{"id":174684,"date":"2019-07-18T10:58:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T10:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=174684"},"modified":"2019-07-18T10:58:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T10:58:25","slug":"on-la-grande-boucle-are-we-watching-a-vintage-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/07\/18\/on-la-grande-boucle-are-we-watching-a-vintage-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"On La Grande Boucle: Are We Watching a Vintage Tour de France?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the second half of this year\u2019s Tour de France is as eventful and exciting as the first, 2019 will be considered a vintage year in the Tour\u2019s history. Yes, all those mountains lie ahead, and that\u2019s where the race used to hold most of the drama and excitement \u2013 and where it has usually been decided. But the race organizers\u2019 decision to reduce the amount of flat terrain in the run-up to the mountain stages has added a great deal of drama to the race \u2013 and it greatly benefitted the rider who has dominated the first 11 stages, France\u2019s Julian Alaphilippe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Deceuninck-Quick Step rider took advantage of the hilly stages to take over the race leader\u2019s yellow jersey with an explosive move late in stage 3, regained it in the same style in stage 8 while also pulling fellow Frenchman Thibaut Pinot into third place in the standings and then, in stage 10, turned what should have been a routine leg into another pulsating road race with yet another sensational acceleration 35 km from the finish line. That move split the peloton in two, with no fewer than five championship pretenders including Pinot, caught in the trailing group and losing 1 min 40 secs to last year\u2019s winner Geraint Thomas.<\/p>\n

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Thibaut Pinot during stage 9.\u00a0\u00a9 Profimedia, Polaris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was the kind of stage where the Tour is never won but occasionally lost. That may well have been the case for Pinot, Richie Porte, Rigoberto Uran, Jakob Fuglsang, and Mikel Landa all of who now trail Thomas (who has dispelled all doubts about his fitness) by 2 mins 33 secs (Pinot) to 4 mins 15 secs (Landa). \u201cWe didn\u2019t plan to split the peloton,\u201d Alaphilippe said after the stage. \u201cWe only expected the stage to be nervous and tricky. Our intention was only to protect my yellow jersey and concentrate on the sprint.\u201d Oh, well. Stuff happens.<\/p>\n

Just as Alaphilippe has been the revelation of the Tour so far, the surprise team of the first half of this year\u2019s race must be the Jumbo-Visma, which has four stage wins out of the first eleven so far, won the team time trial and three sprint finishes and, what\u2019s even more impressive, each of these won by a different rider! In this era of specialization where most teams carry one sprinter, one or two riders for the low mountains, one or two leaders and the rest as support, it\u2019s refreshing to watch a team with a different strategy \u2013 one that has already paid off in grand fashion.<\/p>\n

Jumbo-Visma\u2019s primary sprinter was supposed to be Dylan Groenewegen and he did win stage 7 in fine style. But after he crashed in stage 1 and was unable to participate in that sprint, teammate Mike Teunissen (who usually leads Groenewegen into the final meters) took over and won. And when both Groenewegen and Teunissen were caught in the trailing group in stage 10, fellow Jumbo-Visma rider Wout van Aert stepped up and won the sprint finish.<\/p>\n

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\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 #TDF2019<\/a> <\/p>\n

That moment when… you hear you\u2019ve won your first @LeTour<\/a> stage\ud83e\udd29 pic.twitter.com\/NQ1kyXXp9s<\/a><\/p>\n

— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) July 15, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n