Pre Tour de France-thread

[StryderHells]

Re:

Hopefully they haven't brought a team fully devoted to Yates for him to ride an anonymous Adam Yates-esque race. As ZL states, he really can't fly under the radar. Just imagine him crashing out the first 9 days.... that team is just completely useless then.

I don't know about that, Nieve managed to bag a stage at the Giro after S.Yates fell to pieces and Impey has been in good form all season so they would have a couple of riders who could show up if A.Yates falls by the wayside.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Pretty tough on Mezgec and Kluge too. The worst thing about this from the point of view of all three riders isn’t just that they are missing out on the biggest race, it’s that their whole season’s training and form will have been based around it.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Hopefully they haven't brought a team fully devoted to Yates for him to ride an anonymous Adam Yates-esque race. As ZL states, he really can't fly under the radar. Just imagine him crashing out the first 9 days.... that team is just completely useless then.

I don't know about that, Nieve managed to bag a stage at the Giro after S.Yates fell to pieces and Impey has been in good form all season so they would have a couple of riders who could show up if A.Yates falls by the wayside.

Sure, Nieve and Impey are good riders, but this is the Tour de France. Look at the startlist and it suddenly becomes harder to do anything..

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

He went through this in 2015 and 2016 at the Tour, didn't he?

Smarty pants! (now you've gone and ruined Nairo Q's bluff about riding on cobbles.)

Didn't he also ride one of the cobbled classics this year?

Dwars. He also rode Dwars and E3 in 2015. But everyone around here insists that Flandrian cobbles can't be compared to French cobbles, so they don't count

He rode Dwars this year and both Dars and E3 in 2015. Landa rode E5 this year and Valverde and Bardet also rode Dwars this year. Yes there are differences in the cobbles between the northern "Flanders" cobbles and the Paris-Roubiax cobbles with are harder/not as smooth. Also Landa, Quintana and Valverde did a recon/training ride over the Paris-Roubiax cobbles before Landa and Valverde went to the Ardennes. Landa crashed during his race, Bardet and Quintana did finish theirs just way back. Valverde actually raced his cobbled race. Also if you look at the pictures Movistar provided from the training/recon rider Landa and Quintana do not look too happy about riding on those for training, which Valverde was having fun and putting race times over the sectors. Landa and Quintana looked to want no part of what Valverde was doing on that ride.

 

[deValtos]

Hayman/Durbrige/Hepburn/Bauer and no Ewan. :lol:

Ok it will ensure a really (really) strong TTT but for the other 20 stages there is going to be some serious overlap in roles.

Impey/Nieve are good enough to win stages if the Yates plan bottoms out but that's not the smartest roster I've ever seen.

 

[yaco]

Hayman/Durbrige/Hepburn/Bauer and no Ewan. :lol:

Ok it will ensure a really (really) strong TTT but for the other 20 stages there is going to be some serious overlap in roles.

Impey/Nieve are good enough to win stages if the Yates plan bottoms out but that's not the smartest roster I've ever seen.

The team only has 25 riders so only have limited options, especially seeing their climbing focus is on the Giro and the Vuelta - And riders like Trentin are injured - It's a good enough squad considering the circumstances.

 

[Davesta]

Re: Re:

Hopefully they haven't brought a team fully devoted to Yates for him to ride an anonymous Adam Yates-esque race. As ZL states, he really can't fly under the radar. Just imagine him crashing out the first 9 days.... that team is just completely useless then.

I don't know about that, Nieve managed to bag a stage at the Giro after S.Yates fell to pieces and Impey has been in good form all season so they would have a couple of riders who could show up if A.Yates falls by the wayside.

Sure, Nieve and Impey are good riders, but this is the Tour de France. Look at the startlist and it suddenly becomes harder to do anything..

But then you could use that same argument as a reason for not bringing Ewan I suppose - Kittel, Cavendish, Gaviria, Sagan, Kristoff, Demare, Greipel, Groenewegen, Matthews...Ewan's shown very little this season; would he really have a chance of bagging a win against that competition?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Hopefully they haven't brought a team fully devoted to Yates for him to ride an anonymous Adam Yates-esque race. As ZL states, he really can't fly under the radar. Just imagine him crashing out the first 9 days.... that team is just completely useless then.

I don't know about that, Nieve managed to bag a stage at the Giro after S.Yates fell to pieces and Impey has been in good form all season so they would have a couple of riders who could show up if A.Yates falls by the wayside.

Sure, Nieve and Impey are good riders, but this is the Tour de France. Look at the startlist and it suddenly becomes harder to do anything..

But then you could use that same argument as a reason for not bringing Ewan I suppose - Kittel, Cavendish, Gaviria, Sagan, Kristoff, Demare, Greipel, Groenewegen, Matthews...Ewan's shown very little this season; would he really have a chance of bagging a win against that competition?

Well, most of those ride in teams, where they are the main focus for the teams tour, or at least one of them.

Matthews is the odd one out, but then he can climb a bit and help Dumoulin out in the early stages of the mountains.

 

[Akuryo]

Iljo Keisse is out of the Tour squad with a pleura inflammation. He was instrumental for Gavirias leadout this season as the man before Hodeg/Richeze. He also was often the guy who spent hours at the front of the bunch controlling breakaways. It will be interesting who they will take to do this job. Declerq, Cavagna, Senechal, Martinelli, or even Morkov spring to mind as a workhorse setting the pace.

 

[Laplaz]

I am quite sure Declerq will do the Vermote job this year

 

[Robert5091]

Looking at this video of the Aubisque https://youtu.be/SIT2DLF-o_4 I expect them to change the route of stage 19. Anyone got an update?

 

[Nirvana]

If they couldn't use the descent of the Aubisque they should move the finish town or totally change the stage, i can't see a different way to arrive in Laruns (bar coming from Spain) without a lot of flat.

 

[Robert5091]

Apparently stage 19 should go ahead as planned - good news
https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1010163596070936579

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

Apparently stage 19 should go ahead as planned - good news
https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1010163596070936579

It says "4-5 weeks" for the repairs

It is 4,5 weeks till stage 19.....

 

[Durden93]

Re:

I wonder if any other teams are going the Mitchelton-way of selecting a bunch of time trial riders and not much else. Thats one of the positive aspects of a TTT, some teams might pick rouleurs over climbers.

It would make sense if this is the approach for some teams. With that being said some of the contending teams (Movistar, AG2R, etc) don’t really have the riders to commit to it.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well apart from Oomen not being there Sunweb's squad is very much like the one at the worlds TTT

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Apparently stage 19 should go ahead as planned - good news
https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1010163596070936579

It says "4-5 weeks" for the repairs

It is 4,5 weeks till stage 19.....

Optimism.

Well apart from Oomen not being there Sunweb's squad is very much like the one at the worlds TTT

Care to post the lineup?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Kragh Andersen, Reschke and Tom Dumo just did stage 11 (La Rosiere-stage) and La Plagne. I'd guess thats around 5000 metres of elevation gain.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Démare
Gaudu
Guarnieri
Le Gac
Ludvigsson
Molard
Sinkeldam
Vichot

Vichot, Molard and Gaudu for some breakaway action and Démare as the sprinter is actually a decent squad.

 

[Robert5091]

Ludvigsson's inclusion will give the Swedish TV commentators something to talk about - instead of moaning about how many Danes are riding

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

Apparently stage 19 should go ahead as planned - good news
https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1010163596070936579

It says "4-5 weeks" for the repairs

It is 4,5 weeks till stage 19.....

Optimism.

Well apart from Oomen not being there Sunweb's squad is very much like the one at the worlds TTT

Care to post the lineup?

It's not confirmed yet, but most likely it's this:
- Dumoulin
- Kelderman
- Matthews
- Kragh Andersen
- Arndt
- Teunissen
- Geschke
- Ten Dam

 

[RedheadDane]

Ludvigsson's inclusion will give the Swedish TV commentators something to talk about - instead of moaning about how many Danes are riding

Itty bitty Swedes don't like being overshadowed?

But, seriously! The Danish riders need to get some stage wins! I think the Norwegians are catching up.
If they haven't already overtaken…

 

[Valv.Piti]

Haven't won a stage since the legendary Nicki Sørensen-win in 2009. Vittel I think!

 

[kiszol]

Re: Re:

It's not confirmed yet, but most likely it's this:
- Dumoulin
- Kelderman
- Matthews
- Kragh Andersen
- Arndt
- Teunissen
- Geschke
- Ten Dam

It would be a great team. The only question in me is whether Haga would be a better addition to the team instead of Teunissen. He showed excellent form recently, especially in the TTs. Though he has the Giro in his legs of course.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Haven't won a stage since the legendary Nicki Sørensen-win in 2009. Vittel I think!

I know how long it's been. It's the number of stage wins I'm talking about.