Giro d'Italia / Tour de France

[Paddingtonwolf]

I honestly don’t know. Frankly he isn’t getting in the Ineos team ahead of Bernal or Thomas unless he starts showing something.

 

[Wombat del combate]

I don't think it is a case of him plus one other, it's whether Ineos will go with a leading trident. Which worked spectacularly well for Movistar of course. Problem is with going for a three-pronged attack, you have to lose someone such as Rowe.

Looks like he's building a reasonable squad for next season though: Woods as his super-domestique, plus Impey and Hagen.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

I don’t think there’s any way Froome gets in now. Thomas will be taken as he’s spent most of his career playing the road captain/lieutenant role and Bernal is just simply now the leader of that team. As you say with Movistar taking 3 leaders never worked with them anyway and I don’t see how Froome could even be justified as a pick in the team at the moment. I really thought a deal would be done for him to join Israel in time for the Tour but I guess that’s not going to happen.

 

[Wombat del combate]

I thought that as well TBF, however maybe Froome only signed the deal on condition of recruiting certain riders?

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Yeah maybe, there was talking of getting the band back together with Porte I think but not sure if that’s happening. Would be interested to see if Ineos select him for the Giro or Vuelta before he leaves.

 

[Wombat del combate]

He was dropped again today, although Thomas didn't last much longer. Jumbo Visma look like the team to beat at the moment. Mind, I always think back to the Giro when he looked like crap for days on end and then unleashed hell on the entire peloton...

I did read a rumour about Porte going 'back' to Ineos but they're also linked with one of the Yates twins?

 

[Pompey Wolf]

That would be interesting although not like Mitchelton have much else for GC since Chaves went off the boil and Ineos are so stacked with Carapaz and Dennis as well, plus Sivakov looks like he could be a star. Jumbo’s squad is ridiculous to be fair although I can’t help but feel Roglic is peaking too soon, think that’s happened before, last year’s Giro maybe?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Roglic was superb for chunks of that race and then gassed. Not to the level of Alaphillipe in the tour but it was definitely noticeable.

 

[Kenny]

"Remco Evenepoel has crashed and fallen around 30 feet off a bridge during cycling's Il Lombardia race.

The Belgian rider is being attended to by paramedics at the scene"

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Fractured pelvis and bruised lung. I was watching it live and thought the worst. Phenomenal talent and sad he’ll miss the rest of the season but at least his day will come again.

 

[Wombat del combate]

The way it's going, it'll be whoever makes it to the start line has a decent chance of winning: Kruijswijk dislocated his shoulder, Buchmann hurt himself on the same stage, Roglic went down hard enough to withdraw the next day and Bernal has a bad back. Pinot was looking decent though; was amusing to see a French alliance as they tried to make up the time at the end of the stage.

I thought at the weekend, surely Froome has been treating or told to treat these races as specific exercises to build form. I can't fathom how he can go pop to such an extent.

 

[Wombat del combate]

No Froome or Thomas in the Ineos squad; Froome to the Vuelta, Thomas to the Giro. All-in for Bernal with Carapaz as backup.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Blimey.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

No surprises ultimately as both have been miles off the pace but it’ll be a huge disappointment for both of them. Interesting to see what they can do in the Vuelta and Giro.

 

[Wombat del combate]

No Cav, Bahrain-McLaren going for GC.

Kruijswijk also out for Jumbo-Visma.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Cav has been a bit of a sporting hero for me previously so it pains me to say this but the lad’s essentially stealing a living and has been for a while. Doesn’t even have the top end speed to get involved in low-level sprints let alone win them anymore. Bet he’s still Bahrain’s best paid rider tho. He won’t ride another Tour.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

He’s done really. Bit of a shame as his sprints could make some very dull flat stages still worth a watch. Saying that the absolute pan flat stages he likes are becoming increasingly less common. The organisers like to chuck in a Mur De Bretagne or the drag into Mende. Much more poncheur style finishes now.

 

[Pompey Wolf]

Very fair point Pad, think Cav’s win ratio would have been lower in this era as so few stages actually given to the pure fast men and now guys like Bennett or Gaviria can get over the lumpier stuff simply because they have to.

 

[Wombat del combate]

To be fair to him, contracting Epstein-Barr and not fully recovering (he seems to allude to not being properly looked after) has taken a couple of seasons away from him, and last year he was treated shabbily to say the least.

 

[Wombat del combate]

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