Croatia14 wrote:
Guess you could fight for P3-5 with Latour, which would be great. Elia should at least double his wins from last year, though Consonni needs to be huge with less of an emphasis on your sprint train...

Shonak wrote:
Could end up a long Giro for Cofidis if Latour underperforms, and in this field it will be tough to shine. Hopefully there will be some breakaway wins and perhaps the Top 10 by Pierre and even white jersey. Team has been flying so far this season so they should come into this race with high morale.

Shonak wrote:
Someone I oversaw Viviannito in the lineup. Well, out with the breakaway wins, in with the sprint domination charged by Consonni

Croatia14 wrote:
Guess you could fight for P3-5 with Latour, which would be great. Elia should at least double his wins from last year, though Consonni needs to be huge with less of an emphasis on your sprint train...

Tamijo wrote:
Nice 2nd in Germany, looking forward to the Giro.
Got a semi-good Dane, always interesting for me to see what impact he can make.

Guess the GC will be tough, but results in sprints could make it a nice race for you.

A mixed back, but overall arguably a good first week for us. Marco Mathis had his best few days in a Cofidis jersey when he wore the blue mountain jersey from stage 3 through stage 7, at which point it was taken over by Victor Lafay in an absolutely career-defining performance. Lafay won that first mountain stage from what was initially a 30 men breakaway, using a fantastic day to beat out his competition.

Pierre Latour has kept a low profile so far. He did well on stage 6, a hilly stage that had a surprising impact on the GC as riders like Roglic, Lopez and Pogacar lost more than a minute, Yates and Kelderman more than two. This served Latour well and allowed him to stay in the Top 5 of the GC despite losing half a minute to the top favorites in the mountains a day later - hopefully not too much of a sign of things to come.

Another decent result: We improved in the time trial and lost more than a minute less than last year! Unfortunately not improved: Elia Viviani, who still fails to regularly challenge Ewan and Ackermann, although he came very, very close on day four. Let's hope he can snatch in stage or two in the upcoming two weeks.

Shonak wrote:
Lafaaay - Lafaaay!!! https://www.youtu..._gVW6ZTRDU

let's see what he has in store for Italy going forward, obviously the form is stellar and makes more than up for Elia's good but not ideal results so far. Latour well in the race; podium looks unlikely but Top 5 is well within reach with some smart racing. Fingers crossed.

Shonak wrote:
Nibali at Ineos hurts.

FreitasPCM wrote:
Promising first week. I swear Ineos brings all the great climbers to their team in this game, it’s insane.

VoetsT wrote:
Good first week for your team. Lafay is doing really great

Honestly, overall a pretty dreadful week. Viviani was consistent in the sprints but continues to be winless as we collect two second and two third places over the past seven days. And there's only one hilly stage that might end in a sprint finish left in week 3 to improve on that.

But obviously, the main thing is Pierre Latour dropping 11 spots in the GC after a couple of pretty dreadful mountain stages. Stage 13 was especially brutal, followed by a crash on stage 14 that cost him some energy on what could have been an otherwise decent day.

On top of all of that, Victor Lafay lost the mountain jersey despite being present in a few breakaways, but not strong enough to overcome some of the really good climbers in there. Breakaways will also be the way to go for Latour going forward, trying to regain a few spots in the GC and/or seeking a stage win. Let's hope for the best!

Shonak wrote:
That was a tough week, good that the rest day has come up and a good opportunity to collect the spirits.

Looks like Lafay has the best chances to snatch a jersey here, with Viviani being very consistent but ultimately always a bit short off the better result. Let's see how Latour and Lafay can raid the mountains, together they may outplay their opponents in the breakaway.

FreitasPCM wrote:
Ouch, that hurt. :/ Hopefully Latour’s condition can still be good to join breakaways and aim to jump some places and also help Lafay get that jersey. Interesting strategic options here. Also Muhlberger in 5th, would never guess.

VoetsT wrote:
Not the best week of racing, hope Viviani gets his win nevertheless

We went full offense in the final week and it paid off. To kick things off, Latour was joined in the breakaway by Lafay and Hansen. Latour was the strongest of the group and for a while, it looked like the stage win was a real option, but Nibali - by far the strongest rider in this entire race - caught up to him in the final few hundred meters. Still a strong showing, moving him up to 12th overall.

After the MTT, Viviani had his last hurrah, curiously on a mountain stage that was very unselective. Behind the two successful escapees, he once again was beaten by Ackermann and Philipsen. But our focus was on the final two mountain stages. Latour tried to go into the break on stage 19, but he wasn’t allowed. He didn’t have the best day either and ended up losing another place in the GC. But then came stage 20.

A big breakaway formed and Latour was part of it. They never built an advance of more than five minutes but the final trio - Latour, Vandrame and Bilbao - managed to keep the approaching favorites at a distance all the way! And in the end, Latour had the best legs, taking the stage win and finishing the race 11th overall.

While the GC place wasn’t what we had hoped for before the Giro, it’s a decent result considering the riders around Pierre. Elia Viviani once again disappointed, coming short of a stage win and leaving with just 4 podium finishes. His contract is up at the end of the year and management will have to think long and hard whether he’s worth an extension.

But in the end, we still leave the race in good spirit thanks to two stage wins. Especially the one by Lafay was an incredibly welcome surprise, but after a rough second week, it was also good to see Latour bounce back. He’ll rest now before going to Austria and Poland in July.

Nothing major, but a few decent results as our leaders started their Tour de France prep.

What started absolutely great turned out to be an overall disappointment here in France. Adrien Petit surprised himself and everyone else by surviving in the first group of the hilly stage 1 and then winning the sprint, taking the stage and yellow. Marc Soler showed promise with a great stage 2 and a strong time trial.

Things started to go downhill, literally, on stage 6, when Marc crashed on the slopes towards the finish and lost a bunch of time. Élie Gesbert came close to a stage win from the breakaway on day seven but eventually finished with Marc only a few seconds behind the favorites. But Marc really suffered the consequences from his crash on the final day when he couldn't keep up with the other favorites early on in the climb and ended up losing more than two minutes on them.

In general, this isn't tragic - still a Top 10 result, a nice outing by Petit, and the main goal of course is the Tour de France. It's just a bit unfortunate that a Top 5 here was a decently important sponsor goal which would have been well within reach had it not been for that crash. Oh well, I think management can't really complain about a lot this year, so I'm sure they'll let this one slide.

FreitasPCM wrote:
Decent result but you're currently having terrible luck with so many crashes with critical riders.

Tamijo wrote:
Giro: Nice stage win in 20
Dauphiné: Also nice win there at the first stage, crashing is what happens, sad every time it hits one of our GC hoped.

Very, very solid race. Despite not being all that close to his Tour form, David came within milliseconds of the podium (Roglic had lost a few minutes on one of the early hill stages), collecting the white jersey and the mountain jersey along the way. Plus, Christophe Laporte did on his second try what Elia Viviani couldn’t do all Giro, beating Pascal Ackermann and collecting a stage win. We’re looking forward to hopefully both of our French leaders continuing this way throughout July.