Vive LeTour!

 Vive LeTour!!!

Will ASO come after us for using the world "LeTour" and posting a photo from the race that we took?

In a couple of weeks Le Beeg Shew will get underway again. We last saw it live in 2019 when this photo was taken. How will this year's race play out?

One thing could be extra-interesting - how the team that has dominated this race for so many years will race and can they win?

The team boss claimed their racing strategy had changed after the Giro d'Italia in 2020. You can read what he said HERE, but as Zio Lorenzo says, you can tell when he's, well...not telling the truth....it's when his lips are moving.

Why does Zio say that? The current issue of Italy's Bicisport magazine has quotes from Giro d'Italia 2021 winner Egan Bernal. He claims HE told the team boss he was no longer interested in racing in the team's famous style - all that "by the numbers" stuff vs attacking on instinct. 

But the boss claims it was all the team sponsor's idea in the article we provided the link to. Who would YOU believe?

We'll see soon enough, as the team's designated leader is one of those Zio Lorenzo calls "the royals" the same guy who eked out his sole win at Le Grand Boucle back in 2018 over 2nd and 3rd place riders who'd both ridden a grueling Giro d'Italia. Otherwise his palmares are right up there with...uh...Richie Porte.

Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz is supposed to be the backup rider just-in-case. But then there's another "royal" - the guy who won the Giro in 2020 despite never wearing the maglia rosa until the finish in Milano. At the Giro with Bernal, the rest of the team seemed like the "butlers and kitchen help" but at the Tour they'll have a lot of "the royals" so which strategy will prevail?

Zio's guess is "Mr G" will crash out or have a bad day (he's 35 now while the oldest winner was 36 back in 1922) after the team rides pretty much as they did in the recent lead-up races to LeTour rather than how they raced the Giro. Once his chances are gone, will another "royal" take over or will the "butlers and kitchen help" take the reins? 

Either way, you know who will take the credit...or the blame and that it won't be the same person(s).

Vive LeTour!