Tour de France: Ineos must isolate Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar to win, says BikeExchange's Matt White

How do you solve a problem like two strong Slovenians?

Ineos Grenadiers may have the strongest line-up at the 2021 Tour de France, but the team will have to use all its collective might if it wants to unseat Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar and win the Tour de France, according to BikeExchange sport director Matt White.

The Australian former rider likened Ineos’ formidable line-up to the superstar galácticos of the Real Madrid soccer team but he believes the British squad doesn’t have the individual talent to topple the Slovenians.

“On paper, Ineos definitely has the best team but the galácticos have to find a way to beat the two Slovenians,” White told VeloNews. “It will be interesting to see how they attempt that because their best two time trialists are [Richie] Porte and [Geraint] Thomas, who aren’t better than the two Slovenians in the time trial and they certainly can’t climb with them.

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“They’re going to have strength in numbers but they’re going to have to isolate those two individuals. Where and when they try that, they could start as early as the first week.”

Ineos Grenadiers goes into the Tour with three former grand tour winners and four possible leaders. It’s clear that the team won’t be able to ride the whole three weeks with four contenders, though.

White sees this year’s time trial-heavy course as Thomas’ best shot at taking a second, and final, Tour de France yellow jersey.

“The first week will sort out who is leading the team,” White said. “At the end of the day, it’s Geraint Thomas’ last roll of the dice in terms of winning the Tour de France. This is a great course for him with 60km of individual time trialing and they’ve got a good combination of riders, but they’ve got to be able to rattle the Slovenians. It’s going to be hard to do that.

BikeExchange to hunt stage wins

Team BikeExchange will be going to the 2021 Tour de France with GC ambitions, but they are much more modest than claiming the yellow jersey. Tour debutant Lucas Hamilton is leading that charge while the team’s more decorated grand tour talents Simon Yates and Esteban Chaves will be aiming for stage wins.

The Aussie outfit also has Michael Matthews back for the Grand Boucle and he’s gunning for his first win of the year.

“A really good Tour would be a top 10 and on GC a stage win. That would be incredible,” White said.

“Simon and Esteban are not riding general classification but they’re on the hunt for stage wins, that’s from stage 8 onwards. Michael has got four opportunities in the first week, and with Lucas, we’ll support him and see how he goes. He’s had a consistent year but it’s hard to say what’s achievable in any rider’s first Tour.”

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“We did it in 2019 with Simon, and we’re going to run a similar template here. So, he may or may not go for the first couple of stages, but then I can guarantee you he will be well and truly off general classification and that’s what we did in 2019,” White told VeloNews.

“His big mental goal was the Giro and also the big game-changer is the Olympics. It’s a very big goal. In modern cycling, nobody has done the Giro-Tour double with success. We know what we’ve got, and we know what works best for us. It would be more valuable for us here for Simon to win a stage then finish somewhere in the top 10 on GC.”

Chaves back at his best

Chaves will be sharing the role of stage-hunter with Yates.

“He’s shown that he’s back in the winner’s circle, and I don’t think that where he is now has anything to do with the past. He’s in good shape at the moment, he’s had a very eventful year and he’s won a nice stage in Catalunya,” he said.

“I think in those years where he did have his issues, I think the level of cycling has gone up a fair bit. If guys like Chaves want to be successful in a grand tour general classification, they have to be the best that they’ve ever been, not just to get back to the level they were.

“Guys that were doing something in the past, that’s not good enough to get back to the level you were.”