Tour de France 2020 - 22:00

[el Galactico]

The Tour de France will start in one week. The Galacticos will start at 22h again.

Goals are pretty much the same as for the Giro:
- 2 stages
- GC Top 3
- put pressure on Fontaine

Secured spots in the lineup for the following riders:

# 1 Marco de Luca
# 2 Felipe Flores Nyuti
# 3 Rafael Ruiz Cabal
# 4 Cristobal Yanez

Probable other starters:

Alberto Urrutia
Ricardo Diaz Romero
Daniel Haas
Martin Roux
Alejandro Betancur
Daniel Castillo

At the moment it looks like it will be a fight until the last day between Castillo & Betancur for the last spot in the team. Low chances that both of them will start like at the Giro but this will also depend on the other teams starting here & the last training.

So who is in?

[Robyklebt]

Anti Galacticos, what's with this non-alphabetical thing? Yanez at no 4, pff

[L RSV]

Most likely I will participate here.

It's too late for me, but 10:00 wouldn't work well with work, as well as 14. 19:00 would collide with dinner...
so it will be 22:00 again. Or no Tour.

Line-Up:
Two options:

All exept Brian --> Very expensive. Even more than GIRO. No sprinter, a lot of sprint stages.
All exept Markel --> only expensive. Brian would be in, which is useless. No sprinter neither . Markel skipped training today, so he doesn't really seem to be motivated to ride TdF

I think it will depend on the last training this month. If he takes it, he is in If not

[Bear]

Most likely no TDF for Hamish and Co. I will be on bike holidays myself for about 8 days. I don’t like missing almost half the stages.

[el Galactico]

So final lineup is out. Daniel Castillo had to stay at home. His atrocious training in the past months made the decision easier.

# 1 Marco de Luca
# 2 Felipe Flores Nyuti
# 3 Rafael Ruiz Cabal
# 4 Cristobal Yanez
# 5 Mario Haas
# 6 Alberto Urrutia
# 7 Ricardo Diaz Romero
# 8 Martin Roux
# 9 Alejandro Betancur

The first stage then saw a group of just 4 riders going which never became a danger. The stage started around km 100 before the finish with a big sieb by Marco de Luca which left Betancur and his sprint helpers in front of all other sprinters. Over the following hills we were able to build a gap of around 40-43 seconds which fortunately was enough to stay in front of the sprinters by at the end 7 seconds. Betancur then had a tough job to do in the sprint as his leadout man Castillo is missing here and the rest was pretty weakened by the tempo on the last 65 kms of this stage. However with an early sprint from 200 he was able to catch up to the sprint train of Lorient while also keeping the L RSV classic sprinter Krhin behind. A very nice win and a day in yellow for Betancur who won his second GT stage after being successful on a similar stage during the Giro d'Italia.

[Bear]

Lorient now with 88 + 89 climbers. Hard to beat. But maybe the armada of other 88/87 can make some damage. I wish you a lot of fun and exciting stages.

[el Galactico]

You are missing here Bear. Next time just ride even if you miss some stages

As for the race so far. Fontaine won stage 2 and got another 4 seconds on stage 3 so he definitely is already way ahead of the rest considering that the only TT should also favor him.
We will see if someone can put real pressure on him in this tour. It will be hard against this team.

Betancur won his second stage already on stage 3. Again with some help of L RSV who also again came quite close to beat Betancur in the final sprint.
I didnt expect my team would be able to keep the sprinter's behind but it seems they are not very strong and even less coordinating their efforts. I think a stronger chase right after the mountain would have blown my chances as I also had to protect my group from late attacks so wouldnt have been able to put the strong 60-80's earlier. Now need to defend green/ciclamino for the rest of this tour against Fontaine it seems.

[Bear]

No chance to ride more than 1/3 of TDF this year. Holidays now for two weeks and I am going to do a small multi-day "Deutschland-Tour". So I would miss like 7 days 100%.

Nice wins for Betancur btw.

[L RSV]

6 Days are over. Time to make a guess.

GC
***** Fonataine, Nardi
**** Wasas
*** Lenarcic, DeLuca
* Rasmus, Kiab

Fontaine or Nardi, depends on Lorients wishes. Wasas has a strong helper with Rasmus so he is the backup if Lorient doesn’t want.
Then DeLuca and Lenarcic, from which at the moment Lenarcic has a small advantage. Rasmus and Kiab no chances, but sometimes this is the key to success.

Green
***** Betancur
*** Fontaine
* Another Sprinter

I think Betancur will outperform flatter sprinters. Also the only one collecting intermediates. Fontaine winning points at stage finishs, but he doesn’t seem very interested.

Red
***** Granger
*** Dahm, Georgiou
** mountain rider

Granger the most motivated till now. The others still can join the race with some efforts. Maybe a mountain rider with best chances here to be a real competitor.

White
***** Ciacuch
**** Intxausti
*** Zhor
Jelinek, Kiab

Ciacuch will increase mountain skill and is leader. On the other hand Intxausti will gain time during TT, but also has to help Lenarcic.

Team
No idea

Any other opinions?

[el Galactico]

Stats

Days in maillot jaune by riders:
8 - Thomas Fontaine (Lorient)
1 - Alejandro Betancur (Los Galacticos)

Days in maillot jaune by teams:
8 - Lorient
1 - Los Galacticos

Stage wins by riders:
2 - Alejandro Betancur
2 - Thomas Fontaine
1 - Artur Wasas
1 - Chris van Durpel
1 - Paul Nardi
1 - Alfonso Herrero
1 - Arthur Dupont

Stage wins by teams:
4 - Lorient
2 - Los Galacticos
1 - Bonebreakers
1 - Flolandria
1 - barba roja

[el Galactico]

First rest day & this thread is dead already. CC and Bear missing in this tour doesn't do good apparently.

GC situation is pretty clear. Fontaine the big favorite from the beginning is leading since stage 2 and probably will keep yellow until we arrive in Paris.
The gaps are still small but the real mountain stages are still to come. My attack on the way to Loudenvielle was stopped easily & Bone appears to be just sitting in P2 beside having the best team to put at least a little pressure on Fontaine. He now also has Wasas at 89 mountain.
Lenarcic & Kiab are already out if nothing spectacular happens.

GC situation

Thomas Fontaine (Lorient)
Artur Wasas (Bonebreakers) + 0:23
Paul Nardi (Lorient) +0:24
Marco de Luca (Los Galacticos) +0:40
Waer Kiab (waerl) + 1:46
Marjan Lenarcic (L RSV) +2:16

Green jersey

Betancur 203 points
Fontaine 142 (-61)
Van Durpel 71 (-132)

It is basically a fight between Betancur & Fontaine. Van Durpel as the only pure sprinter is already 132 points behind.
Betancur is the only one collecting intermediate points it seems.

[Gipfelstuermer]

First rest day & this thread is dead already. CC and Bear missing in this tour doesn't do good apparently.

Let's revive this thread! As I am a candidate to ride in the evening again in the future! With less home office and more normal office, evening could be my choice again for the rest of the year.

Biggest problem to promote the evening is actually, that the replay is only available for 1-2h before the day change, so I usually miss what has happened, while it is a bit easier to follow the morning/early evening... Makes the evening a bit less famous than other editions. Wishing the replay was available for 24h for each race...

So what has happened in the 3 flat stages? I can see the results:

7.07.2020,22 :00 Le Tour : Le Tour 2020 Et.10: Ile d Oleron - Ile de Re: Flat Stage
1. 00:00:00 Chris VanDurpel (Flolandria)
2. 00:00:00 Alina Lopez (Team Toto)
3. 00:00:00 JuanJoya Borja (Pokemonogatari)
4. 00:00:00 Alfonso Herrero (barba roja)
5. 00:00:00 Fabrizio Miccoli (Carrera Blue Jeans)

8.07.2020,22 :00 Le Tour : Le Tour 2020 Et.11: Chatelaillon-Plage - Poitiers: Flat Stage
1. 00:00:00 Alina Lopez (Team Toto)
2. 00:00:00 Alfonso Herrero (barba roja)
3. 00:00:00 Alejandro Betancur (Los Galacticos)
4. 00:00:00 Chris VanDurpel (Flolandria)
5. 00:00:00 Fidel Siounandan (Pokemonogatari)

9.07.2020,22 :00 Le Tour : Le Tour 2020 Et.12: Chauvigny - Sarran Correze: Hilly Stage
1. 00:00:00 Tom Goethals (Flolandria)
2. 00:00:00 Brenda Schmitt (Team Toto)
3. 00:00:00 Mikolaj Myrda (Whisbone)
4. 00:00:06 Peter Dubois (lesossies)
5. 00:00:06 Arthur Dupont (Lorient)

Looks a bit like a difficult 2nd week for Betancur after a strong first week. That's no surprise... Riding for a hill sprinter like him can be really hard...

So he is at 244 points vs. Fontaine with 172. Fontaine really does what Bram did last year. Be patient, control when necessary and collect as many points as possible. That's how Bram made life really hard for JJ last year in Giro and TDF and even beat JJ in Vuelta.... actually did not beat him, but scored same amount of points and won the Maillot verde... grrrr. Fingers crossed for Betancur that he doesn't lose by 1 point vs. Fontaine haha. It's not that I would like Betancur more than Fontaine (both strong riders), but if Fontaine wins maillot jaune, he don't need to win maillot vert, I guess...

For GC, Fontaine is not as strong as Bram last year (Bram was 89 mountain, or even 90 at some point?), but seems he has an even better team than Bram last year (89 helper and the best classics). Exciting stages coming for you. When two people quarrel (Fontaine vs Wasas), a third may rejoice (DeLuca). Who knows.

[el Galactico]

I think for green the stage to Lyon is crucial. If Fontaine manages to win there it is 50 points as it is declared a flat stage even with the 6 just a few kms before the finish line. The other mountain stages do not hurt as there would be enough IS on the way which Betancur could win or score points at least.

Interesting that you see stage 12 as a flat stage though
That one was my most hated stage so far. Ended up risking it all for Betancur and didnt protect de Luca at all. He actually was a helper all stage. Considering that it could have gone way worse. All other stages this tour were pretty easy to predict I think - in terms of protecting the climber or the sprinter.

[el Galactico]

Stats

Days in maillot jaune by riders:
13 - Thomas Fontaine (Lorient)
1 - Alejandro Betancur (Los Galacticos)

Days in maillot jaune by teams:
13 - Lorient
1 - Los Galacticos

Stage wins by riders:
2 - Alejandro Betancur
2 - Thomas Fontaine
2 - Artur Wasas
2 - Chris van Durpel
1 - Paul Nardi
1 - Alfonso Herrero
1 - Arthur Dupont
1 - Alina Lopez
1 - Tom Goethals
1 - Cristobal Yanez
1 - Peter Dubois

Stage wins by teams:
4 - Lorient
3 - Los Galacticos
3 - Flolandria
2 - Bonebreakers
1 - barba roja
1 - Toto
1 - lesossies

[L RSV]

So what happend?

If nothing spectacular happens, things will settle tomorrow after the TT

GC:
Fontaine:
Well deserved leading atm. Well ridden by Lorient, good controlling and still giving some air to the opponents. He has few of his Team left, but should be able to win back yellow tomorrow at the TT.

Lenarcic:
Hopefully will be able to defend 2nd place. DeLuca and Wasas are waiting. 3-4 TT difference, will be close.

DeLuca, Wasas:
Fighting for place 2/3 still. Let's see who is stronger.

Green:
Betancur:
I can't image Fonataine winning more points on the last 3 stages... So that's it.

Red:
Granger:
Rode for it, got it. Only opponent Lenarcic had his come back in GC, so wasn't interested anymore

White:
Ciacuch: Made a mistake yesterday and lost a lot of time to Markel. Will be overtaken most likely.

Intxausti: 75 TT should qualify him to shoot past Ciacuch tomorrow.

Team:
Lesossies: Leading. Depends if he is in a group winning today or not. If not most maybe still winning. I have no idea about team classification....

[el Galactico]

Final Stats

Days in maillot jaune by riders:
17 - Thomas Fontaine (Lorient)
2 - Marjan Lenarcic (L RSV)
1 - Alejandro Betancur (Los Galacticos)

Days in maillot jaune by teams:
17 - Lorient
2 - L RSV
1 - Los Galacticos

Stage wins by riders:
3 - Chris van Durpel
2 - Alejandro Betancur
2 - Thomas Fontaine
2 - Artur Wasas
1 - Paul Nardi
1 - Alfonso Herrero
1 - Arthur Dupont
1 - Alina Lopez
1 - Tom Goethals
1 - Cristobal Yanez
1 - Peter Dubois
1 - Marjan Lenarcic
1 - Marco de Luca
1 - Waer Kiab
1 - Christopher diDomenico
1 - Markel Intxausti

Stage wins by teams:
4 - Lorient
4 - Los Galacticos
4 - Flolandria
2 - L RSV
2 - Bonebreakers
1 - barba roja
1 - Toto
1 - lesossies
1 - waerl
1 - Carrera Blue Jeans