• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Tour de France 2019: Second rest day: Who will win le TDF?

Page 3 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who is going to win the Tour de France?

  • Julian Alaphilippe

    Votes: 7 5.2%
  • Geraint Thomas

    Votes: 31 23.0%
  • Egan Bernal

    Votes: 22 16.3%
  • Thibaut Pinot

    Votes: 57 42.2%
  • Emanuel Buchmann

    Votes: 5 3.7%
  • Steven Kruijswijk

    Votes: 8 5.9%
  • Mikel Landa

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • Alejandro Valverde

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • Rigoberto Uran

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • Jakob Fuglsang

    Votes: 1 0.7%

  • Total voters
    135
  • Poll closed .
Re: Tour de France 2019: Second rest day: Who will win le TD

What I also find very interesting is at what point Bernal will go for his own chances, possibly ignoring team orders. I mean it's one thing to tell Froome to stay with Wiggins on Peyragudes when Wiggins is a few minutes in front, but if Pinot and Alaphilippe are dropped Bernal might very well think, f*ck this, I'm not gifting away a tdf victory by less than half a minute.
 
Re: Tour de France 2019: Second rest day: Who will win le TD

Gigs_98 said:
I have this very bad feeling that Pinot might have blown the tour by not putting more time into Thomas. I have the gut feeling that in the alps thomas will be able to hang on, not lose any more time and win the tour by a few seconds.

It's only 15s, and he's not just been a little stronger in the Pyrenees. If he's still as strong in the Alps he could probably take that on any of the final climbs.

Tactically it's a crazy situation due to Alaphilippe being there. Bonus seconds on those mountains can also come into play. I don't think Izoard shenanigans will happen and instead it's gonna be waiting for the Galibier. If Alaphilippe doesn't lose big time there, you bet that Iseran shenanigans will be on.
 
Alaphilippe, Thomas and Buchmann will fade, that leaves us with Pinot, Kruijswijk and Bernal. Movistar will be the strongest team in the 3rd week, like they were at the Giro, so Mikel Landa will have a great chance to finish somewhere on the podium. Also Valverde could easily end up in the top 5.
 
Re:

Blanco said:
Alaphilippe, Thomas and Buchmann will fade, that leaves us with Pinot, Kruijswijk and Bernal. Movistar will be the strongest team in the 3rd week, like they were at the Giro, so Mikel Landa will have a great chance to finish somewhere on the podium. Also Valverde could easily end up in the top 5.

Bold shout on Valverde given what’s to come. 6 climbs over 2000m with the Roselend just a few metres off that. Yesterday was better but the stage suited him more than 18,19 and 20 will.
 
Re: Tour de France 2019: Second rest day: Who will win le TD

There are only two riders that truly deserve to win this Tour 2019, because of the aggressiveness they've displayed during the race so far:

Pinot & Landa

I'd be delighted if either one of them win :)
 
Jun 24, 2019
43
18
1,610
Visit site
Re: Tour de France 2019: Second rest day: Who will win le TD

hfer07 said:
There are only two riders that truly deserve to win this Tour 2019, because of the aggressiveness they've displayed during the race so far:

Pinot & Landa

I'd be delighted if either one of them win :)


Alaphilippe hasn’t been aggressive enough for you?!
 
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
macbindle said:
Aggresivity is all very well but actually Pinot is a bit stupid. Imagine all the matches he has had to burn just to put right the mistake he made on the cross wind stage.

What do you mean stupid?

Would it have been wiser to not burn any matches and still be two minutes behind?
Stupid is probably not the right word. But there is a point that Pinot has really used a lot of energy just to be in the same spot as everybody else in the top 6 bar Alaphilippe. Whether he's burned too many matches remains to be seen, so it's obviously premature to claim that he's been stupid.
 
If Quickstep manage to somehow win the overall with Alaphillipe how will their plans change for the future? They've had the same strategy of chasing stage wins and being very good at it, their overall was always one guy (Mas, Alaphillipe, ...) with no real support. But if they manage to win the TDF surely they can't bring the same team here next year and hope for a repeat?
 
Re: Re:

Cance > TheRest said:
tobydawq said:
macbindle said:
Aggresivity is all very well but actually Pinot is a bit stupid. Imagine all the matches he has had to burn just to put right the mistake he made on the cross wind stage.

What do you mean stupid?

Would it have been wiser to not burn any matches and still be two minutes behind?
Stupid is probably not the right word. But there is a point that Pinot has really used a lot of energy just to be in the same spot as everybody else in the top 6 bar Alaphilippe. Whether he's burned too many matches remains to be seen, so it's obviously premature to claim that he's been stupid.

I think it would have been pretty stupid not to capitalise on his obviously superior level in the Pyrenees. In fact, I think the only slightly stupid thing you could say he has done was that he waited on the Tourmalet. Especially because Geraint would probably have been dropped immediately if he had attacked earlier, and then he would have been in front of the Welshman now.

But that was impossible to know at the time, and given that he at that point was an unlikely winner of the overall, it's understandable that he went all in for the stage instead.
 
I expect Thomas to win.
Ineos/Sky train to return to full strength. On vive le velo they showed some images of Kwiat and Rowe joking around with a gopro camera on Prat d'Albis while people like Bennoot and De Gendt were suffering like dogs. They're just saving their legs.
 
I just did a count.

The riders in the current top 10 have accumulated a grand total of 14 top 10's in previous Tours!

Valverde accounts for almost half of those (6).

Among the 14 top 10's there is one victory, one second place, two third places.

Pinot and Landa are the only riders beside Valverde who have more than one top 10 of those in the current top 10.

Alaphilippe, Buchmann and Bernal have accumulated no Grand Tour top 10's at all. Thomas and Fuglsang both have just 1. Landa has 4, Pinot 5, Urán and Kruijswijk 6, Valverde 17 (!).

The entire top 10 have won two Grand Tours between them. But 7 monuments (3 different) with four different riders.

This really is the Tour for the rookies! And Valverde.
 
I have more trouble coming up with reasonable scenarios where Kruijswijk or Buchmann win so for me it's mostly a 4 man race but I really don't have any idea which one of them it's going to be.

I'm surprised that Alaphilippe isn't getting more love in the poll. It's not like he totally cracked. He just paid for trying to go with Pinot and I think he'd have been ok if he'd have stayed in the Thomas group. I do get that we're expecting him to really crack at some point but if he races a bit smarter he could still win this. I mean he's still up by 1:35 and almost 2 minutes on PInot.

As for the others,

Is this really a new Pinot or will he have a Pinot day? Starting to lean towards the former but I'm not convinced just yet.
Bernal is relatively inexperienced, seems deferential and could possibly have to sacrifice at some point for Thomas.
I don't think Thomas can win unless his form is on the way up which is definitely possible.
Landa is strong but not strong enough and too far back

Anyway, I'm loving this. We have no idea who will win or even who will make up the podium with a week to go. I'm currently thinking something like this but I change my mind frequently.

Alaphilippe 20%
Pinot 25%
Bernal 25%
Thomas 15%
Someone else 15%
 

TRENDING THREADS