Now for the first of a double header to cure your post-Giro hangover before the Tour de France gets underway in a months time and we’re in for one hell of a week. Jonas Vingegaard is taking some well earned time off following his Giro win, and Tadej Pogačar is favouring the new 5 day Tour de Suisse for his preparation opening the door for young Paul Seixas to lay down the gauntlet before his first Tour de France. The route is insanely hard and we should get a real idea of who’ll be a main character come July. So let’s get right into it!
The Route
There will be over 22,000m of elevation this week in just 8 days of racing that includes a team time trial. A full grand tour only just clears 50,000, so that should give you an indication of how hard this race will be. The race starts with a very hard stage that features the 8.2km 7.6% Côte de Rousset that tops out just over 20km from the finish. What a way to start the race.
Following on from this hellish opener, are three potential opportunities for some of the faster men and sandwiched in the middle is a 28.4km team time trial, which will be fantastic preparation for stage one of the Tour de France. Stages four and five should definitely do to the fast men, unless we see some crazy break action. Stage two is more up in the air as there’s a lot of climbing, but none of it is too daunting, so it depends how that one is raced. The race finishes with three stages of summit finishes back to back, culminating in the 11.3km 9.1% Plateau de Solaison, which is also featuring in the Tour this summer. These will be three immensely hard days and hopefully a lot of fun for us.
The Riders
The hype and expectation surrounding 19 year old Frenchman, Paul Seixas, is very real and he has the results to back it up. He’s been up against these riders once already this year at Itzulia and he was head and shoulders above anyone else in the field. Ayuso didn’t finish that race with a stomach illness and Del Toro quit after a crash. Now it’s time for round two. Almeida says he isn’t back to top form yet and is skipping the Tour to focus on the Vuelta, so I wouldn’t pick him, and Jorgenson is another one who may not live up to his price tag, but then he has been good at one week stage races recently. There’s plenty of interest in the mid ranges from 10-14 credits to mean you shouldn’t go fully top heavy, but that is an option if you want. Alternatively, not going Seixas opens the door for both Del Toro and Ayuso together with many mid-priced riders. The question you have to ask yourself is, how much more of a favourite is Seixas to be worth 6 credits more than the next most expensive?
Speaking of the mid-range cost riders, we have Onley and Tobias Halland Johannessen for 14 credits each. Both have excellent pedigree, but only the latter has the form this year. Granted, Onley has been unlucky, and if he wants another top 5 in the Tour this year, then he’ll be desperate for a good result here. Under 14 credits we get a little more speculative and we begin to ask serious questions about how many points these riders can realistically score. Riccitello isn’t a bad shout at 12 credits, especially if Seixas wins and he remains in a decent GC position. Uijtdebroeks and Nordhagen are options for 10 credits and below this we have Baudin, Steinhauser, Rodriguez, Martinez, Tuckwell, and Valentin Paret-Peintre who can all feature in some way.
Moving onto the stage hunters and we enter risky territory. The two best options here are Wout Van Aert and Dorian Godon both for 12 credits and both carry an inherent risk. This is definitely the latter’s opportunity to lay down a marker before the Tour de France as there are many stages that suit him. Enough to potentially have a say in the green jersey competition perhaps. To be worth 12 credits ahead of the GC boys, both riders have to podium three stages and maybe Godon is the safer bet in that regard. It’s a tough choice though. It’s possibly a safer bet to just ignore them and fully focus on the GC and I’m very torn on what approach to make. Below these two there is Finn Fisher-Black for 10 credits; Kockelmann for 8 credits; and Govekar, and Trentin for 6 credits. There are probably more if you sift through enough riders, and it depends how top heavy you decide to go.
Down in the bargain bin, there are a few options for if you really do go fully top heavy and need some filler. Ramses Debruyne and Joan Bou are interesting options in the hills and Baptiste Veistroffer is a breakaway maniac. I’m intending to spread myself around a bit more, but that means potentially leaving out one of the main favourites, which isn’t necessarily a terrible idea. I’m also very undecided as to whether to take a Godon or Van Aert. I imagine I’ll make that decision later on tonight when my senses have potentially left me and I shouldn’t be playing Velogames. A reminder of the league code for those who haven’t yet joined: 649949130. We had a 122nd place finisher at the Giro in Ricardo Vale, and it’s Dr Bells in 14th place in the Stage Race Championship. Let’s try and boost those numbers and get right in the mix! Starting with me I guess, because my men’s season is not going superbly well. I am winning the Women’s Cycling Championship though! So there is that. Maybe I need to start writing about that too.
The Pelotonian 