3 days to go; Teams with no Stage Wins

[Anderis]

Bissegger doesn't seem to have the legs. He was by far the weakest rider from the breakaway on stage 12 with a profile that should've suited him very well. Then he crashed and I saw him as one of the first riders to struggle at the back on stage 18 on those little hills at the beginning of the stage.

It did happen in the past that riders with seemingly no form whatsoever rode a good TT but expecting Bissegger to win is a stretch considering what I wrote above. But 2nd half GT ITTs do sometimes produce weird results. Who would've expected William Barta to come 1 second short of winning the ITT during the Vuelta last year? We may see some surprises although I doubt it'll be Bissegger.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Looks like it is going to be none of the above choice

 

[RedheadDane]

With Cav/Tadej/Bahrain gobbling up everyhing so far, the following (15, by my count) teams have no stage wins to this point. I'm including their (IMO) best chance of breaking that duck with the 3 days left. Who, if any, will bag their win in the final 3 days?

Team	Rider with best chance	Which stage	How
Ineos	G or Castro	TT	TT
ISN	Greipel or Zabel	Libourne	Sneak into the break, and everyone forgets they can sprint
Movistar	Cortina or Erviti	Libourne	Break
FDJ	Kung	TT	TT
Cofidis	Somebody, anybody	Libourne	Break
EF	Valgren/Cort	Libourne	From the break
Arkea Samsic	Swift	Libourne	Break
DSM	Pedersen	Libourne	Probably from the break, but possibly a late attack.
Lotto	De Gendt/van Moer	Libourne	Long-range attack and Quickstep drop the ball
BEX	Mezgec	Champs Elysees	Everyone (including QS) assumes he's leading out Matthews, but he sneaks off the front
Astana	Lutsenko	TT	TT
Qhubeka-Nexthash	Walscheid	Champs Elysees	Manages to pull off a big sprint
Team TotalEnergies	See Cofidis
Intermarche-Wanty Groupe Gobert	Bakelants	Libourne	From the break; everyone else looks at each other to chase.
B&B Hotels	Bonnamour	Libourne	From the break.

Looks like a bunch of people at least tried to get the memo today. My boldings!

1	MOHORIČ Matej	Bahrain - Victorious	120	100	4:19:17
2	LAPORTE Christophe	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	50	70	0:58
3	PEDERSEN Casper	Team DSM	25	50	,,
4	TEUNISSEN Mike	Team Jumbo-Visma	15	40	1:02
5	POLITT Nils	BORA - hansgrohe	5	32	1:08
6	THEUNS Edward	Trek - Segafredo		26	,,
7	VALGREN Michael	EF Education - Nippo		22	,,
8	ZIMMERMANN Georg	Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux		18	,,
9	TURGIS Anthony	Team TotalEnergies		14	1:10
10	STUYVEN Jasper	Trek - Segafredo		10	,,
11	BERNARD Julien	Trek - Segafredo		8	2:37
12	WALSCHEID Max	Team Qhubeka NextHash		6	,,
13	BALLERINI Davide	Deceuninck - Quick Step		4	,,
14	DILLIER Silvan	Alpecin-Fenix		2	,,
15	RUTSCH Jonas	EF Education - Nippo		1	,,
16	GESBERT Élie	Team Arkéa Samsic			,,
17	VAN MOER Brent	Lotto Soudal			,,
18	IZAGIRRE Ion	Astana - Premier Tech			2:43
19	BONNAMOUR Franck	B&B Hotels p/b KTM			2:57

Otoh, Walscheid completely misunderstood the concept, while Arkea and Intermarché both got the wrong man in the break...

 

[Koronin]

Even without a stage win or jersey, I'm fairly sure everyone knows Movistar showed up this year. LOL. Oh and they weren't racing against themselves either. I'm actually impressed Erviti got a second place on a stage. Would have loved to have seen him win a stage, but for him to get a second place is an accomplishment.

And Valverde found another obscure record to break so that he's now the oldest rider to ever finish first or second on a stage at the Tour.

So no stage win or jersey, but an obscure record and a nice finish for a rider who is almost always in the service of his teammates.

 

[Bonimenier]

So with Cav, Philipsen and van Aert likely being the 3 favourites for tomorrow, it looks like only 8 teams will go home with a stage win.

 

[Leinster]

Yeah, barring a Vino-esque shock on the Champs, I think Kung today might have been the last best chance for the rest.

 

[Andy262]

That's a massive fail for Ineos, to pick up next to nothing. Such a shame the likes of Kwiato and Van Baarle don't get more chances to ride for breaks.

I think Laporte should have done more to react to Mohorič on Friday. He stood a 50/50 chance or better in a sprint with Teunissen. And Mohorič was too good a rider to let go. Poor tactics. When a win for Cofidis would be massive. Sometimes you have to risk losing to win. That was a collective brainfart from the break.

 

[Anderis]

I think people are way too harsh about stage 19. Mohoric was always going to win this. He was simply the strongest as demonstrated by the fact that when the group behind him started to co-operate well, they couldn't take any time back on him. He was also not the first one to attack, there were attacks prior to his move and the group was already splintering meaning a lot of riders were on the limit and unable to react and you can't accuse the others of not trying to get away themselves because they did. You just can't counter every attack from a group of 20 by yourself, you'll blow up. And if a rider stronger than you gets a few meters gap, you'll never bring him back.

 

[Leinster]

I think people are way too harsh about stage 19. Mohoric was always going to win this. He was simply the strongest as demonstrated by the fact that when the group behind him started to co-operate well, they couldn't take any time back on him. He was also not the first one to attack, there were attacks prior to his move and the group was already splintering meaning a lot of riders were on the limit and unable to react and you can't accuse the others of not trying to get away themselves because they did. You just can't counter every attack from a group of 20 by yourself, you'll blow up. And if a rider stronger than you gets a few meters gap, you'll never bring him back.

Trek had 2 riders in the break. Teuns didn't need to catch Mohoric, just keep him within bridging distance (20s or so). Once his lead was out to 30s, everybody else was racing for 2nd.

The thing is, Mohoric was a rider that somebody in the break ought to have been watching, in a "as soon as he goes, I need to be on him" way. It looks like the cameras didn't pick up his actual attack, but he seemed to just roll off the front. Laporte tried to catch him, and was the last to give up the chase, but that was never going to happen.

 

[RedheadDane]

Trek had 2 riders in the break. Teuns didn't need to catch Mohoric, just keep him within bridging distance (20s or so). Once his lead was out to 30s, everybody else was racing for 2nd.

No, Teuns certainly didn't need to catch Mohoric. Theuns, otoh...

 

[SHAD0W93]

Tour de France 2021 team ratings: how did each team perform?

We rate the performances of each of the teams in the 108th editon of the Tour de France

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