Many cycling followers expect a battle between Jumbo-Visma and Team INEOS in the Tour de France, but according to Jumbo-Visma leaders Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin, many more riders and teams will play a role in the fight for the yellow jersey.
“It’s not just Jumbo-Visma against INEOS this Tour,” Dumoulin said at a digital press conference on Thursday. “I think there will be at least twenty men at the start on Saturday who hope that they can win the Tour or finish on the podium. We have to make sure that we are the best in that group.”
Roglic, who showed the best form of all classification riders this month but fell hard in the Critérium du Dauphiné, said he was not involved with the competition. “We have to focus on ourselves, that’s all we have control over,” said the Slovenian.
Jumbo-Visma hopes to end the dominance of Team INEOS in the next three weeks with its strong eight (Dumoulin, Roglic, George Bennett, Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert, Robert Gesink, Amund Grøndahl Jansen and Tony Martin). The British team has won seven of the last eight Tours and also has the defending champion with Egan Bernal.
‘We will absolutely miss Kruijswijk’
In the preliminary races for the Tour de France – the Tour de l’Ain and the Critérium du Dauphiné – Jumbo-Visma was clearly stronger than INEOS, but those races only lasted a few days and not three weeks. Moreover, the Dutch formation with the injured Steven Kruijswijk has lost an important pawn.
“We are going to miss Steven in the Tour, he would have been one of the best riders in the Tour,” said Dumoulin. “We will have to adjust our tactics a bit, but hopefully Primoz and I will both still be close to the podium in the last week.”
For Jumbo-Visma it is a new situation that they are the favorite for the Tour victory in advance. “But we have already gained quite some experience in other major races in recent years with being the favorite. We won the Vuelta last year with Primoz,” said sports director Grischa Niermann. “So it’s not completely new to us. We know what to do in the next three weeks.”
‘Dumoulin is ready to show his top form’
Dumoulin will have to play an important role in Jumbo-Visma’s plan, even though he only rode his first race in 420 days at the beginning of this month. The 29-year-old Limburger was unable to compete for a long time due to a lingering knee injury and then the corona crisis.
“I feel good and happy to be back at the start of the Tour”, said the number two of the 2018 Tour de France. “I have improved in the Tour de l’Ain and the Dauphiné, who had races I really need to get back into rhythm. “
Roglic has also seen in recent weeks that his new teammate was getting stronger. “Tom has made great strides, he is ready to show his best form here. It’s nice to have such a strong rider in my team, I can only say positive things about Tom.”
–
–
–
–
Play along with the Tour game! For the app users: tap here.
– .
/nginx/o/2019/08/28/12506244t1hc7b4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
