UKH

This is the first time I can remember a proper shake down in prospect rather than just confirmation of form heading to Le Tour.

Hard to see past Roglic but its also hard to see Ineos burn their matches the way they did last week and leave Jumbo Visma with a full pack for the final climbs.  8 rather than 6 man teams will probably favour them there.

Bernal looks to be clear de facto leader at Ineos at the moment, both in terms of results and on the road.  Whether that has an impact on Thomas' (in particular) motivation and preparation remains to be seen.

Interesting to know whether Alaphilippe has trained to be a GT leader over 3 weeks. I think Bernal has a real clear advantage at high altitudes but I think the parcours isn’t as high as it was last year (but haven’t checked so could be wrong). 

NL Jumbo Visma seem to be making all of the headlines, one way or another.....

I'm just waiting for James Knox's first pro win, hope he gets chance to cut loose in the CdD

Depends on whether you take Alaphilipe at his word that he's going for stages and maybe KoM.  DC are nothing if not an opportunistic team so they could animate a few stages.

Thanks for the reminder. So excited bike racing is back! 

Hard to see beyond Roglic, although I'd prefer someone homegrown to win. Am more sympathetic to the movistar guys as well after watching the netflix doc on them.

Bernal or Roglic if I was putting money on it....Ineos look very strong but over the shorter edition it's anyones guess....should be some hard racing I reckon...

Highlights on ITV4 7pm.

Separate to todays result...I think G looks pretty lean....not quite at peak yet...my money will be on him for the tour!

Hard to see G getting a real crack at leadership on the tour - there aren't any TTs which could put him above Bernal in the Ineos pecking order right now, and Bernal is clearly number one at the moment. 

Unlike last year, I can see Ineos having to burn up all their riders in support to get near an increasingly strong and confident Jumbo Visma team.

Good point!

I'm less convinced about Bernal this year though and I think Jumbo Visma will attack him much more....Ineos won't have as much dominance to control the front of the peloton.

Should be a very interesting tour....and a real bonus as I'd given up hope a while back that it would happen this year...

Thomas & Froome - second and third best domestique respectively

Bernal pulled out of the Dauphine.  Didn't see that one coming.

But out training today, is Brailsford playing 4D chess?

Certainly unexpected.

Apparently just cycling from the start back the hotel.

We will see. Ineos looking very poor generally so far.

A very open Tour de France to look forward to?

I thought the problem for Ineos would be too many chiefs and not enough Indians but now the reverse looks more likely. I have no idea what is happening.

Enjoying the ITV4 coverage, never seen the Dauphine before. We really are spoilt these days.

My suspicion is that it will be as tedious as most this past decade (excluding the last one), just with a different colour train at the front. Roglic is looking peerless at the moment, and has learnt how to ride a grand tour after winning the Vuelta last year. 

Will still end up watching the entire thing of course.

Roglic has now withdrawn after yesterday's injuries.

Wellwell - hands up who predicted that

Fantastically exciting final day, loads of questions ahead of the Tour. Brilliant!

Froome and Thomas dropped from TdF.

And I thought there would be a surfeit of Ineos riches.

That's another one I didn't see coming.  Froome, yes, Thomas not so much - especially ahead of Kwiato who's form is ok but not his best.  Good to see at least there's one Welshman still in.

As a side bar, I wonder whether Carapaz sees tour deputy as a step up from Vuelta or Giro leader ?

Chris Froome left out of Team Ineos Tour de France squad - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/53830140

I think its the right call and I can see Thomas doing well on the Giro. Whats indisputable now is that for the first time since 2010 there will be no British leader of Team Sky/Ineos. 

It's very sad. Sky has morphed from a predominantly British team, to the nationality equivalent of non-denominational Ineos. Which makes it just like other teams (from a British perspective.)

Whatever your views on Sky/Brailsford/doping/non/doping/ etc it was good to have an essentially British Team to support (or despair over, pick your poison. ) 

Ineos team for TdF :

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

Looks very weak compared to previous years, especially if you consider that Bernal might be carrying a back injury.

Jumbo Visma Look nailed on for the tour !

Its certainly disappointing but don't despair. Team Ineos have rebranded to Ineos Grenadiers.

https://www.teamineos.com/article/ineos-grenadiers-set-out-grand-tour-plans...

Any one goes past them, get the domestiques to lob a high explosive grenade, that'll slow 'em down. Looking like dropping out of the podium places? No problem. Brailsfords car will be fitted with grenade launchers and can fire a volley of HE up the side of a hill to set off a landslide bringing the stage and the leaders to a grinding halt. Wondering what food is in the satchel? Forget food, a couple of white phosphorus grenades deployed at the right time will get the team leaders arse out of the saddle and shooting up the road like the scalded skinny mean machine he is!!!

10 out of 30 Ineos riders are UK or Ireland, which is still probably top of any top tier outfit.

I'm afraid it doesn't count for me unless they are at the pointy end.

The percentage of British riders in the Sky / Ineos team has stayed pretty static. The team size averages around 30, it was as low as 26 in 2010 and as high as 33 in 2018. It is currently 30. The fewest number of British riders in the team was in 2015 when there were 7, the highest was 10 in 2018. There are currently 9.

You can't argue that Thomas and Froome weren't given the chance ! Actually British riders rarely make up the majority of the team Sky/Ineos at the TdF.  From 2012 until this year, British representation has gone: 3,3,2,5,4,3,2,2,1

Just announced that Ineos have signed Adam Yates.

That's great news. An exciting talent. I hope he isn't relegated to Domestique too often and is allowed to have a crack at the GTs as they come round.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/adam-yates-signs-for-team-ineos/

That's interesting.  It's been rumoured for a while.  At least I'll be able to tell which twin is which now !

Not sure where it leaves Mitchelton Scott's change to GC focus ? They've lost a few good riders recently. 

I think he was an exciting talent but he's lost his way. Whether Ineos can turn that around (or he can turn it around at Ineos) is anybody's guess. I wonder if he'll get leadership opportunities at shorter stage races and be a domestique deluxe at grand tours although that hasn't always been how Ineos/Sky worked in the past. As the article says, there just seem to be too many further up the GT pecking order.

Up until recently,  Gee's role as super domestique don't appear to have harmed him in getting GT leadership.  Nor Froome in 2012.  Ineos are likely to be pretty ruthless with leadership allocation so if he is hitting the numbers, I'm sure he'll get his chances.