Tour de France 2021 Favourites stage 19: Sprinters or attackers

image: Cor VosThe 19th stage suits the sprinters, but since we are in the third week of the Tour de France the attackers could have it their way also. (Slideshow route/profile)

It’s always a risky investment for sprint teams to control the breakaway, and even more so in the last week of a Grand Tour. Riders are drained of energy after three weeks of racing. Another thing is that not all teams have their fast finisher still in their ranks, so there are less candidates to share the work load with.

In the first week of the Tour it would have been something else entirely. The route in itself is perfect for a bunch sprint.

Let’s see what happens. Two options, basically: the sprint teams take the attackers on a leash in order to offer their leader the opportunity to shine, or the breakaway is allowed leeway and one of them outguns the others, possibly in a group sprint, or else with a late attack.

Favourites stage 19 Tour de France 2021

*** Kasper Asgreen, Jasper Stuyven, Christophe Laporte, Wout van Aert
** Stefan Bissegger, Nils Politt, Mike Teunissen, Danny van Poppel
* Mark Cavendish, Jasper Philipsen, Stefan Küng, Greg Van Avermaet

Another interesting read: route 19th stage 2021 Tour de France.