Tour de France 2020 NO SPOILERS !

[Adam4868]

And that's exactly what brailsford intended, don't give the other teams any clue as to who they should be marking.

Yea like it's not as though Dave's got a bad CV 😁

 

[johnblack]

Lol..tough call allright.
I'll go with..If Froomes hitting his targets,numbers he'll be the "chosen one" so to speak and looked after as long as possible.Hes not going to be a domestique I don't think.
Scenario 2.
Same as last year if it's Thomas and Bernal,It seems like maybe Thomas last chance whereas Bernal seems to have plenty in front of him ?
There's no way Dave the master of smoke and mirrors is going to be saying "tell you what lads just go and have some fun and see who's best !"
Scenario 3
I haven't a fecking.clue.

I reckon they'll ride pretty conservatively for the first week - 9 days, keeping all three pretty close. If there had been a TT at the start of the second week that would have given Brailsford the opportunity to put everyone behind Froome (if he's fit and riding well) but without that it looks like the second Friday to Sunday might move things about. Any weakness there and they'll be dropped and left to ride for themselves, Brailsford would love Froome to win but as long as it's an Ineos rider he'll be happy.

That said Thomas might stack it in the roll out and lose ten minutes on the first day.

 

[Adam4868]

I reckon they'll ride pretty conservatively for the first week - 9 days, keeping all three pretty close. If there had been a TT at the start of the second week that would have given Brailsford the opportunity to put everyone behind Froome (if he's fit and riding well) but without that it looks like the second Friday to Sunday might move things about. Any weakness there and they'll be dropped and left to ride for themselves, Brailsford would love Froome to win but as long as it's an Ineos rider he'll be happy.

That said Thomas might stack it in the roll out and lose ten minutes on the first day.

Theres allways going to be the "if Froomes back to fitness" to take into account.Id love him to take his fifth Tour but even with a fanboy like me 😁 it's gonna be a big ask.
Brailsford will know exactly where there at,and we've seen last two tours that a joint lead can work for them.
As for what @rich p was saying with three leaders ( Movistar tactic !) I think the difference with Ineos is you do as your told like it or not.I think last year Bernal could have took the Tour a lot earlier,he played the game till the end.Or should I say when Dave finally said "go on then FFS" felt for Thomas but at the end of the day it's all about the win.
Otherwise I think he would of had Bernal at the Giro maybe ?
Sorry just waffling on....bored at work !

 

[johnblack]

Theres allways going to be the "if Froomes back to fitness" to take into account.Id love him to take his fifth Tour but even with a fanboy like me 😁 it's gonna be a big ask.
Brailsford will know exactly where there at,and we've seen last two tours that a joint lead can work for them.
As for what @rich p was saying with three leaders ( Movistar tactic !) I think the difference with Ineos is you do as your told like it or not.I think last year Bernal could have took the Tour a lot earlier,he played the game till the end.Or should I say when Dave finally said "go on then FFS" felt for Thomas but at the end of the day it's all about the win.
Otherwise I think he would of had Bernal at the Giro maybe ?
Sorry just waffling on....bored at work !

Agree with everything there, Bernal was always the stronger, it felt like we were just waiting for the Alps for him to really be able to prove it. They didn't really have to play team tactics, Bernal just rode away when he needed to.

Movistar may have had three leaders but Valverde was never winning and both Landa and Quintana were leaving and never going to work for each other. Completely un-manageable . Every year they choose a team that is doomed!!

 

[rich p]

I'm not sure how it will work in practice though. 3 leaders means two fewer domestiques in an 8 man team.
If one attacks on a mountain then the other two will sit back and potentially scupper their re chances. Seems like a policy of indecision to me but WTF do I know

 

[Adam4868]

I'm not sure how it will work in practice though. 3 leaders means two fewer domestiques in an 8 man team.
If one attacks on a mountain then the other two will sit back and potentially scupper their re chances. Seems like a policy of indecision to me but WTF do I know

Yea your right there,but I'd guess it comes down to who's looking good after the first week or so.If youve lost too much time your a domestique ?

 

[johnblack]

Yea your right there,but I'd guess it comes down to who's looking good after the first week or so.If youve lost too much time your a domestique ?

The first week looks fairly tough compared to some previous years and should leave some bigger time gaps, but I think they'll all mark each other pretty close especially as Ineos have L-J with an equally strong team. With two teams controlling the front it might be hard for any of the favourites to get too much advantage, more likely mistakes and crashes taking someone out. Bless lil' Ritchie!

Having watched the doc on Geraint Thomas the other week, it seemed that he really thought he could win it right up to the Iseran, and that the cancellation was the issue. So he'll go in believing he can win.

I think one difference with Ineos compared to other teams is discipline, they won't break ranks because the domestiques are proper hard core experienced world tour racers and if they've been working all day and you go off plan and wreck it they're going to let you know.

 

[Adam4868]

The first week looks fairly tough compared to some previous years and should leave some bigger time gaps, but I think they'll all mark each other pretty close especially as Ineos have L-J with an equally strong team. With two teams controlling the front it might be hard for any of the favourites to get too much advantage, more likely mistakes and crashes taking someone out. Bless lil' Ritchie!

Having watched the doc on Geraint Thomas the other week, it seemed that he really thought he could win it right up to the Iseran, and that the cancellation was the issue. So he'll go in believing he can win.

I think one difference with Ineos compared to other teams is discipline, they won't break ranks because the domestiques are proper hard core experienced world tour racers and if they've been working all day and you go off plan and wreck it they're going to let you know.

I think Thomas maybe could of ? But we'll never know.
I think your right regarding Ineos and discipline,and to be fair it works as seen over the years.
Couple that stick out are Froome against Wiggins and I seem to remember Landa doing the same to Froome ? Both got put in their place.

 

[KneesUp]

If there are three leaders, and three tours, the obvious answer would be to have them lead one each:

EB: "you've got a great career ahead of you, son - you've already won the TdF but you can win all of them - in time. Your target this year is to win the Giro, and be one of the back ups in the tour along with GT
CF: in light of your achievements, you are leader for the TdF because winning five would be great publicity etc. - but be in no doubt that if you falter, we'll switch to EB as leader.
GT: Your target it the Vuelta - you've already won the TdF and you are not going to be a multiple winner, so try and win something else. You're on SuperDom duties at the TdF with EB, but if CF looks like he can't win, you and EB will have a stage or two to decide who is going to be leader in the TdF

 

[Adam4868]

If there are three leaders, and three tours, the obvious answer would be to have them lead one each:

EB: "you've got a great career ahead of you, son - you've already won the TdF but you can win all of them - in time. Your target this year is to win the Giro, and be one of the back ups in the tour along with GT
CF: in light of your achievements, you are leader for the TdF because winning five would be great publicity etc. - but be in no doubt that if you falter, we'll switch to EB as leader.
GT: Your target it the Vuelta - you've already won the TdF and you are not going to be a multiple winner, so try and win something else. You're on SuperDom duties at the TdF with EB, but if CF looks like he can't win, you and EB will have a stage or two to decide who is going to be leader in the TdF

Your missing out Carapaz who is the leader for the Giro ? Defending it so to speak.😁

 

[Racing roadkill]

Intravenous have a stupidly strong team. They’ve also got Rohan Dennis on board now. I’m not sure Froome is going to be up to winning the TdF this year, but I’d be amazed if it wasn’t an intravenous rider that does. It looks like this year’s course has been designed to favour certain French riders, and I can’t imagine why. I wouldn’t bet against big Dave’s lot though.

 

[KneesUp]

Your missing out Carapaz who is the leader for the Giro ? Defending it so to speak.😁

Ah yes. Sod it then, Dave can sort it our himself. I'm not paid to deal with this :-)

 

[Dogtrousers]

DB. Ah, of course I hadn't forgotten about you, Robert ... Richard. You can ...er ...you can ... I'm sure you dreamed of winning the prestigious Tour de Suisse when you were young.

 

[Ridgeway]

Perhaps it's already mentioned earlier but Froome could be back to an amazing form level having been out for a year by then, all this "lets see about his form" from INEOS is a nice way of hiding your major contender and there's no way they would pitch Froome as being back to full health at this stage, they'll only comment on that by day 21 of the TDF...

INEOS 1-2-3 ?

Although i suspect a certain Dutch team will get in the way of that

 

[Adam4868]

Intravenous have a stupidly strong team. They’ve also got Rohan Dennis on board now. I’m not sure Froome is going to be up to winning the TdF this year, but I’d be amazed if it wasn’t an intravenous rider that does. It looks like this year’s course has been designed to favour certain French riders, and I can’t imagine why. I wouldn’t bet against big Dave’s lot though.

Suiting a French rider ? I hear that most years and I'm not sure your nationality has much to do with it.