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Contenders for the yellow jersey (the overall lead) are riders like Chris Froome (Sky), Michael Landa (movistar), Richie Porte (BMC), Adam Yates (Scott), Romain Berdet (AG2R), Geraint Thomas (Sky), Rigo Uran (EF Education Cannondale), Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain), Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
Sagan's team, Bora, doesn't really have a legit GC contender on their team. Sagan's goals for the year are to win in the one day classics (and he picked up a big win this year at one of them), get some stage wins at the Tour and hopefully the green jersey classification, and then win the one day world road race championship for the fourth year in a row. He will never compete for the yellow overall at Tour in his career.
Quick Step is another team you see high up in the standings the first week, and will plummet as the race goes on. Teams like Quick Step, Direct Energie, Lotto Soudal, Katusha, Bora, and Dimension Data are built for the one day classics and much shorter stage races, like 3-7 day events. During Grand Tours such as the Tour de France, the Vuelte de Espana, and Giro d'Italia...these teams chase stage wins, not overalls.
There are multiple points standings to chase at a grand tour.
For Tour de France they're as follows:
Yellow: Grand Classification - the lowest overall time. The riders that chase this are all-around good cyclists. Mostly trimmed down like a climber, but still with decent strength and good time trial skills. Some like Froome are more like a dedicated climber while riders like Armstrong and Nibali seem to be more rounded in terms of build.
Green: Sprinter category - this is a points based competition with sprints in the middle of the stage and points for your finishing position in a stage. This is what sprinters like Peter Sagan, Andre Griepel, Mark Cavendish, and others chase. They're big, powerful riders that put out big power but don't have the endurance and light builds to navigate the mountains quickly.
Polka Dot: Climbers/King of the Mountains category - also points based, a mix of climbers checkpoints in the middle of a stages (at the top of climbs) and overall finishing position add points to this classification. The difficulty of the climbs changes the points you are rewarded for cresting them first, second, or third. Smaller/very skinny riders with great endurance chase these.
White: Best Young Rider - Like the GC/Yellow, but for riders under 26 years old.
Lastly, there's a team competition. The team with the lowest combined time wins this one, if leading this category you'll see that team with yellow numbers on their jerseys and other yellow trim (such as helmets or shoes). They take the best three riders from a team to combine for this time.
As far as I'm aware, Eddie Meryxck in 1969 is the only rider to win the GC, climbers, and sprint in the same year. It's just not feasible anymore. If you're in green, there's no way you're winning the others. The only time to hold green and yellow at the same time is the opening few stages. I guess a GC guy could snag polka dot, but that would mean a lot of time on the front of the field, which just isn't common with the way they race these days.
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Bottom photos are of Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemmond, right?
Let’s see how things look after all the cobbles on stage 9. If Nibali, a skilled cobbles racer, has a big gap on Froome then things could get interesting. If not then the Sky train will control the race and it will be boring as hell same as the US Postal years.
I still think Froome is the favorite. They pulled back time in the TTT today on every other GC contender minus Porte...and your take on BMC is spot on. Nibali lost time today and doesn't have the team Sky has.
It would be like having Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin on the same team.
Pit Row
As for Nibali, i think it's good that you havnt seen much of him, he has been focusing on the tdf. But i think he is allready over the hill, still very good but not that good anymore.
It should be a lot of fun though, normally Froome would be topfavorite but with him having done the Giro it is wide open.
And the mountain stages are great to visit especially if you cycle yourself. You can climb the col in the morning and go to the top, and then wait for the riders and tour caravan to pass. Great atmosphere and also nice to combine a day of sporting, watching sports and drinking some wines/beers. Did it for years with a bunch of friends, climbed all the famous cols, nice memories.
as for the winner I think froome but would love to see adam yates to win it.
Sky needed the TTT to take back the time Froome lost in the stage 1 crash. Still, Froome usually has his way in the mountains and takes as many minutes from rivals as he feels he needs. Landa makes me curious. Last year he looked the equal to Froome on the climbs while riding for Sky. Maybe he took the Sky preparations with him to Movistar?
don't get me wrong, I'd love to see gaviria making it difficult for sagan because nobody has since 2012 but I doubt it.
I appreciate the fitness that these guys possess but when the tour de France came to Yorkshire the other year it baffled me as to what all the fuss was about. People saying what a great day they'd had watching it, when all they'd seen was less than 15 seconds worth riders going passed in the pelaton. If that's all I got to see at any MX race I'd be well pissed off.
Post a reply to: Tour de France , who is your pick?