Tour de France Tour de France 2020

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Koronin

Koronin

Oct 14, 2017
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movingtarget said:
Looks the Tour is going to have a lot of wounded warriors. A surprise podium is on the cards maybe. Back injuries don't usually improve quickly especially when you have to ride a three week bike race while recovering from one. Quintana has had some knee issues. With SK, Froome, Buchmann and Thomas out as well there will naturally be a reshuffle of the top 10. Fuglsang, Porte/Mollema will hope to have good legs and be able to stay upright. Roglic and Bernal deserve favouritism and Dumoulin and Pinot should be thereabouts but Pinot always likes to keep people guessing.............like Uran and Landa.
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Movistar's riders' issue is form not injury
 
Koronin

Koronin

Oct 14, 2017
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movingtarget said:
Yes but their team has been gutted of GC riders anyway except for Valverde. Nothing much is expected from their younger riders at least this year.
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Mas is supposed to be a GC rider. He did get a podium at la Vuelta 2 years ago. The problem with this is Valverde's form is better than Mas' is. The question is why is Mas' form so bad.
 
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movingtarget

Aug 5, 2009
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Koronin said:
Mas is supposed to be a GC rider. He did get a podium at la Vuelta 2 years ago. The problem with this is Valverde's form is better than Mas' is. The question is why is Mas' form so bad.
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Mas didn't do much last year either but if Contador is a good judge he has a big future. Have to admit I haven't been following too closely lately so I don't know if Mas had any illness or issues. But you would think that in the next few seasons Mas, Pogacar, Sivakov, Remco and a few others should be improving in grand tours. Of course some of them may not reach their apparent potential. Andy Schleck should have won more than one grand tour same with Evans. You could argue that Rodriguez should have won one. Pinot doesn't seem to be getting closer to winning one. His only podium was six years ago. Porte's best chances have gone. Lopez is another one that needs a result. In the Giro of course he had issues but most GC riders do over three weeks. Of all of the younger riders at the moment Pogacar seems the most likely to move closer to a GC win in the next season or two and he can also time trial which is an advantage in modern stage racing. The form of some riders is all over the place at the moment. Some of it probably has to do with the training and race scheduling changes plus the lockdowns in some countries. Hard to say.
 
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Koronin

Koronin

Oct 14, 2017
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movingtarget said:
Mas didn't do much last year either but if Contador is a good judge he has a big future. Have to admit I haven't been following too closely lately so I don't know if Mas had any illness or issues. But you would think that in the next few seasons Mas, Pogacar, Sivakov, Remco and a few others should be improving in grand tours. Of course some of them may not reach their apparent potential. Andy Schleck should have won more than one grand tour same with Evans. You could argue that Rodriguez should have won one. Pinot doesn't seem to be getting closer to winning one. His only podium was six years ago. Porte's best chances have gone. Lopez is another one that needs a result. In the Giro of course he had issues but most GC riders do over three weeks. Of all of the younger riders at the moment Pogacar seems the most likely to move closer to a GC win in the next season or two and he can also time trial which is an advantage in modern stage racing. The form of some riders is all over the place at the moment. Some of it probablty has to do with the training and race scheduling changes plus the lockdowns in some countries. Hard to say.
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Mas did get sick during the Tour last year, and then had to ride for Alaphilppe, obviously. Why he doesn't have any form right now, guess it could be a combination of the two month lock down in Spain and Andorra. I don't know if he was of the opinion during that time that they would race again this year or wouldn't. Yeah, right now the form of riders is definitely all over the map and I suspect it's a combination of where they live (lock downed or had access to train on the road), whether they believed they would be racing again or not, for some age may be a factor. I suspect some do better if they are racing into form. It's possible some of the younger riders haven't learned how to time a peak yet as well. Yes, there's also some riders just never fully live up to their potential. Shleck may be the most obvious. If Rodriguez had ever learned to do a half way decent time trial I think he would have won one. Valverde only has 1 GT win with all those podiums he's got.
 
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Eddy Evenepoel

Eddy Evenepoel

Aug 31, 2019
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movingtarget said:
Mas didn't do much last year either but if Contador is a good judge he has a big future. Have to admit I haven't been following too closely lately so I don't know if Mas had any illness or issues.
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I think Mas 2019 season is a bit underestimated. If you look at his results from Algarve (4th), Catalonya (9th), Pais Vasco (11th) and Swiss (9th) he showed pretty decent and consistent form before TdF. And let’s not forget he was 4th in GC after the ITT stage 13, before he start feeling illness the following day at Tourmalet-stage.

I mean, there is no way Mas without illness would’ve been on the podium last year, but if
Mas didn’t get sick I’m pretty sure Alaphilippe would’ve done a lot better both at the stage to Prat d’Albis, Iseran and Val Thorens. Not saying Mas sickness costed Alaphilippe the victory, but his chances to stay on the podium would’ve been a lot better I believe. Mas without health issues and without needing to work for Alaphilippe would’ve ended in the top 10, I don’t think that is a controversial guess.

After the tour he was absolutely brilliant in San Sebastián, he was decent in some of the Italian autumn classics and he finished off with a nice win in Guangxi. If we take away the disappointing second half of Tour de France (which clearly had its reasons) his season was not at all bad for a 24 year old.

This season however have been a big, big disappointment and I can’t understand how he possibly can turn it around now before the tour starts. Hopefully he can find his legs during the tour, perhaps get a top 15 and then hopefully show himself from a better side later in the autumn (if racing will continue)...
 
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Mayomaniac

Mayomaniac

Apr 10, 2019
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About Bernal's lower back problems, maybe he just got a chill on his lower back, those can be really nasty for a few days. It would be an even bigger problem with his climbing style, grinding big gears seated while having any problems with your lower back is rather problematic.
 
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S

Summoned

Apr 16, 2017
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I could be totally off on this, but does anyone else see Stage 10 as being likely to present major problems? Even with two mountain stages immediately preceding it, and a rest day, I suspect the GC will still be sufficiently open that a lot of teams are going to spend the majority of the day trying to make sure they are near the front of the peloton. And the less wind there is, and the longer it goes without the peloton splitting, the more intense the nervousness is going to get? Maybe it will be a day with no wind, or some other reason why the GC riders will not get anxious will present itself, but if there is the slightest chance of echelons and splits on the day, I think we could very well see riders crashing left and right even without bad conditions.
 
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Tonton

Tonton

May 17, 2013
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Summoned said:
I could be totally off on this, but does anyone else see Stage 10 as being likely to present major problems? Even with two mountain stages immediately preceding it, and a rest day, I suspect the GC will still be sufficiently open that a lot of teams are going to spend the majority of the day trying to make sure they are near the front of the peloton. And the less wind there is, and the longer it goes without the peloton splitting, the more intense the nervousness is going to get? Maybe it will be a day with no wind, or some other reason why the GC riders will not get anxious will present itself, but if there is the slightest chance of echelons and splits on the day, I think we could very well see riders crashing left and right even without bad conditions.
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I do...the final (after La Rochelle) is not quite perpendicular to the shore, and the area is always windy with winds coming from the WNW, 10 km/h at least, 20 km/h often. Echelons are very likely. And it's coming after a rest day. As a Pinot fanboy, that one scares me.
 
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Koronin

Koronin

Oct 14, 2017
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Eddy Evenepoel said:
I think Mas 2019 season is a bit underestimated. If you look at his results from Algarve (4th), Catalonya (9th), Pais Vasco (11th) and Swiss (9th) he showed pretty decent and consistent form before TdF. And let’s not forget he was 4th in GC after the ITT stage 13, before he start feeling illness the following day at Tourmalet-stage.

I mean, there is no way Mas without illness would’ve been on the podium last year, but if
Mas didn’t get sick I’m pretty sure Alaphilippe would’ve done a lot better both at the stage to Prat d’Albis, Iseran and Val Thorens. Not saying Mas sickness costed Alaphilippe the victory, but his chances to stay on the podium would’ve been a lot better I believe. Mas without health issues and without needing to work for Alaphilippe would’ve ended in the top 10, I don’t think that is a controversial guess.

After the tour he was absolutely brilliant in San Sebastián, he was decent in some of the Italian autumn classics and he finished off with a nice win in Guangxi. If we take away the disappointing second half of Tour de France (which clearly had its reasons) his season was not at all bad for a 24 year old.

This season however have been a big, big disappointment and I can’t understand how he possibly can turn it around now before the tour starts. Hopefully he can find his legs during the tour, perhaps get a top 15 and then hopefully show himself from a better side later in the autumn (if racing will continue)...
Click to expand...


Due to the switch to SRAM and the issues the riders were having before the lock down, I wouldn't base much on that part of the season. However, why he hasn't been better since the return I have no idea. Hence the reason I don't know if he's one that has issues with trainers/rollers and if he was one of the ones thinking they wouldn't be racing again this year. Otherwise he should have been better at Burgos and the Dauphine.
 
S

Sciatic

Mar 4, 2011
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I can see that, taken in combination, the Pyreneean portion of the route is very weak. But I’m still a little surprised I don’t see (maybe I missed it?) folks talking up Stage 8 as one with potential for some separation? I mean, it’s a shame they made it one of the short stages—because a series of other climbs before the final segment would have really helped. But it still seems like an excellent last 45 km or so, with very little flat valley between the two decent climbs. Are folks thing the descent after the final climb is too long and not technical enough for an attacking group going over the top to maintain a decent gap by the finish?
Riders don’t need to hold anything back on Stage 8 since the next day is easier and then the rest day follows that.
 
Lequack

Lequack

Jul 10, 2014
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