Will Clarke crashed out 300m to go tour of Belgium, knocked out, broken collar bone & scapula.
Thats a pretty good result for Matthews, or is it a weak field?
Sagan was 7th as well i think.
Geraint Thomas 13th
Short ITT. Matthews and Sagan have always been good in short ITTs (say 10km).
The specialists tend to shine when you get beyond 20km.
Strange in Suisse when the peloton came back together with 11kms to go, that Sanchez could get away when teams had multiple riders. Today looks a Sagan day.
Haig has ridden himself into the TDF team.
Slovenie starts on Wednesday. Hamilton and Chaves must be a chance for GC.
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As expected Sagan makes a cakewalk of stage two - This is the best I’ve seen of him since last year’s TDF.
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Thomas crashed out of the ToS. He says he should be ok for the TdF, but less than ideal for the defending champion.
Viviani wins the stage from Matthews and Sagan. Trentin 4th,
looked at the crash - Thomas looks a little sore, but mostly cuts and bruises, he was lucky. Still wouldnt help with his preparations of his tour defence.
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MS twitter feed down for the last four days. Is it the Nibali voodoo.
Rohan Dennis finished second in Tour De Suisse.
Bernal wins.
Dennis will assist Nibali in tour de france. But if Nibali gets voodood, then He might lead the team lol.
There are not many or long ITT stages so wouldnt suit Dennis.
But he has got better in the mountains.
Thinking Inneos may make Bernal/Thomas co leaders.
Would love to see Ritchie and Dennis riding together at the Tour probably in the second group - top 10 chances…
Porte’s best finish is 5th back in 2016
Behind Froome, Bardet, Quintana, yates
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Yes, this is likely. Thomas, as defending champion will be nominally the leader, but I expect Bernal to go past him here. IMO he’s the strong favourite for the race.
Actually the field is not as strong as the Giro in many ways.
Nibali will find it hard to back-up after riding the Giro, and he’s not what he use to be.
Have Bernal pegged as top five with a chance of a podium. He should be helped by the high altitude but he is still raw. Porte should finish back end of the top 10.
If he can finish the race.
He looked rather ordinary at the Dauphine.
Porte looked ordinary.
But he had a virus before and supposedly building through the dauphine. Just don’t think he is at the level where he was 2-3 years ago.
The French have built the tour profile for Bardet.
Who do you think will win Yaco?
Quintana would love the lack of ITT stages.
Ineos have such a strong team they will be dictating parts of the race tempo etc.
Like I can see Poels, Bernal and Thomas left in a small group in the front at the top of the climb, where other teams only have 1 rider.
Karma has got Porte since his unprofessionalism after the 2018 TDF - When you miss the Pre-Vuelta press conference two days before the race because you haven’t arrived in Spain and the team reads your the riot act - Then when you don’t try your best and ride at the back of the peleton for the whole race - Then when at the Hammer Series in October you miss the start of the race on purpose which rules you out of the Hammer Sprint, then when you are dropped from the Hammer Chase after less than 1km - Then you go to the Tour of Guangxi and finish one stage - Enough said.
Reckon the TDF is wide open and I’ve gone a bit left field in my selections.
1 - Landa
2 - Uran
3 - A.Yates
4 - Bernal
5 - Quintana
IMO I can’t see anyone backing up from the Giro doing that well.
That rules out Landa and Nibali for me.
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I would normally agree about the Giro/TDF double but the 2019 Giro was an easier route and it was a softly pedalled route - Think this route will suit Colombian riders - Interesting to see that Ewan came off Groenewegen’s wheel to win the last stage of the ZLM Tour - Ewan nearly did the same earlier at PN - Anyway Ewan will get his chance at the TDF.
I agree that it is wide open, and I think Porte will struggle to make top 10.
1 Bernal - GCN rated him favourite now and has backing of strongest team.
2 Pinot - looked good in Dauphine
3 Bardet
Then a blanket over the rest of the field.
Quintana
Yates
Porte
Thomas
Landa
Uran
Fugslang
Nibali
Roglic
Dennis
Has Dumolin withdrawn from the lineup for the tour?
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Dumolin is definitely out.
@yaco55 have you heard anything to suggest Simon Yates will ride? Just thinking that MS could roll the dice with sunch a weakened GC field …