRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe21.0%21.4%21.1%19.2%
2Pogacar TadejUAE Team Emirates-XRG53.1%53.6%54.3%54.0%
3Skjelmose MattiasLidl-Trek1.0%1.0%0.9%1.0%
4Seixas PaulDecathlon CMA CGM Team9.7%10.4%8.1%8.2%
5del Toro IsaacUAE Team Emirates-XRG1.6%1.7%3.0%1.7%
6Cattaneo MattiaRed Bull-BORA-hansgrohe0.1%0.1%0.0%0.1%
7Arensman ThymenNetcompany INEOS Cycling Team2.3%2.0%1.9%1.5%
8Armirail BrunoTeam Visma | Lease a Bike0.6%0.7%0.3%0.6%
9Castrillo PabloMovistar Team0.4%0.4%0.3%0.3%
10Tarling JoshuaNetcompany INEOS Cycling Team11.3%13.1%5.3%9.1%

Scenario scoring — probability given to the actual winner

ScenarioBlend win pBook devig
GC engines20.95%53.49%
Pure power21.35%53.49%
Hills bite21.14%53.49%
Hindsight (post-hoc)19.21%53.49%

Reflection

What we make of it

The road picked the branch none of our boards led with: Evenepoel won the time trial by 28 seconds over Pogacar, and the book's 1.50 was right. All three reads gave the winner ~21% (GC engines 20.95%, Pure power 21.35%, Hills bite 21.14%) against a devigged 53.5%, and all three made Pogacar the ~53% pick. After stage 15 settled a 16x disagreement our way — same two riders, same question, our side — the sharpest test of the Tour went the other way: the book was pricing Solaison's watts, we were pricing two seasons of head-to-heads, and the watts won.

The hindsight run closes the usual escape hatch. Rebuilt from the five DB time trials whose finish-gap curves most resemble today's (Perugia'24, Peyragudes'25, Giro'26 s10, Alicante'22, Combloux'23 — GC-decided TTs, exactly today's shape), the board is unchanged: Pogacar 54.0%, Evenepoel 19.2%. Every ITT carries the identical profile fingerprint, so the only lever hindsight has is finish structure, and finish structure wasn't the constraint. The miss lives in the rider prior: the model's snapshot features end at the Dauphine and its within-race state carries standings, not yesterday's performances. It literally cannot know Solaison happened.

Put stages 15 and 16 side by side and the deeper finding appears: they are the same property of the model wearing opposite signs. Our Evenepoel number barely moved across the two days (~10% on Solaison, ~15% renormalized here) while the book swung from 0.8% to 53.5%. A static form prior fades archetype stories AND fades fresh physical evidence — profitable on Saturday when the book's 'TT-shaped men can't win 9% walls' story lost, costly on Tuesday when the book's update was simply correct. Carry-forward rule: when a 'book-knows-news' gap traces to a direct on-road demonstration on comparable terrain days earlier — not narrative, watts — discount our side of the disagreement.

Below the big two, the quieter reads mostly aged well. The road agreed with the Hills bite direction — climbers swept the top five (Skjelmose 3rd at 1:04, Seixas 4th, del Toro 5th) and the pure engines were buried (Tarling 10th at 2:02, Ganna 11th) — and Hills bite was the only board that had demoted Tarling (11.3→5.3%) and promoted del Toro, so the TT axis does re-sort when pushed; the probe answered yes. Tarling at 11.3% was the biggest single miss below the top two, while the model's coldness on Ganna (3.9% vs book 5.3%) was vindicated. Seixas 4th at 101 book odds is another mark for the standing edge. And the day's structural news travels to tomorrow: Lipowitz crashed out of GC #2, the field is down to 166, and the GC cliff now sits after Pidcock in 8th (+12:58), with 10 minutes of air below him.