Soldato
- Joined
- 7 Jul 2009
- Posts
- 16,234
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- Newcastle/Aberdeen
That will come in handy when the tour starts, thanks.
What should I do about learning the history and current teams participating? Also about the people to watch out for?
Also, do you happen to know which channel in the UK shows most of the cycling? Is it still Eurosport?
AG2R La Mondiale and FDJ (or Française des Jeux) are the French teams, the main riders to look out for are Romain Bardet and Thibaut Pinot respectively, GC wise. They have predominantly French riders, and are focused on nurturing young French talent. There's a bit of a rivalry between them, certain riders take it more seriously than others.
Astana is a team with a somewhat questionable history, owned by Alexander Vinokourov (an ex doper) and they came close to losing their license this season. I'm not one to tar everyone with the same brush, but they generally aren't very well liked by English speaking fans. They have got a lot of results lately though, and they have some quite classy riders who spruce up the race in interesting ways. For the tour, their main riders will be Fabio Aru, and Vincenzo Nibali. If you get a chance to watch the latter take on a technical descent it's definitely worth taking.
BMC is one of the 'American' teams, their main riders will be Tejay van Garderen, who's had trouble in previous years but is still a very capable rider who's just come off the back of a relatively successful Tour of Switzerland, and Richie Porte, who they signed last year after he got sick of always playing second fiddle on Sky's GC team.
Etixx Quick Step is a fairly popular team, their main aims for the tour will be to get as many stage wins for their sprinter, Marcel Kittel, as possible. And he looked to be on amazing form earlier in the year at the Giro, where he was winning sprints by several bike lengths and making it look easy. He'll certainly be the one to beat. They do have a bit of a GC contender in the Irishman, Dan Martin who also seems to be on good form. He's maybe not quite at the level of some of the other contenders, but depending on how the race goes he certainly has the potential for a top 10 overall or hilly stage win.
IAM Cycling is a team which, unfortunately, looks to be closing their doors at the end of this season if they're unable to find a new sponsor. They aren't exactly known for their great results, but they do have some very talented riders who you'd expect might try to prove something in the hopes of securing a contract for next year. Mathias Frank is in for a shot at another top ten overall, but most of their team is capable of something on their day like a stage win from a breakaway.
Lampre - Merida is an Italian team, and the joke is that they only actually try in Italian races
Rui Costa is a very capable climber regardless.Lotto Soudal is another sprint team, and they'll be working for André Greipel who's a definite contender for Kittel, and he's a fairly popular personality off the bike. They also have Adam Hansen who is hugely popular among the more nerdy cycling fans - he designed the logistics software for his team, he makes his own carbon fibre shoes and he holds the record for completing the most consecutive grant tours - after the Giro d'Italia earlier this year he's on 14, the Tour de France would be his 15th.
Movistar are one of the main contenders for overall victory this tour. They have Nairo Quintana who is one of the best climbers in the world and often seems to improve over the course of a three week tour, when everyone else fades. He has Alejandro Valverde to support him, who'd be capable of leading the team himself. Pretty much all of their other climbers have had great results this year - Moreno, Anacona, Herrada and the Izagirre brothers. And they also have Alex Dowsett, the British national time trial champion (who will be defending his title today I believe) who'll be a huge help on the flat.
If you're looking for a team to support, it's hard to look past Orica GreenEDGE. They're not one of the top sprint teams, but they have Matthews, Gerrans, Albasini and Impey who can all get a good result on a bit more of a difficult finish. They're not one of the top GC teams, although they have Adam Yates, the brit who's been riding from strength to strength over the past few years. They brought on a few new climbers this year to help support their GC efforts, although they have nowhere near the budget of the big GC teams. What they have though, is a fantastic youtube channel that'll be doing daily behind the scenes videos, and these really helped me when I was getting into cycling because they let you see the human side of the sport, and you get to know the team and become invested in them doing well.
Cannondale are the other American team. They haven't announced their team yet, they have a few riders who might have a chance of a good result on the overall but they'll most likely just be going for stage wins or maybe the mountain classification depending on how things pan out.
Giant - Alpecin are another sprint team. Warren Barguil or Laurens ten Dam might be in with a chance of a top ten, but they'll likely be riding for John Degenkolb in the sprints. They suffered a lot from a crash during training earlier this year when a motorist was driving on the wrong side of the road, which took a lot of their riders out of commission for the early season. Degenkolb is definitely a world class sprinter, but he was caught up in that crash and he's been slowly building back up to racing, I don't think there's anyone in cycling who wouldn't want to see him do well.
Katusha are another team not particularly well liked by the English speaking world, but a lot of their riders are confusingly. They have Joaquim Rodríguez, a very regular GC contender of the past decade. He's probably winding down his career at this point, but a lot of people feel he was 'robbed' of a good result just be not being good enough at time trials. They also have Alexander Kristoff, definitely one to watch on the sprint days.
LottoNL - Jumbo are a dutch team, and they get a lot of support from dutch fans. They've maybe struggled to get results in the past, but their main aim will be to get Wilco Kelderman as high up on GC as they can.
Team Sky. Yes. Definitely the other big GC Contender with Chris Froome looking to defend his title, and a very strong team. They haven't quite looked as dominant as previous years though, so it will be a very interesting battle. The team isn't particularly well liked outside of Britain, they have a bit of a reputation for making races "boring", for snapping up promising GC riders to use as domestiques and even for trying to force riders into certain roles where they're not happy. You'll have to reach your own conclusions about that, but evidently their bigger riders are very happy where they are.
Tinkoff is another team that looks to be shutting down at the end of this year. Their big GC rider is of course Alberto Contador, who has to be a contender for overall. He was planning on retiring at the end of this year, but after some good results seems to have gone back on that. Last year he attempted to win both the Giro and the Tour, but found he was just at too much of a disadvantage compared to riders who had rested more in the early season. So this year he's concentrated entirely on the Tour, and is expected to be a big player. They also have Peter Sagan, the current world champion and one of the big personalities of the sport at the minute. Expect him to go for sprints, breakaways and probably the points classification.
Trek - Segafredo are a bit of an 'old hat' team, they'll probably be looking to pick up a few riders from teams that are closing their doors next year - I think there's been rumours about Contador. As it stands, they have Ryder Hesjedal and Bauke Mollema for the overall, Fränk Schleck maybe for a stage win, but their main focus has to be on Fabian Cancellara in his last year of racing. Hugely popular both within the peloton and the wider sport, expect him to go well in the ITT stages and possibly try a late attack on a stage he thinks might suit him.
Dimension Data are a team it's very hard not to support. Their aim is to bring cycling to Africa, and to foster African cycling talent. They work closely with the charity Qhubeka, who get bikes to communities without other forms of transport, which helps a lot with kids being able to get an education or families being able to support a business. They have a couple of great British riders in Mark Cavendish and Stephen Cummings. Cav has maybe passed his sprinting peak compared to some of the younger guys in the peloton, but he's definitely got some good results in him yet and will be wanting to add to his TdF stage wins tally. He's also going to the Olympics to race the omnium and act as a back up for the team pursuit of course, so it'll be interesting to see if he stays the whole tour. Cummings got an amazing stage win for the team on Mandela day last year, and he'll be hoping to repeat the feat on certain stages you can bet he's already got earmarked. He's a big powerhouse but he can also get over the climbs, and all of his wins the past couple of years have been from a solo breakaway, either within the last km or the last 60km. They also have Edvald Boasson Hagen, who'll probably want to go for some of the sprint stages, and some promising GC riders who might go for a stage win or the mountains classification.
The other teams are a lower 'tier', and had to be invited to participate. Nacer Bouhanni of Cofidis is another sprinter to look out for, although he's not generally well liked for his tendency to get aggressive or to box others in. Expect Thomas Voeckler and Sylvain Chavanel of Direct Energie to spice things up with some quite frankly ridiculous attacks on a climb
