MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Really good race that. Very pleased for Martinez and EF that he won the overall.
Jumbo don't half look good and have some of my favourite riders in, although I'm fairly non plussed about roglic.
I just have a feeling this could be a very close tdf. Pinot looks hungry for it, as does 'albert steptoe'. We've had a hint the last two days that there's a French team leaders alliance forming. I would love to see a French winner after all these years
What a race today. I love watching Pinot race - he just puts every ounce of his being into it.
That said, having read Matt Rendell's 'Colombia es Pasion!' recently I've pretty much started rooting for colombians at every race now.
Well looking at recent performances it doesn't look to me as though TdF will be close. I hope I'm wrong though. These days I don't have any particular interest in winners, I just like to see good racing. But I would love to see Pinot do it. Spoiler - he won't.
Same as you in that context, i'm more into watching crazy attacks than people 'sitting'. Which arguably wins GTs i'll grant you. But when one of the big guys just goes from 4-5km out with a crazy shattering attack it's great to see.
i think big Tom may end up with the TDF this year if he can get the support from the team. But he's in one of them very unfortunate positions where he may end up too far off because he's had to help Roglic, hance blowing his own chance before it begins.
They seemed a bit cagy about Roglics chances of starting TdF yesterday.. I was expecting to hear "its just road rash but we are being cautious."
From a sponsor exposure / satisfaction point of view, Jumbo did so much they didnt actually need to win the GC to be the clear winners.
I think all that can be said about the TdF is that on the face of it looks more open than other recent years.
Having said that, I'd not be surprised at Ineos drawing everything together in time and strangulating it.
That was a very very long way down. I was watching it in silence and didn't know it was Remco.
Is Roglic injured? Does that mean Dumoulin or Kruijswijk will be the leader at the tour? Or will they have 3, or even 3 leaders?
Are Ineos off pace? Is Froome bluffing? Is Bernal as good as last year? Should G have done the Classics this year?
Pinot, what can he do?
Bardet, same question.
It'll be a very interesting 3 weeks in France.
I think Dumoulin was giving it a bit of a "If he's injured..." yesterday.
All this chat about Ineos bluffing...
Does it seem a bit lame that a team would deliberately 'throw' one race just to bluff their opponents? Seems a bit disrespectful towards the organisers and viewing public, although I guess the second guessing and intrigue makes for interesting discussion....
Also, if the armchair pundits can sport the 'bluff' surely other teams are going to call it also?
At the moment Roglic looks nailed on for TdF win to me. He and the rest of the team look massively strong. Having turned himself inside out for 4 days supporting Roglic, Sepp Kuss shows everyone the way on the last stage. Dumoulin looking very strong too.
too late to edit above: also surely JV just pulled Roglic once they saw that Ineos had pulled Bernal?
Rider safety needs to be addressed. Shocking some the crashes that have happened over the past week.
Don’t know whether Ineos are bluffing or not. But I’m not convinced that they have the cohesion they used too. They seem to be going full Movistar. Also agree with @13thfloormonk comments regarding their commitment and respect.
I don't think Ineos are bluffing just different strategies for different riders (like I said in a previous post).
As for teams forfeiting certain races for a better chance at the tour, this is the norm and has been for as long as I can remember. The tour is where all the money is. Most non-cycling fans are only aware of a couple of cycling events: the Tour de France and the Olympic track racing.
Could be a totally open Tour, maybe a year where the winner will be the most consistent rider not the best. A year where the winner doesn't win a single stage?
I think it's more likely that Ineos were knackered than bluffing. The dauphine is very much a 'B' race for them so they won't have been fresh coming in. That said, they do usually look much better this close to the tour. Perhaps not having Nico Portal behind the scenes is affecting them as well.
Either way, I think the Dauphine has left more questions than answers about the Tour. Ace.
don’t think Ineos are bluffing just different strategies for different riders
This.
Froome and G definitely looked to be training within this race - they know from past experiences that they don’t need to peak now but in about 4 weeks time - I.e. week 3 of the tour, which mean the Dauphiné is the perfect training block to build from. In contrast Roglic looked in absolute stellar form, but can he hold that for the next 4 weeks too?
There