The WORST Job in the Pro Peloton 

I sure hope Cav wins a stage. It would be awesome for him to bow out with that. I think he has earned it

When the grand tour teams were cut from 9 to 8 riders, IMHO that is when we saw sprinters take a back seat on most teams. Before with nine riders, a team could afford to dedicate two positions to a sprint, a leadout and the sprinter himself. Now the only team that is actually built around a sprinter is Alpecin which has Jasper Phillipsen and Mathieu Van der Poel has been acting as his leadout. IMO, Mads Pedersen is far more than a sprinter. He did a huge amount of work in the Dauphine, including leading the team up some of the mountains. I am a huge fan of Pedersen because he is so versatile. And by the way, I was always a fan of Robbie McEwen as a rider.

The large budget teams not wanting to carry/put a sprinter in the Tdf is a good deal for the smaller budget teams to try for a stage win for their sponsors.

Chris can you please make a video about breakaways. All we need to know about it 1. How it is formed 2. Why and when 3. Why is it let go by peloton? What is an advantage to let it go by 5 min to only work crazy hard to catch it after? 4. How hard is it to catch a break away? Last year two flat stages breaks went away by Asgreen and Mojoric. Why couldnt they been caught? All these ins and outs of breakaways 0:30

Cav has to be the best sprinter ever, let’s hope he has another TdF stage win in those old legs.

You're absolutely correct regarding Mark Cavendish getting thrown to the side by Soudal Quickstep. I remember being pissed about that. I also remember Sky having no room for Cavendish when they started winning the TDF.I also remember Tom Boonan getting no love from Postal/Discovery because L.A. J. B. had no use for him. I'm also a road and gc guy, so I get it.

Two things I've learned about Horner from watching his videos: 1. He loves Tadej 2. He hates the NBC guys

Totally agree sprinters are not appreciated for what they do considering how dangerous every stage they fight for is. Also a mention to the most under valued of the lot is the lead out riders. As an Aussie supporter, I always throw in Mark Renshaw as one of our most succesful riders.

I was honestly pissed at Quickstep for what they did to Cav. I was also irritated at Bobke but that is completely normal. I really hope Cav comes through this time. Good for Astana for giving him the chance.

Agreed, 100 percent. Not just about Cav but for the team and the sponsor. It made no sense

P.L., the head of Quickstep. is Belgium if I remember correctly. Merckx is Belgium. I think he didn't give Mark a chance because he wasn't from Belgium

I think its part of why we love the sport, that there is not one type of rider that can dominate on all the course types and your rider type is largely pre-determined by your natural physiology.

Chris, just checked the TdF route... Maybe you guys will do a route preview?? 🙏🚴‍♀️🙏

Jasper will probably be happy Merlier and Milan aren't going to the tour. Milan has an excuse though as he is probably looking to B2B Gold on the track ... not that Horner would know that 😂

Some people, myself included, really don't care about sprint finishes. I'll watch maybe the last 10 minutes of a sprint stage. Even setting aside GC for a second, you can’t tell me that any single sprint stage is more exciting than, say, Georg Steinhauser’s victory in the Giro. Or Alaphillipe’s many exciting wins. If i wanted to watch sprinters, id just watch track racing. THAT’S why teams care so little about sprinters.

Cav had no snowballs chance on hell of breaking Merckx's record while on a Belgian team.

You forgot about Jasper Philipsens. He can get a lot of stages tbh

Agree, totally, even if only to have a better chance of winning. Cavendish has been through a lot (personally and professionally). At least astana have sense

It all comes down to sponsor visibility. How long is the sponsor's logo visible front and center when sprinters win a stage? 3-5 minutes? How long are the logos visible on camera in the TVs if you have breakaway specialists? An hour or two in one - three stages. How long are the logos visible if you have a GC rider that stays with the yellow jersey group in all mountain stages? That's days on end. This is why the sponsors want their teams to have GC riders if they can get in the top five / top ten.

Chris, thanks for highlighting my comment and talking about this topic. I think Team Soudal-QuickStep would be missing out very much if they don't bring Merlier to the TdF. This TdF has at least a couple more sprint stages than last year's edition, and I feel that Merlier is tied for first with Philipsen as the highest-ranking pure sprinters in cycling right now. Team SQS should try to make sure that Philipsen doesn't win the points category this year. Also, you're right that Team SQS should bring Alaphillipe to the TdF because he could help both their GC agenda and their sprint agenda.

Fun to hear your perspectives named out. Your predictions and insights help shape our comprehension of strategies. Thanks

Quickstep Marketing in 2022: "Cav beating Eddy's record is the greatest marketing opportunity in sports this season..this is gonna be $$$ amazing!" DS: "We're not taking him to the tour this year" Marketing:"wuh?....wtf!?...i mean....WTF!!!" DS: "we didn't feel like it, we like Eddie..." Marketing: "Ok you have Wonderboy (Remco), right?" DS: "well...we don't want to run him unless he can win GC". Marketing: "augh!, you are a m0ron!!!!...I QUIT!...".

I thought you would talk about the rouleurs and domestiques - no chance of winning and have to pull others around every day… Sprinters on the other hand - armchair ride to the finish on a flat stage just to finish it off and try to make the time cut on the mountain stages. Agreed it’s a high risk - high reward setup though. Because of the high risk, teams are reluctant to make huge bets as they often don’t work.

I definitely tuned into the tdf sprinters more in Sagans day. ..And that made me more aware of the sprinters in general ... but he was also a hybrid rider.

WTF was Quickstep thinking on those stages. Should’ve given Cav a chance. Would’ve been huge for sponsors having Cav break the record on their team.

I needed Car Insurance, got recommended to someone i knew, came into his office and he had that great TDF final day on the Champs framed from the 70's, magnificent O/O°

Hey Chris, I’m lovin’ your nuanced take on these things. Being matured at a certain age is gold besides your tons of experience. Ko

I would love Mark to win another stage, perhaps not possible but over the years how many times has Mark been ‘written off’ ?

hey chris, can we have some story time before the tour? love those Thanks you and your son for the amazing work

Thank you Chris, the sprints are gonna get crazy this year I think Phillipsen has it easy and he's just truly the fastest right now compared to the rest but if Milan and Merlier went it wouldn't be easy for Phillipsen to go back to back. Here's my top 5 sprinters going to the Tour 1. Phillipsen 2. Cavendish 3. Bennet 4. Pedersen 5.Van Aert 👊🦋🦋

Thanks for mentioning Mark Cavendish. I hope that he breaks Eddy's Merckx record. Cav have done enough and entertained us, he deserves one more win. Waiting impatiently for the Tour and your wonderful comments. Thanks again Chris. Have a great day. 👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏♥️♥️♥️

You would never get rid of the world's best cyclist. Are you listening SD Worx? 😂

Thoughtful perspective. It also seems to me the GC guys get some recognition for finishing second, third, somewhere in the top 10 even. With the sprinters it’s pretty much hero to zero if you don’t wear the best sprinters jersey at the end of the tour. Not only that they have to be part cyclist part linebacker. They’re all elbows and shoulders on the way to the front.

Chris fully agree with your video, but this year Astana have built a great sprint support team for Cav, let's wish them the BEST of Luck, GO Cav ...👍

Thanks, Chri and Garrett!!!

I'm 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Cav breaks the record. 💯👍🏻🇬🇧

SQS is a Belgian team. Merckx is considered a cyclinggod in Belgium. No way that a Belgian team allows Cav to take over that record

I remember the NBC broadcast exactly as Chris says. Chris, I think you're being too diplomatic, and why do I think NBC dumped you for internal politics just because you were providing engaging commentary. Why would a broadcast ever want thoughtful perspectives??? Sounds like the same navel-gazing, ignore-the-customer, live-in-a-world-that-knows-not-victory-or-defeat, corporate scheiss all too familiar in my career. One would think Crazy Bob would be one with sailing against the wind. I hope time hasn't fuzzed my memory, but I remember you making the strong point--laying down a big marker--before the stage that opportunities to win TdF sprints don't grow on trees, and Cavendish's team shouldn't waste this one because you never know what the future holds. You were exactly spot on. Here we are a few years later. Mark's on a shit-small team trying to be David to the bigger team's Goliath. (My wife says hi. She loves you because you were so nice to her at the SF Gran Prix--where I was a moto-marshall.)

Never thought I'd hear the second best climber in the world stick up for the sprinters. 🛋️🦋

On the topic of sprinting, how about Jasper Phillipsen over at Alpecin? They are not a small budget team, but they are not a GC team. With MvdP committed to leading out, Jasper is going to near-sweep sprint stages at the Tour this year! Maybe that's why the Wolfpack is not brining a sprinter? If Remco goes bad and loses something like 6, 7, 8 minutes, he can easily win a breakaway stage, so why bring a sprinter and try do the same on a sprint stage?

Thank you for the videos Chris. You are our TDF expert and we really appreciate it.

Appreciate the insights on the sprinters... I haven't really given it that much thought and it makes more sense now.

Highbreeds like Wout and Mads are fantastic :)

Great insight, Chris. Never really thought about how undervalued sprinters are.

Great to see Cavendish got his 35th this tour.

Thanks for the perspective Chris!

Mads and Wout etc. are great to have in the circuit the days the GC riders are just "cruising" to bring some excitement into the stages.

Belgian conspiracy to keep Cav from breaking Merckx’ record IMO. Let’s have it one last time Cav, fingers crossed 🤞

Enlightening Content. Thank you Chris!

A 'nasty, dirty job'~but the fans loved it!😅 U gave me flashbacks of watching Abdou tearing it up back in the day, Chris~so thx for that!!!🙏😂👊🦋

No matter how rough the sprinters have it I’ll always be rooting for the breakaway😅

Thanks Chris and Garrett.... Papillon rules !

Excited to get the TDF started. Lot of good points there about the sprinters and I probably take them for granted and just assume some teams will show up looking to set up sprinters to take stages while others focus on GC, but it's probably not that simple.

Thanks for your insight into the teams and peloton. I'd be lost and misinformed by others( mostly non pros)

Interesting observations and I really can't disagree with anything you said. Its too bad that really elite cyclists like Milan and Kooij wont even be competing at cycling's glamour venue, I love to see a sprinter's showcase to match the GC battle.

I'm firmly convinced (Belgian) Partick Lefevere didn't want to be the (Belgian) guy to let (English) Cav have the opportunity to beat Merckx's record and become a pariah in Belgium for doing so. He probably raced with Eddy at some point and the team rode Merckx bikes for years. It was absurd from a pr point of view to leave Cav home the next year and just go with Jakobson. The 2 of those guys could have tag teamed stages and have some whole "feel good" mentorship thing on Netflix between Cav and Fabio (I mean. not likely cause they're sprinters). If ran that team i would have milked that dynamic for all it's worth. I hope Cav pulls it off.

Chris!!!! As another Topic … Talk about Mark this year having a chance in beating Eddies Record… Yes/No can He 🤔🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️👍

Refusing to agree with Bob Roll is why Chris is no longer with NBC. I could tell that day that Roll was taking it personally as he pushed Chris to agree. But without using the words, Chris showed him to be a knucklehead but ended up on the Chesterfield!

Do you think the bigger teams might include sprinters if the roster size was increased back to 9?

It's too bad we don't have Tour de France: Unchained video from the 2021 TdF showing us why Soudal made those dumb decisions to race everyone except Cavendish in those two specific stages. Leferve makes a lot of boneheaded decisions (and comments) so it sounds like something he would do. I don't know how much influence he has in strategy and tactics during these 3 week tours but any rational DS would not have made those decisions so I tend to think those are on Leferve. But I could be wrong. I am not a fan of sprint stages per se, but I do enjoy watching a solid sprint finish. And I think Dylan G was booted off Jumbo-Visma because of that crash and the subsequent suspension. I read an article back in 2022 about that whole Charlie Foxtrot and I seem to recall it saying something to that effect, or alluding to it anyway. I guess sprinters can say the same thing Rodney Dangerfield always said, "I get no respect!"

Road snob GC guy. Love it!

Love your stuff

Chris is a road snob, shocking!🤣 Love the term Hybrid sprinter, but is there such a thing as a Hybrid GC rider? Pogi in top form could win a sprint if he had the right lead out and needed that 10-second time bonus.

Chris I miss your commentary on TV at the tour . No matter the network . It was great to hear your predictions with Phil, Bob , Christian, Jens , and all the others you worked with . I hope it wasn't the arguments with Bob and others that keeps you away .

I think most people don’t understand how fast you have to go in order to make the time cut.

Long shot for sure, but I'm really rooting for Cav!

I will bet my wisdom teeth Remco will not be in the conversation by the second half of the Tour.....you heard it hear first. Nothing against the kid, plenty of panache, just not a GC rider at TDF level, YET.

You are a great tactician. Those guys are just personalities.

I knew it. I knew it all along. Bob Roll is a knucklehead. I wish you were at the tour giving the best commentary ever. I knew it. Bob Roll probably had something to do with hiring those other two knuckleheads and not you. I knew it. I knew it all along.

Tadej was on G's podcast and they talked how Nils Politt will be tired guy after TdF.

What would be a good book to understand racing and tactics? I am not interested in someone's journey or the doping side. In essence, something for a fan who started watching races several years ago and still feels a bit clueless. Thank you.

PLF is a jerk to his riders and the sport. I would never ride for a person that insults me in the press.

Can you shine some light on Anna van der Breggen and Demi Vollering. I think that will make a great video!Thank you

Pushing your team leader while he takes a nature break

merlier should go to the tour. he looks the fastest in the world right now.

i remember your reply to me regarding trentin

Bob Roll tried to steal my teammates banana at Tour of Wilamette in 97. He said ‘don’t you know who I am?” Zero respect since then lol😅

Can Vander Poel win stage one. I bet he will try. I am sure Alpecine and he would love to have that yellow jersey for most of week #1 and sell a whole bunch of hair tonic.

Disagree with “Remco is a shot at winning”. He is not as long as he fails to finish any alpine stage with the leaders - as his record shows

Nice info. So what makes a good sprinter?

I really hate watching flat sprint finishes…have seen so many crashes in the past I just don’t enjoy this risky stuff anymore.

The worst job is the leadout for the sprinters. They need to be great sprinters themselves and don't get any recognition for doing pretty much the same job as the main guy. With that said, it's about time sprinters are being dropped, because their wins are worthless. I don't care for these records, especially for the 4 wins Cav got a few years ago. All of his competitors got injured and the sprinters already compete only among themselves, 4-6 guys. It's a joke, kids playing basically. Go and do your sprints on the track and leave stage races to actual cyclists.

I get the impression you're not a Bobke fan.. 😂 And I think your analysis is correct.

all i can say it will be hard for mark to get a stage... He is old and cannot compete, Ill be happy though if miracle happens

Cmon Chris, surely the domestiques have the hardest and worst job? No chance of glory, and working their butts off all day long?!

Ahhh good old “Bozo Bob”

Well, the worst job is probaly a matter of perspective. As a heavy , sprinty rider myself, mountains are a Horror to me. On the opposit side, my 60 kg friends truly hate leading the group in a strong headwind :).

I'll be that guy... I don't think Cav deserves the record. In his 34 wins he has a combined time of about 170 seconds in the wind. Someone who does the lion's share of the work "deserves" it. If everyone else didn't do nearly all the work for him, he would have no wins. For him to deserve it, in my opinion, he should do it from a breakaway or in a prologue or (like Thor Hushovd) learn to climb and take a mountain stage.

I thought Cavendish's team got over confident and they figured that they would break the record on the Champs.

Why is finishing top 10 gc better for a team without achieving any stage wins vs getting a few stage wins with a sprinter?

Could you really see a Mario Cipollini be a nobody at the tour?

Chris don't you realize how political the world has become Mark Cavendish was always going to push aside because they (Cycling Mafia) didn't want Eddy Merckx's record broken.

I believe mark crashendish holds the record for ending the most careers of other cyclist because of his lousy/dangerous "sprinting".

Cav didn't get to The Tour because Patrick Lefevere didn't want to be the Belgian who took the record from Eddy Merckx!

Sprinters 💪🚴💨 And everyone who rides in a wind 🍃

Call me old school, befitting an old guy, but I would like to see Merckx's record broken by a gc guy rather than a specialist. That being said, I am a big Cav fan and would be happy for him if he does break the record.

Lol I love this guys commentary but what's up with the background/backdrop with the two jerseys? Looks terrible 😂

Great video. Nice conceit.

Sprinters, the running backs of the pro peleton.

*_Oh, Boo Hoo regarding how "tough" it is for sprinters._* Babied and sheltered for 200km with a lead-out guy who gets hardly any credit usually serving up the last 200m on a plate. Then slinking off to the Grupetto on the other 17 stages of a GT. 🐊Here, have some crocodile tears 💦