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Teams & Riders Team Visma - Lease a Bike

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Now at stage 5 and seeing on how they approached Dauphiné. Do that at the Tour too just with one minor detail changed. Position Rogla behind UAE and it should be all good after.

I think the takeaway from this Dauphiné is it's useless as a template for the Tour.

TJV can never, ever race the way they did today in the TdF, i.e. committing the entire team (& the GC guys) to the chase just for a WvA stage win would be nuts next month.
 
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I think the takeaway from this Dauphiné is it's useless as a template for the Tour.

TJV can never, ever race the way they did today in the TdF, i.e. committing the entire team (& the GC guys) to the chase just for a WvA stage win would be nuts next month.
The only way this kind of racing makes sense is if they have pretty much given up on their chances of beating Pogačar...

The problem is that this kind of racing doesn't even grant 2nd place anymore. After all - they can't count on half the GC contenders abandoning like they did last year.

They are not going to get 2nd and by extension, they aren't going to win if god forbid anything should happen to Pogačar.
 
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The only way this kind of racing makes sense is if they have pretty much given up on their chances of beating Pogačar...

The problem is that this kind of racing doesn't even grant 2nd place anymore. After all - they can't count on half the GC contenders abandoning like they did last year.

They are not going to get 2nd and by extension, they aren't going to win if god forbid anything should happen to Pogačar.
Jumbo confirmed only sprinters team in the Tour.
 
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What do you guys think will happen in the hypothetical situation that during stage 5 of the Tour someone like VdP (or other cobble specialist, but I'm thinking about MVP because he's the most likely to do it from far out) without a GC rider in his team to look after, dynamites early the race in the cobbles and for some reason or another (not capable of following, crash, mechanical, etc.) Roglic is in a group behind other GC hopefuls. Will WvA stay with him during that stage or will try to go with the first men? (As it can be an important, although early, stage for the green).
 
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What do you guys think will happen in the hypothetical situation that during stage 5 of the Tour someone like VdP (or other cobble specialist, but I'm thinking about MVP because he's the most likely to do it from far out) without a GC rider in his team to look after, dynamites early the race in the cobbles and for some reason or another (not capable of following, crash, mechanical, etc.) Roglic is in a group behind other GC hopefuls. Will WvA stay with him during that stage or will try to go with the first men? (As it can be an important, although early, stage for the green).
If Van Aert doesn't babysit Roglic during the cobbled stage Roglic should really just go full MAL and ragequit.
 
Wout is able to keep his jersey until the the last climb on Sunday with Primoz as his superdom. Then he may encounter troubles in the last few km of the race. Obviously Primoz will help his teammate (carrying bidons, telling jokes) until it's too late to catch up with other GC guys. Some epic rants are on the cards here on Sunday :D
 
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What do you guys think will happen in the hypothetical situation that during stage 5 of the Tour someone like VdP (or other cobble specialist, but I'm thinking about MVP because he's the most likely to do it from far out) without a GC rider in his team to look after, dynamites early the race in the cobbles and for some reason or another (not capable of following, crash, mechanical, etc.) Roglic is in a group behind other GC hopefuls. Will WvA stay with him during that stage or will try to go with the first men? (As it can be an important, although early, stage for the green).

I'll add an extra layer to this hypothetical: if Vingegaard is still with WvA & the GC group (Pog namely) whilst Roglic is behind, he's screwed. It's over for him.

Two equal GC leaders & one rider targeting green means the first of the GC leaders to suffer some misfortune gets f*cked (pardon my French). They'll send his old buddy Kruijswijk back to share a bidon but that's it.

If Van Aert doesn't babysit Roglic during the cobbled stage Roglic should really just go full MAL and ragequit.

Amen. It'll be win together, lose alone.

We already know how rigid JV are with their designated assignments, i.e. there's (IMO) no chance they call WvA back to pull for Roglic. They didn't last year when he crashed on stage 3 (with 10km remaining whilst WvA d*cked about up front hoping for an early yellow), they won't next month either.
 
FYI my above statement also applies to Jonas Vingego if he finds himself in the same (sh*t) situation. That's what happens when teams have lots of leaders & different objectives. It's not about them, it's about sharing the domestiques who can't be everywhere, i.e. work for WvA who's aiming for stages, protect the GC leader in the favorites group & also pull for the unlucky rider who gets a dose of misfortune.

Echelons for example (if they happen) are going to be crazy dangerous for Jumbo.
 
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Kinda funny how Roglic and Vingegaard themself seem to have the smallest egos and zero problem working for eachother. With Wout I get the feeling that the more you concede to him the more he demands...

True. But Roglic is fully capable of going rogue to varying degrees. He did before the Olympics last summer (when Jumbo's own staff advised against his participation) & during the Vuelta with his infamous (& now patented on his own merchandise) 'no risk no glory' misadventure.

That was also against his team's wishes. Jumping on Bernal's wheel on the Covadonga stage was also not 'planned' either, he just felt good & went with it.

It's the political side of things where he just seems to get mowed down by WvA (& even Jonas tbh). He must be the friendliest most accommodating triple GT winner in pro-cycling. Others would have gone nuclear in the media long ago.

If Van Aert doesn't babysit Roglic during the cobbled stage Roglic should really just go full MAL and ragequit.

Just another note on this, i.e. Rog wouldn't rage quit but he'd definitely (IMO) go solo for the rest of the Tour & launch some long range attacks to claw back time.

If he's going to lose the TdF I'd prefer we see something spectacular anyway (something like Andy Schleck's Galibier win in 2011).
 
Maybe only the fall and rise (with some footage of the dramatic final TT of the 2020 Tour at the start)?

Of course, we also don't know how the race would have gone for the team if Roglic hadn't crashed (out).
Maybe a better hypothetical would be what the title would have been, if the documentary had been filmed during the 2020 Tour.
But I'm guessing "Plan A, everything went smoothly, but then Pogacar happened" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
 
Of course, we also don't know how the race would have gone for the team if Roglic hadn't crashed (out).
Maybe a better hypothetical would be what the title would have been, if the documentary had been filmed during the 2020 Tour.
But I'm guessing "Plan A, everything went smoothly, but then Pogacar happened" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

There was a documentary during the 2020 Tour. And the title was "Code yellow".
 
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Kinda funny how Roglic and Vingegaard themself seem to have the smallest egos and zero problem working for eachother. With Wout I get the feeling that the more you concede to him the more he demands...
I find it kind of funny how van Aert is portraited as the villain every time. Just this year he literally dragged Roglic to PN victory. Haven't seen anything similar from Vingegaard or Roglic himself.
 
I find it kind of funny how van Aert is portraited as the villain every time. Just this year he literally dragged Roglic to PN victory. Haven't seen anything similar from Vingegaard or Roglic himself.

WvA is one of the best cyclists in the world. So was Peter Sagan a few years ago, ditto Tom Boonen, Philippe Gilbert & Fabian Cancellara. All formidable multiple monuments winners & complete all rounder champions.

But they weren't GT winners. WvA isn't either. The Tour de France is 'the' GT on the calendar & as much as people might deride Roglic for whatever failures he's had in his career (or how many times WvA has pulled him to safety), he's still the first name on the Jumbo Visma team selection if the objective is to win the Tour.

And it's all relative as well in terms of "dragged to victory", i.e. would you say the same regarding Laporte dragging WvA to victory? Technically he did but it's expected of him. If not Laporte, someone else would be assigned the job (even Roglic pulled for van Aert today).

I'm not going to overhype Roglic & say he'll win the TdF (even with 100% team behind him, it's a long shot) but compared to winning the Tour, all of WvA's objectives next month are small time, even on his own calendar, i.e. winning monuments or the world championships would beat any TdF green jersey or stage win. For Roglic meanwhile, yellow is as big as it gets.

That's the context.
 
I think the takeaway from this Dauphiné is it's useless as a template for the Tour.

TJV can never, ever race the way they did today in the TdF, i.e. committing the entire team (& the GC guys) to the chase just for a WvA stage win would be nuts next month.

Looks like they will do just that. Normally i would say it's a bit too aggressive racing for a GC team. As they likely won't crack Pogi racing in such way. In addition some substantial team effort will need to be invested in the chase for green. What will likely be different. Compared to the Dauphiné. Rogla likely won't pull much for green. Said that Rogla will likely be the leadout men at Champs-Élysées.