The Times - UK (2020-07-27)

Men’s cycling is back this week but, to
borrow Donald Rumsfeld’s line, there
have never been so many known un-
knowns. The sport can resume, but will
it withstand the Covid-19 risks as the
peloton hurtles from one town to
another, a different hotel every night,
trying to stay safe in its racing bubble?
Road racing was not designed for a time
of pandemic.
After indoor riding, Zwift challenges
and, more recently, training camps,
who has managed to put in the hardest
miles? How will the riders’ form look
five months after the last serious rac-
ing?
Uncertainty hangs over Chris Froo-
me, in particular. The four-times Tour
de France champion is back in the sad-
dle, at the age of 35, hoping to prove that
he has more big wins left in him, but
first he has to demonstrate that he de-
serves a place in the delayed 2020 Tour.
That is far from guaranteed.
Froome may be the greatest rider of
his generation, but Team Ineos need
convincing of his physical ability to

on Saturday in the south-west of

France with the four-day La Route

d’Occitanie, but how the riders click

and whether they can trust each other.

There is the added intrigue that Pavel

Sivakov, the 23-year-old born in Italy,

raised in France and of Russian parent-

age, is regarded within Ineos as a Grand

Tour winner in the making. Sivakov is

ready to be part of a Tour team after fin-

ishing ninth in the Giro d’Italia last

year.

With Jumbo-Visma’s roster as strong

as any rival to Sky/Ineos in the past

decade, this year’s Tour has the mak-

ings of a fascinating race. Froome’s in-

Froome must fight for place on the Tour

compete over three weeks and his

willingness to play whatever role is

required.

Sir Dave Brailsford, the

team’s principal, did not win

seven of the past eight

Tours without being able

to be ruthless if necessa-

ry. Sir Bradley Wiggins

was dropped from the

2014 Tour when it be-

came clear that a

strained relationship

with Froome could be

problematic.

Froome knows only

too well that sentiment

will be an afterthought

when it comes to decid-

ing if he is an asset or a

risk.

Given the extent of the

injuries he suffered last

June in crashing into a

wall at 33mph, it is re-

markable that he is even

seeking to return to the

highest level. Froome hopes

to pull off one of sport’s most

remarkable comebacks but,

after recent camps in France

and Tenerife, he is said to still

be behind the main pairing of

Egan Bernal and Geraint

Thomas, winners of the past two

Tours. Given their form, that is

hardly a surprise.

The announcement that

Froome is leaving to join

Israel Start-Up Nation in

2021 also means that there

is a question over team dy-

namics. Froome might

have stayed with Ineos

but, eager to secure his

long-term future, ended

up forcing a decision not

to offer him a new con-

tract.

How will it end after so

many years of glory? Ine-

os will not head into the

Tour with three leaders in

a team of eight. Those sums

do not add up. There will be a

leader, co-leader and super-dom-

estique who may, depending on

how the race works out, have his

own shot at the podium.

Froome will hope to fill one of

those positions, but if Bernal and

Thomas show they deserve to be

the main two over the next few

weeks of racing, as leaders they

would have to be entirely confi-

dent that the four-times Tour

winner was willing to work for

them.

It is not just the physical capacities

that will be studied closely during

three Tour warm-up races, which start

volvement would bring its own in-

trigue, but first he will have to make

himself undroppable with his perform-

ances and reliability over the coming

weeks.

Form and interaction will be scruti-

nised as racing moves around France,

from a big mountain stage in the Pyren-

ees next Monday as part of the Route

d’Occitanie to the three-day Tour de

l’Ain before the Critérium du Dauphine

from August 12 to 16.

Selection may be left until after all

that preparation is concluded, especial-

ly given the risk of crashes and other

complications in a time of coronavirus,

ahead of the Tour’s Grand Depart from

Nice on August 29.

Before the peloton is back on the

roads of France, men’s stage racing re-

sumes at the Vuelta a Burgos on Tues-

day in northern Spain, featuring Remco

Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep),

Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren), Fa-

bio Aru (UAE Emirates) and Richard

Carapaz (Ineos), who will use the event

to prepare for the rescheduled Giro

d’Italia, when he will be the leader of his

team. The Giro starts on October 3, two

weeks after the Tour de France ends.

The Vuelta a Burgos will give teams

experience of new protocols, including

testing of staff and riders, and restricted

access around stage start and finish

lines. The sport is entering new territo-

ry and, in every sense, a high level of un-

certainty.

Questions remain over

fitness of four-times

winner and how he fits

into Team Ineos set-up,

writes Matt Dickinson

Cycling’s summer calendar

August 1-4 La Route d’Occitanie

Four-stage race including a

Pyrenean climbing day

August 7-9 Tour de l’Ain

Three stages with a climax on the

Grand Colombier in the Alps

August 12-16 Critérium du

Dauphiné

Five stages including three days of

Alpine climbs

August 29-September 20

Tour de France

The three-week race starts in Nice

Froome will be looking to prove

himself after a remarkable comeback

Sport

S

port welcomed back

spectators yesterday

for the first time

since the start of the

UK’s coronavirus crisis,

with 1,000 socially-

distanced Surrey and

Middlesex members at

the Kia Oval for a two-

day friendly between the

two counties (Elizabeth

Ammon writes).

The match was the

first of a series of test

events announced by the

government this month

— others include

Saturday’s racing at

Goodwood, and

snooker’s World

Championship.

It is understood that

permission has now

been granted to a group

of counties to allow

spectators to attend

matches in the Bob

Willis Trophy, the four-

day county competition

that starts on Saturday.

Officials from the

Department for Culture,

Media and Sport, the

ECB and the Sports

Grounds Safety

Authority were at the

Oval yesterday assessing

the measures Surrey had

put in place to ensure

social distancing, and

they are set to extend

the number of test

events for next month.

About 1,000 will watch

the Warwickshire-

Worcestershire

warm-up

match starting

tomorrow at

Edgbaston.

After

that,

crowds

of

between

2,000

and 2,500

will be

able to

watch the

first two days of the Bob

Willis Trophy matches

at Edgbaston, where

Warwickshire play

Northamptonshire,

and the Oval,

where Surrey

take on

Middlesex, at

the

weekend.

It is

expected

that similar clearance

will be given to Trent

Bridge and Headingley,

but smaller county

grounds and out-

grounds, such as

Arundel and Radlett,

may not be considered

safe for fans to return.

Surrey had 10,000

phone calls about the

900 tickets available to

their members for

yesterday, and 2,000

asked to have one of

Middlesex’s 100 places.

The crowd were

restricted to only the

Vauxhall End of the

ground, with just over

20 per cent capacity of

that section used.

Richard Gould, the

Surrey chief executive,

said: “We have about

100 staff in so it’s almost

a one to ten ratio of staff

to spectators. This is not

economically viable but

we hope if the trials are

extended we can move

to a more financially

viable [model].

“You would need to be

north of 60 per cent

capacity to have

commercial viability and

that isn’t going to

happen for cricket this

summer but that is the

number other sports will

want to get to.

“The allocation of

seats was the big

challenge. In future we

will maybe try to

prioritise larger groups.”

One fan, Harjot

Sindhu, said: “It is was

what I was waiting for. I

feel very safe.”

Cricket scores, page 56

Fans back at last –

and more to come

Runs, supplied by Surrey’s Scott Borthwick, above, and hand-sanitiser, below, were in plentiful supply at the Oval where Middlesex were the opponents

HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS

the times | Monday July 27 2020 1GM 55