If you had to conjure up a single image of the first, pre-Tour de France phase of the 2020 relaunched condensed mid-Covid-19 season, it could come from the Criterium du Dauphiné: a Jumbo-Visma train, all in yellow, lined out on one side of a road somewhere in the Alpine foothills, a line of burgundy clad Ineos riders giving it beans in the opposite gutter.
There are other metaphors you could use, but at points on the first two stages, it looked as if cycling’s two super-teams were engaged in a personal half-wheeling contest such as we used to see on winter club runs when one lad would put his wheel in front of another’s and neither would let go until one cracked.
By the mid-point of the shortened, super-mountainous Dauphiné, Jumbo-Visma were well ahead in the battle of the galactico squads: two stage wins in the French race, two stage wins and the overall in the Tour de l’Ain, Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche for Wout Van Aert (pictured).
Their leader Primoz Roglic had raced nine times since the relaunch of the 2020 season, and had finished outside the first two only once – and that on the Dauphine’s first stage won by Van Aert. The only hiccup was the prospect of a lengthy ban for team sprinter Dylan Groenewegen for the unfortunate incident in the now notorious finish sprint of stage two of the Tour of Poland which left Fabio Jakobsen in hospital.
Cycling hasn’t witnessed anything quite like the Jumbo and Ineos face-off within living memory; if you go back to the days of national teams in the Tour de France, there might be echoes. More recently, there have been situations where the best rider of the day has come up against a team of super-strong second-tier stars – think Merckx versus Flandria, Hinault versus TI-Raleigh, or Miguel Indurain versus ONCE – or more commonly where one team has dominated, full stop: Laurent Fignon’s Renault in 1984, Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond’s La Vie Claire in 1985 and 1986. .
It’s hard to think, however, of a situation within cycling where two trade teams of such strength have gone head to head led by two riders of the quality of Bernal and Roglic. You could argue that the 1980 Tour with Hinault (then on four Grand Tour wins) versus Zoetemelk (on one GT and a range of second places) might qualify, but while Zoetemelk’s TI Raleigh then had something of the stellar quality of Jumbo, with world champions and Classic winners in its ranks, the Renault squad that backed Hinault was made up of talented journeymen.
In the burgundy corner: Bernal, Geraint Thomas and Froome, Tour de France winners all – and the best Grand Tour rider of the 21st century in Froome – backed by a former world road champion in Michal Kwiatkowski. In the yellow corner, Vuelta winner Roglic, Giro winner and ex world time trial champion Dumoulin, Tour podium rider Steven Kruiswijk, quadruple time trial world champion Tony Martin, triple cycle cross world champion Van Aert.
Since Kruijswijk and Roglic had run Froome and Thomas close in the Tour in 2018, Jumbo’s recruitment had become far more focussed on the here and now than that of Sky/ineos: Martin, Van Aert and Dumoulin were three immense signings that brought the Dutch squad up to the level of Sir Dave Brailsford’s crew, and arguably surpassed it, given the power that trio can put out. In the case of Van Aert, Jumbo had moved rapidly and ruthlessly to buy him out of his contract with Verandah’s Willems in spring 2018.
Jumbo’s rise coincides with a transition period at Ineos, marked by Froome’s impending departure for Israel Start-up Nation. With Bernal, Ivan Sosa and Sivakov in the wings, Froome and Thomas now look long in the tooth, while the next generation looks a little callow compared to the likes of Roglic and company.
The duel has obvious significance for the upcoming Tour de France – the progress of the pandemic across the hexagone permitting – but it also hints at a sea change in WorldTour cycling. Since Sir Bradley Wiggins’s machinal victory in the 2012 Tour de France, only “events” – a crash for Chris Froome in 2014 – have deprived Team Sky/Ineos of victory in the sport’s flagship event. No team has ever truly put Sky/Ineos on the rack in the way that Jumbo seemed to be doing early in the Dauphiné.
Since Team Sky’s arrival in 2010, you can trace what looks like an arms race within WorldTour racing. First, the British team bought up riders good enough to place in the top 15 of the Tour, knowing they would be capable of burning off all but the best. Through the Froome years, they went further upmarket, and invested in multiple potential GrandTour winners – Thomas, Bernal, Mikel Landa. Now, someone has come along and invested even more heavily.
Faced with Sky, over the years the conundrum for other teams had been obvious. Most only had the wherewithal to invest in only one potential Tour winner – think AG2R with Bardet, FdJ with Pinot – or had bought in at the top end, as Movistar did with the “trident” of Quintana. Valverde and Landa, but without hiring team support with the wattage of Martin, Dumoulin and Van Aert. Another alternative was to invest in the Classics, sprinters and stage wins, as Quickstep had done. Jumbo may provide what many suspected was the only response: invest heavy and invest wisely. The question now is; what crumbs will be left for the rest?