2020 Tour de France

[kosmonooit]

Guys, Roglic is also a prodigious Time Trialist.

 

Off the top of my head I'm pretty sure he has won the ITT at Giro, Vuelta, tour of Britain and I am sure a host of other week races. I'm also sure he won the national ITT a couple of years ago.

 

He is no mug racing the clock.

Although he did loose the title recently to Podg.

[Gen]

JV outSkying Ineos! WvA outclimbing pure climbers and outsprinting sprinters. Kuss making huuuge numbers.

 

I'd love to know JVs secret. The whole team is on fire.

 

Legal or not they have done something very very right!

Seen on Twitter

 

https://twitter.com/GAgravelgirl/status/1305201573522534403

 

"Me getting my dad up to date on TJV: That guy won the Giro, the Worlds TT, and 9 GT stages. That guy won MSR and Strade and is 3x CX world champion. That guy is a 4x World TT champ and Olympic medalist.

 

Dad: which one is the leader?

 

Me: those are the domestiques."

[Vetplant]

Stoute Wout

[dsw]

After all that fuss in the build up at Ineos, I am sorry it has to end this way for Bernal this time, eish I was hoping he could hang onto 3rd but there is no way back now.  He has offered no excuses except to say others are stronger than him at this race.

 

What went wrong? Perhaps this whole team leadership thing over burdened him, he really hasn't been looking himself. I also think they are missing the suss of the likes of Chris and G on the road.  I don't think Luke has been lucky for them,

 

Ja, its sad to see. Fair play to Bernal for taking it on the chin instead of making excuses. 

 

It has been a strange year for Ineos though... They lost Nico Portal, Geraint showed no form until 2 days ago, Sivakov (who was in fantastic form) crashed heavily during the last day of the Dauphine. and twice during the first day of the Tour.

 

They will just have to accept that their reign at the top has come to an end ... It had to happen at some or other time. 

 

I am sure they will be back though, but in the meantime it is good for the sport to have a new team winning the biggest cycle race in the world.

[Tim Brink]

 

 

Karma.

 

Sorry, ambulancema.

[DieselnDust]

It seemed like guys were talking a 40 second ITT swing....

 

3 days in the mountains to come. I think this tour is one of the best in recent memory for me. The route, the anticipation, the capitulation of Ineos, the ITT on Saturday.

 

A 21 year old lighting it up....... His birthday is on Monday the 21st of September..... What a celebration that will be if he wins!

1989....

[DieselnDust]

Seen on Twitter https://twitter.com/GAgravelgirl/status/1305201573522534403?s=19

"Me getting my dad up to date on TJV: That guy won the Giro, the Worlds TT, and 9 GT stages. That guy won MSR and Strade and is 3x CX world champion. That guy is a 4x World TT champ and Olympic medalist.

Dad: which one is the leader?

Me: those are the domestiques."

Should have answered.

 

" the ski jumper "

[Christie]

JV outSkying Ineos! WvA outclimbing pure climbers and outsprinting sprinters. Kuss making huuuge numbers.

 

I'd love to know JVs secret. The whole team is on fire.

 

Legal or not they have done something very very right!

????

If I think back a bit, it has happened before. One team dominated thoroughly, their rouleurs were also dropping climbers on the big hills after pacing on the front the whole day.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Christie

[Wayne pudding Mol]

After the last 2 weeks I think it’s safe to assume that if WVA wanted to win a grand tour he could do it - he’d have to change his build of course and that would sacrifice his sprinting and cx abilities I’m sure

Wiggins was a big guy before he focused on the GC podiums

Right now it seems like he can do anything - I just kept waiting for him to drop off the front

Tom was also power, if you watch it again he had to keep slowing down ever so slightly

[Vetplant]

I'm totally out of the loop with the Jumbo Visma plans for the two other Grand Tours. Anybody know whether they will go with GC ambitions or if it is all-in for TDF and the other two will be based on whoever is in some sort of form?

 

Will Kuiswijk be recovered from his injury by then?

[DieselnDust]

Double post removed

Edited September 14, 2020 by DieselnDust

[meathead]

This is an interesting article I came across.

With regards to Ineos and Ergan Benal

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sean-yates-raises-serious-questions-over-ineos-tour-de-france-tactics/

[eddy]

Question for John Wakefield perhaps.

 

TdF preparations have obviously become a science, with every team having a clear plan to get their riders to the start in the right form to race over 21 days.

 

The plan is built on knowledge gained over many seasons and each team executes, monitors and measures everything to achieve this.

 

2020 was different and much if what was done in the past - training camps, outdoor training blocks, racing into form, monitoring of multiple vsrisbles etc. was not possible and in any event, based on the luck if the draw depending on where you found yourself when lockdown started.

 

Some teams (or riders) must have been affected more or less than others.

 

How much if what we have seen can be ascribed to this ?

 

Did Sunweb strike it lucky, were JV in some way at an advantage, did Bernal (unsupervised) ride himself into the ground in training, could the Slovenians manage training better during periods the world was in lockdown ?

 

I suppose the question is, to what extent could lockdown, the cancellation of a racing season and the move of the Tour to late Aug/Sept, etc. have led to greater variability in preparation by the teams and has this lead to some of the results we have seen?

Edited September 14, 2020 by eddy

['Dale]

SNIP

I suppose the question is, to what extent could lockdown, the cancellation of a racing season and the move of the Tour to late Aug/Sept, etc. have led to greater variability in preparation by the teams and has this lead to some of the results we have seen?

 

@Eddy, totally. That's the intrigue about the 2020 season. Many unknowns. Getting @John Wakefield's insider view would be cool, especially after Paris, and there'll be some 'trade secrets' that cannot be disclosed.

 

I would argue that the amount of crashes, other than Stage 1, is because the peloton did not have as much time in racing like they normally would.

 

By the time they get to the Tour, many would've come back from injuries, illness throughout the earlier part of the season, would've followed a 'conventional plan' to peak with tons of base, altitude camps and racing themselves into more form at Dauphine, Paris-Nice or Tour de Suisse, and so on.

 

One can only guess what additional stress, loneliness and angst comes with performing in a biosecure environment and the impact on the ability to race. Remember, these are human beings first, even though all of them are as tough as nails.

 

In light of this, the mystery remaining is how will racers respond to Week 3, with mountaintop finishes and a climber-friendly time trial. 

 

Pic by K Ramon

Edited September 14, 2020 by 'Dale

[lechatnoir]

I'm totally out of the loop with the Jumbo Visma plans for the two other Grand Tours. Anybody know whether they will go with GC ambitions or if it is all-in for TDF and the other two will be based on whoever is in some sort of form?

 

Will Kuiswijk be recovered from his injury by then?

 

Yes, he's posting on Strava. He's slated for the Giro and I hope for good things from him, though what kind of support he'll have is a mystery.

[lechatnoir]

The way I'm reading this is that JV can basically blow everyone off their wheels without even using all their firepower (Kuss sat on Rog's wheel yesterday) - except for Pog. He clearly has the ability to sick with them and even duke it out and win against Rog. I wonder how that plays into JV's team mind and tactics - having so much might and still unable to seal the deal. All Pog has to do is wheel-suck up monster hills, and outsprint his compatriot for 100m. I say ''all he has to do'' as if it's a simple task...