2019 PRO thread

[mattr]

Least they have a spare leader........

[guyc]

"Brailsford says it’s ‘pretty clear’ Froome won’t ride the Tour. Has a suspected broken femur. Crash happened when he took hand off handlebars to clear nose on a fast section."


https://twitter.com/friebos/status/1138794556240093189

[Jugi]

Least they have a spare leader........

Yup, that would have been a pretty poor first season for Ineos if Thomas wasn't there. First Bernal couldn't compete in the Giro, now Froome out of the Tour and typical sub-par spring classics performance.

[Dan Gerous]

No Froome might make the Tour a lot more interesting to watch though.

Holy Wout! I knew he was good against the clock but whoa, he crushed that TT, 47 seconds faster than 2nd place Tom Dumoulin for now!

[TonyM]

Not a big fan of Froome but I always feel bad for riders that have a crash and miss some big races.

[Lewn777]

I'm not a fan of Ineos due to their title sponsor, but I still feel sorry for Froome on an individual level. Also I think more top riders makes for a competitive, more entertaining tour.

[Grobar]

So sad for Froome!
But I don't think Ineos will loose the Tour, their team is so stronger than the others.

[mrlobber]

According to some reports, crash happened at the bottom of the descent at 60kph when Froome took his hands off the bars I just wonder, why on earth (even as a pro with above average bike-handling skills) you'd do that at that time

[Miller]

Because you're used to the speed and you've done similar often. Was there a road defect?

[guyc]

He was clearing his nose and took a hand off.

[Dan Gerous]

There were very strong winds apparently, in a fast descent, one hand off the bar of a TT bike...

[dgasmd]

So sad for Froome!
But I don't think Ineos will loose the Tour, their team is so stronger than the others.

So besides Thomas, who else has a real chance to win it? Yates? Dumoulin? Quintana? Nibali? They all seem like distant seconds!

[Dan Gerous]

I'm not sure I would put Thomas as a distant first. Sure he will have the best team but he's not quite in the same shape he was last year up to now. He was in the form of his life last July. And last year Froome and Dumoulin were coming off 1st and 2nd at the Giro, they were obviously tired and riding on fumes, then Kruijswijk and Roglic were no real big Grand Tour contenders. Everyone else were either crashed out or sub-par. I'm not saying Geraint had an easy ride or was lucky or that he didn't earn the win fair and square but I wouldn't rate him much higher than Dumoulin, Yates, even Pinot... If Dumoulin's knee recovers, and it's not looking too bad right now, he'll be fresh and motivated.

Quintana's not looking promising right now, Bardet either. Uran is a mystery... Nibali will be lucky if he's as good as he was at the Giro, probably below that level I'm afraid. Who else?

[Attermann]

Jakob Fuglsang?

[Kjetil]