The Tour de France is still more than 100 days away but, with all of the favourites having opened their racing accounts for the season, Cyclingnews takes a look at the contenders and ranks them according to their early form.
1. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)
Overview: The Dane might not be up there on most people's predictions for Tour de France victory, but he's flying higher than all the other bigger names at the moment.
Fuglsang, who won the Critérium du Dauphiné two years ago and finished 12th at the Tour last year, started his season with sixth overall at the Vuelta a Murcia. He then won the Ruta del Sol with second on the punchy opening stage and second in the stage 3 time trial. Switching to Italy, he finished second at Strade Bianche behind Julian Alaphilippe - the stand-out rider of the season so far - and then made the final podium at Tirreno-Adriatico after a storming stage win in Recanati.
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Riders like Chris Froome may have no concerns about performing at this juncture in the season, but for Fuglsang, you sense it's important that the confidence is fully flowing.
Highlight: Putting the Tirreno field to the sword on the repeated climbs in Recanati on stage 5. He attacked some 24km out and Adam Yates and Primoz Roglic were the only riders who could finish within a minute.
Lowlight: "Another second place…" Fuglsang complained after Strade Bianche, his third runner-up berth of the season. If that's your biggest complaint, things aren't going so badly.
2. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)
3. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)
4. Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
5. Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb)
6. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale)
7. Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma)
8. Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates)
9. Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep)
10. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)
11. Chris Froome (Team Sky)
12. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)
13. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
14. Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First)
15. Mikel Landa (Movistar)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/form-ranking-tour-de-france-2019-favourites
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