2020 TOUR DE FRANCE: STAGE 3 EXPERT PREVIEW
Ahead of stage 3 of the 2020 Tour de France, Eurosport and GCN's expert line-up shared their predictions for the race favourites. Speaking exclusively to Eurosport and GCN's The Breakaway, key quotes can be found here:
Sir Bradley Wiggins, winner of the 2012 Tour de France said:
“A lot of the main sprinters now have to be able to climb and get over climbs. Sagan – there are some question marks about Sagan. He doesn’t look like his usual self, which isn’t a crime as he’s provided us with such great performances over the years and at some point he’s bound to have a bad day. He still gives it a go and goes out and entertains.
“I actually think [Mads] Pedersen the World Champion could be up there.”
Brian Smith, former British National Road Race Champion said:
“It’s a slightly uphill finish, I know the Sisteron finish and it’s not easy.
“[Matteo] Trentin looks strong and Pedersen as you say. I don’t think it’ll be a fast sprint like yesterday. We have to mention [Elia] Viviani of course. [Team] Cofidis paid a lot of money for him to deliver. He finished well down [on stage two], he was nowhere pretty much on the first stage. Surely Viviani, who we’ve talked about over the last couple of years, any sprint, he will be in the top three.
Sir Bradley Wiggins said:
“[Team] Cofidis haven’t won a stage of the Tour since 2008. They employed his [Viviani] services for this race, to win a stage because they’re a team without a win for a long time.
“Deceuninck-QuickStep aren’t renowned for paying high wages. It’s a performance team and Patrick [Lefevere] keeps the team at that level. A lot of riders tend to leave as they want more money. Viviani was winning races, he wasn’t in contract talks and Patrick didn’t want to pay him the money he wanted so Cofidis were willing to put all their eggs in one basket and pay him a lot of money predominantly for a stage win in the Tour de France, which they tried a few years ago with [Nacer] Bouhanni – that didn’t pay off. They kind of have never got it right and that’s certainly not what they expected. They’re very old fashioned and something has to change higher up.”
Stage 3 predictions:
Sir Bradley Wiggins: Matteo Trentin (CCC Pro Team)
Brian Smith: Caleb Ewan (Team Lotto-Soudal)
Dan Lloyd: Sam Bennet (Deceuninck-QuickStep)
Read more at: https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/
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