{"id":179607,"date":"2020-09-22T15:33:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=179607"},"modified":"2020-09-22T15:33:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:33:47","slug":"5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/09\/22\/5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things We Learned from the 2020 Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, that was a thrilling Tour, with hardly a boring moment and high-speed attacks on the most unlikely stages, culminating in an unbelievable individual performance on the penultimate stage. Here are the five most impressive takeaways.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar, of course<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No one could have foreseen the (now) 22-year-old Slovenian beating race leader and compatriot Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d by nearly two minutes in the final time trial, thereby winning the Tour and collecting a full house of jerseys: yellow, white for the best young rider and polka dot for the best climber. (Poga\u010dar finished eighth in the green jersey competition; nobody\u2019s perfect.)<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/a>
Poga\u010dar at the 2020 Tour. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s victory seems to rebut what has become a universally-accepted doctrine of Grand Tour races \u2013 that you can\u2019t win a three-week race without a great team behind you. Rogli\u010d\u2019s Team Jumbo-Visma was a great team and they did everything right \u2013 except winning the title they wanted most. On the other hand, Poga\u010dar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates teammates were almost invisible. They appear to have been used primarily as water-carriers and props. After his decisive time-trial win, Poga\u010dar thanked his team members for the great job they did \u2013 in scouting the stage route.<\/p>\n

It seems that you really don\u2019t need a great team \u2013 or a team at all \u2013 to win the Tour de France. You just need one or two riders strong enough to finish the race and humble enough to carry water for their leader.<\/p>\n

Speaking of teams, what happened to Ineos?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Not only did they choose an apparently out-of-form (or injured) Egan Bernal to carry all the responsibility for winning the Tour \u2013 excluding from the race former Tour champs Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas \u2013 but they apparently did not even consider the possibility of having a Plan-B candidate, such as the in-form Richard Carapaz.<\/p>\n

\"Ineos<\/a>
What happened to Ineos? \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ecuadorian who won the Giro last year would not have bested Poga\u010dar but he might have made the podium if used properly from the start. It was a poorly-planned race by a team that had won seven of the previous eight Tours. Perhaps the team was trying to win all three Grand Tours this year, as Bradley Wiggins has suggested. In any case, it\u2019s back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

Is this the end of Sagan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This Tour de France featured an uncharacteristically out-of-form Sagan who had won the Tour points classification seven of the past eight years. He seemed sluggish in the sprints and unable to keep up with eventual green jersey winner Sam Bennett. The good news for his many fans is that he will be racing for the first time in the Giro d\u2019Italia this year. I am guessing that he knew from the start that he was not in form to win the Tour\u2019s green jersey and will make up for his lapse in the Giro. Expect a very strong performance from the 30-year-old Slovak next month.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
This Tour de France featured an uncharacteristically out-of-form Sagan. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wout van Aert<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What can you say about a cyclist who easily won two sprint stages and, in service to his team leader, Rogli\u010d, outrode some of the best climbers in the world in the mountain stages? Commentators were quick to call him the best all-around rider in the world (that was before Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominant time trial). After winning the Tour\u2019s seventh stage, van Aert had won 8 of the last 17 races in which he\u2019d participated.<\/p>\n

Former team manager Johan Bruyneel compared the 26-year-old Belgian to five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault. “I only know one rider \u2013 Bernard Hinault \u2013\u00a0who in recent decades was able to dictate the pace on a final climb, and also win mass sprints in the same race,” Bruyneel said. \u201cIn my opinion Wout van Aert has everything to become a potential Grand Tour winner. If he goes to a Grand Tour with specific preparation and doesn’t lose any strength with mass sprints, he can compete for the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wout<\/a>
After winning the Tour\u2019s seventh stage, van Aert had won 8 of the last 17 races in which he\u2019d participated. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But van Aert has other priorities such as the World Championships, which are run this week. And he said he does not want to be a yellow-jersey type of rider. \u201cIf I retrain myself to become a great prodigy, I’d go to a point of no return \u2013 my body will change, I’d lose kilos and lose all my qualities to win Classics and sprints. I don’t want that.”<\/p>\n

The future of Grand Tour cycling looks very exciting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In addition to Poga\u010dar (22 years old) and van Aert, this Tour was a showcase for young riders with potentially brilliant futures. Bernal is still only 23 and his best days lie ahead. Switzerland\u2019s Marc Hirshi (22) won a stage as well as the Tour\u2019s most combative rider title. Miguel \u00c1ngel L\u00f3pez (26) of Colombia won the Tour\u2019s \u201cQueen\u201d stage and looks like a future Grand Tour winner. Spain\u2019s Enric Mas (25) finished fifth in the general classification. Other notable young Tour riders with great potential include Lennard K\u00e4mna (24) of Germany and Russian Pavel Sivakov (23). I am already looking forward to next year\u2019s Tour de France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, that was a thrilling Tour, with hardly a boring moment and high-speed attacks on the most unlikely stages, culminating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":179608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[3622,1575,2621,1221,1468,3415,433,831],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-179607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-2020-tour-de-france","tag-bernard-hinault","tag-egan-bernal","tag-primoz-roglic","tag-sam-bennett","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-wout-van-aert","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Things We Learned from the 2020 Tour de France - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wow, that was a thrilling Tour, with hardly a boring moment and high-speed attacks on the most unlikely stages, culminating in an unbelievable individual\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/09\/22\/5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things We Learned from the 2020 Tour de France\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wow, that was a thrilling Tour, with hardly a boring moment and high-speed attacks on the most unlikely stages, culminating in an unbelievable individual\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/09\/22\/5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-22T15:33:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/09\/pogacar-profimedia-0558970827-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/09\/22\/5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/09\/22\/5-things-we-learned-from-the-2020-tour-de-france\/\",\"name\":\"5 Things We Learned from the 2020 Tour de France - 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