Tour de France Teams, Part III

64 thoughts on “Tour de France Teams, Part III”

1. It does look like Barguil could come crashing down to earth after last years high…. maybe getting too much his own way as a big fish in a small team.

   • He’s gotta get a bike to fit first. Look have just walked away from the team because WB doesn’t like their bikes. BH new sponsor 2weeks out from Tdf,bit tight for tweaks. Unless BH are happy for him to ride a spray job on his own steed like the old pegoretti days.

2. Boasson Hagen will only wear national jersey in the TT. Road race won by Stake Laengen (not in tour)

3. Amazed that Madiot, of all people, is allowing the French champion’s jersey to gather dust on the shelf in July.
   That Sky team is pretty scary. Scarily strong, I mean.

   • It’s a sign how the team has changed, he’s the figurehead but steps back and lets the coaches run a lot these days.

4. Thankfully back to a proper discussion.

   The three wildcard french teams strike me as particularly weak, how many of them will be at the Tour next year? I know that there is a preference for French wildcard teams (fair enough) but surely they have to do something beyond vie for the breakaway prize (does that exist in the Tour?).

   Not sure how UAE are going to fare in the TTT, they look likely to struggle, perhaps more than Movistar, which might see their GC ambitions disappearing after three stages.

   Sunweb seem to be suggesting that this Tour is all about learning how to fight for the GC win. Not sure about that, they are hardly newbies at all this. Still think they need to spend cash on mountain domestiques. They do look likely to be fighting out for the win on stage 3 with BMC and Sky.

   As to Sky the inclusion of Egan Bernal is puzzling. Especially with the reduction to 8 riders there is no room for riders to tag along for the experience. Maybe his climbing numbers are so good from training that he simply cant be left out. I guess Vasil Kiryienka must still be recovering from the Giro and possibly no one else has made a decisive case for inclusion. For the legions of cynics there is the thought he is there to take some of the focus away from Chris Froome.

   • Who else is there for the wildcard picks? Once you go beyond the Top-18 teams the talent pool relative to the top riders begins to dry up. Aqua Blue maybe but there are no surefire picks.

     • It’s a shame Aqua Blue haven’t been invited, as we are yet to see 1x in a GT.

       • They have a new 2x bike now, it should help them.

   • Team Sky’s inclusion of Bernal kind of makes perfect sense to me.

     It is an opportunity for him to get blooded without the pressure of expectation from his teammates – and yet he a very strong wildcard for stages whom other team may very feel the need to cover, and therefore split their resources … and stages where those resources are already stretched.

     I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there or thereabouts with some of the GC contenders in Paris; but on the other hand, he won’t be a failure if he isn’t.

     I think other teams will see him as a serious danger they can’t afford to ignore.

5. Why is Bernal here? For experience, because he is the mutt’s nuts and because he is the next team Sky rider who will win multiple grand tours and incur the wrath of some of the cycling public for being too successful. Sorry folks, it will never end as long as Sky exist. They aren’t in it to be also rans.

   • “…. wrath of some of the cycling public for being too successful.” as in US Postal/Discovery perhaps? Or Banesto? If you’re not cheating “too successful” ends up as simply boring…neither is good for the long-term health of the sport.

     • Perhaps you’d like the ASO to introduce a new rule Larry which says that if you win the Tour you must sit out the next race? This “the health of the sport” stuff you keep spouting seems to be a catch-all to criticise anything Larry T doesn’t like. But I’ll wager with you that there will still be 10-12 million on the roadside over the next three weeks and public attention will be high.

       To hear you talk cycling should have become something three men and a dog watch by now. Maybe it sounds good to you but sooner or later you have to leave your bubble.

       • The sport has been dominated over and over by the championissimo of the age for over 100yrs. Binda won everything to the point he got paid to miss the giro, Anquetil dominated, then Merckx dominated, then Hinault, Lemond, Indurain, Armstrong, Contador…. it’s amazing anyone watches it at all.

         • I’m convinced Larry thinks they don’t. He is confused as to why people keep replying to him since he imagines no one else is interested. Either that or he is the cycling prophet of the apocalypse who imagines that, like the imminent return of the Lord Jesus, doom is just around the corner.

       • I’m sorry and I know it’s not my blog to police but I’m sure @INRNG finds this constant back and forth between the two of you as tiresome as I do. I’m sure you’re both really nice guys and have some interesting perspectives: can you try to be friends for the next 3 weeks and see what constructive comments you can make to add to what are usually pretty insightful “below the line” comments?

         Good grief, I’m sounding like an old “peace” hippy….

         I agree that Bernal is looking like he will be a very special rider. As precocious as Fignon? Who knows. I think it’s great the team are taking him. If Landa goes on a crazy attack on a mountain day and he is the nominated “marker”, life could get very interesting for the weaker teams.

6. I would have thought by now that people would realise that what applies to all the other teams doesn’t apply to Team Sky. Bernal is there because at Sky, he’s hit the ground running like he wouldn’t have in any other teams. He definitely had the potential last year at Androni but I don’t think anyone could have honestly predicted he would be that good so soon.

   I really wouldn’t be surprised if he comfortably finishes top 10.

   • +1

   • top 10? – first time out and with Froome and Thomas both aiming at the podium? no chance. He’s in it for experience, a spare front wheel in case one of them needs it and sitting ahead of Poels, Thomas and Froome in the goat train peeling off with c. 4km to go – which is a fairly intimidating thought for others considering Moscon and Kwiat will already have been hammering away at the lower slopes before he takes over…

     • I don’t know. This is the team that transformed Wiggins and Thomas into GT riders, that can have Moscon finish top 5/10 in the cobbled classics in April then have him be one of Froome last domestiques in the Mountains in the Vuelta 4-5 months later.

       Why not have a newbie finish top 10? Unlikely I agree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

   • “…people would realise that what applies to all the other teams doesn’t apply to Team Sky.”
     I think a LOT of people have realized this in the past few days.
     Then there’s Wiggin’s opinion of the team http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-5418627/Sir-Bradley-Wiggins-slams-Team-Skys-affect-cycling.html

     • If you are basing your argument on an embittered Bradley Wiggins you really have lost.

7. Any chance that Bernal could target the white jersey? If not him, who else?

   • Tiesj Benoot? David Gaudu? Guillame Martin? Marc Soler? Gianni Moscon? Pierre Latour? Antwan Tolhoek? Daniel Martinez?

     Lots of riders who seem not quite there/will have too many other duties to stay high up on GC. Perhaps Latour will be allowed to go for it.

     Expect Gaviria will be in white early on, though.

     • It depends on team orders a lot as you say, Sky regularly make those who are not in contention sit up, even on flat days so Bernal could lose time this way. At first glance Bernal, Latour and Soler look like the most obvious picks but they’re all on team duties… which leaves the door open for Benoot et al.

8. Cavendish may not be on ‘sizzingling form’, but that is exactly the time he has often pulled off the biggest wins. But, yes, DDD have put all their eggs in one basket.

   Feel sorry for Fortuneo – I don’t see Barguil doing anything remarkable.

   Really hoping for a Laporte stage win – what a rider with a big future; a classics star I hope.

   • Slightly surprised that Fortuneo left Brice Feillu out. 16th last year (for the second time in the TdF) and decent form this year. Maybe a victim of 8-riders syndrome and not being a support rider for Barguil?

     I’d echo fingers-crossed for Laporte. Really stepped up this year and a great win at Tro-Bro-Leon. Going to take a massive slice of luck and maybe some gnarly conditions to get a podium on a stage though.

9. I know this blog and its two partners are all about the riders who are riding, but surely you could have found space to mention the great gaping Adam Hansen sized hole on the start line. It’s the first Grand Tour he’s missed since the Vuelta 2011.

   • It had to end sometime. It’s impressive but each new tour completed was becoming a copy-paste story. It’s a bit like, say, climbing Mount Everest, climb it once and it’s impressive. Climb it 19 times and the 20th time less so even if doing it 20 times is unique, world beating. It’ll be interesting to see what he does next, whether he can target wins for himself etc.

10. Phenomenal for Rowe to be in the squad but Van Baarle would have been a safer pick in my opinion.
    I feel sorry for Bouhanni, but it is his fault for not making the team. I’m really hoping for some Cofidis success.

    • Sky need a road captain, everyone else has other jobs.

11. Bernal will win the 2018 TdF.

    • If he does it raises the under the radar prospect that Sky have their own “tridente” to match that of Movistar!

      • If he’s within 5 or maybe even 10 minutes of the leader post stage 9, he will be a very dangerous man to be sent up the road in mountains. Other teams would have to chase.

        I’d use Landa this way if I was Moviestar. Not protecting him in TTT & cobble stage (or do just enough to keep him in distance contention without japodising Quintana’s chance) and give him some free reign once in the mountains. Though Landa is still likely to get shut down by Sky, as they probably know exactly how strong he can ride.

        • On a related note, can a rider require his previous team to give up all data they hold about him? After all, these are important strategic intelligence.

          Obviously you can’t compel Tim Kerrison to forget about Landa’s performance, but at lease he can require return of any hard/digital copy of the data.

          That said, probably better way to do this for Landa is to get stronger than when he was in Sky. Then Sky can’t be sure the intel they had is valid and had to assume otherwise.

          • That assumes that it’s Landa’s intellectual property. Sky data models, Sky equipment to model and collect the data. Sky to interpret the data. Ergo Sky’s IP?

          • Depends if Landa was paying attention to any of those GDPR emails and was inspired to exercise his right to erasure of personal data that’s no longer needed for the purposes for which it was processed. The IP in the models may be Sky’s, but the information about how Landa’s body responds to particular circumstances is his personal data.

    • He’s just as likely to get dropped in the TTT and/or stage nine and/or miss a split and lose minutes in the first week. I can’t recall the last TdF winner on debut but no doubt someone here will remind me…

      • ^ Hinault

        • ^ Sorry, it was Fignon as the most recent winner of their first TdF

12. Can’t see what non-financial gains Dan Martin made in joining UAE-Emirates – at least with Quick Step he’d have been well looked after on the flat.

    Year after year, Cofidis get invited and do very little, the one caveat being that I seem to remember Navarro coming 9th overall a few years back.

    • Quick Step have no interest in Grad Tour GC racing. The support they can provide is due to their deep roster, but riders who really want a team that’s fully committed to a GC tilt look elsewhere.

    • Good God! Was it really 2008 when Cofidis last won a stage?
      That’s not going to sell many 21% APR ‘financial solutions’.

      • Actually they’ve done well via cycling, it reaches the right demographic and they dish out a lot of goodies in the caravan to reach people, the business started in France and marketing via the team has helped them in Spain and Italy too and the message of “we’re a team, we trying hard” . Of course a stage win would do even better.

    • One of the things that Cofidis do regularly do is sponsor the Vuelta. I’m sure ASO appreciate that.

13. The Trek roster looks like the team is being run down which is a shame. Lacking both Contador and Cancellara you’d have expected them to have landed one or two bigger named riders.

    I like Mollema, but it would appear his best days are behind him. He lacks the punch to race at the sharp end in the mountains and has only really done well when he gets in a break.

    QS looks like the team to beat on the flat, and Sky in the mountains/GC/TTT. But Movistar look like the only team capable of pushing them. BMC look like they will be as disappointing as ever, and Bahrain Merida’s roster looks like they drew lots for their places, albeit that their best GC rider and best sprinter ‘lucked out’.

    • If the transfer rumours are to be believed Trek are very much in the market for at least one GC rider, they have the budget as they have saved lots since Alberto Contador retired. I suspect that they will be back with a much stronger team next year.

    • The ‘Trek Factory’ moniker also makes obvious that the team is one of the shop windows for its own bicycles and products.
      In this regard, they don’t seem to be doing so badly.
      The Madone is a very well thought-of bike, possibly a brand leader, and Degenkolb and Stuyven for instance are worthy exponents of its merits.
      The lightweight Emonda (I’m starting to sound like a Trek salesman here!) is a cracking bike too – I have a sneaking suspicion that Inner Ring rides one, in red – and Mollema has been a faithful servant in the mountains at the Tour, though as you say another top GC man would not go amiss.

14. I thought trek had already signed Porte for next year. Have I jumped the gun.
    Whether that makes them stronger or not is for other people to decide.

    • That is one of the rumours but UCI rules are that nothing can be officially announced until 1st August, though generally the various deals are sorted well before then. The rest days at the tour have traditionally been the time for handshakes between agents and teams.

      • Rest days these days are for filling a lot of the mid-team places, bringing in support riders around the leaders. A lot of the big moves are done between March and May although it seems this year the fate of BMC, typically generous on salaries, has caused a logjam with teams/riders/agents waiting to see if they’d be in the market or not.

15. INRNG asks in his piece if there is a mole in Team Sky which is an interesting question. But it seems to me the answer is that there are several moles in several places. The UCI hardly seem a watertight organisation and British Cycling, once, but now much less, closely allied with Team Sky, seem to be a veritable colander when it comes being watertight. What with vulture-like journalists trying to pick up any tidbit of information and turn it into the next big story (and in the case of the most famous recent one falling flat on their faces) it seems to me it would well behoove any team to know who to trust and who not to.

    And people wonder why omerta was ever a thing.

    • Vulture is the word for so many of these cycling “journalists”. They do nothing themselves and just wait for a feast to be served up in front of them. No thought, no investigation, no critical analysis, no digging for facts. Opinion spiced with a juicy quote or two equals clickbait to drive the advertising revenue. If a democracy gets the politicians it deserves does a sport get the media it deserves?

      • This is quite hard on vultures…

16. Chavanel is doing his 18th tour… wow! Did he complete all 18?

    having said that, I see he came 8th in the French TT champs 3.41 down last week, which tells me that as, a 6 times winner (last in 2014), we shouldn’t expect too much these days…

    • so I looked it up… he’s completed 15

    • Chava is one of my favourite riders, definitely past his best but guarantee he’ll be on the attack throughout the tour!

17. That Sky team looks frightening if there are crosswinds. If they and QS were to put the hammer down and create echelons… Well, let’s just say there could be some very nervous stages for the other GC riders if the wind picks up.

    • Sky will get their just deserts on this Tour!

18. On the subject of teams, Mr Ring – are you going to do a piece looking at which teams have ended up with all the national champions’ jerseys this year?

    Was just glancing at the cycling news table of them here:
    http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/2018-national-champions-index/
    doesn’t give teams, obviously, but looks like Sky have ended up with fewer road race jerseys than in the past – just 2 I think. Was wondering who’s ended up with the most…

    • Just doing a table/list would be a bit boring for me, sorry. It’s always a bit random although obviously different teams attach different importance to it, eg Sky don’t see too bothered by their home championships whereas it’s a big objective for, say, FDJ or Astana etc.

19. I was interested in this as well.

    With regards Sky and specifically their Tour team, its very heavy in current or former TT champs if not road race. Bernal, Kwiatko, Thomas and Castro this year plus Moscon one last last year.

20. You mention Barguil didn’t like the Look frames, is there anymore information on this? I thought the Look frames where right out of the top drawer?

    • No more than this, sorry.

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