TdF Stage 2 Discussion-Spoilers Inside
 

Discuss

it'll be interesting to see what strategy develops with the newish 8 rider teams vs the old 9 rider teams. haven't checked but assuming the team
finishing time is still taken on the fifth rider to cross the finish line. we don't get a ttt every year in the tdf.
this course looks to have some straightaways to possibly recoup time if your team has some big diesels.
i picked trek-segafredo to win the ttt in another thread but you could easily convince me that roughly half of the teams present could win it.
not seeing a dominant team in this discipline in this race. the ttt is so early in the race that it's difficult to predict how many teams with a decent chance
of a high gc rider placing or potential multiple stage winning sprinter want to burn matches that might come back to burn them later on.

SPOILER!!!!!

Well done TJV., two in a row.
Happy to see Skineos pushed back into 2nd.
Quickstep 3rd.
Still tight as a TT suit at the top of GC.

35.5 mph for 30 minutes. Absolutely blazing ride.

I suppose there are different ways of looking at it, but it seems like a TTT on stage 2 (in which Ineos is usually the odds-on favorite to win) is a mistake that takes the excitement out of the race right away. If Thomas and Bernal get even a couple of seconds on their primary challengers, this thing is a three-week parade. And that's precisely what happened.

Skineos have never won a TTT in the Tour. BMC are the usual favourites. Ineos may have been one of the favourites for stage 2 but in fact they didn't win even if they gained a bit of time on the main GC teams.
A couple of seconds early in a GT is a lot less significant than it would be in say the last week as there are going to be plenty of opportunities to regain time.
Someone on here predicted Skineos would win all three GTs in 2019, we already know they won't.

Thomas isn't in form and Bernal lacks experience, this Tour is still wide open.