Ineos to unleash four-pronged attack

BREST (France) • Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic are the clear favourites for this year's Tour de France, but an aggressive and star-studded Ineos-Grenadiers team may hold the key to the race, which sets out from the port city of Brest today.

UAE Team Emirates' Pogacar blew Roglic away in the final time trial to win the race last year, and the 22-year-old has also triumphed in the Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of Slovenia stage races in the lead-up to the Tour with dominant rides in the mountains.

Team Jumbo-Visma's Roglic, 31, meanwhile, beat his young fellow Slovenian at the Tour of the Basque country in their only head-to-head duel in a stage race this season, more than two months ago.

Roglic has not raced since late April, looking to spare himself ahead of the Tour as the top contenders avoid each other, making the outcome of the three-week event starting from Brittany, the homeland of French cycling, harder to guess.

Pogacar's Svengali, Team UAE Emirates chief executive Mauro Gianetti, said yesterday the champion he unearthed and recruited was ready to defend his title.

"Ineos are going to be the favourites as they always are and they have a very strong team again this year," he said. "But we won it last year and we are going to try and win it again."

Geraint Thomas has been rediscovering his 2018 Tour-winning form, and he will share the leadership of Ineos-Grenadiers with last year's Giro d'Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart and Richard Carapaz, who won the Giro in 2019.

Richie Porte, who came third on the Tour last year, is also in the squad, which will no doubt be looking to blow up the race.

While Pogacar has shown more individual brilliance than Thomas, Carapaz or Geoghegan Hart, he may suffer if the British outfit try to attack him with several riders.

"We won't win this Tour by sitting on the wheels. We have the team to make it a racers' race, take the initiative, seize every opportunity and make our opposition focus for every kilometre of every stage," Ineos team manager Dave Brailsford said. "We have changed our race philosophy this season to being more open and aggressive. Our performances have built all season and a joy of racing has infused the whole team."

With his climbing abilities, Ecuador's Carapaz could emerge as the team leader as the Tour progresses. But as long as Thomas, Geoghegan Hart and Porte are in the mix, their rivals will need to keep an eye on all of them.

Total distance, over 21 stages, to be tackled by 184 riders during the Tour de France which ends on July 18.

Team Jumbo-Visma

Best Tour de France result: 2nd (2020)

Already a seasoned Grand Tour rider, Roglic has a strong team at his disposal and like Pogacar is also at ease on long and short ascents. Also a good time triallist. But he has "bad days", the worst of which cost him the Tour de France title last year, when he cracked on the final time trial.

Team Ineos-Grenadiers

Best Tour de France result: 1st (2018)

A track cyclist turned road rider, the experienced Thomas can sustain long efforts in the mountains and is a superior time triallist. Can count on the best team of the Tour. But he might not like brutal attacks with constant changes in pace on the climbs that will come from Pogacar.

Team Ineos-Grenadiers

Best Tour de France result: 13th (2020)

A natural climber, Carapaz will be hard to get rid of in the mountain stages and he should be at ease when the race takes the peloton above 2,000m - which will happen four times this year. He will need to prove himself early in the race if he wants to be the designated leader at Ineos-Grenadiers. Not as strong a time triallist as the other main contenders.

REUTERS

Before the race reaches the Alps, world champion Julian Alaphilippe of France and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel look set to battle it out for the first yellow jersey in the opening stage from Brest to Landerneau, which ends with a short climb that suits both riders.

Should van der Poel win, he would find himself wearing the yellow jersey on his Tour debut, a feat his grandfather, the late Raymond Poulidor, never achieved despite finishing on the podium eight times and winning seven stages.

Four-time champion Chris Froome is back on the Tour after a one-year hiatus, but he has little hope of winning the race this year as the Briton has yet to regain his past form following a horror crash at the Criterium du Dauphine.

Another British rider, sprinter Mark Cavendish, also returns after three years away, earning a late call-up from his Deceuninck-Quick Step team, although he is likely to struggle to add to his remarkable 30 stage victories.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE