The Tour de France kicks off this Friday with a 13-kilometre time trial in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Colombian cyclist Daniel Martínez is part of the great dilemma that the Ineos team has for the race.
After Egan Bernal’s accident last January, the letters of the British cast have passed through several hands and today it is not known who will be the rider who will face the dispute for the title and the supremacy of the current championTadej Pogacar, and his great rival, Primoz Roglic, the two big favorites.
Geraint Thomas, Adam Yates and Martínez are part of a list that seeks to reconquer the most important cycling event in the world, the one they have not won since 2019 when Bernal won the general classification.
The three have their story to claim the leadership, but Thomas and Martínez have done more for him, the statistics of this season support them.
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This is how Thomas arrives
Thomas arrives at the Tour at the age of 36, a skilled, experienced cyclist, who has twice been on the podium, as he won in 2018 and was second in 2019. Sure, that doesn’t make him a leader, but this 2022 has been good for him.
After going in the shadow of Chris Froome and Bernal himself, of not finding the ideal pedal stroke, it seems that the Briton has everything to convince his bosses again.
It has been 62 in the Vuelta al Algarve, 17 in the Coppi Bartali, 39 in the Basque Country, 19 in the Vuelta a RomandíaUntil then, nothing strange, nothing important that would give him the option of claiming the lead.
However, Thomas was crowned champion of the Tour of Switzerland, the last exam before the Tour, which gives him the category to be the leader of Ineos.
Yates doesn’t have them all. Since the beginning of this 2022 there was talk that he would arrive as the top seed in the Tour, but his year has not been good, he has not responded to expectations, but he is a rider who can stand out in full competition.
The Briton has ridden the Tour five times, he was fourth in 2016 and ninth in 2020, his best performances. This year he was second in the UAE Tour and fourth in Paris Nice, good results.
But then he fell into a rut, as he withdrew from the Basque Country and the Tour of Switzerland. In that last one he left because he tested positive for covid-19 and it is not known under what conditions he will arrive in France.
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Martinez, the most regular
Martínez has earned a square in the fight for the leadership of the team. Of the three, he is the one with the best season, since he was third in the Tour of the Algarve, he is the national time trial champion, third in Paris Nice, 29th in the Grand Prix of Denain – Porte du Hainaut, he won the Tour of the Basque Country , one stage, was fifth in the Walloon Fleche and fourth in the Liège Bastogne Liège and finished eighth in the Tour of Switzerland.
Thomas and Martínez are running well on the clock, better than Yates, and this time the Tour has 58 km to the clock, which gives them advantages. Yates climbs well, the Colombian has shown that his work in the high mountains has borne fruit and he can calmly tackle long climbs with a high percentage of incline on his ramps.
Thomas walks. Although he climbs, he is not an accomplished climber. Yates is doing well in the mountains, in his strength, but in the time trial he is surpassed by his two teammates.
Ineos has this dilemma and it will be the road and the first few days that decide who will be in front, because in the Tour statistics or history are not worth what counts in the present.
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