Foldable Bikes Party: Form ranking: Tour de France 2019 favourites

Friday, 7 June 2019

Form ranking: Tour de France 2019 favourites – June

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With the Tour de France now just a month away, Cyclingnews takes an updated look at how the favourites are looking ahead of the start of the race in Brussels, Belgium, on July 6.

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

Overview: The Danish rider absolutely took off after our last look at the Tour favourites in late March, although things were a little bittersweet at first.

Poor Jakob Fuglsang must have been beginning to think that it just wasn't going to be his season after he first stood on the final podium having taken third overall at the Itzulia Basque Country in April, only to be knocked down to fourth place once the race jury decided to reinstate Bora-Hansgrohe's Emanuel Buchmann, who'd taken a wrong turning at the end of the stage, while fighting to save his third place from the Dane.

There followed the controversy at Amstel Gold, where Fuglsang and the rider fast becoming his bête noire, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), attacked together in the closing stages of the race, only for Fuglsang to be told by his team car to stop working in order to save himself for the sprint, when in reality the chasing group was breathing down their necks, and the win went to a fast-finishing Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), with Fuglsang clinging on for third in what has surely been the race of the season so far, excitement-wise.

It was that man Alaphilippe again who got the better of him on the Mur de Huy to win Flèche Wallonne, but then things finally came good for Fuglsang at Liège-Bastogne-Liège four days later, with the 34-year-old making his winning move on the climb of the Roche-aux-Faucons before soloing home for the biggest victory of his career.

He now heads to the Critérium du Dauphiné, starting on June 9, with the confidence that having won the race two years ago brings with it, and if Fuglsang's summer is anything like his spring, he'll be absolutely flying.