Tour de France Tour de France 2021 - Enthusiastic laymen's thread

[Mayomaniac]

Weak sprinters field overall.
If I'm in charge at Assos-Qhuebeka I kick Aru off the Tour team and bring Nizzolo instead, he might end up winning a stage.

 

[perico]

This has nothing to do with my point, I said at their best they were better 3 week racers than Roglic is now.

So was Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, and Greg LeMond, but they have slightly less of a chance of reaching the peak of their powers now as Froome does.

 

[yaco]

I just saw that Bike Exchange are bringing Chaves, he could be a good bet for the Polka dot jersey.

That's if the peleton allows him into breaks which they refused to do in the 2020 edition.

 

[Pinot's goat]

That's if the peleton allows him into breaks which they refused to do in the 2020 edition.

Yeah, Chaves lacks the raw power to consistently make breaks, he tried most days after the first rest day but was never successful.

 

[Mayomaniac]

That's if the peleton allows him into breaks which they refused to do in the 2020 edition.

Chavito probably has to go out of his way to loose 20min or so early on, so that nobody will see him as a danger for the gc. With not many of the stages having a climb early on he probably needs a teammate who is good on the flat to help him.

 

[yaco]

Yeah, Chaves lacks the raw power to consistently make breaks, he tried most days after the first rest day but was never successful.

This was not a case of Chaves lacking raw power as BEX had the big engines doing the work to get him into the breakaway - It was peleton politics at play - Let's see what happens.

 

[yaco]

Chavito probably has to go out of his way to loose 20min or so early on, so that nobody will see him as a danger for the gc. With not many of the stages having a climb early on he probably needs a teammate who is good on the flat to help him.

Absolutely - He could do this on stages 3 to 6 - Should stay up there in stage 1 and 2 just in case.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Absolutely - He could do this on stages 3 to 6 - Should stay up there in stage 1 and 2 just in case.

Stage 7 is also good to loose lots of time, take it easy on the long hilly stage before the first 2 mountain stages and ride in the Froometto (yes, I'm gonna use that term for the whole Tour).

 

[BlueRoads]

Forget the youngesters! This is the Tour of the Oldies!
Greipel, Cavendish, (Sagan), Valverde, Gilbert, Froome...
Van Avermaet, Fuglsang, Thomas, Porte, Rolland, Roche, Nibali, Tony Martin...
I took a look, on the startlist are 39 riders of 34+. 14 are younger than 24. (Of those 4 are from UAE...)

 

[RedheadDane]

Forget the youngesters! This is the Tour of the Oldies!
Greipel, Cavendish, (Sagan), Valverde, Gilbert, Froome...
Van Avermaet, Fuglsang, Thomas, Porte, Rolland, Roche, Nibali, Tony Martin...
I took a look, on the startlist are 39 riders of 34+. 14 are younger than 24. (Of those 4 are from UAE...)

Why would you even suggest that Sagan is old? He's 31!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Why would you even suggest that Sagan is old? He's 31!

Because he has had a long pro career. Woods hasn't, and therefore BR doesn't regard him as being old.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Will we get to see some train vs. train action?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Will we get to see some train vs. train action?

Of course - and I think the last 5-10K of the sprint stages are going to be crazy hectic, because there are so many contenders.

Lotto, DQ, FDJ, DSM, ISN, Alpecin, Intermarche are all certain to run big trains IMO.... 5-6 riders.

On top of that, teams like Bora, Trek, Arkea, Qhubeka, BEX, Jumbo, EF, and B&B will invest anywhere from 2 to 4 riders in bunch sprints.

Wild times ahead

 

[topt]

At their best of the current active riders I rank Froome, Pogacar, Dumoulin, Nibali and Carapaz higher than Roglic over 3 weeks.

hm, so you are expecting Carapaz to beat Roglic this Tour, interesting; Dumo just no way not even close

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Stage 7 is also good to loose lots of time, take it easy on the long hilly stage before the first 2 mountain stages and ride in the Froometto (yes, I'm gonna use that term for the whole Tour).

There are rumours that Froome hit great form just before the Tour. Even Ukrainian Beast Mark Padun prefered staying home to racing there...
The Slovenians will likely focus on stage hunting or withdraw from the race after his demonstration of power on stage 5.

 

[wansteadimp]

Of course - and I think the last 5-10K of the sprint stages are going to be crazy hectic, because there are so many contenders.

Lotto, DQ, FDJ, DSM, ISN, Alpecin, Intermarche are all certain to run big trains IMO.... 5-6 riders.

On top of that, teams like Bora, Trek, Arkea, Qhubeka, BEX, Jumbo, EF, and B&B will invest anywhere from 2 to 4 riders in bunch sprints.

Wild times ahead

Plus the GC teams trying to keep their guys near the front up to the 3k to go point.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Tip of the day for the peloton:

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

 

[vladimir]

At least some things are as they always has been: Once again EF/Jonathan Vaughters are the last to make their selection for the Tour public.

 

[Anderis]

At least some things are as they always has been: Once again EF/Jonathan Vaughters are the last to make their selection for the Tour public.

I thought they would wait until Thursday but they promised to make it public today:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1407027352870195212

View: https://twitter.com/EFprocycling/status/1407027352870195212

 

[roundabout]

Weak sprinters field overall.
If I'm in charge at Assos-Qhuebeka I kick Aru off the Tour team and bring Nizzolo instead, he might end up winning a stage.

Why is it weak?

Top sprinters | ProCyclingStats

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Of course - and I think the last 5-10K of the sprint stages are going to be crazy hectic, because there are so many contenders.

Lotto, DQ, FDJ, DSM, ISN, Alpecin, Intermarche are all certain to run big trains IMO.... 5-6 riders.

On top of that, teams like Bora, Trek, Arkea, Qhubeka, BEX, Jumbo, EF, and B&B will invest anywhere from 2 to 4 riders in bunch sprints.

Wild times ahead

I'll be tempted to leave out Qhubeka, and I would definitely add Cofidis and Bahrain to the list. I doubt that EF will work a lot on the flat stages, but on the harder ones they might fancy Cort's chances, if they don't send him out in a breakaway.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Forget Die Mannschaft, cause Trix has taken this name thing to a whole new level!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1407247303400902657

View: https://twitter.com/TrekSegafredo/status/1407247303400902657

 

[Broccolidwarf]

I'll be tempted to leave out Qhubeka, and I would definitely add Cofidis and Bahrain to the list. I doubt that EF will work a lot on the flat stages, but on the harder ones they might fancy Cort's chances, if they don't send him out in a breakaway.

I'm certain Qhubeka will dedicate a couple of guys to Walcheid - why else is he in the team?

You are right on Cofidis, even if I don't really think of Laporte as a power sprinter, he is more like Cort, a fast puncheur.

As for Bahrain, of course, I forgot Colbrelli - I have him pegged as someone that can go for green, and Fred Wright (said Fred) was probably selected to help Colbrelli in bunch and intermediate sprints.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'm certain Qhubeka will dedicate a couple of guys to Walcheid - why else is he in the team?

You are right on Cofidis, even if I don't really think of Laporte as a power sprinter, he is more like Cort, a fast puncheur.

As for Bahrain, of course, I forgot Colbrelli - I have him pegged as someone that can go for green, and Fred Wright (said Fred) was probably selected to help Colbrelli in bunch and intermediate sprints.

Of course they will try to get Walscheid into a good position, but in some of the flat finales it could perhaps make better sense to have Campenaerts or someone else attack, rather than going all in for the German, when he and the team are up against pretty hard competition.

Laporte is obviously better in harder terrain, but I still see him as being a better bunch sprinter than Cort, though that doesn't say much, cause he's obviously not going to win a flat stage, and even a podium seems unlikely.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Of course they will try to get Walscheid into a good position, but in some of the flat finales it could perhaps make better sense to have Campenaerts or someone else attack, rather than going all in for the German, when he and the team are up against pretty hard competition.

Laporte is obviously better in harder terrain, but I still see him as being a better bunch sprinter than Cort, though that doesn't say much, cause he's obviously not going to win a flat stage, and even a podium seems unlikely.

Well, Cort is faster than Laporte on flat road, but he is terrible at positioning for bunch sprints, he always gets boxed out of position and loses wheels..... I simply don't think he is crazy enough, for those last 3K run ins for the big sprints.

So by "better" you mean positioning, you are right, but not on pure speed.