Poor tactics and lack of risk-taking sum up how it has gone badly wrong for Dave Brailsford’s Ineos GrenadiersIn sport, failure can be relative. If Team Ineos were to conclude their 2021 season on Sunday, when the Tour de France ends in Paris, they would be entitled to look back with some pride at a string of stage race wins in May and June that included the Giro d’Italia and the Tours of Romandie, Switzerland and Catalonia, and the Criterium du Dauphiné, the prime warm-up race for the Tour de France. Dave Brailsford’s team dominated those races, taking the Giro in straightforward style and scoring a 1-2-3 at Catalonia.The problem is that in modern-day cycling, success or failure relates largely...
The British cyclist has a mature head on young shoulders, says his former coach and mentorI had been awake for a while waiting for the stage to start, playing through every scenario in my mind and hoping that everything – the course, the weather – went in Tao’s favour. It’s a big emotional moment for people involved in his development and for his own team too, because they have been through a lot this year. Related: Tao Geoghegan Hart's shock Giro d'Italia win 'the stuff of comic books' Related: Giro d'Italia: Geoghegan Hart seals shock win after time-trial – as it happened Related: GB's Tao Geoghegan Hart sensationally claims Giro d'Italia glory after time trial Continue reading...
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 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...