Pleasant hearth: The Tour de France will probably be a battle between teammates

Whenever you’re the defending champion of the Tour de France, and the riders who completed second by way of fourth behind you will not be on the beginning line for the upcoming occasion, a repeat victory may ordinarily be thought-about a certain factor.

This 12 months’s race, which begins Saturday in Brussels, is shaping as much as be something however odd. And in professional biking, there isn’t any such factor as a certain factor.

There are two main storylines heading into this Tour, they usually intersect upon Geraint Thomas, the 33-year-old Welshman who took a shock victory final 12 months.

Thomas wore the yellow jersey in Paris after ending forward of Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who’s out with a knee damage, and Chris Froome, the four-time Tour champion, who suffered a compound fracture to his femur throughout a prerace reconnaissance experience on June 12, ending his season. Primoz Roglic, the Slovenian who positioned fourth final 12 months, completed third on the Giro d’Italia in Might and is skipping the Tour.

That is the primary storyline: This 12 months’s race is extra open than it has been in years. There are 15 riders with a sensible shot at a podium end. Riders who’ve traditionally positioned within the backside half of the highest 10 at the moment are introduced with the chance for a career-best end.

The second storyline facilities squarely on that undeniable fact that Thomas faces his largest rival in teammate Egan Bernal, the 22-year-old Colombian sensation who will begin solely his second Tour on Saturday.

Final 12 months, in his Grand Tour debut, Bernal performed a key function within the excessive mountains driving in assist of Thomas and Froome. He is had two critical crashes since then, one requiring cosmetic surgery to his mouth and nostril, however he has returned rapidly from each incidents. On June 23, Bernal received the Tour de Suisse, a weeklong warm-up for the Tour de France, assuming workforce management after Thomas crashed out with a shoulder damage.

That damage is not anticipated to offer Thomas an excessive amount of hassle on the roads of France in July. Bernal, who’s thought to be probably the greatest mountain climbers within the sport, may very well be one other story altogether.

On the 2018 Tour, Thomas was granted joint management at Workforce Sky alongside Froome, who had received the Giro d’Italia eight weeks earlier and confronted the inevitable questions of fatigue that include that effort. Froome additionally confronted a possible suspension for elevated ranges of salbutamol tracing again to his victory on the 2017 Vuelta a España, however he was controversially cleared by the World Anti-Doping Company the week earlier than the Tour started.

Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas’ teammate, is without doubt one of the high contenders at this 12 months’s Tour de France. Tim de Waele/Getty Photos

Whereas Froome struggled with an early crash and late-race exhaustion, Thomas — who had by no means completed within the high 10 on the Tour in eight begins — had a flawless race and proved strongest on a number of key mountaintop finishes. Workforce Sky’s Plan B turned Plan A. The understudy had turn into the grasp, they usually shared the rostrum in Paris, with Dumoulin within the center.

The workforce’s identify has modified from Workforce Sky to Workforce Ineos, now backed by a British petrochemical producer, however a really comparable state of affairs may play out once more one 12 months later.

One key distinction in 2019 is that Thomas doesn’t share the identical type of historical past with Bernal as he does with Froome. Separated in age by one 12 months and 5 days, Thomas and Froome have been teammates since 2008, first on a small South African workforce earlier than becoming a member of Workforce Sky in 2010. Thomas rode in assist of Froome in any respect 4 of his Tour victories, and over time they’ve ridden collectively in British colours at world championship and Olympic occasions.

Thomas and Bernal, separated in age by 10 years and 7 months, turned teammates at first of the 2018 season. They did not come up by way of the ranks collectively. They by no means knew one another earlier than they had been among the many largest names within the sport. They’re two riders at reverse ends of their careers, sporting the identical red-and-black jersey, with the identical goal of profitable the Tour de France.

From outdoors the Ineos workforce bus wanting in, each males are sticking with the corporate line — energy in numbers, all that issues is that the workforce wins, the street will determine who’s strongest. In actuality, nonetheless, there isn’t any query that each males acutely wish to conquer the game’s largest race. Victory brings with it bonuses, endorsement contracts, ebook offers, and status.

In December, Thomas was voted BBC’s Sports activities Character of the Yr for 2018, forward of Components One champion Lewis Hamilton; his second ebook was printed in February. A victory for Bernal would make him one of many largest sports activities stars in Colombia, the place solely soccer outranks biking among the many nation’s rabid sports activities followers.

“Profitable the Tour de France final 12 months was the spotlight of my skilled biking profession and racing with the No. 1 on my again goes to be particular this 12 months,” Thomas mentioned in a Workforce Ineos assertion. “Discussing with the workforce, we imagine it is sensible to enter the race with joint leaders because it provides us extra choices. Egan and I’ll work laborious for one another and the workforce over the three weeks of the race.”

Requested in regards to the Tour de France after profitable the Tour of Switzerland, Bernal’s reply was equal components politically appropriate and deliberately opaque. “I do not select to say that I am the favourite,” he mentioned. “I’ll go along with Thomas, who will probably be our chief, and I’ll attempt to assist him. If he’s higher than me, I’ll assist him. I haven’t got any downside serving to him. I’m solely 22 so I’ve lots of Excursions forward of me.”

4-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome will not be competing within the occasion this season. KT/Tim De Waele/Corbis through Getty Photos

This 12 months’s Tour route favors the climbers, with seven high-mountain phases and 5 summit finishes. Three of these summit finishes high out above 6,500 ft elevation — a bonus for Colombian riders like Bernal, who reside and practice at altitudes over 10,000 ft.

Bernal, who hails from Zipaquirá (elevation eight,694 ft) is the most important Colombian favourite, however he isn’t the one podium contender from the South American nation. Nairo Quintana, a three-time podium finisher from Cómbita (elevation 9,268 ft), leads a powerful Movistar squad that additionally consists of Spaniards Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde, the world champion. Rigoberto Uran, second general behind Froome in 2017, hails from Urrao close to Medellín (elevation 6,004 ft); he leads an EF Training First squad that features American Tejay van Garderen and Canadian Mike Woods.

Within the tactical recreation that’s Grand Tour stage racing, the extra playing cards a workforce has to play, the extra riders a workforce can ship up the street or collect round a frontrunner, the higher its possibilities for achievement. For that reason, Ineos, Movistar, and EF Training First have the strongest palms to play throughout three weeks. Not solely are Thomas and Bernal two of the most effective all-around riders within the race, they’re additionally supported by a big-budget workforce that has received the Tour six instances over the previous seven years with three completely different riders, perennially supported by all-star domestiques who may in any other case be leaders on one other squad.

We’ll have our first indication as to which riders are in competition for general victory on Stage 6, ending with the brief, steep climb to La Planche des Belles Filles the place Froome took his first Tour stage win in 2012. However the pivotal day that may probably decide how Workforce Ineos approaches the ultimate mountainous week is Stage 13, a 27-kilometer time trial in Pau close to France’s southern border with Spain.

Historical past reveals that Thomas is stronger towards the clock than Bernal. Typical etiquette states rider doesn’t assault the race chief inside his personal workforce. Ought to Thomas take yellow on Stage 13, would Ineos holster Bernal’s prodigious expertise within the excessive mountains to shepherd Thomas by way of the ultimate week? Or would Ineos workforce supervisor Dave Brailsford go along with a “let the street decide the winner” philosophy and reduce Bernal unfastened? His file is combined.

In 2012, an upstart Froome completed second behind teammate Bradley Wiggins, instructed to carry again although he was clearly stronger than Wiggins within the mountains. That race had a ultimate time trial, nonetheless, which Wiggins received decidedly whereas sporting yellow; the course dictated the technique. Against this, this 12 months, the ultimate week is all for the climbers, the place Bernal has the benefit. In 2018, Brailsford let Thomas and Froome work it out on the street, trusting in each other to assist the stronger rider.

One factor is definite — the remainder of the GC contenders will probably be watching intently to see if workforce dynamics get in the best way of both Bernal or Thomas driving to their potential. One other rider, from one other workforce, might in the end declare the yellow jersey, however till that image turns into clearer all eyes will probably be on the workforce management query at Workforce Ineos.

Ought to Bernal win the Tour, the implications could be profound. Not solely would Colombia have its first Tour de France champion, simply two months after Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz turned the primary rider from that nation to win a Grand Tour, however questions round future management at Workforce Ineos could be paramount — simply as they have been intermittently for the previous decade.

After profitable the 2012 Tour, Wiggins was pressured to overlook the race the next 12 months due to a knee damage. Froome received in his absence, Wiggins was not chosen for the 2014 version, and he by no means raced the Tour once more. After profitable the 2017 Tour, Froome faltered in 2018 and Thomas stepped in to take the victory. On the Tour de Suisse final month, Thomas crashed and Bernal stepped in to take the victory. The road of succession is evident; the timeline is all that continues to be in query.

Froome turns 35 subsequent 12 months, the furthest finish of the historic spectrum for Tour winners, and the way he’ll return from his accidents stays unknown. Thomas turns 34 subsequent 12 months and has been an expert bike owner for all of his grownup life, largely with the identical workforce. Thomas is beneath contract with Workforce Ineos by way of 2021. Bernal is contracted with the workforce by way of 2023. For Brailsford it is a humiliation of riches, however not with out its predicaments.

What occurs if Bernal, Thomas, and Froome are all vying for Tour management in 2020? It is a query Brailsford may desire to not reply — not but, anyhow.

Neal Rogers has coated each main race in skilled biking, and each version of the Tour de France since 2002.