Paris (AFP)
Paradoxical. In waivers up to two days before arrival in Paris, the Ineos team however achieved its first double since the shattering burst of Sky riders on the Tour's winners in 2012 (Wiggins-Froome). Irresistible at very high altitude, Egan Bernal rubbed shoulders with the Welsh teammate Geraint Thomas on the podium, the 2018 winner who came down a step. "You couldn't ask for better," said their sports director Nicolas Portal. But the British team, accustomed to locking the race in previous years, had this time to do otherwise to take into account the lower yield of several key elements (kwiatkowski, Poels). The essentials remain for Ineos, the business of billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who succeeded Sky at the end of April. This seventh victory in eight editions of the Tour saves a less brilliant result than in the past (26 victories against 44 last year), further tarnished by the cross accusations of his former doctor Richard Freeman and his former manager Shane Sutton. One more controversy.
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