Slovenian rivals clear favourites for Le Tour

Brest – Tadej Pogacar (below) and Primoz Roglic are the clear favourites for this year’s Tour de France, but an aggressive and star-studded Ineos-Grenadiers team may hold the key to the race, which sets out from the port city of Brest today.

Pogacar blew Roglic away in the final time trial to win the race last year, and the 22-yearold has also triumphed in the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Slovenia stage races in the lead-up to the Tour with dominant rides in the mountains.

Roglic, meanwhile, beat his young compatriot at the Tour of the Basque country in their only head-to-head duel in a stage race this season, more than two months ago.

Roglic has not raced since late April, looking to spare himself ahead of the Tour as the top contenders avoid each other, making the outcome of the three-week event starting from Brittany, the homeland of French cycling, harder to guess.

Geraint Thomas has been rediscovering his 2018 Tour-winning form this year, and he will share the leadership of Ineos-Grenadiers with 2020 Giro d’Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richard Carapaz, who won the Giro in 2019.

Australian Richie Porte, who came third on the Tour last year, is also in the squad, which will no doubt be looking to blow up the race.

While Pogacar has shown more individual brilliance than Thomas, Carapaz or Geoghegan Hart, he is likely to suffer if the British outfit try to attack him with several riders.

“We won’t win this tour by sitting on the wheels. We have the team to make it a racers’ race, take the initiative, seize every opportunity and make our opposition focus for every kilometre of every stage,” team manager Dave Brailsford said.

“We have changed our race philosophy this season to being more open and aggressive. Our performances have built all season and a joy of racing has infused the whole team.”

With his climbing abilities, Ecuador’s Carapaz could emerge as the team leader as the Tour progresses, but as long as Thomas, Geoghegan Hart and Porte remain in the mix, their main rivals will need to keep a close eye on all of them.

“Carapaz seems to be the best-placed although they won’t designate him right away (as team leader),” a sports director, who declined to be named but has led several title contenders on the Tour de France, revealed. –