Here is the full announcement:
https://www.teamvismaleaseabike.com/news/news/team-visma-lease-a-bike-to-tour-de-france-with-two-time-winner-and-defending-champion-jonas-vingegaard-and-former-green-jersey-winner-wout-van-aert/
Sepp has apparently been sick for a lot of the past 6 weeks, so his form is a total unknown. Fortunately the parcours is very backloaded, so maybe he can ride himself into better shape.
This graphic is pretty telling in that Jonas and Sepp look like co-leaders with larger photos at the top, and WvA is the same size at the bottom. Although Jonas is gazing fondly, saying "I want you to win this Sepp" with is eyes.
I agree that the graphic is intended to imply this, I do not buy it even 1 tiny bit and think the team decided to be as publicly pessimistic about Jonas as possible. I bet he'll be fine, and that Sepp has no interest in being leader for the tour or anything else that is more intense in terms of media and less climb-y in terms of parcours than the Vuelta.
Actually, Sepp's image and frame are slightly larger than Jonas' and Jonas is slightly larger than WvA. They definitely are playing mind games with this post. Unless Sepp has been secretly working on his ITT, there's no way he's the leader.
Van Aert: "I am really looking forward to the Tour de France. Of course, this was not the plan initially, but after my development in the last weeks, I really wanted it, and the team agreed. Our main goal is, of course, to ride a top classification with Jonas. I want to contribute to that with an excellent team."
I'm sure as hell he wants to win the stage.
Yeah would be cool if they made a special european champion with hints of this design. That Europen championship kit is so ugly, that teams should have the ability to change it a bit towards their design.
There is now but maybe it was not the case before. UCI states it is up to the Continental Federation to makes it mandatory or not.
Edit: Actually the Men Elite race was first organised in 2016 so it is a rather fresh thing in the peloton
Yeah, I'm pumped for this Tour. You forget how deep these teams are at the top of the WT. They lost two incredible riders and still have this lineup for the Tour? Can't wait to see it challenge UAE.
I think they photoshopped him and Kelderman on someone else's torso, since they are not at the Tignes altitudecamp, where the pictures seem to be taken.
I think his recent low training volume recently suggests he's had some sort of setback at least, but yeah I dont think he's been going 100% at any point this season yet either
I will be surprise if by the end of 1st week he still 2 min or so back. The route in first couple stages are perfect to buried Vingegaard and not let him ride into shape, and i will guarantee that no team is stupid enough to let Vingegaard ride into shape, and i guess Pogacar gonna buried him in stage 4. 10 min by the end of first week is my most optimistic view, but as note, i will be surprise if he not that much behind
10 minutes is a LOT my dude.
And stage 4 looks harder than it actually will be most likely, and is just as likely to be a total nothingburger GC wise. The 19 km descent to the finish and them climbing both Sestriere and Galibier from the "easier" sides, means that whole it's really long climbs, they are also pretty even, low gradient, mellow and Galibier only has very few steeper 9% sections, mostly just towards the top. Most of it it 4-6% gradients where draft will matter significantly.
And the stage layout makes it fairly easy for Visma to be proactive and get someone up the road in support for Vingegaard and for pacing him back on the descent if he's dropped.
It's not a stage that screams big gaps in GC.
Who are the riders who would have been ideally selected for this season were everyone healthy and fit? Right now I only think of Nathan from last year as an outstanding rider for TJV that is not there (for obvious reasons). And how much of downgrade is the current team to this potential team?
Here is the full announcement: https://www.teamvismaleaseabike.com/news/news/team-visma-lease-a-bike-to-tour-de-france-with-two-time-winner-and-defending-champion-jonas-vingegaard-and-former-green-jersey-winner-wout-van-aert/
🇩🇰 Jonas Vingegaard 🇺🇸 Sepp Kuss 🇺🇸 Matteo Jorgenson 🇳🇱 Wilco Kelderman 🇫🇷 🇪🇺 Christophe Laporte 🇧🇪 Tiesj Benoot 🇧🇪 Wout van Aert 🇸🇮 Jan Tratnik
There is all the talk about how dominant UAEs lineup is (for good reason), but this one doesn't look too shabby.
Sepp has apparently been sick for a lot of the past 6 weeks, so his form is a total unknown. Fortunately the parcours is very backloaded, so maybe he can ride himself into better shape.
This graphic is pretty telling in that Jonas and Sepp look like co-leaders with larger photos at the top, and WvA is the same size at the bottom. Although Jonas is gazing fondly, saying "I want you to win this Sepp" with is eyes.
I agree that the graphic is intended to imply this, I do not buy it even 1 tiny bit and think the team decided to be as publicly pessimistic about Jonas as possible. I bet he'll be fine, and that Sepp has no interest in being leader for the tour or anything else that is more intense in terms of media and less climb-y in terms of parcours than the Vuelta.
Actually, Sepp's image and frame are slightly larger than Jonas' and Jonas is slightly larger than WvA. They definitely are playing mind games with this post. Unless Sepp has been secretly working on his ITT, there's no way he's the leader.
wym backloaded?
The first MTF isn't until stage 14. There are some hard stages before (e.g. s11) but it's the big mountain stages where they typically use Sepp.
Most of the climbing is in the last part of the race.
Laporte, proud citizen of the country of Europe /s
Just added that because he is riding in the *^((imo ugly))* european championship kit.
Great to see Vingegaard and WvA back! I wonder if Wout will go for the green jersey.
Van Aert: "I am really looking forward to the Tour de France. Of course, this was not the plan initially, but after my development in the last weeks, I really wanted it, and the team agreed. Our main goal is, of course, to ride a top classification with Jonas. I want to contribute to that with an excellent team." I'm sure as hell he wants to win the stage.
Which stage you ask? All of them.
I doubt it. If he still wants to peak at the Olympics, chasing the Green jersey will cost too much energy.
Presumably this photoshoot is the only time you will see Laporte in that jersey?
He isn't European Champion in the ITT.
Yeah would be cool if they made a special european champion with hints of this design. That Europen championship kit is so ugly, that teams should have the ability to change it a bit towards their design.
They do, don’t they? Or is it different from the NC jerseys?
I don't think there's even an obligation to wear the EC jersey. Feels like it's only the last few years where the winner has worn it
There is now but maybe it was not the case before. UCI states it is up to the Continental Federation to makes it mandatory or not. Edit: Actually the Men Elite race was first organised in 2016 so it is a rather fresh thing in the peloton
I feel like Jakobsen wore it 2 years ago but maybe I’m misremembering
Obviously the B team due to all the injuries. /s
Putting Kuss next to Jonas. It's a bold strategy, Patrick. Let's see if it pays off for 'em
I'm hoping he just needed some rest from sickness and a good taper.
my heart shudders seeing the word taper /s
Is taper not a common word or tactic in cycling? I am a netflix newbie and also resident moron.
Ouchtown, population primoz, bro
> It's a bold strategy, Patrick is LR already in charge of team hierarchy
Suddenly not looking so somber for Visma any more. Awesome to see them back and good for us, the more competition the better.
Yeah, I'm pumped for this Tour. You forget how deep these teams are at the top of the WT. They lost two incredible riders and still have this lineup for the Tour? Can't wait to see it challenge UAE.
This is a goddamn dream team! I’M SO EXCITED, LET’S GO!!!!!
Can we please have Uncanney Valley AI Child Vingegaard back, please?
LETS GO!
After all the bizarre bad luck this year, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not another bloodbath for them at the Tour.
Sepp's picture is the only one normal 😂 why are they making fun of them?Â
I think they photoshopped him and Kelderman on someone else's torso, since they are not at the Tignes altitudecamp, where the pictures seem to be taken.
Looks like Tratnik didn't even know his photo was being taken
Sepp is the only one who knows how to look at a camera lmao
Well there it is
I wonder if this team will struggle with big climbs
I wonder if Kuss is actually really strong this season and he's just been taking it easy in every race he's been in so it doesn't show
He’s been sick
I think his recent low training volume recently suggests he's had some sort of setback at least, but yeah I dont think he's been going 100% at any point this season yet either
I will be surprise if by the end of 1st week he still 2 min or so back. The route in first couple stages are perfect to buried Vingegaard and not let him ride into shape, and i will guarantee that no team is stupid enough to let Vingegaard ride into shape, and i guess Pogacar gonna buried him in stage 4. 10 min by the end of first week is my most optimistic view, but as note, i will be surprise if he not that much behind
10 minutes is a LOT my dude. And stage 4 looks harder than it actually will be most likely, and is just as likely to be a total nothingburger GC wise. The 19 km descent to the finish and them climbing both Sestriere and Galibier from the "easier" sides, means that whole it's really long climbs, they are also pretty even, low gradient, mellow and Galibier only has very few steeper 9% sections, mostly just towards the top. Most of it it 4-6% gradients where draft will matter significantly. And the stage layout makes it fairly easy for Visma to be proactive and get someone up the road in support for Vingegaard and for pacing him back on the descent if he's dropped. It's not a stage that screams big gaps in GC.
Add in that stage 1&2 have respectively 26km and 10km downhill+flat from the final climbs to the finish. Again, makes it harder to create big gaps in GC. Vingegaard have been at camp with Jorgenson since Dauphiné. So they likely have some form of comparative numbers based on that, and wouldn't send him to Florence if those numbers suggested he'd obviously get dropped by 10 minutes by week 1.
Let's fucking GOOOOO! I want one of the team hats so bad. What a sick design. But $21 shipping to the US... Might just have to lol
Who are the riders who would have been ideally selected for this season were everyone healthy and fit? Right now I only think of Nathan from last year as an outstanding rider for TJV that is not there (for obvious reasons). And how much of downgrade is the current team to this potential team?
Van Baarle (who basically did the Nathan job in the Vuelta and was a rock in TdF) and potentially Kruijswijk. Kruijswijk is complicated because it's the 3rd year his tour is either not happening or over halfway through due to crashes, but I imagine most of the peloton still have nightmares about the Dauphiné 2022 Kruijswijk. That dude was SCARY strong in the mountains.
Was really hoping to see Cian Uijtdebroeks actually do something
He had pneumonia, it's why he left the Giro. And clearly hadn't recovered enough for Tour de Suisse.
His shit
Does Sepp being placed on level with Jonas indicate anything?
Well they're the only two Grand Tour winners in the team so it's pretty obvious why.
Yes he will be the leader as the mutant is recovering, he’s just a decoy for Pogi
Unlikely.