Tour de France 2022 Tour de France Start List

[CyclistAbi]

Well, if I had interest in betting, Roglic' odds certainly look juicier than Pogacar's. 2/3 is ridiculous for a race like the Tour de France, even if he was the lovechild of Armstrong and Contador.

And lets not forget who the lineal Contador is.

 

[Escarabajo]

Well, if I had interest in betting, Roglic' odds certainly look juicier than Pogacar's. 2/3 is ridiculous for a race like the Tour de France, even if he was the lovechild of Armstrong and Contador.

Now, that would be something.

As far as I am concerned there is nothing, absolutely nothing that comes close to Pogacar. So no, those odds are fine. Roglic today is not even remotely close to Pogacar. And yes, Pogacar is not my preferred rider but being objective he is the best I have seen in my life since I have been watching cycling. And I have been watching cycling since the 80's. So Pogacar cannot be the lovechild of Contador and Armstrong because he better than both of them .

It is so bad that now he is the best Classicomano among the contenders. He can eliminate Vingo and Martinez before they even have a chance to get to the mountains. LOL.

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Escarabajo

But then surely he should have dropped Moho on a murito?

 

[Rackham]

@Rackham

I don't know who will win TDF 2022. As Tour is still the Tour and such things tend to be unpredictable. In regards to Rogla vs. Pogi i would say 50:50. In regards to JV GC (support) section. I don't know what the form of Kuss is. But if we assume he is in good form then this will likely be the best team Roglič had so far. Minus the Dennis spot. As Dennis in my opinion would made much difference too. But lets not diminish Hooydonck contribution just yet. Lets first see on how he does.

Vuelta 2021 should be a case study, i.e. on paper it looks like a massive Roglstomp. But, stage 20 which featured Superman Lopez's meltdown was so, so close to being a disaster for Roglic as well.

When Bernal initiated the attack for Yates, Rog had only Kruijswijk left. If Rog hadn't followed that move right there, he would have been screwed, likewise if he'd suffered a mechanical in the small group he was in for the following 57km, he would have been screwed again. Those narrow margins between success & failure are what makes this sport so great. Anything bad can happen to anyone. And when it doesn't, people forget & believe it was a walk in the park. But it wasn't.

With regards to Roglic in the 2022 TdF, I believe all his prior success & failures in his career will give him the serenity he needs to avoid potential disasters & make his good days stick.

 

[Ranagazoo]

Ineos should go for stage wins, they don't need to do pacesetting with Pog and Rog there. The likes of Kwiatkowski and Pidcock should go for breakaways and leave the 3 leaders to follow wheels in the GC group.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Yeah. The only issue is Dennis is so multifunctional you really want him there as a team leader.

Meanwhile Dutch fans be crying cause they'd rather see 8 Dutch dudes getting clobbered in breakaways than a Dutch team trying to win the Tour de France.

I'm fairly sure they'd still whine if it was Roglic, Van Aert and 6 Dutch bottle carriers.

Reminds me of Italian fans and media (mainly the later) crying about Italians riding for non-Italian teams and not being team leaders. As if they wouldn't get chances to ride for themself if they were strong enough, but nationalistic clowns like Beppe Conti still think that everyone follows the same logic as them...

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Rackham

Considering their performance at Dauphiné i would say that they took all their "weaknesses" into consideration and improved. The only debatable thing is their appetite for both yellow and green. Here they are acting a bit silly but there are some potential pros too.

All in all at GT you will always be confronted with some setbacks and things you didn't predict. Experiences will play a role. And Rogla has them.

It will be special. Likely over in a couple of days with Rogla and Pogi each taking home a cobble as a souvenir. López to win GC.

 

[acm]

Another team that leaves Dennis out of the Tour line up. I think that Kruijswijk being so good at the Dauphine was the nail in the coffin for Dennis.

Well you think wrong.

 

[Escarabajo]

@Escarabajo

But then surely he should have dropped Moho on a murito?

I love this. Don't give me hope man!!!!

He will drop him at the Tour, trust me!

 

[Escarabajo]

Well you think wrong.

Ok.

 

[staubsauger]

Reminds me of Italian fans and media (mainly the later) crying about Italians riding for non-Italian teams and not being team leaders. As if they wouldn't get chances to ride for themself if they were strong enough, but nationalistic clowns like Beppe Conti still think that everyone follows the same logic as them...

Aru certainly got more leadership at Astana, than he ever deserved!

 

[CyclistAbi]

Was wondering should UAE take the team at all?

 

[Mayomaniac]

Aru certainly got more leadership at Astana, than he ever deserved!

That was mainly because he had re-signed, while Landa hadn't, so at least there was a reason.
You should hear Beppe Conti, according to him Landa should have waited for Aru on the Mortirolo, nationalistic nonsense...
That said, Beppe Martinelli did show a bit of favouritism towards him.

 

[CyclistAbi]

And if Primož wins?

 

[topcat]

Now, that would be something.

As far as I am concerned there is nothing, absolutely nothing that comes close to Pogacar. So no, those odds are fine. Roglic today is not even remotely close to Pogacar. And yes, Pogacar is not my preferred rider but being objective he is the best I have seen in my life since I have been watching cycling. And I have been watching cycling since the 80's. So Pogacar cannot be the lovechild of Contador and Armstrong because he better than both of them .

It is so bad that now he is the best Classicomano among the contenders. He can eliminate Vingo and Martinez before they even have a chance to get to the mountains. LOL.

Yes, I don't really like him either because he's too dominant. It takes from the enjoyment of races when one rider is so much better than the others. He is the greatest cyclist I've ever seen and I've been watching cycling ever since ever. He will win the Tour unless he gets sick or has a mishap (what are the odds of that?). Realistically, only covid can stop him. It's a powerful virus.

 

[bajbar]

Don't think so. Pogacar is much better than Jonas. He was way ahead of him in Tirreno.

Primoz has not looked better than 2021 (if anything, he looked weaker), while Tadej looks at least equal than 2021 if not stronger.

We will see in a couple of weeks, but I don't think there is anything Primoz can do head to head with Pogacar.

Well, they only faced once (when they both finished) in a stage race last year. And on that occasion it was Roglič that won. Vinegaard was also ahead of Tadej on that occasion. So that 99,99% would seem rather strange. In fact only once has Pogačar beaten Roglič in a stage race that they both finished. Tour 2020.

I am not saying that Pogačar is not the favourite - because he definitely is - but saying that he is better than Roglič and Vingegaard in 99,99% is very stretched. This would mean that he would beat them in basically every race and stage they participate in. But that is clearly not the case.

 

[bajbar]

It's due to illness not due to Kruijswijk (or choice). Although it must be said. Kruijswijk looks like is in great shape.

True. It was always supposed to be Rog, Vinge, WvA, Kuss, Dennis, Kruijs, Laporte and Benoot.

But then Dennis (who had an assured place) was underperforming in Sierra Nevada, got sick, went to Suisse, kept looking for portable toilets during stages while finishing 15 minutes down every day. And on top of that got Covid.

A lot of people thought that the sudden change from 6 assured riders to "Only Rog, WvA and Vinge" was a way to get rid of Kruijswijk, but as it turns out it was due to Dennis being completely sub-par. And Van Hooydonck was always the first reserve, with Teunissen being the second and Gesink third.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

^ Yep. Looks like Roglic wanted Van Hooydonck in, based on his dom duties in the Vuelta and Paris-Nice

Van Hooydonck en Benoot naar Tour: "Vertrouwen van Primoz gewonnen in Vuelta" | sporza

De Tour-selectie van de Nederlandse sterrenploeg Jumbo-Visma kleurt Belgisch. Nathan Van Hooydonck en Tiesj Benoot krijgen de eer om Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard en Wout van Aert bij te staan in hun jacht op geel en groen. "Het is een kinderdroom die uitkomt", zegt Van Hooydonck.

sporza.be

He is indeed Dennis' replacement and IMO more useful for Rogla & Vinge than any of the alternatives. They have no one better to replace Dennis with.

 

[CyclistAbi]

What about Kuss and polka dot jersey plan? Likely they withheld this info for now.

To keep an element of surprise.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I really hope Van Aert gets to ride alá Sagan 2015 on steroids. In my opinion, Sagan helped Contador too much there. Let all the fodder riders help Roglic and Vingegaard and pray and then you easily have +3 stages and a green in Paris. Chances are the only way they are winning the Tour anyways is by Pogi's misfortune.

 

[sir fly]

What about Kuss and polka dot jersey plan? Likely they withheld this info for now.

To keep an element of surprise.

If not a dig at @Libertine Seguros might be a straw that breaks the camel's back.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

If not a dig at @Libertine Seguros might be a straw that breaks the camel's back.

I don't think LS would have anything against Kuss taking the KOM, cause that would require him to do some actual racing.

 

[sir fly]

I don't think LS would have anything against Kuss taking the KOM, cause that would require him to do some actual racing.

Might even openly start liking him in the jersey... unlike this childish denying.

 

[staubsauger]

I don't think LS would have anything against Kuss taking the KOM, cause that would require him to do some actual racing.

Didn't @Libertine Seguros just say that exactly between the lines last week?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Not even between the lines.

Absolutely, Sepp Kuss is the type of rider who, if not riding in his domestique role, would be a major option for a revitalised GPM in today's cycling, in similar fashion to Wout Poels' attempts at it in recent years.

If you look at cycling of the 70s and 80s, and into the 90s prior to the establishment of the "Virenque method", then riders like Pogačar, Roglič, Almeida, Evenepoel and to a lesser extent the likes of Mas and Urán are your main GC contenders. People like Vingegaard, Vlasov and Carapaz probably also fit. People like Ganna, van Aert, Dennis, Thomas and previously Dumoulin are your TT-style contenders, trying to grind their way to success à la Casero, Olano, de las Cuevas etc. (van Aert might even be a Kelly-type though his climbing still probably lacks a little). People like Quintana, Landa, Higuita, López, Simon Yates, Pinot? They're probably chasing the GPM in their attempts to contend. It's probably a bit too early to say with the likes of Hindley, as he didn't set the world alight in his TT, but he didn't need to, just ride smart.

However, that cat is long out of the bag. The problem at the moment is the concentration of talents into those big budget superteams that means riders who would be ideal GPM chasers like Kuss are better served as helpers. I actually wanted him to hunt the GPM when Rogla crashed out last year, and be what Simon Yates was to the 2019 Tour. Maybe removing the double points for summit finishes will improve things, or maybe it will become too much of a King of the Breakaways like when Virenque founded his method of point collecting - but probably with less prominent riders doing the collecting, due to the tighter GC and lack of TT mileage meaning strong climbers who would have targeted the classification in the past in the manner of Julio Jiménez or Michael Rasmussen will be considered too dangerous to allow that rope, and we get a situation like at the Vuelta in recent years where between David Moncoutié's third title in 2010 and Guillaume Martin's in 2020, not one "King of the Mountains" finished in the top 20 of a race which has biased its parcours more than any other towards mountains in recent years - and in fact from 2012 to 2019 no GPM winner even finished in the top 40 on GC.

The Vuelta probably needs to bring back the "arrival" category like it had when it first borrowed the Giro's points system in 2010 (the Giro then revamped its own points system in 2011). The problem is the Vuelta has so many arrivals at summits that it would be super imbalanced similar to that of the Tour in the last few years, but at the moment the propensity for stages that give a bunch of points mid-stage, then have a long break before a summit finish means that the break collects the points as there is no point in a GC man attacking before the final climb, but then unless the final climb gives a higher amount of points, this can never counterbalance the amount of points available to a break in Unipublic mountain stages which reflect something like /\/\/\____/