Yellow jersey 2: The pool

DeVlaeminck

Coopster the 1st wrote:

There's misinformed chat on here that Ineos will allow their number 2 rider to attack their team leader. Can any of those making this suggestion back up where Ineos/Sky have allowed this to occur in the last 10 years?

Unless Thomas blows, crashes or cannot follow an attack Bernal and Thomas team leadership will only change if Bernal beats Thomas in the stage 13 ITT. I see the attacks of Pinot being very dangerous to Thomas but I don't see him being in contention for the win due to his TT ability.

Top 3(crashes excluded):

Thomas
Bernal
*Fuglslang

*.

Who has suggested Sky are going to allow Bernal attack Thomas? I haven't seen anyone suggest that.

inseine

I think the first week is interesting. It should be good for Thomas though Bernal has shown he can handle himself on the classic type parcours. It could also be a bit crashy.

No_Ta_Doctor

I can't see an attack from Bernal on Thomas, but if Thomas was getting dropped by a few threats and Bernal was to mark one of them...? Assuming Thomas still had mtn doms with him at that point.

Pross

I assume Ineos will play it the same as Sky last year, all in for the leader but allowing their second rider free rein (just with Thomas in the Froome role and Bernal as Thomas). Then if the leader doesn't have form after week two putting everything into the back up plan.

No_Ta_Doctor

I think the interesting thing will be if they don't have yellow going into the final week, and have to dislodge someone. If they're both on roughly the same time, then who do you get to attack on the climbs?

coopster_the_1st

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Coopster the 1st wrote:

There's misinformed chat on here that Ineos will allow their number 2 rider to attack their team leader. Can any of those making this suggestion back up where Ineos/Sky have allowed this to occur in the last 10 years?

Unless Thomas blows, crashes or cannot follow an attack Bernal and Thomas team leadership will only change if Bernal beats Thomas in the stage 13 ITT. I see the attacks of Pinot being very dangerous to Thomas but I don't see him being in contention for the win due to his TT ability.

Top 3(crashes excluded):

Thomas
Bernal
*Fuglslang

*.

Who has suggested Sky are going to allow Bernal attack Thomas? I haven't seen anyone suggest that.

From the other Yellow jersey thread

Ridgerider wrote:

Got to be Bernal now hasn't it...

He'll gain some seconds over Thomas on the first serious mountain, and then will be their protected rider for the remainder of the race.

&

Mountains09 wrote:

I think if Bernal can get to the third week without losing anytime major time or crashing and holds form, everyone including Thomas will have trouble holding onto him on those mountain stages.

coopster_the_1st

RichN95 wrote:

Coopster the 1st wrote:

There's misinformed chat on here that Ineos will allow their number 2 rider to attack their team leader. Can any of those making this suggestion back up where Ineos/Sky have allowed this to occur in the last 10 years?

Stage 11 2018.

Besides, who is number 2? Bernal is the rider with the best form of all the riders, just like Thomas was last year. But Thomas doesn't have the relentless consistency Froome did.

Bernal was a super Dom until Froome's crash. Why would he now jump from 3rd to 1st? Especially when Thomas is defending champion.

Stage 11 2018 was influenced by a crash to the no 1 where Froome lost ~1 minuyte and he had attacked already to take that time back. Thomas was countering Dumoulin as much as attacking Froome.

blazing_saddles

Dennis went pretty well today, over 3 massive Alps.

Pross

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Dennis went pretty well today, over 3 massive Alps.

Looked comfortable but no-one attacked him as other than Bernal they must have been on their limit (as Dennis' own attack showed). Would have been interesting if it had been a MTF as I suspect Bernal might have attacked then himself, would have allowed us to see if Dennis could cope with a real surge on one of those climbs.

bobmcstuff

I think re: Thomas and Bernal, if Thomas turns out to be miles off the pace, Ineos aren't going to keep flogging the dead horse so to speak. And they'll have a much better idea of his form than we do.

I'm sure Thomas will go into it as their #1 rider though.

mididoctors

Pross wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Dennis went pretty well today, over 3 massive Alps.

Looked comfortable but no-one attacked him as other than Bernal they must have been on their limit (as Dennis' own attack showed). Would have been interesting if it had been a MTF as I suspect Bernal might have attacked then himself, would have allowed us to see if Dennis could cope with a real surge on one of those climbs.

Bernal and Dennis both looked the part. But Dennis was on the rivet in a more stressed fashion. I wouldn't be shocked if Dennis was top 5 in Paris ...though a win is a stretch. A lot depends on Thomas . If he is peddling like a crate of winter largers bernal has to be their man.... Worth sticking g in to play the same role froome did last year even if he hasn't got it. Let bernal clip off and see who follows. The planck should start showing how the teams are thinking and maybe who has it. ...

meursault

I didn't think Bernal would get it due to team orders. Thought Thomas as defending champ would get the nod. Bernal unreal last couple of days.

Pretty pleased with the rest of my predictions though, particularly Kruijswijk, nobody else really saw anything in him. Buchmann did much, much better than I thought.

Mas? ROFLMFAO.

Pross

Mas had one really bad day and ended up unexpectedly riding in support of JA.

DeVlaeminck

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Looking at the list of favourites I find it hard to look beyond the Ineos pair of Bernal and Thomas and of the two I've just got a feeling Bernal goes into it with better form and preparation so for me he's favourite.

It's probably easier to make a case for why pretty much every contender wont win it rather than why they will though.

Think this is how it played out - not so much the Ineos 1-2 but more that nobody really showed super form over the 3 weeks. Bernal was solid and had maybe one super day and that was enough.

No_Ta_Doctor

No tA Doctor wrote:

I think the interesting thing will be if they don't have yellow going into the final week, and have to dislodge someone. If they're both on roughly the same time, then who do you get to attack on the climbs?

Yeah, I get something about-right every now and again.

rick_chasey

No tA Doctor wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

I think the interesting thing will be if they don't have yellow going into the final week, and have to dislodge someone. If they're both on roughly the same time, then who do you get to attack on the climbs?

Yeah, I get something about-right every now and again.

stopped watch and all that.