Paris (AFP)
Giro or Tour? OJ or World Cup? The choice turns out to be difficult for riders of long laps, climbers of the peloton who are advantaged in 2020 by routes cut to their pedals in the big one-day races.
Tokyo has turned the tables. The Japanese course indeed has a very steep climb, suitable for selection on July 25 the day after the Olympic opening. Just like the Swiss circuit of Martigny, which will host the annual world championship on September 27.
In Japan, several of the potential favorites have already scouted. "It will be an elimination race," predicts Chris Froome, the four-time Tour winner who has never won a one-day race, however. "It is a course for climbers," said Romain Bardet, comforted in his program review in order to relaunch after his disappointments last summer.
The Frenchman has already announced it: he will give up next year the Tour de France, the number one cycling event. The Italian Vincenzo Nibali, who left the Bahrain team to join Trek, made the same choice: Giro, Olympics and world championship. Even if it is almost impossible - the different coaches agree - to know three peaks of form of the same quality in the season.
- The unknown Froome -
Another long lap racer, but a typical roller, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin is preparing, according to the press of his country, to also favor the Giro. And let the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, winner of the last Vuelta, tackle the Tour de France, the favorite territory since 2012 of the Ineos armada, formerly Sky.
In the Great Loop that Thibaut Pinot will tackle at the end of June with legitimate ambitions, the British team has no shortage of options. But she is faced with a tall stranger. Chris Froome, his reference runner until last spring, will he become as competitive as in the past?
"It's impossible to say," replied the 35-year-old Briton, who was seriously injured last June during his fall before the Dauphiné time trial. Suffering from multiple fractures, he had to undergo several surgeries.
In his absence, Egan Bernal, supported by Welshman Geraint Thomas (2nd), assured the best in the 2019 Tour de France illuminated by the performance of Julian Alaphilippe, 14 days in yellow.
Simple acting or passing the baton? The age (22) of the Colombian climber, one of the youngest winners in history, would tip for the second hypothesis ... this would be to neglect the moral strength of Froome.
- Reduced time after the Tour -
For 2020, nothing has yet been done in the most powerful formation of the peloton. Bernal, however, expressed his interest in a confusing double Giro-Tour, which would de facto condemn him to play the utilities in July if he aimed for victory in Italy. In 2020, the interval between the two major rounds was shortened by one week compared to the previous year so that the Tour does not encroach on the Tokyo Games.
In the peloton, this timing problem affects all the leaders involved in the Tour de France, punchers included, like Julian Alaphilippe. In particular, everyone has a period reduced to six days between the end of the Great Loop and the race for the Games to overcome jet lag and adapt to specific weather conditions, mainly heat and humidity.
Peter Sagan has already given up on the end of the season. Following the program unveiled by his Bora team, the ex-triple world champion will line up for the first time in the Giro before participating in the Tour de France.
"I think my season will end after the Tour and the Olympics. So it will only be six months, but six difficult months," Sagan told cyclingnews. The only certainty for 2020, the record for a fourth world title, on which the biggest runners stumbled, will therefore continue to be inaccessible.
© 2020 AFP