Grand Slam or Sham? Tour de France 2018

[Janik]

Oh no, there is no formal reason for WADA to inform ASO or the wider world at all. That is the UCI's job. And they should not leak the news ahead of them being ready to announce it properly. But an embargoed heads up to relevant organisations of what WADA had told them, and the likely consequences would have seemed wise. Unless that happened, and these are all political games, which is quite possible.

[longeared]

Given the dysfunctional way in which the sport is administered I would say that is very possible.

[Kevin S]

Yes, I'm relieved. I'm relieved that the Tour can start without having a pending decision hanging over it and I'm relieved that the best riders will face off in the biggest race.

Yes, I know that Sky are no angels. And of course I don't buy any 'completely exonerated' line. I think they push the rules to the absolute limits and I certainly don't respect them for that - we only need to look at their use of TUEs.

But I still want them to be there, Froome and all.

[ursus arctos]

Let’s hope that the race matches this for drama.

[ad hoc]

Part of me would like to believe that Froome isn't bent, but none of me can for a moment believe that Sky are clean, a fact that ultimately completely colours my attitude to Froome. The last rider who i had such mixed feelings about, sort of half belief in the myth, was Lance Armstrong

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

If only Sky were members of the MPCC.

[ursus arctos]

Kelderman out of Le Tour

Kelderman has been ruled out of the Tour de France after injuring his right shoulder in a crash during Sunday's Dutch national championships road race. The Dutchman had been due to line out in the Sunweb team for La Grande Boucle alongside Tom Dumoulin and Michael Matthews.

Kelderman had surgery to fix a broken right collarbone from a crash during Tirreno-Adriatico in March, and his crash on Sunday caused the plate in the collarbone to bend. Following scans on Monday, Team Sunweb confirmed that Kelderman will be unable to participate in the Tour.

And Cofidis have left Bouhanni out of their Tour squad.

[longeared]

If only Sky were members of the MPCC.

The MPCC is well intentioned but the reality is it's a crock of shit. We've seen several teams join and then voluntarily leave as soon as they breach one of the principles and in Bardiani's case rejoin with the openly stated intention of using membership to try and get a Giro wild card. Sky will probably argue now that if they were in the MPCC then Froome would have had to sit out the season so far when he ultimately faced no sanction, so that's even less likely to get them to join. It's a kind of student politics organisation really.

On team selection; I don't get why Dumoulin is doing the Tour. He's got the Giro in his legs and this course doesn't obviously suit him. I can only assume Sunweb are using this as some sort of early training for next year to refamilarise him with the patterns of the race and various climbs - he's only got past the third stage once since 2014.

I assume Bouhanni's agent is busy tonight looking for a new team. Lower quality replacement for Ewan at Mitchelton?

[ursus arctos]

I have been asking the same question about Dumoulin. It really doesn’t make much sense.

I think Mitchelton are too committed to mateship to consider Bouhanni.

[Kevin S]

Bouhanni has the elite humility thing though.

[Kevin S]

Rowe makes the cut.



Team Sky
Chris Froome
Egan Bernal
Jonathan Castroviejo
Michal Kwiatkowski
Gianni Moscon
Wout Poels
Luke Rowe
Geraint Thomas

As fearsome as it's always been. Led by the holder of all three Grand Tours, with support in the heights from Poels, Thomas and Bernal - Kwia and Moscon can set the pace on lower slopes. Castroviejo and Luke Rowe are the workhorses on the flatter days, and several of these riders have experience over the cobbles.

Controversy will dog them wherever they go, of course. Froome has never had an easy ride from the spectators on the roadside and you suspect this year it could be harder still.

[Kevin S]

Cofidis
Christophe Laporte
Dimitri Claeys
Nicolas Edet
Jesus Herrada
Daniel Navarro
Anthony Perez
Julien Simon
Anthony Turgis

Since Nacer Bouhanni has fallen out with another team, the responsibility for sprint wins falls on Christophe Laporte this year. He's had successes in SSRs (© Mark Cavendish) but this is a huge step up for him. Jesus Herrada is an encouraging signing. He's been in the Movistar train for a long old time, but will now be a bigger fish in a smaller Cofidis pond. Having said that, this team will almost certainly be at the Vuelta too and he may be saving his best efforts (thinking of a breakaway win on a tough day) for that race instead - but let's see.

Basically we've come to expect nothing from this team, and still felt cheated by their presence at the Tour.

[Kevin S]

Dimension Data

Mark Cavendish
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Tom-Jelte Slagter
Mark Renshaw
Reinardt Jense van Rensberg
Serge Pauwels
Julien Vermote
Jay Robert Thomson

Stage wins, stage wins and more stage wins is what DiDa will be after at the Tour. They've done well out of it before, through Cav and EBH as well as the absent Teklehaimanot and Cummings. Another team who will want to compete on every stage.

[longeared]

I really don't get why Sky have chosen Rowe over Dylan van Baarle. Van Baarle is a better climber, better time triallist, at least as good over cobbles, is in better form (he won the Dutch TT championship last week) and has had a stronger season overall. Rowe's performances since coming back from injury suggest that getting round will be an achievement, which is quite a gamble to take given smaller team sizes. Either the management must really value his skills as a road captain or they've fallen out with van Baarle.

[Kevin S]

Fortuneo - Samsic

Warren Barguil
Maxime Bouet
Elie Gesbert
Romain Hardy
Kevin Ledanois
Amael Moinard
Laurent Pichon
Florian Vachon

Barguil managed a creditable 10th place last year and will be the team's GC hope this time around. If it goes awry early on then the polka dot jersey will probably become his aim. It's not a supporting cast of household names by any stretch - this team has struggled to win anything this year (Bouet won a stage in a fourth-level race, and that is literally it). This does not compare well with the not-to-be-confused-because-their-sponsor-used-to-sponsor-this-team Vital Concept (who have six wins, three by French sprinter Bryan Coquard), who were disgruntled at not being given a wild card.

[Kevin S]

Sunweb

Søren Kragh Andersen
Nikias Arndt
Tom Dumoulin
Laurens ten Dam
Simon Geschke
Chad Haga
Michael Matthews
Edward Theuns

Michael Matthews gives this team a very strong second objective to aim for in this race, should the GC not work out for them. As they say, the primary goal is to keep Dumoulin in overall contention - this is the team's first crack at the GC of the Tour de France (going back into the Argos-Shimano days) but they have a very useful veteran in Laurens ten Dam - though Kelderman is a big loss.

[Kevin S]

I think this is the lot now!




UAE Team Emirates

Darwin Atapuma
Kristijan Durasek
Roberto Ferrari
Alexander Kristoff
Marco Marcato
Dan Martin
Rory Sutherland
Oliveiro Troia

This is the team's second year under the new ownership and the Emiratis spent a lot of money after clearly getting a taste for cycling glory. They brought in Dan Martin and Alexander Kristoff. Dan Martin will be looking at getting up as high as possible on the GC and Kristoff is here for the sprints. While it was a difficult start to the year some wins have been coming and June was a good month for them, Martin taking a stage at the Dauphine as well as the team picking up three other wins. Kristoff won the sprint in Frankfurt in May to show he's not completely lost his touch either. Interesting mix of riders - the three Italians still reflect their previous incarnation as the Lampre team but they are becoming more and more international.

[Kevin S]

https://twitter.com/RenaudB31/status...344832513?s=19

https://twitter.com/RenaudB31/status/1014539583344832513?s=19

[ursus arctos]

Gallopin will start the Tour despite crashing badly during the French national championships

[longeared]

Important for Bardet that, Gallopin is a useful asset in the TTT and can be handy in the mountains.

Team presentation is currently taking place, on Eurosport for anyone brave enough to watch. I see they're having it in La Roche-sur-Yon this time rather than as a son-et-lumiere at le Puy du Fou like they normally do for starts in the Vendee.

The roadbook has appeared online for anyone interested, amuse yourself at the thought of Sky having to stay in a Best Western all weekend.

[ursus arctos]

It’s an unusual Best Western

[Gawpus]

Now that Kev's been kind enough to give a rundown of the teams, if anybody's interested in joining the fantasy league, here's the details once again:

fantasy.road.cc/

League ID to join is 78309.

[longeared]

First look at Gorka Izagirre's Spanish champions jersey.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Not so sure about the shorts...

[Kevin S]

Well, it's not the proper Spanish champion's jersey but actually making it white will mean he stands out from his team mates, and there's no mistaking what it is, so that'll do for me.