Tamijo wrote:
Very solid two jerseys and a stage and 4th in GC.
Must add up to a very nice points haul.

No victory picture this year, unfortunately. Pierre and Marc in the time trials and Jens in the raod race came closest with 3rd places each, but there was no really close call. Even Natnael Berhane wasn't able to defend any of his two titles from the previous year as age is slowly catching up with him.

It's of course unfortunate to leave without a jersey and especially no longer having the French tricolor with us, but NCs are always a bit of a dice roll and the routes weren't particularly suited for us this year. Oh well, maybe next year looks better.

Not a ton to report here. Our leaders didn't do any conti races, instead focussing solely on Dauphiné/Suisse, so Périchon and Keukeleire got to lead here, collecting a couple of Top 10 stage results between them. But that's not what we're here for anyway - it's time for Le Tour!

We're back! And what better way to return from the break than with the biggest race of them all, the Tour de France. Here's the preview:

It's a bit of a weird route, with a ton of flat, a good amount of mountains, and not a lot in between. You could argue that two of the stages classified as flat are rather hilly, but even then, it's a dream race for the sprinters. The three time trials - an 8 km prologue and 2 50km ITTs - will have a major impact on the GC, considering there are only three true mountain top finishes to offset them.

Leaders	Sprint Support	Mountain Support
Marc Soler	Thomas Boudat	Élie Gesbert
David Gaudu	Damien Touzé	Nicolas Edet
Christophe Laporte		Natnael Berhane

Out team looks a lot different from last year. Laporte returns as our primary sprinter, but with the emergence of Damien Touzé and the signing of Thomas Boudat, he has a much, much stronger support than in 2020, when he, remember, won the green jersey.

That green jersey should be the goal once again, although we relied heavily on breakaway appearances and mid-stage bonus points to get it, while the amount of pure sprint stages this year could prevent that strategy from working again (also, because this variant has multiple intermediate sprints, I had to change the points classification xml to that of the Giro). We'll see. One or two stage wins for Christophe should be the goal either way.

Way more than our sprint team, though, we have improved our mountain squad. Berhane and Edet return as domestiques, but instead of supporting Guillaume Martin in his quest for stage wins, we bring actual GC podium contenders.

During transfer season last year, we intended for David Gaudu to be our GC leader, but more than 100 kilometers of time trialing made that unfeasable. So instead, he will work either for Marc Soler, who has his eyes set on the GC podium, or try to follow in Guillaume's footsteps with a stage win or two and the polkadots, leaving domestique duties to Élie Gesbert, depending on how the race develops.

Egan Bernal

Team Ineos

Tom Dumoulin

Team Jumbo-Visma

Miguel �ngel López	Astana Pro Team
Romain Bardet	Ag2r La Mondiale
Emanuel Buchmann	BORA - hansgrohe
Marc Soler	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

Thibaut Pinot	Mitchelton-Scott
Mikel Landa	Bahrain - McLaren
Steven Kruijswijk	Movistar Team
Geraint Thomas	Team Jumbo-Visma

Daniel Felipe Martinez	EF Pro Cycling
Simon and Adam Yates	Mitchelton-Scott
Chris Froome	Team Ineos
Nairo Quintana	Team Arkéa - Samsic
David Gaudu	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

Egan Bernal is the top favorite simply because he’s far and away the best climber in the race and it’s not even that close. Plus, since Geraint Thomas has left and Froome has declined, there’s no question about team leadership. However, last year’s winner, Thomas’ teammate and freshly crowned Dauphiné champ Tom Dumoulin has the big advantage of his incredible time trialing skills that could give him the edge. A number of strong riders around López, last year’s runner-up Bardet and our own Soler will challenge for the podium spots here, even though the overall win might feel like a longshot.

A deep field of contenders including some of the main lieutenants makes for a wide-open Top 10 and should hopefully provide us with some exciting racing.

Fernando Gaviria

UAE Team Emirates

Pascal Ackermann	BORA - hansgrohe
Caleb Ewan	Lotto Soudal

Dylan Groenewegen	Team Jumbo-Visma
Arnaud Démare	Groupama - FDJ
Christophe Laporte	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits

Peter Sagan	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Phil Bauhaus	Bahrain - McLaren
John Degenkolb	Lotto Soudal
Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb

Bryan Coquard	B&B Hotels - Vital Concept
Mike Teunissen	EF Pro Cycling
Matteo Trentin	CCC Team
Daniel McLay	Team Arkéa - Samsic
Niccolo Bonifazio	Team Total Direct Energie

Fernando Gaviria was the top sprinter of last year’s race with three stage wins and is the main favorite here, not least because Ewan and Ackermann have the Giro in their legs once again. Demare and our own Laporte carry the hopes of the local French fans, Groenewegen and Sagan are the next biggest threats.

valverde321 wrote:
Good tour so far for Laporte. Soler looks good, but I guess if he's sick that might hurt your chances later. Maybe Gaudu can still salvage a respectable GC ride.

Nice to see Buchmann doing so well, as Im sure you agree with.

It’s a testament to the quality of our team that we have a guy in the Top 5, Laporte replicates Guillaume Martin’s two stage wins and his own green jersey from last year, and we still come away from the race feeling like there was more we could have done. Marc Soler eventually falls short of his podium ambitions after a mediocre-at-best final week and we don’t get a stage win after the first two days. On the other hand, Gaudu showed what he can do even as a domestique, which makes us optimistic for his chances as a potential leader next year, with hopefully fewer TT kilometers in the route. And Gesbert showed himself to be one of the best luxury helpers in the mountains. It’s been a fun three weeks, that’s for sure.

We leave Poland pretty happy. Pierre Latour was among the strongest on the two hilly stages, and while he wasn’t able to distance top time trialists Dennis and Küng enough, he still ended up on the podium. Adrien Petit scored his second World Tour stage win following the Dauphiné, which is very nice, and Utro continues his stellar debut season with an 11th overall and the young rider’s jersey.

We had a field day with a 1-2 here last year, but in a much stronger field, that was not in the cards. Fresh off the Tour de France, Egan Bernal took the win in a sprint of a small group ahead of Geraint Thomas, with our own Massimillano Utro in fourth. Anthony Perez in seventh and Pierre Latour in tenth round out a very nice team result.

We had a few nice results in July, primarily by Pierre Latour, who won two stages and came second overall in Austria. A squad consisting mostly of our second-tier riders did some decent things in Italy, too, bringing us probably our best TTT result in the last two years as well as a podium finish by Vermote.