For the first time this season, we didn’t have anyone for the GC. Given that, I’m very happy with a stage win for Consonni and the polkadots for Berhane. Other than that, a quiet race for us.

To be hones, this was a bit of an oversight in planning. I thought this was a flat race, so we sent Elia Viviani as our leader. But it turned out to be quite hilly. Viviani still miraculously managed to hang on and finish in the first group, but he didn’t have enough energy to beat the best punchy sprinters. Still a great result.

The first grand tour of the year is coming up and I thought this warrants an actual preview. First, a quick overview of the stages:

The 2020 Giro is a mountain-heavy race. Of the 8 mountain stages, 7 are mountain top finishes, plus one of the time trials is up a climb as well. Another is a team time trial.

6 stages are classic sprint stages, 2 hilly stages end on a flat road and could lead to sprints while the other 2 are hilltop finishes. The remaining time trial on the final day in Milano is entirely flat.

Note: This is not the real 2020 route.

Leader	Sprint Train	Free Elements
Elia Viviani	Simone Consonni	Natnael Berhane
	Fabio Sabatini	Luis Angel Maté
	Damien Touzé	Stéphane Rossetto
	Julien Vermote

We're starting this race in Torino with one primary goal: getting Elia Viviani as many stage wins as possible - and, unless one of the climbers takes it, the points jersey. There have been courses with more explicit chances for pure sprinters, but Viviani has shown that he can survive a few hills, so we're looking at a total of 8 stages we target for him.

With Consonni and Sabatini, we brought a strong sprint train. Both have won stages on their own already this year, Consonni was especially strong, but now they form a potent sprint train with Touzé and Vermote as additional helpers.

This focus on the sprints leaves us without a candidate for the general classification. We have three riders in Berhane, Maté and Rossetto who are supposed to seek their fortune in breakaways and especially for the former two, the mountain jersey could be an objective. But both aren't among the premier climbers, even compared to better domestiques on other teams, so we'll have to see about that.

Primoz Roglic	Team Jumbo-Visma
Steven Kruijswijk	Team Jumbo-Visma
Richard Carapaz	Team Ineos
Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Miguel Angel López	Astana Pro Team
Vincenzo Nibali	Trek - Segafredo
Mikel Landa	Bahrain - McLaren
Marc Soler	Movistar Team
Rigoberto Urán	EF Pro Cycling
Rafal Majka	BORA - hansgrohe

There are some really fine riders here to fight for the pink jersey. Jumbo-Visma is the only team with a bona fide dual threat as Ineos has left their trio of Bernal, Froome and Thomas at home, but Carapaz is still the defending champion, so it's not like they're coming empty handed.

Sam Bennett	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Fabio Jakobsen	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Àlvaro Hodeg	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Alexander Kristoff	UAE Team Emirates
Jasper Philipsen	UAE Team Emirates
Caleb Ewan	Lotto Soudal
John Degenkolb	Lotto Soudal
Pascal Ackermann	BORA - hansgrohe
Jakub Mareczko	CCC Team
Luca Mezgec	Mitchelton-Scott
Giacomo Nizzolo	NTT Pro Cycling
Mark Cavendish	Bahrain - McLaren

Unfortunately for us, this field of sprinters is packed. And more than one team has a really strong core with at least two quick guys, in the case of Quick Step even three. Our rivals Pascal Ackermann and Giacomo Nizzolo are here as well as a plethora of other strong riders to compete with Viviani.

What a weird opening week for us. After we got the TTT over with, we were determined to show Viviani's strength on stage two. Our train was going strong, but Viviani got caught in traffic. It didn't matter though, because our train was so strong that Consonni just finished it for us.

Unfortunately, the next two stages didn't go as well for us. We were in bad position on a small hill towards the end of stage three and didn't recover in time and then Ewan proved too strong on stage four, eventhough a second place is respectable. But especially stage three might already have been a backbreaker for the points classification.

Once we hit steeper slopes, Luis Angel Maté tried his best in breakaways. He got to wear the blue jersey for one day but lost it on the first big mountain stage. He was in the breakaway that eventually even took the stage but he wasn't strong enough to cross any of the summits first. We'll see how much he can do in upcoming stages.

Man, that win on stage 10 felt good for Elia Viviani. After coming up short once more two days earlier, this time everything worked well. All the more frustrating was then Stage 12 with Viviani getting stuck in traffic again in what would have otherwise been a perfect leadout, especially with Ewan showing weakness. The points jersey is out of reach as there’s only one more stage in the final week in which a sprint is even a possibility.

So lots of mountains still to come and we haven’t done all that well in that department. Both Berhane and Maté have been in breakaways but haven’t been strong enough to hold on all the way - or collect meaningful points for the mountain classification. We’ll see if things change but I don’t have high high hopes.

Three times we had riders in the successful breakaway, but in all three cases they weren’t able to finish with a win or a podium spot. Not great, but decent results considering we had no ambitions for the mountains but to go into breakaways. Especially Maté did very well competing with very strong riders on a tough day in the mountains on stage 17 and showed endurance by making it to another breakaway on stage 20.

The stage with Rossetto in the break was the one Viviani could have targeted and in hindsight, maybe that strategy was more promising, but it was a tough stage and other riders should get their shots as well, so I’m not mad about it. All in all, we leave with two stage wins and a few more Top 3 and Top 10 places. One win by Viviani is certainly a disappointment, especially with all the ressources we allocated for him and eventhough this was a really tough field. Still, at least he got the one and in conjunction with Consonni’s this is, all things considered, an okay race. And we’ve had so many races in which we exceeded expectations that we can be somewhat content here.

The GC was a duel, that much became clear quickly. Roglic led for most of the race, Carapaz took the pink jersey on the final mountain stage and surprisingly defended it one day later in the concluding time trial, beating Roglic on that stage by two seconds. It was a showdown between Jumbo-Visma and Ineos, which could also be what we can expect come July at the Tour de France.

The Tour de l’Ain was a duel between Laporte and Danny Van Poppel, which the latter unfortunately wrapped up with two stage wins compared to Laporte's one. Still a solid start to Laporte’s Tour prep. Marco Mathis showed some more promise with a fifth overall in the Boucles de la Mayenne after a solid opening time trial.

Guillaume only just started his racing here after more than two months off, so it was a decent start for him. Without the TTT, he'd comfortably made the Top 5. He tried to attack alongside Thibaut Pinot on the final stage but in contrast to Pinot, he wasn't able to follow through. But it was still a good test.

We also added a stage win and a second place for Christophe Laporte, who will be our sprinter for Le Tour. A promising effort - although we also had a stage derailed by bad positioning, so that is still something I'm working on.

So this was unexpectedly spectacular. We came here with half a squad coming from the Giro and half a squad - around Haas - targeting this race, but for stage wins, not for the overall. Well, we got both! Haas won stage two in a solo escape, collecting a minute on the peloton.

We expected to lose the yellow jersey on the first major mountain stage, but Nathan was feeling so well that he even attacked! He didn't time it well and was spent towards the finish, but he still managed to hang on to yellow. On stage 7, he reversed that approach, riding entirely his own pace, losing touch to the peloton early but coming back to overtake almost everyone and finish sixth on a mountain top finish!

Unfortunately, that same strategy didn't serve him well on the final stage. He again fell behind early on the final mountain, which was followed by a longer descent towards the finish. However, he didn't feel as good that day and miscalculated the climb, so he was almost two minutes behind a still pretty large pack at the summit. Eventually, he would only lose two places though and stay in the Top 5, an insane accomplishment on this route.

Additionally, he took the points classification and we got another stage win from Consonni, his fifth in a World Tour stage race this year! I'd say we're ready for the Tour, but none of these riders are going to France. Still - another fantastic race.

Let's have a look at the NCs first: I knew there was nothing for us in Italy, Germany or Denmark, so that was fine. The Belgian road race was the first somewhat close call with Claeys in the final group, but others were superior sprinters.

Jesús Herrada made the podium twice in Spain and I felt like he really had a shot in the road race but he came up just short. But then, we got the big one! In a great sprint, Christophe Laporte took the French national championship! I can't wait to have him riding Le Tour in that jersey.

To finish things off, Natnael Berhane fulfilled his role as the favorite in his home country and won the double. On the continental circuit, we only really had one race of importance as Martin and Laporte finished their Tour preparations at La Route d'Occitanie. No win, but a couple of podiums and a fourth overall are decent results.

If you're interested in the champions of any other nation, let me know. Other than that, coming up next is ... Le Tour!

As we had for the Giro, here's a detailed preview of the 2020 Tour de France!

Where the Giro had an abundance of mountain top finishes, this Tour de France route is lighter on the mountains in general. We have nine pure flat stages and another that is classified as hilly but could end in a bunch sprint, so a lot of exposure and opportunities for sprinters.

Note: This is the 2017 route.

Leaders	Sprint Support	Mountain Support
Christophe Laporte	Pierre-Luc Périchon	Nicolas Edet
Guillaume Martin	Kenneth Vanbilsen	Jesper Hansen
		Natnael Berhane
		Victor Lafay

We have a duo that will lead our team. Cristophe is one of the faster riders in the peloton and with so many flat stages, there are plenty of opportunities to compete for stage wins and, who knows, maybe even the green jersey. His sprint support isn't as strong, so he'll likely have to latch on to faster riders' wheels in the finales, but Périchon and Vanbilsen should be able to get him towards the front at least.

Considering all the strong climbers present, I've decided that Guillaume's goal for this race is going to be the polkadot jersey for the best climber and, along the way, hopefully a stage win or two. This is also due to the fact that a stage win is our sponsor's most important goal of the season and we want them to be happy, so they hopefully give us more money!

I'm optimistic that Laporte can complete the goal on his own, but this way we have another strategy and I think the polkadots is more prestigeous (and more fun!) than fighting for a finish somewhere in the Top 7-12 range, and even that is really best case.

Nicolas Edet and Jesper Hansen are the main supporters for Guillaume, either going into breakaways with him, protecting him when he's not up front or catching other riders in the fight for mountain points.

Berhane already has the Giro in his legs and Lafay is starting his very first Grand Tour, so expectations are rather low for them.

Egan Bernal

Team Ineos

Geraint Thomas	Team Ineos
Tom Dumoulin	Team Jumbo-Visma

Chris Froome	Team Ineos
Vincenzo Nibali	Trek - Segafredo
Romain Bardet	Ag2r La Mondiale

Thibaut Pinot	Groupama - FDJ
Mikel Landa	Bahrain - McLaren
Marc Soler	Movistar Team
Simon and Adam Yates	Mitchelton-Scott

Nairo Quintana	Team Arkéa - Samsic
Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team
Dan Martin	Israel Start-Up Nation
Michael Woods	EF Pro Cycling
Emanuel Buchmann	BORA - hansgrohe

Ineos is obviously the dominating team here with three of the Top 6 favorites - the winners of the previous three editions. But there are a lot of strong climbers and stage racers here to challenge them. With relatively few mountain stages and 33 kilometres of time trialing, everything is on the table.

Caleb Ewan

Lotto Soudal

Dylan Groenewegen	Team Jumbo-Visma
Fernando Gaviria	UAE Team Emirates

Arnaud Démare	Groupama - FDJ
Peter Sagan	BORA - hansgrohe
Phil Bauhaus	Bahrain - McLaren

Christophe Laporte	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb
Bryan Coquard	B&B Hotels - Vital Concept
Max Walscheid	NTT Pro Cycling

André Greipel	Israel Start-Up Nation
Kristoffer Halvorsen	EF Pro Cycling
Matteo Trentin	CCC Team
Daniel McLay	Team Arkéa - Samsic
Niccolo Bonifazio	Team Total Direct Energie

A lot of the best sprinters are here. Ewan is the fastest, but he's also coming off the Giro, which might hurt him in the long run. Apart from him, Groenewegen and Gaviria are the top favorites, with Laporte comfortably in the second-to-third tier.