dsw

You made very fair points. I did not think of Cummings as a second road captain so in that sense there is perhaps logic in his selection. Interesting though is that (according to the press) Rolf Aldag wanted Cav to be in the team but was overruled by Doug. I wonder what that is all about as one would expect the performance director to be on top of stuff such as training data etc in order to be in the best position to make such a call? Anyway, lets see how it goes.

Personally I think Doug Ryder stuffed up here. If current form is the yardstick I can understand that he left Cav out ... but how can he then justify the inclusion of a 39 year old rider (Cummings) who has hardly finished a stage race this season never mind getting a decent result in one. His third place in a watered down British ITT competition during which he beat exactly 4 World tour riders surely cannot count for much. I wont be surprised if sponsors soon start to walk away from this sad lot.

So, I’ll see that I’ll be having another holiday in France – three weeks! It’s going to be perfect - Michael Valgren on his selection for the TdF team

According to an article in the latest SA Bicycling Magazine Meintjes more or less confirmed that he does not have the power to go on sustained and successful attacks and therefore he just follows hoping for the others to fade. His honesty is refreshing but the contend of the article does not give me any confidence that he will win a stage

I saw Eddy came third in the Norwegian ITT yesterday. He was going for his 10th win of that title so the result is a bit of a disappointment I guess. Maybe he was on a mtb with slicks in order to give the others a chance

Meintjes or Cummings will be the best for that purpose.

As there are hardly any riders from TDD who have covered themselves in glory this year I will rather take a rider like Cav to the tour as his super star status will at least draw attention to the team.

The only change I would make to that list is to replace Meintjes with Nizzolo.

Nizzo is not the greatest sprinter in the world but he is very consistent and probably deserves a spot in the TDD TdF squad at this stage.

I honestly do not think they have any "young hungry guys" capable to pull off a TdF victory. IMO the only riders in the team who are capable of getting a stage win in the TdF are Eddy, Cav, Ben King and perhaps Kreuzinger. They are taking a strong sprint team to the Tour of Slovenia and hopefully Cav will get a result there to boost his confidence.If he don't get at least some sort of a result there I will rather take Nizzolo to the TdF as the main sprinter. At least the vibe towards the team (and hopefully also the vibe within the team) seems to be a bit more positive after the good performances of Eddy over the last few weeks.

Bora has done exceptionally well and has managed more wins this year alone than TDD managed since Dimention Data became the title sponsor in 2016. I assume they have a much bigger budget though?

Since 2016 TDD managed 16 wins in total at World Tour Level. 10 of these wins were during 2016. Cav- 5 EBH-4 Cummings-4 Ben King- 2 Fraile - 1

If Cav gets any result in the Tour of Slovenia (starting on 19 June) he is a certainty for the TdF.

Perhaps, with the exception of Vermote, the riders selected to support EBH at this race are just not good enough to be competitive at this high level of racing even if they try.

Nick Dlamini also abandoned.

My point to Patch was that TDD (EBH) do not have to enter amateur events such as Panorama as they are fully capable to win at races that include top international stars (such as Alex Kristoff in the Tour of Norway).

The BMC bikes did not stop Rohan Dennis from winning the world time trial championships last year, neither did it stop Greg van Avermaet from winning numerous races. I reckon we must look somewhere else.

Yeah right, a win is a win. EBH beat Alexander Kristoff today. Is Kristoff also doing the Panorama?

At last.... hopefully it is the start of a good run for the team.

To make up for the uninspiring race pack I see we each rider is going to receive a free downloadable digital image of him/herself in action Personally I enjoyed the 54 km route quite a lot and besides the very dodgy seeding system I have no complaints. Having said that, I am predominantly a roadie so I really appreciated the lack of technical stuff. Will be back.

But then there is also Viviani ..... Re Porte... he had quite a lot of bad luck since he left sky... he might also not have the leadership qualities and resilience that is required to lead a team to GC success.

Perhaps Mark C can sneak a win or at least a podium during the Yorkshire tour (2.HC) that starts today. Looking at the rest of the DD team who will be riding I do not have much hope for any other riders getting a result........ maybe Tom-Jelte Slagter has an outside chance but I am clutching at straws.

The rider in DD who disappointed me the most this year is Michael Valgren. Unlike Louis, who had good results in the past but never really won a big race, Valgren was actually winning races a year ago and now he is not getting even close.

I watched for a few minutes on TV and the course seemed technical with sharp turns and punchy short climbs so I guess it did not suit a rider like him. Still a very bad start like you said.

Tao will probably have to support Kwiatkowsi and Poels today. Excellent and aggressive rider like you said, also very versatile. He should be excellent in one day races if he focus on it, although they are probably grooming him to become a leader in multi day stage races together with Bernal and Sivakov.