It kind of makes sense for him in the sense that he has barely raced this year. He doesn't really seem to go for anything except TdF. If not for Remco, he'd probably win easily. He still might though.

Don't think Remco is going to be on the level of those 2 especially after he did a few classics and put a lot of focus on the WC. Plus he's going to lose time in the TTT

I don't think it's very unlikely, doing the Tour + Vuelta double GC is very difficult, Roglic has had the much better preparation, and Vingegaard is a huge questionmark, last year he was completely cooked for the rest of the season after the Tour win, but obviously if he's near his best he should be better than Roglic. I can't imagine he's at his best, however, given he can't have had much more than 2-3 weeks of preparation considering he needed time to relax after the Tour. It depends on whether he can still carry some of the form from the Tour, but that seems unlikely to last for this long + another three weeks from now. But he recovers like nobody else so who knows. For the team's winning chances having two captains is a big advantage, though, so it's preferable for both of them if they're both good.

I heard that Vingegaard is actually the defending Tour winner with the most wins in the spring season in many years (though that's mostly because he dominated most of the few races he did). However, given that it has allegedly been the plan for him to do the Tour - Vuelta double since late last year, it makes sense to have had a sparse spring program.

Many great GC riders focused more or less on the Grand Tours only. Vingegaard is tailored for these races, whereas both Evenepoel and Pogacar are far better all-rounders and can win virtually any race. But they are the exceptions to the rule, Vingegaard's race calendar is much more similar to that of "traditional" GC guys like Froome or Contador (who, similar to Vingegaard, were the clearly strongest GC rider at their peak).

It's definitely easier to do both WC and Vuelta than the Tour + Vuelta double, and the classics were a long time ago. All else equal, Evenepoel has had a better preparation than Vingegaard, whilst Roglic in theory should've had the best of the three.

Ayuso will also be very interesting to follow, and maybe Geraint Thomas can (once again) set the doubters straight.

Yeah I can see Roglic beating Vingegaard. At his best Vingegaard is the big favorite but that's far from a given and we have no way of knowing what his form is like since he hasn't raced since the Tour.

That is the only competition Roglic has is his own team-mate backing up after a Tour win. The Vuelta field is terrible.

Carnage on stage 1. Incredible that they had to ride in the dark like that

What a weird stage to watch. Not enjoyable at all. Quick step literally arrived in the dark whereas the first teams arrived in bright day light, what an idea to make a time trial start for some teams at the same time as sunset

Crazy to start a stage that late in the day.

Doubt that it makes much of a difference in the end, main contenders were just looking to get through it unscathed.

I think when they scheduled it they were hoping for dry conditions and a semi-sunset type finish but instead got rain and slippery conditions. I guess they rolled the dice.

I’ve tried really hard to get into the Vuelta and I did enjoy the time trial the other day, but I think I’m a TdF and Olympica cycling fan rather than a year round one

It would be a nice story if Kuss could hold on to win this one albeit I expect Roglic or Remco to ride him down

I would like to see Remco peaking for Le Tour next year if possible

Cycling is beginning to feel like Jumbo are playing Pro Cycling Manager on beginner level difficulty.

If they win the third GT of the year, all three with different riders, with the final podium being the three GT winning Jumbo riders - who all won a mountain stage... The level of team dominance is unprecedented.

It was good to see that Vingegaard is at a high level, after the TT I was worried the trajectory was going the wrong way. But winning on Tourmalet was a statement.

As a Dane, obviously I'd rather see Vingegaard do the double than Kuss winning (although none I can think of would be more deserving, he has basically saved previous GT wins, particularly for Roglic), but it's beginning to seem unlikely. The "problem" is that there's no real threat from any non-Jumbo riders so Vingegaard and Roglic will probably not attack any more unless Kuss collapses. With Remco and Soler out of the equation, it's difficult to see how any of the others can really pose a threat. Ayuso will probably fight hard for a podium, but it seems unlikely he'll be strong enough to put nearly 3 mins into Kuss.

I only caught the second half of the coverage for yesterday. What happened to Remco early on? Just dropped or Sth else? He was 7 mins down before the final climb!

Just had a bad day.

Jumbo the most obviously radioactive team since us postal

Good for Remco to come back so well today.

It's mind-boggling to me that Remco lost 27 minutes on stage 13. He looked unstoppable yesterday and super strong again today. Going to check out some highlights since there was no regular TV broadcast (I assume it was on Peacock).

He sat up when he was like 5-6 minutes down. Could have probably limited his losses to under 10 minutes I'd guess but at that point it makes more sense for him to take more time to be free to get in breaks for stage wins + mountain jersey, don't think he cares too much if he finishes 10th or 20th in GC..

Kuss helped Roglic win the Giro and Vingegaard win the Tour. So for his birthday they decide to drop him on the final climb of the stage.

I found that absolutely mind boggling within the culture of the sport. Just no need for it from a race situation perspective. Total dick moves by them. It's like the star QB who ****s his best mate's girl just before they're supposed to get married, just to prove he can do it

but then, almost as puzzling, Jonas didn't compete for the stage win to get the 10 sec time bonus?

How to tell your teammate "you're just a domestique and all you'll ever be is a domestique" without saying a word.

But maybe they sang happy birthday for him after the stage and handed him a cake..

I must say I was super bummed out for Remco after the Tourmalet stage cause I felt like we had an all-timer fun situation taken away from us but this has been overall super fun

I stick by this pre-Vuelta comment. I would have preferred Vingegaard to win it. No offence to Kuss. Although Kuss was there for all three GTs so both Roglic and Vingegaard probably thought he was due but honestly he is there as a workhorse - he can go off to another team and get the glory. If Roglic or Vingegaard were truly bosses of the sport they should have attacked him at every stage to win it.

When it comes down to it with Roglic set to leave he just wasn't good enough to beat Vingegaard. It will be interesting if he rides the tour next year but I really can't see him doing that as Vingegaard and Pogacar are too good so he will stick to the Giro/Vuelta double

I'm catching up on some of the goings on and it's going to be a crazy offseason.

I get Roglic wanting to leave, it had to be hard to check his ego and not ride the Tour so Jumbo could go all in on VingeGOAT. And then to check it again to not (potentially? likely?) take the Vuelta away from Kuss.

But if the rumored merger between Jumbo and Soudal Quickstep comes off and Remco is added to the mix in Roglic's place? The term embarassment of riches comes to mind. Edit: Actually, Remco might become a free agent in that event. Maybe he jumps to Ineos or Bora?