Trek-segafredo
Looking for: Stage wins for Stuyven and Pedersen, with Porte for top 10 overall
Once the man most likely to challenge Chris Froome’s Tour dominance, Richie Porte seems to have been missing either luck or form since crashing out of the 2017 race, crashing out again in 2018 and finishing 11th last year – well short of what the Tasmanian is capable of.
However, he has started the postlockdown season strongly, with second place on Mont Ventoux in the Dénivelé Challenge suggesting he has the hunger, and even some of the form needed to take on the Tour this September.
The fact that this year’s Tour is skewed towards climbing, with just a single time trial will also work in his favour, and at 35 years old, Porte may see this as his final realistic opportunity to challenge.
Vincenzo Nibali was the star signing in the off-season, but the veteran Italian multiple Grand Tour winner is sticking with his original, pre-pandemic plan to ride the Giro this year.
However, Porte will have Dutchman Bauke Mollema – a former stage winner and useful GC man in his own right – to support him in the mountains, not to mention talents like Jasper Stuyven, world road champion Mads Pedersen and Toms Skujiņš to keep him safe on the flatter days.
STAR: Richie Porte (Aus)
It feels like a while since Porte was considered the most eligible second Aussie to win the Tour after Cadel Evans in 2011. Injury forced him out in 2017 and 2018 and last year he had a decent run at the title, but holed out at 11th overall. Top 10 is still a realistic target for him and that would justify, just, his protected status on the team.
HITTER: Jasper Stuyven (Bel)
Like Porte, Stuyven was for a time tagged ‘The Next Big Thing’, which like many before he duly failed to live up to. Attention has since shifted to Remco Evenepoel while Stuyven, from Leuven in the Flemish Brabant, is winning some big one-day races, like Het Nieuwsblad. He will be a dangerous opponent in any breakaway on rolling terrain.