Holy ****. BOTH Geraint Thomas and Froome are left out of the team and will not be going to the Tour. Potentially the final blow that spells the end of an era of British Sky/INEOS riders dominating the Tour de France. I was at Champs Elysees 8 years ago when Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour. They absolutely blew the competition away that year, Froome got second 3 mins behind Wiggins in the end (but had already looked like the better climber) and Nibali was third more than 6 minutes behind. Crazy to think this could be the end.
Perhaps they can come back strong next year, after all, 34 and 35 isn't much for pro cyclists. Would be interesting to watch Froome compete against his old team when he goes to Israel Startup Nation and I can't imagine they won't be building a team around him with the goal of challenging for the Tour. The question is more whether Froome can come back to where he was.

INEOS team for the Tour will be:

Andrey Amador
Egan Bernal
Richard Carapaz
Jonathan Castroviejo
Michal Kwiatkowski
Luke Rowe
Pavel Sivakov
Dylan van Baarle

That's bullshit. Some other team should pick them up. Maybe Trek–Segafredo

Chris Froome and Thomas not in the Ineos Tour De France squad.

I don't see how it's bullshit. Thomas and Froome just don't have the form to compete at the Tour so they're not going, seems logical to me. If Ineos thought they had a shot at winning they'd take them in a heartbeat. Instead Thomas will ride the Giro and Froome the Vuelta so they both get some more time to get in form before leading a GT.
If anyone I feel bad for Carapaz who goes from undisputed leader at the Giro to probably super domestique at the Tour unless he can actually challenge Bernal (and Sivakov I guess depending on how he'll look).
Also Froome is already confirmed to move to Israel Start-Up Nation next for next year.

Look I'm honestly coming from the perspective that neither of them have too many tours left in them so I just want to see them compete in the best race of the year as much as I can.

ya it majorly sucks for carapaz

Demare won both the final stage and the race yesterday in Wallonie when he overtook Philippe Gilbert in a great uphill sprint.

In the coming days a lot of national championships will be held to see who gets to call themselves national champion and ride in the respective national flag jerseys for the next year.

Tomorrow the Tour de France begins.



The stage is a pretty straightforward stage that will almost surely be decided between the quickest riders in the peloton in a sprint final. Having said that, the first days in the peloton of the Tour is always hectic and stressful, so chaos can ensue and surprises might occur. We saw that happen last year when Mike Theunissen surprisingly won the first stage after the person, who Theunissen was supposed to help in the sprint, Groenewegen, had crashed and he got his own chance and took it.

On paper, I think the three favorites for tomorrow are Sam Bennett, Caleb Ewan and Nizzolo, all of which have been in great form leading up to the Tour, with all of them sharing stage wins in Wallonie and Nizzolo also winning the European Championships. I would have also called out Wout van Aert as a possible winner because he is a great sprinter and arguably the most in form rider of the peloton, but he has said several times that he is 100% dedicated to helping his team win the GC, so I doubt he'll go for it.

Another interesting story about this year's Tour sprinters is whether anyone can finally dethrone Peter Sagan in the points classification, after he has won the competition 7 times in a row (except in '17 when he was disqualified from the race). He isn't as far ahead of the competition as he was a few years ago, but a 4th place in Milano-Sanremo suggests he's also not in particularly poor form. I hope he will have a good Tour, he is always someone who adds colour to the race, both on and off the bike, and both figuratively and literally.

let us TdF

Can't wait to see Movistar movistar

ngl I got very excited reading previews and will be tuning in but isn't it ****ing mental that they are running this right now. It can't be a long price the race isn't completed

Loool Astana the clowns

Race dangerous riders decide to take it easy, Astana doesn't agree try to push in a downhill, Miguel Angel Lopez fall after 1 minute

It was a quite spectacular crash. Incredible technique to not go down at first, but unfortunately for him a sign/hedge was in the way.

Pinot never learns

I think the next stage is a perfect chance for Porte to attack and get a 30 to 45 second lead on his rivals as those last 2 climbs would be similar to Willunga Hill at the Tour Down Under that Porte always excels at and I think he needs to get in early and be on the front foot as I can't see him similarly attacking later on in the tour.

Crazy first stage with an absurd amount of crashes.

A chaotic sprint where none of the prerace favorites managed to live up to expectations.
Too bad world champion Mads Pedersen with a great sprint couldn't win in the end (no less so considering I had a small bet on him to win it @ 41). But it was another Scandinavian who stole the show (and the yellow jersey): veteran rider Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, who has previously won 3 stages at the Tour along with many other impressive results (including two monument victories).

Kristoff will get to ride in yellow tomorrow which will likely be another crazy day. A wild second stage with real mountains. It's difficult to say who will win, it could be a break of strong riders, it could be the sprinters who can climb, and it is pretty much a perfect finish for riders like Alaphilippe or van Aert. Anything can happen.

Nice is dry and sunny today, so the circuit is not going to be an ice skating ring like yesterday, at least.

Fwiw there is a not-categorized climb just before the finish (col des 4 chemins) that will probably be the king maker. The downhill to the finish is tricky.

Gaudu looks finished after his crash yesterday, FDJ can't catch a break.

That Sunweb rider showed a lot of heart, nearly nipped Alaphilippe at the line.

ASO got what they wanted on the second stage when Alaphilippe won a great win ahead of the young and talented former junior World- and European champion Marc Hirschi and an Adam Yates who looked really good compared to just 2 weeks ago in Dauphine.


Yesterday was quite uneventful with the mass sprint finish never being in danger and nobody except a couple of riders chasing the polka dots being interested in the break. In a crazy turn of events, Anthony Perez managed to take the virtual polka dot jersey from Cosnefroy, but he crashed and couldn't go on so Cosnefroy gets to keep it. Rough day for Perez. Caleb Ewan won the sprint after a phenomenal effort where he overtook Sam Bennett metres before the finishing line in a lightning fast sprint.

I'm annoyed that Trek decided that Mads Pedersen should ride for Edward Theuns considering how strong he looked on the first stage. This would have been a great opportunity for him to win.


Today could be a very interesting stage, with an uphill finish up a category 1 climb. On paper it looks like it could be a good day for a breakaway, but I do have some concerns about such a scenario because I reckon Alaphilippe and Quickstep will do everything in their power to keep the yellow jersey (and, unless the GC guys make the race really hard, it's also a stage Alaphilippe could even win, even though I doubt it). So for a break to hold, I can't see it being any of the guys who didn't drop time, but that group of people overlaps a lot with the guys who could realistically win tomorrow from a break.
It will almost certainly be an interesting stage, and we might see some signs about which race profiles are in form - and who isn't.

I think the teams looking to win the Tour will want to secure yellow in the first week this year in case of cancellation so I don't think we'll see a break ride into yellow today. Most likely we'll see the break reeled in because the final climb seems relatively easy, ending in a sprint from a reduced group of favorites which gives Alaphilippe a good shot at a 2nd stage win. Roglic in Dauphine form also a very good shout of course and I like Pogacar/Higuita who have looked lively at the finishes of stage 1 and 2 and can climb with the best.

Anyone think Quintana is a chance today to win?

A small chance I'd say, he's less punchy than some other riders that I expect to finish together and the climb is probably not hard enough for him to get away.

Higuita couldn't quite keep up in the end but 1st, 2nd and 5th seems decent enough. Alaphilippe doesn't seem to quite have the same form as last year, I think he'll lose yellow on thursday.

What an interesting stage.

I don't want to overreact but van Aert would win the green jersey if he was allowed to ride for himself all Tour.