2019 Tour de France
-
-
that was some crazy shit! JA the winner - that gap would have been a shitload more for him after 1 more climb. plus he was isolated. tomorrow not as steep.
if i was riding i'd be all fcuk this lets hit the pub in town!
-
@WillieTheWaiter Hard to think he was a loser, anyway.
Kruiswijk, Buchmann and Thomas (from a personal perspective) the big losers - they don't get to put more time on Alaphilippe and don't get a chance to try to catch Bernal.
Will all be much harder for them tomorrow because Ineos will ride to defend Bernal.
-
@WillieTheWaiter said in 2019 Tour de France:
that was some crazy shit! JA the winner - that gap would have been a shitload more for him after 1 more climb. plus he was isolated. tomorrow not as steep.
if i was riding i'd be all fcuk this lets hit the pub in town!
Yep, that result has probably saved JA’s podium
-
They may as well have gone to the pub - get Bernal so pissed that he can't ride.
Tonight's stage has been modified to be just 59kms, so Bernal should have it in the bag. Alaphilippe will be thinking if only he'd been able to hang on for another 10kms last night.
The peloton will still set off from Albertville but then take a quicker route towards Val Thorens, completing the final 36km of the stage as planned. The first category climb to Cormet de Roselend and the second category Côte de Longefoy will both be removed from the parcours.
-
TJV able to put Julian to the sword today - but, not surprisingly, unable to crack Bernal or Thomas - neither looked in any trouble at all and both eventually beat Kruiswijk over the line.
Bernal wins the Tour; Thomas second; Kruiswijk third; Buchmann; then Alaphilippe.
(Assuming none of them crash tomorrow).
-
-
Ineos will be an interesting team next year if all of Bernal, Thomas and Froome are lining up to ride the Tour.
TJV might be interesting as well. In one of George's articles he mentioned that there are rumours that Tom Dumoulin might be coming to TJV - which could leave them with all of Dumoulin, Kruiswijk, Roglic and George.
Wouldn't be good for George's aspirations to be a team leader - he'd have some decisions to make.
-
Tom Dumoulin nears Sunweb exit as Jumbo-Visma wait in the wings
Team Ineos and CCC also interested but Spekenbrink holds the power
More on that...
-
@Chris-B said in 2019 Tour de France:
Tom Dumoulin nears Sunweb exit as Jumbo-Visma wait in the wings
Team Ineos and CCC also interested but Spekenbrink holds the power
More on that...
Interesting point from that article Chris-B:
A possible switch to Jumbo-Visma may have looked strange when it was first surfaced in the Dutch press due to the fact that the rival squad are already stacked with GC riders, but a deeper analysis suggests that the move is based on solid reasoning. Cyclingnews understands that, despite having Primoz Roglic, Steven Kruijswijk and George Bennett under contracts for the next few seasons, they see Dumoulin as the icing on the cake in terms of stage racing power.
Jumbo-Visma have increased investment in the last two seasons and believe that in order to dismantle Team Ineos’ stranglehold on the Tour de France they must arrive at a Grand Départ with between three and four of the 10 best stage race riders in the world. It’s understood that Jumbo-Visma believe that Dumoulin would sacrifice some of his own Grand Tour ambitions in order to fit in with a more powerful GC group and aim for a more collective win, rather than be the only focal point on the squad, as he currently is at Sunweb.It's kind of like out Ineos-ing the Ineos team strategy if they manage to do it.
Would be a massively powerful team if you have Roglic, Domoulin, Kruiswijk and Bennett in it. Question would be - can they play nicely together?And what about their sprint ambitions? They have some very handy quicks too..
-
@Billy-Webb Yeah - there were hints in an earlier article that there were a few ego games between Kruiswijk and Roglic in last year's TdF.
I wondered the same thing about the sprinters - Ineos pretty much put all of their eggs in the GC classification - 8 guys riding to a single purpose. If it doesn't come off, you might end up with nothing much - a TTT stage win.
-
LJV must have a farking MASSIVE budget.. if they're bringing over TD, they already have SK and PR who are defo at the top end of the pay scale..
not to mention they have 2 new stage winners in the TDF this year which generally means a big payrise..
they surely have to change their focus to be purely a GC team.To be honest George has never looked anything more than a super domestic - he just doesn't have that real attacking top end or TT speed that the pure GC guys have
-
@WillieTheWaiter Yeah - you could see George finishing sort of 7th to 10th at the TdF if everything went well for him - not to be sniffed at, but also a bit "so what".
He could go away and be a team leader for a little team or he can probably be Wout Poels at TJV.
-
@Chris-B said in 2019 Tour de France:
@WillieTheWaiter Yeah - you could see George finishing sort of 7th to 10th at the TdF if everything went well for him - not to be sniffed at, but also a bit "so what".
He could go away and be a team leader for a little team or he can probably be Wout Poels at TJV.
He's definitely a super domestique for the tour but Vuelta and potentially the Giro are 3 week rides that suit him...if anything this Tour has raised his public profile and inter-team professional reputation. The guy he reminds me most of is Hincapie - someone who can actually wear down the opposition. It helped that the SBS Aussie comms duo big upped him throughout the tour and he won a lot of plaudits for his work post crash and in getting Kruisjwijk back onto the podium
-
@SynicBast the Aussie guys were loving him.
-
@mariner4life said in 2019 Tour de France:
@SynicBast the Aussie guys were loving him.
Heresy to admit this but their commentary is lightyears ahead of their predecessors liggett and sherwen - watching on Tour tracker means I avoid Tomolaris as well thankfully . Robbie's been around France so long he actually makes the effort to not butcher the language and Matt Keenan doesn't do too much damage. Sure they have that quintessential Aussie bias, but unlike many, it's not quite as obnoxious.
-
@SynicBast said in 2019 Tour de France:
@mariner4life said in 2019 Tour de France:
@SynicBast the Aussie guys were loving him.
Heresy to admit this but their commentary is lightyears ahead of their predecessors liggett and sherwen - watching on Tour tracker means I avoid Tomolaris as well thankfully . Robbie's been around France so long he actually makes the effort to not butcher the language and Matt Keenan doesn't do too much damage. Sure they have that quintessential Aussie bias, but unlike many, it's not quite as obnoxious.
yeah, they are not bad, and Robbie gets better every year i think.
Tomalaris at the start drives me nuts, and for some reason, every night i forget to watch on the app, and get pissy at the TV for not showing live pictures! I'm not the brightest.
Liggett and Sherwen just liked to talk about Cavendish a lot. Even in the mountains. Used to drive me nuts.
-
@SynicBast said in 2019 Tour de France:
@mariner4life said in 2019 Tour de France:
@SynicBast the Aussie guys were loving him.
Heresy to admit this but their commentary is lightyears ahead of their predecessors liggett and sherwen - watching on Tour tracker means I avoid Tomolaris as well thankfully . Robbie's been around France so long he actually makes the effort to not butcher the language and Matt Keenan doesn't do too much damage. Sure they have that quintessential Aussie bias, but unlike many, it's not quite as obnoxious.
I am happy with their commentary, but not the French. Robbie isn't so bad, although his accent it very strong. But Keenan's is appalling. What's worse, it isn't consistent -- so he'll call a place by three different pronunciations in short succession (when they rode into Rheims it was hilarious how many ways he said it).
-
@Chester-Draws said in 2019 Tour de France:
@SynicBast said in 2019 Tour de France:
@mariner4life said in 2019 Tour de France:
@SynicBast the Aussie guys were loving him.
Heresy to admit this but their commentary is lightyears ahead of their predecessors liggett and sherwen - watching on Tour tracker means I avoid Tomolaris as well thankfully . Robbie's been around France so long he actually makes the effort to not butcher the language and Matt Keenan doesn't do too much damage. Sure they have that quintessential Aussie bias, but unlike many, it's not quite as obnoxious.
I am happy with their commentary, but not the French. Robbie isn't so bad, although his accent it very strong. But Keenan's is appalling. What's worse, it isn't consistent -- so he'll call a place by three different pronunciations in short succession (when they rode into Rheims it was hilarious how many ways he said it).
Sorry when referring to Matt Keenan, I meant to say that he doesn't damage the commentary so much - the linguistic damage is agreed, pretty dire. Robbie's French is very much influenced by the fact he speaks with a Flemish intonation - his pronounciation of the Dutch riders' names is very Flemish as well - probably because he lived in a Flemish town for years and his wife is Flemish
-
@SynicBast said in 2019 Tour de France:
@Chris-B said in 2019 Tour de France:
@WillieTheWaiter Yeah - you could see George finishing sort of 7th to 10th at the TdF if everything went well for him - not to be sniffed at, but also a bit "so what".
He could go away and be a team leader for a little team or he can probably be Wout Poels at TJV.
He's definitely a super domestique for the tour but Vuelta and potentially the Giro are 3 week rides that suit him...if anything this Tour has raised his public profile and inter-team professional reputation. The guy he reminds me most of is Hincapie - someone who can actually wear down the opposition. It helped that the SBS Aussie comms duo big upped him throughout the tour and he won a lot of plaudits for his work post crash and in getting Kruisjwijk back onto the podium
Wasn't Hincapie a pretty good time trialist? Bennett definately isnt that
