The Tour de France has not panned out as predicted, with neither heavyweight looking dominant. What has gone wrong for the big two?The rearranged 2020 Tour de France was billed as the battle of the super-teams, Manchester City versus Barcelona on two wheels. In the burgundy corner, Team Ineos, the squad of galácticos that have dominated the Tour since 2012, winning seven times with four different riders. In the yellow and black corner, the Dutch upstarts Jumbo-Visma, who have built a team gradually around the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, and put it in a new dimension last year by adding the 2017 Giro d’Italia winner, Tom Dumoulin.Two weeks in, that battle has yet to materialise and it may not happen even...
The Mitchelton-Scott rider, who joins Ineos next season, has arguably been less successful than his twin, Simon, but now he leads the Tour de France this could be his momentThere were two surprises after Wednesday’s finish when Adam Yates pulled on the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, which he wore into the first Pyrenean stage of the race on Saturday. The obvious shock was in the way that Yates was awarded the maillot jaune – the passive verb is important here – when Julian Alaphilippe and his Deceuninck–Quick-Step team made an unlikely unforced error that earned the French favourite a time penalty. More disconcerting perhaps was the fact it has taken the best part of seven professional seasons...
The Tour de France has always made it to Paris on schedule, but Covid-19 means this year’s race will be on a constant knife edge Of all the world’s great sports events, the Tour de France is the only one that goes out to its public. As the late Geoffrey Nicholson wrote, it is the only form of international conflict other than war that takes place on the doorstep. During a global pandemic, the edition that should start in Nice on Saturday is uniquely significant and uniquely risky. The conditional says it all: the 2020 Tour has been in doubt since March, it was postponed in April and it will be on a knife edge as long as it lasts....
Since the summer of 2012, there have been six overall wins and 27 stage wins achieved by British riders in the Tour de France. That domination is now at an endThe abrupt eviction of Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from Sir Dave Brailsford’s Tour de France lineup ensures that, for the first time in several seasons, this year’s race will begin without a past British yellow jersey winner in the peloton.Since 2012, British champions have dominated the three-week race, through Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. That serial success has been interrupted only in 2014 and 2019. Related: Team Ineos: Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas dropped for Tour de France Continue reading...
Achieving clarity while racing the Tour de France for Dave Brailsford with two leaders is bad enough but three would be a very crowded marriage indeedTo understand how it is that six weeks before Chris Froome might have been starting out on his quest for a fifth Tour de France he is contemplating his imminent departure from his team of 10 years, you have only to consider two of Sir Dave Brailsford’s favourite catch phrases. Mission clarity. Compassionate ruthlessness.The unhappy 2012 Tour when Bradley Wiggins and Froome failed to gel perfectly taught Brailsford about mission clarity: make sure your leaders know the hierarchy and be certain they will stick to it. The emergence of a young, thrusting talent in the...