2018 Tour de France Week 1 Recap

Eight stage into the 21 stage 2018 Tour, there still is no clear favorite although as far as I’m concerned. Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana, my podium picks, have all lost time either by a crash or mechanical. The second tier favorites like Richie Porte, Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic were also affected by the crashes. Third tier favorites like Ilnur Zakarin and Roman Bardet also lost time as a result of the same.  The only riders who came out on stage 8 unscathed were Gearing Thomas, Alejandro Valverde and  Mikel Linda.

In other words, after 8 stages, all the favorites are back to square one. But tonights (last night) stage nine will turn the standing upside down because the peloton will descend  in hell, the same route that is used during Paris-Roubaix. Expect carnage on the 21.7km cobbles, divided into 15 sectors.

You have to remember that the Tour favorites have never ridden the cobbles and a simple crash can send all their ambitions home. The money is on Nibali, who in the 2014 Tour, ruled the cobbles that year and went on to win the tour that year.

Team SKY a divided house?

SKY came into the Tour with two leaders, Froome and Thomas. Thomas was the insurance that if Froome doping case was upheld and he DQ’d as a result, but when Froome was absolved days before that start, SKY was faced with a conundrum.

It was always the team mantra that the road will determine the leader and with Froome behind by Thomas by the 59sec, stage 9 will play a prominent role in determining who the outright leaders will be.

A lot of media people believed that Thomas at this time is stronger than Froome and is pushing for his leadership. I believe that this has nothing to do with Thomas because Thomas was and will  never be as strong as Froome. I am 99.99% sure of that.

You see last May, when everybody was counting Froome out of the Giro d’Italia, he got the spiral trophy by a come from behind triumph. BTW, the Giro is a Grand Tour and like the Tour de France, is three weeks. Thomas, on the other hand, won the Dauphine Libere, a week-long stage race in which he was dropped on the last stage in a mountain top finish.

So how could a rider like Thomas lead  a team with a leader stronger than him in the same squad? Well, only the rumormongers and the haters in the media can do it. With so much vitriol directed on Froome, they don’t him to win a 5th title, they want him to disappear and install Thomas as the new leader.

The same thing is happening at team MOVISTAR. Quintana,  Linda and Valverde are the leaders but with Quintana way behind the two, they think that intersquad rivalry will come out.

Finally, if you want to hear the best Tour podcast, go to www.wedu.com and listen to Lance Armstrong unbridled.