The Dutchman never did it before, but in 2018 he is riding two Grand Tours for the GC back-to-back. At the Giro d’Italia he finished second behind Chris Froome, while he is sitting in second on the Tour de France, too. Both Primoz Roglic and Chris Froome will want to swap places with the Dutchman, as they are third and fourth. Yet, the margin between number two and number four is only 32 seconds. Geraint Thomas is leading the race with more than 2 minutes, which should be enough for the overall victory.
The course is tailor made for a rider with the characteristics of Thomas, Dumoulin, Roglic, and Froome. Unlike most of other chrono specialists they are not afraid of an occasional climb. On the contrary. The route of the ITT in the Basque region suits their skills, as the road points uphill for over 4 kilometres once the riders roll down the start ramp. On undulating roads the route continues to a truly challenging finale. The Côte de Pinodieta is a double digits ramp of almost 1 kilometre before a 2.5 kilometres plunge flies down to the last 500 metres of false flat.
Favourites 20th stage 2018 Tour de France
*** Tom Dumoulin, Chris Froome, Primoz Roglic
** Geraint Thomas, Tejay van Garderen, Maciej Bodnar
* Pierre Latour, Ion Izagirre, Stefan Küng, Bob Jungels, Michal Kwiatkowski
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I would switch stars between Bodnar (one star as he does not feel well on hilly stages) and Kwiatkowski (two stars, he is as good as Froome and Dumoulin in this kind of stage, although I dont think he will go 100% because he would steal important seconds from his teammates if he finishes 1-3)
Good suggestion, except there are no extra seconds to gain for the numbers 1,2 and 3 in time trials.
I started taking second thoughts about it after i posted, you’re right 🙂