RICHIE’S LAST TRY
FLAG DROPS ON FAST AND FURIOUS TOUR
THIS Tour de France is shaping as one of the toughest and most aggressive in its 107-year history.
The pace has been frenetic since racing resumed last month. It is as if the peloton is trying to make up for lost time.
And combine that enthusiasm with a brilliant course full of tough mountain stages perfectly designed for aggressive racing.
Like most Aussies, I am looking forward to this year’s race, although it will be the first tour since 1998 I will not be there covering it for the Geelong Advertiser.
But, like many, I will be glued to the telly watching each stage and I will still be giving my opinion each day.
Dan Jones and I will also be streaming an hour preview before the SBS coverage each night.
The other big change this year is only two Aussies will be at the start in Nice — Richie Porte and Caleb Ewan.
Not since 2001 when Stuart O’Grady and Brad McGee raced the Tour has there been so few.
Porte, in probably his last tilt at the overall title, is a genuine top-10 chance and maybe even top five.
But he will need to do two major things. Firstly he will need a bit of luck on his side and, secondly, he will need to be in tip-top shape.
The second point looks OK. His form in the Dauphine last week was good and he seems to be on the improve.
Although his TrekSegafredo team is not as strong as Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma, he only need follow the race favourites and keep out of trouble. Sounds easy.
Ewan will be out to match last year’s stellar performance of three stage wins and, although he finished second to Peter Sagan in the green jersey award last year, he has dialled back his ambitions.
“I’m not focusing on the green jersey to be honest,” the Lotto Soudal rider said.
“The way the points work it’s just not a competition that suits a pure sprinter. We haven’t seen a pure sprinter win in years.
“I think not just Sagan but also (Wout) van Aert who can climb and sprint. The days I can’t get to the finish, they’ll get there and get maximum points. Even the days when I can win, they’re always top five or top 10, and always scoring points.”
Ewan’s stage win on the Champs-Elysees pulled him up into second behind Sagan by 68 points.
He said he had no regrets about not chasing more points in the intermediate sprints.
“Maybe the day will come when I’m really close to winning it and I’ll go for some intermediates, but right now I think it’s too hard,” he said.
“Going for stages is hard enough. I think I’ll focus on that.”
Mitchelton-Scott has decided to go stage hunting and for the first time the Aussie team does not have an Australian in the race.
But that is the way it is these days with teams becoming more and more international.
Top British team Ineos have only one Great Britain rider this year.
I spoke to Mitchelton-Scott team director Matt White this week and he was excited to be back on the road and believed he has a team ready to go out and hunt down stage wins.
“This is a real tough course this year and I don’t feel we could actually challenge for the overall victory,” White said.
“So we have selected a team of stage hunters and all of them are capable of getting up the road and chasing down some glory.
“But I would be lying if I said I was not concerned with the current situation with the pandemic and riding around a country that has serious challenges with COVID-19.
“Especially in Nice, which has just been declared a red zone. We will be here for three days leading up to the Tour and then the first three days of the race.
“Another concern is the new wave of false positives. This week there have been a few COVID positives that have been retested and proved to be negative.
“We are in discussions currently regarding some rule changes and how that may affect teams if numerous positives occur.
“All parties are working at a frantic rate, moving the world’s biggest annual sporting event around in a safe way throughout a pandemic.”
I hope “Whitey” and the teams are successful with that because currently the rule set by ASO is that any team with two positives in the team of riders will be expelled.
On Friday Lotto Soudal sent home two staff members — one because of a positive test and one because of a nonnegative test.
It also sent home their two roommates.
This amplifies the challenges facing the Tour de France.
Over the past two weeks more than a dozen riders and staff have been excluded from events because of what turned out to be false positive tests.
ASO, the company that owns the Tour, is looking at ways to address this serious challenge.
Ineos has ruled the roost over the past seven years only losing in 2014 when Chris Froome crashed out and Vincenzo Nibali snatched a brilliant win.
But this year Jumbo-Visma looks to have at least matched its firepower.
Primoz Roglic is the shortprice favourite, edging out Egan Bernal and both teams have formidable line-ups.
Ineos has surprisingly dropped four-time champion Froome and Geraint Thomas, winner in 2018 and second last year. But it has bought in Richard Carapaz, the young Ecuadorean who won last year’s Giro.
It is an impressive line up. But Jumbo-Visma’s squad looks even more impressive.
Former ski jumper Roglic has taken to cycling with devastating results.
He has proven his ability to handle the three weeks of a grand tour, finishing third in last year’s Giro and then taking out the Vuelta.
Jumbo-Visma will have a two-pronged attack with powerful Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, winner of the Giro in 2017 and second in the Tour in 2018.
They will have serious support with Kiwi George Bennett showing superb climbing form and solid campaigners in Robert Gesink, Amund Grøndahl Jansen, American Sepp Kuss, who is climbing superbly, and strongman Tony Martin.
Then there is van Aert who can sprint and time trial with the best and climbs pretty well, too.
But this is much more than a two-horse race.
Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, of FDJ, was a threat last year and until a knee injury knocked him out with only three days to go. I thought he looked the winner.
This year’s form has not been as impressive but it is a strange season and he should be on the podium come Paris and definitely a chance to be the first French winner in 35 years.
And we cannot forget Quick Step’s Julian Alaphilippe. The dashing Frenchman was the revelation of last year’s race. Alaphilippe’s aggressive and flamboyant style won the hearts of not only the French but all cycling fans. He was so impressive that on reflection with a little bit of energy saved earlier he may well have hung on for the title.
The extra high mountain stages could be his achilles heel.
Old stager Nairo Quintana seems to have a new lease on life. Whereas his old team Movistar could never seem to decide its leader, new team Arkea-Samsic has no such thoughts.
But it does not have the firepower to support him properly. The steep climbs will suit the diminutive Colombian and he is sure to feature.
I had a chance to have a long chat with Cadel Evans in Switzerland earlier this week for my deTour Podcast. We talked mainly about his amazing win in 2011 but Evans gave me his thoughts on who would win this year.
“I’d say Egan Bernal, but I’m a big Primoz Roglic fan. This year is very mountainous and the time trial is finishes on a mountain, so it probably favours Bernal,” he said.