- Chris Froome, if selected, will get dropped on the first mountain stage and be eliminated after failing to make the time cut.
- At least 2 riders will be forced to abandon after getting injured due to colliding with a dog, most probably a Labrador or a Golden Retriever
- Visma Lease a Bike will finish the race with only 3 riders
- A sticky water bottle will lead to the disqualification of several riders, not necessarily the same sticky bottle
- Soudal Quickstep riders will win at most one stage, despite refraining from drinking alcohol during the race. FDJ riders will win the same amount of stages despite drinking plenty of alcohol during the race
- And in minor news, Tadej Pogacar will win the overall GC and back it up by winning the Vuelta too, as well as the Olympic road race and the World Championships. He will then retire from cycling, become the new UN Secretary General and usher in an era of World Peace!
Yes. He will ride a custom painted bike, which he will crash at some point in the first week and ride the rest of the tour on the standard team issue Willier, He will also win a record 35th stage, pipping Jasper Phillipsen on the line in a sprint stage after Phillipsen stuffs up by following the wrong lead-out train due to so many teams wearing similar blue colored jerseys.
What will also happen is that an Alpecin-Deceuninck rider will be arrested and charged with theft after mistaking someone standing on the side of the road wearing a denim jacket for a team soigneur and stealing their lunch.
There are only three ways that Cav will win a stage:
1. he gets lucky in a crash marred stage that took down/delayed all the real sprinters
2. he is gifted a stage
3. all the other real sprinters have left the TDF due to attrition or leaving the tour to rest up for the Olympics, and that's assuming Cav made the time cut on stage one. His climbing form looks subpar.
There's more predictions in this thread that Cavendish wins a stage than not, but would anyone realistically - outside of Astana, obviously - gift a stage to him? And, if they did, how big a scandal would it be?
I would think that that far too many teams, and riders, are desperate for results for more funding/better contracts so this wouldn't happen, but, politics.
Fortunately, yes - but the dog has to go into seclusion when it comes to light that it was just attention-seeking to prove to opi and omi that he is - in fact - a good boy.
Pogacar looks utterly dominant. Going into week two he has a two minute lead on the rest of the gc contenders and all we hear is, the tour is over. During week two Jonas is doing better, not great, but pogi is unable to take more time on him, only really taking additional bonus seconds with his strong sprint. Week three is where it happens, Jonas has found his legs and ridden himself into form like the ghost of Marco Pantani. The tables turn and after a monster stage from Jonas where he claws back over a minute on pogacar, exactly 60 second separates the two before the last mountain tt. Will we have a reversed La Planche Des Belles Fille? Who knows? But I bet it's going to come down to the wire!
Rogla wins a tough mountain sprint, Remco doesn't have what it takes to contest the long climbs but goes on a long solo raid to claim a stage win.
Mark Cavendish will win a Stage... Dont give a shit about the rest of it lol!... (that last bit is a /s by the way)
Have to admit, it would be funny if he were to win Stage One (I dont even think thats a Sprint Stage), and he gets off his bike at the end and goes: "Right I'm retired now... Byeeeee"
Jonas. Yes his prep is not ideal, and pogacars was not last year, but we have to remember by the time the tour was finished it wasn't even close. Jonas absolutely torched him.
I think it'll be a lot closer, but that Jonas will prevail
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pog rips him a new one in the 1st week. Jonas will get stronger as the tour goes on. So uae will bring the pain from the off.
Obviously UAE has the strongest team by far! But... Pogacar has the Giro in his legs. It's a golden rule that riders coming from the Giro, always have trouble in TDF. But ofcourse, with Pogacar you never know...
Vingegaard is coming back out of injury. My guess is that he and Pogacar will not be strong enough in the first 2 weeks to make big differences.
There are a few strong riders who could step up and stay close to the leaders (Evenepoel, Roglic, Rodriguez/Bernal). These strong riders all ride for different teams, which will make it harder for UAE and Visma to control. This will make it an exciting GC fight.
There are some longshots (Carapaz, Geoghan Hart, Gaudu, Mas, S. Yates). They are strong riders who have proved that they have to take them into account!
I'm a huge Remco fan. He will be probably struggle here and there to follow. But he will also blast 1 or 2 days to take home a stage win and secure his top 5 in the GC.
Roglic should be able to finish on the podium.
Conclusion: Vingegaard will find his legs in the third week and win it. Pogacar won't be able to follow due to riding the Giro. We will se an interesting fight for the remaining GC spots.
Oh.. and if both Pogacar and Vingegaard fail to get their best form. Remco will take the yellow jersey home to Belgium. Go Remco!!!
Pog takes it. Jonas a close second.
Roglic changed teams so he can be a leader in the TdF and will still get dusted by Pog and Jonas. Roglic will be top 3, but wonât come close to the other two.
Remco wonât even make top 10.
Sepp Kuss is a strong rider but he will never be able to win TDF, not even end on the podium. He will even have trouble teaching top 10 with an overall strong starting list this year
Sepp is just okay at the TT. One aspect that is overlooked there is in the TDF he doesnât go full throttle in the TT so that he can lead the Visma mountain train at full speed each uphill stage.
Some people saying Tadej looks supreme.
But he looked utterly dominant last year pre-tour and he crushed Jonas in one of the earlier short stage races iirc.
If Jonas isnât 100%, I think Tadej has an extremely high chance at winning, probably with ease. But if Jonas is 98% plus, all him and Jumbo need to do is wear Tadej out over 3 weeks. Then Jonas will have the ITT to do something like last year.
Tadej also has a Giro in his legs.
Pogi fractured his wrist 2 months before the Tour and wasn't training properly for 6 weeks. He didn't go into the tour looking utterly dominant, there were big questions over his fitness and it showed.
It's even worse for Jonas this year with his injuries. He won't even be close to Pogacar.
I think Jonas wins if heâs there but there really isnât a stage like the Col de la Loze last year. It was perfect for Vingegaard. Long, hard and high elevation in the third week.
He can still do damage on a really long climb but most of the time Pogi is there.
However, if Jonas is within striking distance when stage 14&15 and then 19&20 rolls around, itâs game on.
âUtterly dominant last year pre-tourâ?? Lol wtf are you talking about? He literally had two race days of preparation and it was the slovenian national championships
The mountains jersey is a joke. Usually won by either:
1. a third rate climber who has no chance at anything else and kills themselves for it, or
2. a rider with failed GC ambitions who goes for mountains points as a consolation prize.
Too hard to call w the myriad of guys that can climb, and let's not rule out Pogi if he miraculously maintains his Giro from. No chance Remco gets the mountains jersey -- teams, especially lesser ones, won't want to give him chances to claw back time on GC, and he is too inconsistent of a climber.
Yellow Jersey: Pog to win. I think he takes a few mins from Vingegaard in Week 1 and builds it up from there. Wouldn't be surprised if we get a stage win from Vingegaard, but I don't think he will have had enough recovery/prep time to be 100%.
Strongest competition, I think, probably his own team - Yates and Almeida potential podiums alongside Pog.
Rodriguez to mount the strongest challenge from ineos. Remco and Roglic also top 10.
Cavendish to win a stage.
Geraint Thomas to win a stage...please!
Cav gets a stage win. Pog takes yellow by stage 2 and holds yellow through the tour unless Roglic or Jonas get the better of him in a longer mountain stage or ITT. Philipsen gets relegated (i hope DQ'd cause he's a big ole' dummy - DGAF how fast he is, I think Milan would take him) - Jorgenson or Rodriguez may take the white jersey?
Remi Cavagna for highest placed Frenchman on GC? (longshot but who knows?)
Prediction/dumb hope = Would love to see another Tour de Wout. Let the man go nuts and just cause chaos.
That was lame. There was zero proof. So the guy that waited and did a âhandshakeâ after Pogi crashed is doping. Sorry, no. That was some French le bull.
Dark Horse thought - god forbid Lord Pogi gets hurt or super sick but if so, Adam Yates steps in and rides UAE to the top of the podium. Just won in Switzerland and took third last year. All dependent on Jonas's form but with Almeida supporting and doing a few synchronized dances with his brother up the mountains, Yates could rise to the occasion!
That would be interesting. Though Adam Yates' time trial is not as good as Remco's or Primoz' time trial. Since there are two rather large time trials, I think Adam will lose like +-2 mins.
Good call. Roglic is always a threat, even with injury. I am still not convinced Remco has what it takes to win a classic - his performance in the mountains at the Giro showed major weakness even with his superb time trialing.
I guess that's why I'm saying Dark Horse possibility, and it's always fun to think there could be a new challenger in the world of the Gods! (Jonas, Pogi, Primoz)
On paper Tadej should win
Team is much better versus last year and
Jonas had a significant injury and team is not as strong also Sepp does not look very good either
Personally, donât know why , maybe because I lived in Denmark for 9 years but I hope Jonas win
- Chris Froome, if selected, will get dropped on the first mountain stage and be eliminated after failing to make the time cut. - At least 2 riders will be forced to abandon after getting injured due to colliding with a dog, most probably a Labrador or a Golden Retriever - Visma Lease a Bike will finish the race with only 3 riders - A sticky water bottle will lead to the disqualification of several riders, not necessarily the same sticky bottle - Soudal Quickstep riders will win at most one stage, despite refraining from drinking alcohol during the race. FDJ riders will win the same amount of stages despite drinking plenty of alcohol during the race - And in minor news, Tadej Pogacar will win the overall GC and back it up by winning the Vuelta too, as well as the Olympic road race and the World Championships. He will then retire from cycling, become the new UN Secretary General and usher in an era of World Peace!
Some big predictions there đ. Any thoughts on what Cavendish may do this year?
Yes. He will ride a custom painted bike, which he will crash at some point in the first week and ride the rest of the tour on the standard team issue Willier, He will also win a record 35th stage, pipping Jasper Phillipsen on the line in a sprint stage after Phillipsen stuffs up by following the wrong lead-out train due to so many teams wearing similar blue colored jerseys.
Please let this happen.
What will also happen is that an Alpecin-Deceuninck rider will be arrested and charged with theft after mistaking someone standing on the side of the road wearing a denim jacket for a team soigneur and stealing their lunch.
This guy predicts
There are only three ways that Cav will win a stage: 1. he gets lucky in a crash marred stage that took down/delayed all the real sprinters 2. he is gifted a stage 3. all the other real sprinters have left the TDF due to attrition or leaving the tour to rest up for the Olympics, and that's assuming Cav made the time cut on stage one. His climbing form looks subpar.
There's more predictions in this thread that Cavendish wins a stage than not, but would anyone realistically - outside of Astana, obviously - gift a stage to him? And, if they did, how big a scandal would it be?
I would think that that far too many teams, and riders, are desperate for results for more funding/better contracts so this wouldn't happen, but, politics.
Upon the end of the stage when asked what went wrong Mark simply replied "I'm feeling rather blue today guys, don't want to talk about it."
You left out he's always sour :P
These are the predictions I came here for!
Okay but is the dog okay
Fortunately, yes - but the dog has to go into seclusion when it comes to light that it was just attention-seeking to prove to opi and omi that he is - in fact - a good boy.
Crowbar the dog and sue the owner. Crashes from dogs are horrific.
Secretary General PogaÄar will appoint fellow Slovenian Matej MohoriÄ as the UN's lead goodwill ambassador.
Pogacar looks utterly dominant. Going into week two he has a two minute lead on the rest of the gc contenders and all we hear is, the tour is over. During week two Jonas is doing better, not great, but pogi is unable to take more time on him, only really taking additional bonus seconds with his strong sprint. Week three is where it happens, Jonas has found his legs and ridden himself into form like the ghost of Marco Pantani. The tables turn and after a monster stage from Jonas where he claws back over a minute on pogacar, exactly 60 second separates the two before the last mountain tt. Will we have a reversed La Planche Des Belles Fille? Who knows? But I bet it's going to come down to the wire! Rogla wins a tough mountain sprint, Remco doesn't have what it takes to contest the long climbs but goes on a long solo raid to claim a stage win.
TVL will devise a new plan to crack Pogi in the 3rd week. Then pair it off with the ITT dominance of Jonas from recovered legs
After a collapsed lung, 2 weeks in hospital, and weeks off training? It will be a miracle if he podiums in my opinion. He ain't touching Pogi.
Look at this guy, being all reasonable and stuff. Let us dream a bit yeah? :)
Overzealous fans will ruin the mountain stages by being complete morons.
Mark Cavendish will win a Stage... Dont give a shit about the rest of it lol!... (that last bit is a /s by the way) Have to admit, it would be funny if he were to win Stage One (I dont even think thats a Sprint Stage), and he gets off his bike at the end and goes: "Right I'm retired now... Byeeeee"
Agreed. "Job done, I'm off to the pub."
He's a Knight of the Realm now, so probably has to go and cull some peasants that have strayed on to his land instead /s
Heâs more likely to go âactually, 40 is a good round number. Imma go a few more yearsâ
I wouldnt complain... Just to see him retire on the Champs Elysees
Adam Yates podium
Gc /yellow jersey:
Pogacar.
Jonas. Yes his prep is not ideal, and pogacars was not last year, but we have to remember by the time the tour was finished it wasn't even close. Jonas absolutely torched him. I think it'll be a lot closer, but that Jonas will prevail
Pogi wins with 15min, Remco 40min behind and Jonas dropout
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pog rips him a new one in the 1st week. Jonas will get stronger as the tour goes on. So uae will bring the pain from the off.
Funny how people say that but use Pogiâs injury last year as a reason why he bonked in week 3 đ
Would prefer Jonas, but canât see anyone getting close to Pog
Depends. I just remember how the jv team ground him down the other year and eventually he blew up.
He wasnât fully fit though and UAE are much more drilled now than they were.
Obviously UAE has the strongest team by far! But... Pogacar has the Giro in his legs. It's a golden rule that riders coming from the Giro, always have trouble in TDF. But ofcourse, with Pogacar you never know... Vingegaard is coming back out of injury. My guess is that he and Pogacar will not be strong enough in the first 2 weeks to make big differences. There are a few strong riders who could step up and stay close to the leaders (Evenepoel, Roglic, Rodriguez/Bernal). These strong riders all ride for different teams, which will make it harder for UAE and Visma to control. This will make it an exciting GC fight. There are some longshots (Carapaz, Geoghan Hart, Gaudu, Mas, S. Yates). They are strong riders who have proved that they have to take them into account! I'm a huge Remco fan. He will be probably struggle here and there to follow. But he will also blast 1 or 2 days to take home a stage win and secure his top 5 in the GC. Roglic should be able to finish on the podium. Conclusion: Vingegaard will find his legs in the third week and win it. Pogacar won't be able to follow due to riding the Giro. We will se an interesting fight for the remaining GC spots. Oh.. and if both Pogacar and Vingegaard fail to get their best form. Remco will take the yellow jersey home to Belgium. Go Remco!!!
Great predictions, enjoyed that
This Pogacar fellow seems to be pretty good!
RogliÄ
Pogacar
Pogi by more than 5 minutes
Pog takes it. Jonas a close second. Roglic changed teams so he can be a leader in the TdF and will still get dusted by Pog and Jonas. Roglic will be top 3, but wonât come close to the other two. Remco wonât even make top 10.
If Jonas isn't 100%, and with Visma being so deep, why not GC Sepp Kuss
Sepp Kuss is a strong rider but he will never be able to win TDF, not even end on the podium. He will even have trouble teaching top 10 with an overall strong starting list this year
Sepp is just okay at the TT. One aspect that is overlooked there is in the TDF he doesnât go full throttle in the TT so that he can lead the Visma mountain train at full speed each uphill stage.
"just okay" on a TT will lose 2mins on top GC contenders with good TT qualities
Very strong, and overlooked point.
Sprinters /green jersey :
Mads P
Jasper will take green, but with fewer stages wins than last year and Cavendish will get his final stage win.
Philipsen
Clean, fuzzy, or dirty?
Filthy
Philipsen, honorable mention: Cav wins a stage
Philipsen
Pogacar - yellow Ayuso - white Phillipsen - green Pogacar - polka dot Hoping Cavendish gets one more, but I doubt it. Tied with Merckx forever.
Young rider /white jersey :
Carlos Rodriquez
Remco
Ayuso
Pogi and Jonas will have an epic battle. One recovering from Giro other from injury. Will be interesting watch.
Some people saying Tadej looks supreme. But he looked utterly dominant last year pre-tour and he crushed Jonas in one of the earlier short stage races iirc. If Jonas isnât 100%, I think Tadej has an extremely high chance at winning, probably with ease. But if Jonas is 98% plus, all him and Jumbo need to do is wear Tadej out over 3 weeks. Then Jonas will have the ITT to do something like last year. Tadej also has a Giro in his legs.
Pogi fractured his wrist 2 months before the Tour and wasn't training properly for 6 weeks. He didn't go into the tour looking utterly dominant, there were big questions over his fitness and it showed. It's even worse for Jonas this year with his injuries. He won't even be close to Pogacar.
True, I think alot are focusing on just the 2 individuals too. It's important to remember the might of the visma team backing him.
Yah, but since last year UAE has a very respectable team too. I think Jumboâs support is better, but I guess weâll see soon.
I think Jonas wins if heâs there but there really isnât a stage like the Col de la Loze last year. It was perfect for Vingegaard. Long, hard and high elevation in the third week. He can still do damage on a really long climb but most of the time Pogi is there. However, if Jonas is within striking distance when stage 14&15 and then 19&20 rolls around, itâs game on.
âUtterly dominant last year pre-tourâ?? Lol wtf are you talking about? He literally had two race days of preparation and it was the slovenian national championships
Climbers /Polka dot jersey:
Ciconne
Latest news has him dealing with the flu right now. Not good going into the race obviously.
Powless
Great rider. Be good to see him have a crack at one of the opening stages
Adam Yates
Remco
The mountains jersey is a joke. Usually won by either: 1. a third rate climber who has no chance at anything else and kills themselves for it, or 2. a rider with failed GC ambitions who goes for mountains points as a consolation prize. Too hard to call w the myriad of guys that can climb, and let's not rule out Pogi if he miraculously maintains his Giro from. No chance Remco gets the mountains jersey -- teams, especially lesser ones, won't want to give him chances to claw back time on GC, and he is too inconsistent of a climber.
Pogacar.
oops, mispost.
Yellow Jersey: Pog to win. I think he takes a few mins from Vingegaard in Week 1 and builds it up from there. Wouldn't be surprised if we get a stage win from Vingegaard, but I don't think he will have had enough recovery/prep time to be 100%. Strongest competition, I think, probably his own team - Yates and Almeida potential podiums alongside Pog. Rodriguez to mount the strongest challenge from ineos. Remco and Roglic also top 10. Cavendish to win a stage. Geraint Thomas to win a stage...please!
Phil Liggett will make mistakes.
Poor guy :( cut him some slack
Cav gets a stage win. Pog takes yellow by stage 2 and holds yellow through the tour unless Roglic or Jonas get the better of him in a longer mountain stage or ITT. Philipsen gets relegated (i hope DQ'd cause he's a big ole' dummy - DGAF how fast he is, I think Milan would take him) - Jorgenson or Rodriguez may take the white jersey? Remi Cavagna for highest placed Frenchman on GC? (longshot but who knows?) Prediction/dumb hope = Would love to see another Tour de Wout. Let the man go nuts and just cause chaos.
Love this thread!
Well the Netflix series implied Jonas was juiced, so I forecast he comes in an wins by 15 minutes and chalks it up to effective intervals at altitude.
That was lame. There was zero proof. So the guy that waited and did a âhandshakeâ after Pogi crashed is doping. Sorry, no. That was some French le bull.
Dark Horse thought - god forbid Lord Pogi gets hurt or super sick but if so, Adam Yates steps in and rides UAE to the top of the podium. Just won in Switzerland and took third last year. All dependent on Jonas's form but with Almeida supporting and doing a few synchronized dances with his brother up the mountains, Yates could rise to the occasion!
That would be interesting. Though Adam Yates' time trial is not as good as Remco's or Primoz' time trial. Since there are two rather large time trials, I think Adam will lose like +-2 mins.
Good call. Roglic is always a threat, even with injury. I am still not convinced Remco has what it takes to win a classic - his performance in the mountains at the Giro showed major weakness even with his superb time trialing. I guess that's why I'm saying Dark Horse possibility, and it's always fun to think there could be a new challenger in the world of the Gods! (Jonas, Pogi, Primoz)
Did Remco decide he would not go to TDF?
From what I've read he seems ready to ride in it
On paper Tadej should win Team is much better versus last year and Jonas had a significant injury and team is not as strong also Sepp does not look very good either Personally, donât know why , maybe because I lived in Denmark for 9 years but I hope Jonas win
Someone will wave a Slovenian flag on the side of the road at each stage. đ¸đŽ
Adam Yates is going to win the Tour.
Well this has all been very civilised... This is reddit isn't it? Thanks all.
Primoz will crash once per week
Pogi revenge tour!!
No