Tour de France 2024 - this time it’s personal

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122302585#Comment_122302585

Yeah, I find myself really liking him for some reason. Maybe it's because he's such an antidote to that d**k of a DS/ owner he has.

andyd12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122301489#Comment_122301489

I was looking at backing either to win a stage.

Bettiol is 4/5, Healy is 10/11 on Paddypower. Not worth the bother

Dodge

disgraceful odds!

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122299502#Comment_122299502

Agree. He has no lead out. I hope Fabio Jakobsen has a good

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122302757#Comment_122302757

Healy might be worth a punt for S1 at 33/1, although god knows what happens here. Does Pog try and take yellow immediately? Does a strong break go up the road and the GC guys let them go?

andyd12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122303495#Comment_122303495

I was looking at the same. Odds get much more attractive when selecting individual stage winner. Difficult to call however.

Throw a tenner on Ben

eagle eye

WVA, MDVP and Magnus Cort would be my picks for that stage.

There'll definitely be a break. It's not a hard enough stage for the GC guys to do anything.

retalivity

Listening to a few podcasts, there's a feeling that UAE will go balls out on S1 to test where Jonas is at, or maybe try and catch anyone cold.

MangleBadger

Very difficult to pick a velogames team. A lot of competitively priced options. Also do I go patriotic and select Sam and Ben or do not select them to have different options to a lot of other boardsies?

Many decisions.

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305846#Comment_122305846

And also what they did to Oropa in the Giro too, and that took out a few rivals.

NeedMoreGears

Had hoped for a top ten on Velogames but I now see eleven entries so it’s looking doubtful 😕

Dr. Bre

I wouldn’t go near Sam in the velogames. He might get a stage but can’t see him being a points machine

MangleBadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306542#Comment_122306542

A stage win isn't a bad return for 8 points. Bettiol, Carapaz, Healy, Ciccone are all 8 points, and they may come nowhere near winning a stage

GandhiwasfromBallyfermot

Lotto Destiny were frustratingly close to fielding a Belgian National Team!

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306696#Comment_122306696

I think they all have a way better chance than Bennett at winning a stage.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305846#Comment_122305846

Why would they try and test him on an easy stage like that? Stage 4 is the time to test him.

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306813#Comment_122306813

It's his first day racing after a horror crash 3 months ago, you'd imagine that Jonas will come in undercooked, try to hang on and ride into some form for the last week.

And the stage itself is over 200k with nearly 4000m of climbing - not sure where the 'easy' part of it is.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306968#Comment_122306968

There's no climb over 7.5% and those steeper ones are very short. The longest and second longest climbs are near the start and they are 12km at 5.4% and 10km at 4.6%. The next longest is the last one which is 7km at 4.7%.

The two steeper climbs are 6km and 5km and they are 7.5% and 6.5%.

Its an easy stage for GC riders, nobody is getting in trouble on a stage like that. Perfect stage for puncheurs.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307514#Comment_122307514

Isay it's the perfect stage to test him. He's absolutely fine on the big climbs. Ride to power meteonomically. This stage will be perfect for pogacars ability to consistently explode and get ahead .

Its repeated efforts too. What's his desce ring going to be like after months out if racing too.

Even Jonas said so himself last year that this type of stage is where he would worry about pogacar

MangleBadger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306767#Comment_122306767

Possibly but they could also easily never make it into a successful break and Sam could pick up a few top 3s in sprints.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307748#Comment_122307748

All the teams will be in great shape. Visma will just keep up a high pace if they try anything.

Yes Pog is capable of doing it on his own but if he does he'll be without teammates.

Do you really want to go all out on the first stage of a tour. If he does go for it he'll want to win it and he'll face very stiff competition for the win.

Does he want the yellow jersey this early? If he does this it's not just affecting Vingegaard, it's affecting every GC contender in the race and changing what'll happen in the high mountain stages.

If he wants to test Vingegaard it's stage four that'll tell how Vingegaard is feeling.

If Vingegaard isn't fine it's on the high mountains that he'll suffer. That's the early mountain stages because he could be better later in the Tour.

So I'd be of the opinion you go for it on stage four.

Weepsie

Stage 4 is as early as a big mountain will ever be. It'll be week 3 before I think anything in the big mountains will reveal anything, just like other years. Coming back from injury it's been the later big mountains that have been problematic, not the first week or 2 of them.

He will be as you say fresh. The visma team isn't as strong this year, and wout is also not long back on the bike either.

lawrencesummers

very little talk of carlos rodrieguez here.
maybe its my recent watching of the netflix show but hes got a very good combination of youth, experience and been active pretty well this season with some good results.

its still a team that doesnt have any clear leader and pidcock i dont think has the maturity while thomas hasnt got the legs and bernal probably doesnt know himself what hes capable of.

Big questions still hang over a cyclists ability to perform at the top level in back to back GT’s but the fact that pog didnt have to go far into the red over the course of the giro might help.

Hopefully we get a bit more than two contenders near the top, people like hindley, rodriguez, roglic can make a decent race of it!

Squidgy Black

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307966#Comment_122307966

Was listening to G and Luke Rowe’s podcast last night where they went through the team and what they thought of it, the overall consensus was that Carlos was the leader, but even they kept talking about this narrative of how any of G, Bernal, Pidcock and even De Plus could be GC contenders depending on how it shakes out. Which personally I think is the big problem with that squad, they don’t have the domestiques to just dedicate themselves to one single leader, too many egos.

breezy1985

I think Ineos will be happy with stage wins and if someone finds himself in a top 5 or some kind of jersey they will go for that.

I think in general they need to get behind Pidcock, bring in some other good British riders and be a real British team again. They just seem so listless these days.

retalivity

Id say thomas is just covering himself. If they get a few stages in, **** happens but thomas finds himself in decent form and position, maybe he'll backdoor a top10/5/3. But nominally, id presume its all in for rodrigues

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307966#Comment_122307966

Pidcock has too many plates spinning. Mtb, cx,one day races to be a gc leader. If he wants to be he needs to drop some of it

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122308508#Comment_122308508

if Pidcock wasnt a brit in a british team id be fairly sure they wouldnt consider him as a GC option for a second.

Weepsie

I don't think they do consider him a gc guy, at least not yet

Brian?

He won a mountain stage from a breakaway - I don’t know why anyone considers him a GC contender. He’s never even won a week long tour, has he even tried?

I saw on the Netflix thing he reckons he can win the Tour, he’s deluded