I think Yates to win it, followed by Bernal (assuming his back problems are fixed). The dynamics at Quickstep will be interesting - will they bet on either Almeida or Evenepoel … guess they’ll try and keep their options open as long as they can. I love watching Nibali but I don’t see him finishing on the podium.
My favourite grand tour of the year. Something about the sun in May falling on the beautiful Italian countryside. Fantastic.
Anyway. Yates to win. Bilbao second (Landa will underperform and he will be waiting in the wings). Sivakov third (Bernal goes out with back problems in third week).
Carthy, Hindley and Vlassov all vying for the minor places.
Although I would love is Remco just won everything 
5 Likes
Tom Dumoulin will make a comeback! in June already woohoo 
Honestly, I am quite surprised. I thought he was broken mentally and would retire.
I hope he has found the enjoyment in riding / racing again!
Has anyone watched the Navarra womens elite classic? Quite an exciting race, and that area around Pamplona just looks absolutely amazing. Can´t wait until traveling is allowed again.
What a nice win for Bernal!
12% gradient on dirt, in the big ring…
Superman Lopez wins Andalucía (as expected)…Hopefully he can be in good form for a top 5 TdF. 
Will be only paying attention to the last 3 stages of Critérium du Dauphiné. Let’s see what Nairo and Lopez can do.
Couldn’t help but notice the good time Superman Lopez did in the TT, a welcomed improvement after last year’s TT disasters.
This has been a snoozer of a race so far…some interesting TT times today though.
Thomas started off strong but blew before the finish and lost time. At the first time check, he was looking like “the guy”…now he looks like a guy who will need to attack.
Froome lost +2’ today….not a good sign for Le Tour. Could ISN actually leave him at home? He needs to show something at this point…
At this point, the joke is on ppl still paying attention to Froome. He’s moved on to the PR and entertainment business.
What´s with the hate for Froome? Dude´s one of the most successful GT riders of all time and broke a whole lot of bones 2 years ago. He deserves some attention.
Obviously he is not a contender in any race this year, and he conceded as much, but it is still interesting to follow his recovery.
or any year 
… No hate, it’s all good.
I hate the way he lies. He keeps saying he’s getting better with every altitude camp when the truth is he keeps getting worse. But that’s to be expected at his age. He “aint” no Valverde, that’s for sure.
I think the worst thing that has happened to him is the way the announcers constantly talk about him like he’s still 2018 Froome. He does not talk about himself that way, even his team no longer talks about him that way.
That doesn’t stop nearly every announcer from talking about him like he’s there to compete and win. Everyone except the announcers seems to understand he isn’t the same rider any longer but their constant talking about him as if he’s a GC contender has created these false narratives.
I assume the people posting hate on him in this thread are responding to the announcers more than anything else, although I don’t know.
Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of his, but that’s mostly because I always like to root for the underdogs and basically anyone on Ineos can’t have that status for long. Nothing for or against him personally - I actually like him more now than I did pre-crash but I have no real expectation that he will ever get back to GT winning form
Do they really talk about him much? I’ve only really noticed them mention him when the camera shows him dropping off the back. Then they go back to the rest of the race. They don’t seem to dwell on him.
Yes, they spend more time on him than any other non-contender, and more than many of the contenders
For me it has not been helped by the brutal commentary team assembled by NBC Sports instead of letting us hear the feed with Ant McCrossan as we have in year’s past.