Why has it all gone wrong for Ineos at the 2020 Tour de France?

[ASFN Admin]

1\. Should they have brought Thomas and/or Froome? Probably the biggest talking point. Would things have been different had Geraint Thomas and/or Chris Froome been riding for Ineos at this Tour? We will never know. And to be honest it’s difficult to see how any combination of Ineos riders would have been a match for Jumbo-Visma. But there will always be that doubt. It was easy to understand why Froome was left out. The seven-times grand tour winner is clearly a long way off his best and would not have been at the sharp end of the GC battle here. And if he's only playing a support role, why not give the donkey work to someone else? In any case, Ineos had other experienced riders, former grand tour winners, to play the role of joint-leader/plan B/wise old head. Thomas for instance…. The Welshman’s exclusion from Ineos’ lineup was a gamble. The 34-year-old had been part of every Sky Tour team bar one (2012, when Thomas won Olympic track gold instead) and had finished first and second at the past two editions. Admittedly, he was not going brilliantly at the recent Dauphine. But as we are seeing now at Tirreno-Adriatico, he is in decent shape a few weeks on. Would he have been a help to Bernal? Could he have made life easier for a 23-year-old who is, lest we forget, racing in only his third grand tour? Hindsight is 20:20, but you have to think he would be doing more than Andrey Amador. Not to pick on the Costa Rican. From Thomas’s perspective, he is better off where he is now: building form, preparing for a crack at the Giro, which, if he could pull it off — and it promises to be a great race with Simon Yates clearly in excellent form — would rank far higher on his CV than helping Bernal to another Tour win. But for Ineos? The Richard Carapaz 'plan B’ has clearly backfired. Sir Bradley Wiggins is in no doubt. “Just their [Froome and Thomas's] presence at the dinner table, their presence on the flat stages in the line-up,” he said on his Eurosport podcast on Sunday. “Particularly Geraint. I can’t see Geraint not being in the same position as [Jumbo Visma’s co-leader/domestique de luxe] Tom Dumoulin. I could see him riding in that style if he chose to. A Geraint in that team just changes the whole dynamic. It’ll transpire in the next few weeks what exactly happened.” 2. Has Bernal’s back been an issue?

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