all words by Mike Franchetti
The 2021 Tour de France was so good that it was actually pretty dull. Some moments were so perfect that they were actually almost boring. There were so many heroes that we began hoping to unearth a villain. The best four riders in the world all won at least one stage. All four of them
The Ronde market can be divided into the shiny exciting prospects (Wout van Aert, Matthieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Tom Pidcock) and the hardened faces of many a spring classic (Peter Sagan, Zdenek Stybar, Yves Lampaert, Greg van Avermaet, Oliver Naesen). You can add to the mix two superstars who haven’t traditionally marked Flanders
Since launching Just Pro Cycling I’ve got very good at being wrong. I dismissed Philippe Gilbert’s return to cobbles and argued that Nairo Quintana would finally conquer the Tour. This post is an apology disguised as a list. I was wrong about Mathieu van der Poel who looks to be the new superman of road
