If I believed Vindegaard was human I’d have gone your way 1/2 
No mention of WvA? I think the entirety of the JV team is under appreciated. When Jumbo wanted something to happen on a stage, it was obvious and usually went that way. There are some other very strong teams, but Jumbo just seems dominant. Need a break to form or need to close down a break, just ask Wout. As I said way above in this thread, the most exciting part of any mountain stage was when Kuss took the front and GC guys just starting blowing off the wheel. The other 5 guys are all amazing support too.
My impression of Jasper changed… I liked Jasper disaster from Netflix, but wasn’t impressed by the Cat4 running of the road move. On the flip side, I now rate him as clearly the best sprinter at the moment. MvdP was a big part of the success as they seemed to have the only functional sprint train here. Perhaps strangely, I felt Cav was the second best sprinter before his crash. Cav’s team was no help, but Cav was generally in the mix and had he not had a problem with his gears or not waited too long on one stage, he might have got 35. He wasn’t just riding a last tour to take in the sites. He was racing. In case anyone forgot (and it would be easy to do), Sagan also rode his last tour this month.
Maybe Remco will shake things up, but I really see Jonas being extremely tough to beat so long as Jumbo keeps the team together. (Vuelta will be a sneak peek at next year.)
I really enjoyed Matej Mohoric’s podium speech. I was bummed Eenkhoorn didn’t get the stage when Campenaerts seemingly held off the peloton on his own. Most of Victor’s attacks seemed to be meme/TV attacks, but that stage was fun. Woods stage win won awesome. Disappointed the Americans didn’t take home a stage as we had several strong riders start but Quinn and Matteo didn’t finish (and Sepp limped home after the crash).
While not quite as good as last year, this was still a fine edition and three weeks of exciting racing (even after GC was settled)!
I’m surprised the Jasper behaviour was so quickly washed from the consciousness.
He doesn’t have the mana, or palmares to be bossing the peloton. It shows, I suppose, that the old heads are right and there’s a lack of leadership/respect within the current peloton.
I got $10 that says Jonas doesn’t actually ride the Vuelta.
Why?
Historically it rarely happens…combination of fatigue, low motivation, etc. Add in Jonas’ mental challenges after last year’s Tour (which hopefully don’t repeat) and I just don’t think he is likely to toe the line.
You also have Worlds in between this year…that will be a long time to hold form (assuming he races Worlds)
I expect Jonas will be at La Vuelta. It will be interesting to see the rest of the team. I don’t expect to see Wout or Sepp. I assume they will run a two leader strategy and see what happens. With a TTT to start, Jumbo is likely going to crush it. Nevertheless, that start list in Spain is
Zero chance Sepp is there…leaving aside his crashes in the Tour, he rode the Giro and the Tour already.
Wout raced the classic and the Tour… also reportedly focusing on Worlds and then will likely need some down time before gearing up for his CX season.
Welp…shows what I know. 
Super domestique Sepp Kuss is also expected to ride the Vuelta if he recovers from his stage 20 crash and the fatigue of riding the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
Not sure if this is popular or not, but maybe make the white jersey winnable once per person?
Yes We know that Pog and Jonas are great young riders, but 4 years running? there are no other young riders coming along?
Jonas Vingegaard definitely won’t be at the world championships (he’s not in the Danish squad) and unless there’s a complete backflip on what he and his team has said within the last day or two, he will be doing the Vuelta.
The team is going for the triple grand tour win, unless something happens I’d expect all of Jumbo’s hitters to be there.
I’m kind of excited to see what happens.
To be clear, I am aware of what they said and I am expecting them to reverse their decision.
Just a hunch.
There has been discussion about canning it all together which makes sense if the level is so high of the youngsters that the same people are vying for both.
For me, it seems that it should be a U23 jersey, since that’s a recognised category already.
Just finished stage two of TdFF. Grim conditions and weird lumpy profile.
Enjoyed seeing Georgia Williams in the break early.
I was thinking they should lower the age, too, then I looked at the ages of all the starters:
- 4 riders under age 23
- 13 rider under age 24
- 23 riders under age 25
So, the under 25 maybe still makes sense, but I like the idea of riders only winning it once, so the next best under 25 riders get a chance at winning something and getting their name and team noticed.
Is it odd to anyone else that one of the teams is sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank?
I grant you that anything can happen in a month’s time but I doubt Jonas would offer up such information after just completing/winning the Tour unless he was feeling pretty confident he would do it. He seems to be feeling good now and I doubt anything short of dramatic is going to stop him from being at the start of the Vuelta.
Now if he makes it to Madrid/is a GC contender is another story. But if anyone can do it it’s certainly Jonas. I’m sure Jumbo is in “let’s see what happens mode” but I envision the likely scenario is that Jonas becomes a super domestique for Roglic.