NICE – Defending champion Egan Bernal’s Ineos team, which has been the dominant force in the Tour de France for most of the last decade, sees its supremacy in doubt and this year’s race could be the one that marked a major shift in power in cycling means.
Since Bradley Wiggins’ triumph at the marquee event in 2012, the British team has never faced such a threat as at the start line in the Riviera city of Nice, where Saturday’s three-week race was under the cloud of COVID-19.
The pandemic has forced the tour to drag until the end of the summer vacation and the few races leading up to the event strongly suggest that Dutch team Jumbo-Visma is ready to replace Ineos as the Grand Tour’s top roster.
A changing of the guard this summer is by no means guaranteed. The uncertainty caused by the virus and the steady increase in cases in France over the past few weeks mean there is a real risk that the race will be abandoned if the situation continues to deteriorate or if the peloton is hit hard by positive results.
“We don’t know, nobody knows if we will reach Paris,” said Ineos manager Dave Brailsford on Friday. “To be fair, when it comes to a point where it’s harmful to the drivers and teams, people have to take that into account too. We have to act responsibly and sensibly. “
According to the COVID-19 exclusion rules of the cycling association, teams could be excluded from the race if two of their riders test positive within seven days.
“It is a first miracle that we can start this race, but we want a second miracle to happen, namely the Tour de France in Paris,” said UCI President David Lappartient. “The goal is really to get to Paris.”
Led by 2019 Spanish Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic and Tour de France runner-up Tom Dumoulin, Jumbo-Visma came to the Tour with a roster that could control the race in the mountains. This was an essential element that characterized the Ineos teams in previous years.
Roglic, a former ski jumper from Slovenia, has all the qualities to win this mountainous edition of the tour that will lead the peloton across the five French mountain ranges. As a climber with great downhill skills, he would be the overwhelming favorite if he hadn’t crashed at the Criterium du Dauphine when he led the race earlier this month.
Roglic says he’s fully recovered and insists Dumoulin is in great shape too.
“The thing is, I’m here and I’m at the beginning. This is really good news and it is nice to be here. I’m ready too. We start on Saturday and I’ll just try to do my best and we’ll see how it goes, ”he said. “Looking at Tom, I think he has made great strides and is ready to do his best here. It’s much nicer now to have such a strong man on the team and we’ll try to do the best we can. “
When organizers unveiled the route for the 2020 edition in October, there was little doubt that the 3,484-kilometer hike would make an ideal backdrop for Bernal and his seasoned teammates, including previous winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas.
The pair of former champions, however, were dropped from the Ineos team after preparatory races were below average after the season resumed in early August. There is a silver lining to excluding Froome and Thomas, however. You have made room for the Giro champion Richard Carapaz alongside a group of excellent so-called “domestiques”.
And in her absence, 23-year-old Bernal will not have to assert his authority as he will be the only leader of the team.
“He’s such a young, exciting talent,” said Brailsford. “He’s already won the race, he’s obviously ambitious, but there’s no pressure, it’s a nice position.”
French hopes of producing a domestic Tour winner for the first time in 35 years rest with Thibaut Pinot, who finished second in the Dauphine this month. The Frenchman had to retire from the tour in the immediate vicinity of Paris last year with an injury to his left leg after making the race in the Pyrenees exciting. There he managed to let Bernal fall on inclines and book a prestigious stage win at the top of Tourmalet Berg.
This year’s route with almost 30 climbs over the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central, the Jura and the Vosges and only one time trial uphill fits perfectly with Pinot’s ambition to become the first French winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985.
“I’m stronger in my head, I’m under less pressure,” said Pinot. “Hopefully it can’t be worse than last year. It hardened me, I feel more confident and stronger this year. “
His sports director at Groupama-FDJ, Philippe Mauduit, agreed.
“He’s really back to his best,” said Mauduit.
Whether that’s good enough remains to be seen in three weeks.
