• The Tour de France 2022 starts Friday from Copehnaghue

  • Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Rogilc and Jonas Vingegaard are the big favourites.

    David Gaudu is the best French chance overall.

  • 20 Minutes gives

    you the (very) fictional scenario of the Tour 2022 before the Grand Départ

It's go again.

From France, but also from Denmark, where the first three stages will take place, including the inaugural time trial in Copenhagen this Friday.

Should we see there the premonition of a future success of the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, revelation of the last edition and third wheel of the carriage of the favorites, led by the Slovenians Tadej Pogacar, double-winner in title of the Grande Boucle and Primoz Roglic?

We would gladly bet on a Frenchman, but the best French chance on David Gaudu paper seems a notch below this pretty world.

The picture has rarely seemed so clear, although the organization has done everything possible to force the unpredictable to operate, like this stage of Arenberg, potential gravedigger of favorites.

Let us all the same allow ourselves to dream, at the time of the last speculations before the big departure.

And imagine, in eight questions, what this Tour de France 2022 could look like (or not), with the expertise of former rider Steve Chainel, now a Eurosport consultant.

How Tibaut Pinot will win this Tour on a huge misunderstanding?

Thibaut Pinot has no more excuses.

The Groupama-FDJ rider comes to the Tour de France in the best conditions for him: without pressure.

He voluntarily left the leadership – which he did not feel “fit” to assume – to Gaudu and stocked up on antibodies after the Tour de Suisse, where he contracted Covid.

After cleaning the airways on the Danish stages, Pinot will lose five minutes on the cobblestones, where he will achieve the feat of not falling, which is already not bad, then manages to resist Pogacar, Roglic and Vingegaard at the top of the Belles Filles Super Board.

New yellow jersey, "Pogi" will be forced to leave the roads of the Tour due to Covid.

Finishing Matteo Trentin's cereal for breakfast a week earlier was not a good idea.

Contaminated by their rival, Vingegaard and Roglic will forfeit a little later.

The rest is history: Pinot takes off in Alpe d'Huez and returns to 30 seconds behind the new yellow jersey Matej Mohoric, another Slovenian.

No luck, this one in turn leaves the Grande Boucle following a new perquiz, one too many, at the Hotel de la Bahrein.

The way clear, “Tibo” only has to control the race.

Oh, a noise.

The alarm rings.

It's time to wake up.

Steve Chainel's opinion

: “I'm one of Thibaut's lovers.

If he wins a stage after the difficult period he went through, we would already be super happy.

I get chills just talking about it, because it would be deserved.

Thibaut is never as good as when he is not necessarily expected, as when his flesh and his pride are wounded.

Now there is also David Gaudu.

There will necessarily be a time when it will be necessary to decide, and it will necessarily be in favor of David.

»

When are we going to be able to take a good nap?

Mainly on the Danish stages and on the Champs, where we can be content to open our eyes at the end of the stage after having followed the first 150 terminals in a semi-coma.

Otherwise, this Tour will be very rhythmic on paper.

How could Tadej Pogacar lose (for once)?

Arenberg stage, first cobblestone sector.

Wout Van Aert surprises everyone by getting off his bike.

He is immediately followed by Primoz Roglic, who, for fear of falling, climbs on the shoulders of the Belgian.

The latter will win the stage with the Slovenian on his back, putting 2 minutes in Pogacar's nose.

The UAE leader will fail 12 seconds behind the Jumbo-Visma rider despite 46 attacks on Granon, Alpe d'Huez and Hautacam.

The opinion of Steve Chainel:

“Pogacar, we have never seen him have a day without.

And if this day without it is that of the Planche des Belles filles or the day of Arenberg, I hope with all my heart for the show, (and too bad for Tadej even if I have nothing against him) that his competitors will try to put it as far as possible.

Because when he's five minutes early, he doesn't give presents, so you shouldn't give him any either.

The stage which risks giving us lessons and the one where Pogacar cannot master everything is this famous cobbled stage.

Even if in real life, he is very agile on the bike, who did cyclo crosses last winter.

I think even that he tries to control.

Good luck to his opponents.

»

No, in real life, how will Pogacar win the Tour in ten days?

In real life, Pogacar never has cravings, nor does he fall.

Paved or not, don't give a shit.

He whistles in the mixed zone after having climbed 30 col terminals alone, in short, he is doing Pogacar and nothing there, nobody can do anything about it.

Its rise in the Tour of Slovenia seems to confirm the trend.

Steve Chainel's opinion

: “I hope that Pogacar will not already have a three-minute lead before the end of the first week, because it is something perfectly possible.

At the end of the first week, we can already have significant gaps with this stage of Arenberg, where we can almost already lose a leader.

If I had to name a guy who is aiming for a top 10 and risks wasting time at Arenberg because he is not very agile and not necessarily comfortable, I would say Roglic.

And then behind, there is this Planche des Belles Filles which will be skimming.

»

Wednesday, 151.7 km from Albertville.

The runners will climb the Lacets de Montvernier, then chain Télégraphe, 11.9 km at 7.1% and Galibier, 17.7 km at 6.9%, before arriving at the top of the Col du Granon, after 11.3 km 9.2km away.

A day without will be expensive.

pic.twitter.com/3ovH1rQjkb

— Cactus on a bike (@CactusSurUnVelo) June 29, 2022


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What do we expect from our French people?

Bright on the Giro, where he unfortunately fell ill while he was playing for the win, Romain Bardet will arrive short of pace on the Tour and says he does not want to aim for the general.

“I have no certainty about my level, delivered the French climber at a press conference.

It doesn't detract from my motivation.

But I want to run without thinking about tomorrow.

So I focus on the steps.

The French seem predestined for stage victories, and, possibly, a place or two in the top 10.

Steve Chainel's opinion:

“What can we expect from our French people?

We hope that Alaphilippe [absent] will win in Longwy, we hope that Axel Zingle [also absent] will once again perform after his good performance in the French championship (laughs).

More seriously, we are still waiting for the same ones, be it Gaudu, Bardet, Pinot, Barguil, all those riders who can play for a good general classification.

At Total-Energies, I think a Turgis can finally get a big win this year.

Ditto for Sénéchal with his French champion's jersey, which we should see to his advantage on the cobblestones.

»

Who will be the Vingegaard of 2022?

Last year, the Dane surprised everyone by inviting himself not only to the podium but also by being the only one capable of following and then dropping Tadej Pogacar on a regular basis.

Vingegaard had previously revealed himself on the Tour of the Basque Country 2022. Not quite a detail: in 2022, Daniel Felipe Martinez distinguished himself there by winning the final victory.

A sign, for the winner of the Dauphiné 2020?

How to continue to vibrate when Pogacar will be 10 minutes ahead of everyone?

Silly question.

By following our daily lives.

Steve Chainel's opinion:

“If I had to play for high odds on the Tour, I would bet on Thomas Pidcock green jersey.

The real fight, the real suspense will not be for the general but for the green jersey.

It makes it possible to shift the interest of the Tour to another jersey, in case the general is folded after ten days (laughs).

»

Who will escape the Covid?

Thibaut Pinot, like Peter Sagan and Aleksander Vlasov, infected on the Tour de Suisse, will be able to sleep soundly for the next three weeks.

Sick in the spring, Wout Van Aert probably has some antibodies in store.

On the other hand, it is a little more vague for Jonas Vingegaard, who went through the Covid box during an internship at the start of the year.

Among the French, David Gaudu or Romain Bardet are among the vulnerable.

Bonus: Where and when to follow the first "ATTACK OF PIERRE ROLLAND!"

»?

On the 2nd stage (Roskilde-Nyborg), to get the first points of the mountain grand prix.

Obviously.

Sport

Tour de France 2022: Covid stress and new health protocol, the Grande Boucle hit by the new wave

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Cycling: "Learning to manage the nervousness of a leader", David Gaudu displays his ambitions for 2022

  • Tour de France 2022

  • Cycling

  • Thibaut Pinot

  • Tadej Pogacar

  • Primoz Roglic

  • Romain Bardet

  • Sport