Tour de France Tour de France 2020

[Berflamand]

Unless I'm mistaken, there was no thread for the TdF 2020 yet?

The first (?) team has announced its selection:

Lotto-Soudal: Ewan, De Buyst, Kluge, Gilbert, Degenkolb, Wellens, De Gendt and Cras.

 

[RedheadDane]

There is this thread:

https://forum.cyclingnews.com/threads/2020-tour-de-france-route-rumors.34481/page-29

 

[Berflamand]

Ah my bad! I already thought it was strange there was no other thread.

Should I delete this one or can we start this new thread (with only facts and no rumors)?

Mods, feel free to delete this thread if you think it's unnecessary.

 

[BlueRoads]

It's not bad to have a real thread, instead of putting everything we have to say about this topic in the "rumour section". That is so disrespectful to our contributions.

 

[Koronin]

I'm good with having a separate race thread from a rumor thread.

Looks like Bahrain released their Tour long list today.

 

[DNP-Old]

How the hell is Steff Cras on a TDF team?

 

[tobydawq]

How the hell is Steff Cras on a TDF team?

Yeah, that really made my eyebrows go through my roof (which was surprising as there is quite a big margin to my ceiling, and annoying as I now have hole to fix).

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

How the hell is Steff Cras on a TDF team?

I was actually thinking about what they were gonna do with Vanhoucke, considering he was rather decent in februari, that i totally forgot about Crass being with Lotto now.
Vanhoucke is going to the Vuelta it appears. Goossens to the Giro.

 

[hayneplane]

The Lotto Soudal squad looks packed with stage hunting potential but a little surprised not to see an extra rider largely dedicated to assisting Caleb Ewan for the bunch finish days.

 

[Earns1985]

Bora and Lotto Jumbo have also announced their squads already a few days ago.

Bora:

Buchmann
Sagan
Mühlberger
Kämna
Schachmann
Pöstlberger
Großschartner
Oss

Lotto Jumbo:

Roglic
Dumoulin
Kruijswijk
van Aert
Bennett
Gesink
Kuss
Martin

The Lotto Soudal squad looks packed with stage hunting potential but a little surprised not to see an extra rider largely dedicated to assisting Caleb Ewan for the bunch finish days.

I think Degenkolb is still good enough for this.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Lotto Jumbo

Glad to see i'm not the only one that forgets they changed their name, from time to time

 

[Rui Machado]

Jumbo will go to the tour with a great team.

 

[Ranagazoo]

The Lotto Soudal squad looks packed with stage hunting potential but a little surprised not to see an extra rider largely dedicated to assisting Caleb Ewan for the bunch finish days.

I think with Degenkolb, Kluge and de Buyst they'll be fine for lead outs. What interests me is who will do the Tim de Clerq role and ride at the front of the peloton all day. Maxime Monfort stepped into this role last year, I wonder who will do it this year.

 

[yaco]

I think with Degenkolb, Kluge and de Buyst they'll be fine for lead outs. What interests me is who will do the Tim de Clerq role and ride at the front of the peloton all day. Maxime Monfort stepped into this role last year, I wonder who will do it this year.

Actually it was De Gendt who did lots of riding at the front.

 

[WKA311]

I think with Degenkolb, Kluge and de Buyst they'll be fine for lead outs. What interests me is who will do the Tim de Clerq role and ride at the front of the peloton all day. Maxime Monfort stepped into this role last year, I wonder who will do it this year.

Cras said that he was being selected for that kind of Monfort role.

Translated Sporza quote:
"It's not going to be a simple Tour and we're going to France with several leaders. They were looking for someone who can be deployed on several fronts and that's why they choose me. My job will be a bit like Maxime Monfort's last year. In the flat stages I have to be in the front of the peloton, in the transition stages and mountain stages I can recuperate a bit and in the 3rd week maybe I can join a breakaway myself".

 

[Escarabajo]

UAE for the Tour:

UAE Team Emirates for the 2020 Tour de France: Fabio Aru, Tadej Pogacar, Davide Formolo, David De la Cruz, Alexander Kristoff, Jan Polanc, Sven Erik Bystrøm, and Marco Marcato

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ua...ts-ineos-are-beatable-at-2020-tour-de-france/

This is official.

 

[RedheadDane]

And if this year had been as planned, we'd still be waiting for the EF roster.

Do teams usually publish their rosters over two months in advantage? Anything could happen... not just COVID-wise, but in general.

 

[Bolder]

Jumbo will go to the tour with a great team.

On paper that's got to be one of the strongest squads in a long time, rider by rider, including Ineos. You've got 5 guys who (I'm including Kuss) could/should be on the sharp end of any mountain stage. Gesink, Martin and WVA should be able to pull for a long time. I'd love to see what WVA could do as a green jersey contender on another team, though...

I might -- might -- have swapped out Kuss for another rouleur, but you could argue either way.

 

[Earns1985]

On paper that's got to be one of the strongest squads in a long time, rider by rider, including Ineos. You've got 5 guys who (I'm including Kuss) could/should be on the sharp end of any mountain stage. Gesink, Martin and WVA should be able to pull for a long time. I'd love to see what WVA could do as a green jersey contender on another team, though...

I might -- might -- have swapped out Kuss for another rouleur, but you could argue either way.

Well, there are a lot of mountains, so i think it is the right decicion from Jumbo to go with Kuss.
It will be very interesting this year. In the mountains normally the action begins and the race starts to explode when the teams are running out of their domestiques. So important will be which team has the strongest real domestique in the field. Because Jumbo and Ineos are all starting with 3 captains, the two teams have only 5 other domestiqes with them. Until 2018 it was boring because Ineos had the strongest domestiques and they could control everything. Last year the domestiques of Ineos were not that strong so we saw an interesting tour. Because Poels isn´t riding for Ineos anymore, the last domestiques in the mountains for Ineos will be Sivakov or an in-form Kwiatkowski. I think Bennett and Kuss don´t have to hide from them.

 

[Rui Machado]

How will be the squad of ineos for the tour?
Froome
Bernal
Thomas
Kwiatwoski
Luke rowe
Amador?
Van baarle?
Sivakov?
Ivan sosa?

 

[Koronin]

And if this year had been as planned, we'd still be waiting for the EF roster.

Do teams usually publish their rosters over two months in advantage? Anything could happen... not just COVID-wise, but in general.

Not normally. It's possible to get their long lists about 1 and a half to 2 months out and then the final roster about 3 weeks out. EF is good for not giving out their list early. Movistar rarely gives out their roster until they are required to have it in to the organizers.

 

[pink_jersey]

Froome, Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov, Kwiatkowski, Van Baarle, Castroviejo, Rowe.
Amador is the reserve.

 

[Escarabajo]

They are in trouble in the mountains if that is the team.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

They are in trouble in the mountains if that is the team.

Not necessarily, but i would always take Amador, he's one of the finer domestiques imho, that can help both in mountain stages as well as in flat stages. Let's see if Sivakov has improved. Van Baarle and Kwiat can go pretty far, but the problem is, unlike 3 or more years ago, that they now have 3 leaders... in the past, there was always one clear leader. The past two years, there were 2. If they would decide Bernal is the leader and Froome & Thomas are super doms, that would change the perception a lot, no? But half their spots are now leaders. Past, present and future.

 

[sir fly]

For a sole leader team that's one of the strongest lineups that can be assembled.
For a multiple leaders team, it's a lineup of the black pieces.