2019 Tour de France

[mexicohockey]

Today this year‘s edition of the Tour de France is getting under way in Brussels.
This should be a great race, perhaps because of the absence of some of the biggest names due to injury (Froome, Dumoulin).

My pre-race favorites are Egan Bernal and defending champion Geraint Thomas, being the strongest riders on the strongest team. (Ineos). Jakob Fuglsang is a strong contender, incredible season from him so far.

Today we’ll see an entertaining first stage in the mold of the Belgian Classiques, with Peter Sagan being my candidate for snatching yellow on his way to conquer a record breaking seventh green jersey.

Exciting three weeks coming up!

Click to read more...

 

[mexicohockey]

Great first stage with the usual crashes. Fuglsang went down and looked pretty beat up. No time lost though.
Teunissen as surprise winner, outpowering Sagan on the home stretch.

 

[Yorkshire Leaf]

Really looking forward to it this year and hope that the Ineos/Sky domination can be broken despite being a fan of Geraint Thomas.

Would love Mikel Landa to win it as I like his style.

No Cav this year which is disappointing but he is keeping busy Mark Cavendish gets over Tour de France omission by taking youngster for bike ride

 

[Fighter]

The first stage sprint was great, I hoped Colbrelli could pull an upset instead he was the perfect set up man for Teunissen at the end.

Nibali said he will aim at a stage win and not at the yellow jersey, given his age and the Giro participation I can understand, but I think he'll live day by day.

 

[mexicohockey]

Really looking forward to it this year and hope that the Ineos/Sky domination can be broken despite being a fan of Geraint Thomas.

I’m under the impression that Bernal is in better shape atm.

Would love Mikel Landa to win it as I like his style.

I’m not sure if Movistar has what it takes to win another Grand Tour this year. Will be interesting to see the team’s race tactics.

No Cav this year which is disappointing but he is keeping busy Mark Cavendish gets over Tour de France omission by taking youngster for bike ride

Cav is a genuinely good guy. Him (and also Degenkolb) being left out is a consequence of teams being reduced to eight riders.

 

[mexicohockey]

Nibali said he will aim at a stage win and not at the yellow jersey, given his age and the Giro participation I can understand, but I think he'll live day by day.

His team doesn’t look strong enough for the big splash. I’d bet that he will be in a lot of breakaways in the second half of the Tour after the ITT, as soon as the race hits the Alps

 

[Fighter]

Cav is a genuinely good guy. Him (and also Degenkolb) being left out is a consequence of teams being reduced to eight riders.

How the mighty have fallen... to put into context, instead of Cav, Giacomo Nizzolo was called for the Tour: a former very promising italian sprinter who collected a bunch of 2nd and 3rd places at the Giro d'Italia without ever winning a stage despite having the potential, he's been italian champion and two time winner of the ciclamino jersey (points) at the Giro though. He's struggled with injuries in the last years and it seems like his best sprint days are behind him (despite a fourth place two days ago) so seeing him at the Tour was a big surprise for me. I wonder how bad is Cavendish these days...

 

[MAHJ71]

Sagan's explosion to win today's stage. Damn. Still elite.

 

[Yorkshire Leaf]

Today is the first stage that will give us a clue about the GC riders and where they are at, the finish looks brutal, 1km of up to 24% gradient on unmade/gravel road.

Stage 6 - Mulhouse > La Planche des Belles Filles - Tour de France 2019

 

[mexicohockey]

Today is the first stage that will give us a clue about the GC riders and where they are at, the finish looks brutal, 1km of up to 24% gradient on unmade/gravel road.

Stage 6 - Mulhouse > La Planche des Belles Filles - Tour de France 2019

Alaphilippe should be able to maintain the yellow IMHO

 

[MAHJ71]

Today is the first stage that will give us a clue about the GC riders and where they are at, the finish looks brutal, 1km of up to 24% gradient on unmade/gravel road.

Stage 6 - Mulhouse > La Planche des Belles Filles - Tour de France 2019

I was breathing heavy just watching NBC's abbreviated stage finish preview footage

 

[Jack Straw]

This finish on a dirt road climb is just cruel.

 

[mexicohockey]

Epic Battle! Geraint Thomas looked very good. Pleased with Emanuel Buchmann's performance. Not a good day for the French.

 

[Yorkshire Leaf]

Epic Battle! Geraint Thomas looked very good. Pleased with Emanuel Buchmann's performance. Not a good day for the French.

Bad day for Bardet but Pinot looked good.

Good day for Thomas, looked good and putting a few seconds on Bernal helps his cause to be team leader, especially as he is a much better TT rider than Bernal.

 

[mexicohockey]

Bad day for Bardet but Pinot looked goof,

Pinot indeed look great. Bardet appeared out of sync, Barguil a complete disappointment and Alaphilippe lost a gamble with his race tactic.

 

[Fighter]

Talk about going from devastated for not winning the stage to realize that you're the yellow jersey in your first Tour and you're only 24!

I'm a bit skeptical about Ciccone's chances to become a big tour winner, but trust me he has all the tools to make fans happy with his breakaways, climbing skills and crazy character!

 

[mexicohockey]

Wow...quite surprised how many GC riders got caught off guard today. Losing 1:40 is a huge blow for the hopes of Pinot, Fuglsang and company. Very entertaining race so far. Also a good thing that the sprints are so unpredictable this year

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Completely disagree with above post. This edition has been bad and today was the icing on the cake.
Grand tours need a change, this bullshit is unwatchable.

Thank god we have the future in classics with the cx goats

 

[mexicohockey]

Completely disagree with above post. This edition has been bad and today was the icing on the cake.
Grand tours need a change, this bull**** is unwatchable.

Thank god we have the future in classics with the cx goats

That's quite harsh. I liked the fact that we didn't see as many *breakaway + regroup + lead-up-train + Sprint* - type stages. 11 different winners on the first 11 days, for the first time since 1994. All jerseys are still disputed.
Today was boring though. Everybody stayed put the day before the ITT.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Floyd Landis is back and he's now French apparently

 

[mexicohockey]

Floyd Landis is back and he's now French apparently

D'Artagnan for sure raises suspicion.
Great stage today though

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Superb stage today.
Good to see Ala is human

 

[MAHJ71]

Superb stage today.
Good to see Ala is human

Seems not having the best of teams just might hurt Ala in the long run.. he's been by himself the last few stages.

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Seems not having the best of teams just might hurt Ala in the long run.. he's been by himself the last few stages.

Suppose Mas will be alongside him on the mountain stages next week.

GC looks super open, it's there for the taking

 

[Weltschmerz]

Suppose Mas will be alongside him on the mountain stages next week.

GC looks super open, it's there for the taking

Wonder what happened with Mas, after the time trial he said he would battle for the white every day now with Bernal and then he dropped out of the GC yesterday and lost half an hour today. Viviani was working in front of the peleton

But there are no really strong teams this time, Ineos is far from that dominance we were used from Sky, Moviestar not sure what they did there yesterday, Jumbo-Visma looked good yesterday, not so much today. Gaudu for FDJ and Pinot did the most damage.