Tour build up 2019

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  • ContrelaMontre
    ContrelaMontre Posts: 3,027
    RichN95 wrote:
    Wanty team: G.Martin, Backaert, A.De Gendt (no relation), Offredo, Van Meslen, Eiking, Meurisse, Pasqualon

    Elsewhere there is talk of Simon Yates riding as well as Adam. (Maybe teams are finally cottoning on to Sky's usual tactic of taking their Giro leader to the Tour)

    Good to see Yoyo on the team after his horror crash earlier this year on the cobbles
    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    I am not buying this ineos white wash.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    Just read Inrng's route guide - looks like one of the best routes for a long time TBH

    http://inrng.com/2019/06/tour-de-france ... more-35917

    Shame about Froome really.
  • ShutupJens
    ShutupJens Posts: 1,373
    I'd agree with that, lots of opportunities for yellow jersey changes in the first week and then some interesting and potentially unpredictable stages later on. Almost completely gimmick free as well
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,096
    Rick Chasey wrote:

    Movistar have had the talent on the bike but not in the car to do so. There are suggestions the addition of Sciandri as DS has changed that, but I think the jury's out so far.

    He's got a 100% win record so far. I think if anyone suggested before the Giro that Movistar would place riders in first and fourth and control the race through the final week, they would have been mocked. Their tactics at the Giro were far superior to anything they've done in the past few seasons.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,530
    andyp wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:

    Movistar have had the talent on the bike but not in the car to do so. There are suggestions the addition of Sciandri as DS has changed that, but I think the jury's out so far.

    He's got a 100% win record so far. I think if anyone suggested before the Giro that Movistar would place riders in first and fourth and control the race through the final week, they would have been mocked. Their tactics at the Giro were far superior to anything they've done in the past few seasons.

    Yeah again not disagreeing.

    Don’t remember him being that good at BMC is more what I mean.
    _
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    bobmcstuff wrote:
    Just read Inrng's route guide - looks like one of the best routes for a long time TBH

    http://inrng.com/2019/06/tour-de-france ... more-35917

    Shame about Froome really.

    I haven't paid much attention to the route but just had a look at that and even cynical old me thinks that looks like a great route. Although I still think GT's need more than 1 TT.

    Real pity Froome isn't there as there are a number of stages which are not mountain but tough enough that he'd pile on the pressure. That said, the same stages I can see Bardet and team trying to do some damage.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    Teams wanting to get on podium are going to test ineos. Which will make ineos works quite s lot early on. And because the race parcours is full of places to attack it overloads ineos especially if they take the jersey on the planck. Might be hard to get rid of to the right team from then on . That's a looonnnnnnnngggggggg Way to ride on the front.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    That said, the same stages I can see Bardet and team trying to do some damage.

    Second week has ag2r written all over it. FDJ, MST and Astana may get in on that.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    andyp wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:

    Movistar have had the talent on the bike but not in the car to do so. There are suggestions the addition of Sciandri as DS has changed that, but I think the jury's out so far.

    He's got a 100% win record so far. I think if anyone suggested before the Giro that Movistar would place riders in first and fourth and control the race through the final week, they would have been mocked. Their tactics at the Giro were far superior to anything they've done in the past few seasons.

    Yeah again not disagreeing.

    Don’t remember him being that good at BMC is more what I mean.
    certainly not for the tour, better for the one day stuff.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    andyp wrote:
    I think if anyone suggested before the Giro that Movistar would place riders in first and fourth and control the race through the final week, they would have been mocked. Their tactics at the Giro were far superior to anything they've done in the past few seasons.

    May have been a depleted field but they didn't put a foot wrong did they.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,147
    mididoctors wrote:
    andyp wrote:
    I think if anyone suggested before the Giro that Movistar would place riders in first and fourth and control the race through the final week, they would have been mocked. Their tactics at the Giro were far superior to anything they've done in the past few seasons.

    May have been a depleted field but they didn't put a foot wrong did they.
    How much of that was down to new DS Max Scandri is unknown. What is know is he's not going to be at the Tour.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,461
    mididoctors wrote:
    Teams wanting to get on podium are going to test ineos. Which will make ineos works quite s lot early on. And because the race parcours is full of places to attack it overloads ineos especially if they take the jersey on the planck. Might be hard to get rid of to the right team from then on . That's a looonnnnnnnngggggggg Way to ride on the front.

    It's no different to previous years though really. With the dangers of the first week they're always up at the front for 3 weeks. How they cope without Froome there is more interesting. Ive had the impression for years that all the other teams are so intimidated by him alone, that they daren't even try.
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • jimmythecuckoo
    jimmythecuckoo Posts: 4,712
    If they don't just bow down to Ineos and try and beat them, it could be good.
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    Beers of Belgium Cycling Club UK
  • larkim
    larkim Posts: 2,474
    Irrespective of who / which team, I wonder if the way to look at it is to forecast what a GC table might look like at by the first rest day.

    The TTT will have caused some gaps that the flat stages are unlikely to. But the lumpier stages don't look like the ones where any individual GC contender will have been able to get any meaningful time gaps. So that doesn't necessarily mean that Ineos (or any other single team) will have had to work particularly hard to that point.

    Then the ITT on Friday followed by Torurmalet on Saturday could be more significant. Time gaps inevitable from the ITT, and then the impact of a high finish after some have gone too deep on the ITT could be significant, especially as it's only a short day. The day after might be neutralised in anticpation of the rest day and after two days of mixing up the GC.

    After that, who has to work hardest will depend on who has got seconds in the bank so far. Could the race be decided on the penultimate day up to Val Thorens?
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  • poptart242
    poptart242 Posts: 531
    DQS:

    .. ALAPHILIPPE Julian
    .. ASGREEN Kasper
    .. DEVENYNS Dries
    .. MAS Enric
    .. LAMPAERT Yves
    .. MØRKØV Michael
    .. RICHEZE Maximiliano
    .. VIVIANI Elia

    Astana:

    .. SÁNCHEZ Luis León
    .. BILBAO Pello
    .. IZAGIRRE Gorka
    .. FUGLSANG Jakob
    .. LUTSENKO Alexey
    .. CORT Magnus
    .. FRAILE Omar
    .. HOULE Hugo
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,530
    No Gilbert.

    For shame.
    _
  • poptart242
    poptart242 Posts: 531
    I know, gutted. Contract talks stalled apaz.

    On the other hand, Viviani will clean up with that lead out.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    gsk82 wrote:
    mididoctors wrote:
    Teams wanting to get on podium are going to test ineos. Which will make ineos works quite s lot early on. And because the race parcours is full of places to attack it overloads ineos especially if they take the jersey on the planck. Might be hard to get rid of to the right team from then on . That's a looonnnnnnnngggggggg Way to ride on the front.

    It's no different to previous years though really. With the dangers of the first week they're always up at the front for 3 weeks. How they cope without Froome there is more interesting. Ive had the impression for years that all the other teams are so intimidated by him alone, that they daren't even try.

    Partly

    The difference is they will not follow even if they think a top 5 is there goal... So many podium candidates in the race they have to get ahead of them.
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,530
    An admission: not seen Bernal race apart from last year's Tour.
    _
  • ContrelaMontre
    ContrelaMontre Posts: 3,027
    Poptart242 wrote:
    I know, gutted. Contract talks stalled apaz.

    On the other hand, Viviani will clean up with that lead out.

    A shame no Gilbert as you know he would be attacking and enriching the race.

    A prediction from me, Viviani will not win a single stage.
    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • ShutupJens
    ShutupJens Posts: 1,373
    mididoctors wrote:
    That said, the same stages I can see Bardet and team trying to do some damage.

    Second week has ag2r written all over it. FDJ, MST and Astana may get in on that.

    Yeah, this race could benefit a lot from a Bardet shaped hand grenade thrown into one of the stages. Thomas has only had one tour without a bad day, I don't see why people think it's a foregone conclusion that Ineos would win
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,147
    ShutupJens wrote:
    I don't see why people think it's a foregone conclusion that Ineos would win
    Does anyone actually think this?
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,776
    larkim wrote:
    Irrespective of who / which team, I wonder if the way to look at it is to forecast what a GC table might look like at by the first rest day.

    The TTT will have caused some gaps that the flat stages are unlikely to. But the lumpier stages don't look like the ones where any individual GC contender will have been able to get any meaningful time gaps. So that doesn't necessarily mean that Ineos (or any other single team) will have had to work particularly hard to that point.

    Then the ITT on Friday followed by Torurmalet on Saturday could be more significant. Time gaps inevitable from the ITT, and then the impact of a high finish after some have gone too deep on the ITT could be significant, especially as it's only a short day. The day after might be neutralised in anticpation of the rest day and after two days of mixing up the GC.

    After that, who has to work hardest will depend on who has got seconds in the bank so far. Could the race be decided on the penultimate day up to Val Thorens?

    Does anyone who wants to be on the podium have to be in the mix both in the TTT and the planche?

    Very likely the highest finishing of the GC contenders at planche is going to be in the Jersey.

    ?
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • ShutupJens
    ShutupJens Posts: 1,373
    RichN95 wrote:
    ShutupJens wrote:
    I don't see why people think it's a foregone conclusion that Ineos would win
    Does anyone actually think this?

    No Ta Doc for one, seen it hinted at elsewhere as well in other threads I think.

    I think this tour is going to be class, cannot wait
  • coopster_the_1st
    coopster_the_1st Posts: 5,158
    edited June 2019
    RichN95 wrote:
    ShutupJens wrote:
    I don't see why people think it's a foregone conclusion that Ineos would win
    Does anyone actually think this?

    I do.

    Of the 'contenders' still riding, half are being left to fend for themselves by their team and the others that have a decent number of domestics assigned to them have, Fuglsang excepted, hardly set the world on fire with their form this year.
  • Alejandrosdog
    Alejandrosdog Posts: 1,975
    hands down an ineos win barring more crash catastrophes
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 13,283
    No Tour is a foregone conclusion. There are always crashes, illness, bad luck and inexplicable bad days to contend with.

    That said, Ineos have the two major favourites for the race - a guy that won it last year and a guy that's won two stage races this year and has looked awesome as a domestique in the high mountains in GTs and who could have achieved far higher placings if he wasn't working for others.. They also have an incredibly strong, experienced team.

    Hard to see past them, barring the provisios at the top of this post.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    RichN95 wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    Wanty team: G.Martin, Backaert, A.De Gendt (no relation), Offredo, Van Meslen, Eiking, Meurisse, Pasqualon

    Elsewhere there is talk of Simon Yates riding as well as Adam. (Maybe teams are finally cottoning on to Sky's usual tactic of taking their Giro leader to the Tour)

    Of all the teams, Michelton probably have the best 'all for the team' culture to actually make the best use of multiple GC threats.

    Sky do do it, albeit reluctantly.

    Movistar have had the talent on the bike but not in the car to do so. There are suggestions the addition of Sciandri as DS has changed that, but I think the jury's out so far.
    But what Sky did for the last four years was send their best 8 or 9 riders to the Tour. No exceptions. Porte, Landa, Thomas, Froome - leaders at the Giro, but still in the Tour team. Other teams still split their top riders between the Tour & the Giro.

    Again this year you won't be able to name a rider that could significantly improve Ineos, but you probably can for all the other WT teams.

    Yeah, sure - but if you know your top 8 is not as good as Ineos/Sky's top 8 then why bother? Just stick someone in who can win stages or have a good chance of a top 5/10 then put more effort into trying to win another GT.

    It's not like Ineos put in weak teams to the other 2 GTs - not as strong as their Tour team for sure but certainly as strong as most other teams' typical GT team.
  • shirley_basso
    shirley_basso Posts: 6,195
    Because how else can you win if you don't try your best? As everyone keeps reiterating, the Tour is not a foregone conclusion, this year more than any.

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