Zwift Tour de France Power Rankings - Stage 10

The general classification was up-ended with some attacking action in the crosswinds, putting a number of teams and riders in an unenviable position coming into the first rest day.

Julian Alaphilippe, Deceuninck-Quickstep, Tour de France 2019, Stage 10

You know it's serious when the yellow jersey hits the front! Source: Getty

It's often a tough task to tell at a glance which teams are doing well at the Tour de France, there are 22 of them going around France, each with their own objectives and strengths. 

To keep an eye on how each team is progressing, Cycling Central is running the Zwift Power Rankings during this Tour de France. It's a quick guide from stage to stage of which teams are excelling and which are unlucky or faring poorly. 

Rankings are done according to a matrix of stage results, jersey standings and a team's ability to race with panache and flair.

1. Jumbo-Visma (same)

Every time we want to move Deceuninck-Quickstep up the top of the Power Rankings, Jumbo-Visma pull out another great performance. This time it was Wout van Aert, doing what everyone thought he'd manage coming into the race, claiming a stage victory.

It's easy to criticise the sprints of Matthews and Ewan (and we will), but van Aert had plenty of speed to come past a number of top-tier sprinters to claim the win at the end of a very hard stage.

Four stage wins with three different riders plus the team time trial victory. Two days in yellow for Mike Teunissen. It's been a fantastic Tour for the Dutch squad to date, if they all went home during the rest day, they'd still be one of the most successful squads by the end. 

Best Results: Mike Teunissen 1st- Stage 1, Yellow Jersey 2 stages; Dylan Groenewegen 1st- Stage 7; Wout van Aert 1st- Stage 10, 2nd- Stage 5; Steven Kruijswijk 4th overall; 1st- Stage 2 Team Time Trial

2. Deceuninck-Quickstep (same)

The Belgian squad showed their classics pedigree but putting the hurt on in the crosswinds, combining with Team Ineos to put the rest of the peloton into the hurt box and drop a number of favourites. This had the effect of hurting their leadout for Viviani and may have cost them the stage win, but it has helped out their general classification rider Enric Mas significantly with the Spaniard moving up five positions.  

With Alaphilippe, they have the most successful and iconic rider of the 2019 Tour de France to date. Add superb sprinting, a more than viable GC candidate and their aggressive style of racing... really they're unlucky not to be top of the Power Rankings.

Best Results: Julian Alaphilippe 1st- Stage 3, 3rd- Stage 8, Yellow Jersey 5 stages, 1st overall; Elia Viviani 1st- Stage 4, 2nd- Stage 10; Enric Mas 6th overall; 3rd- Stage 2 Team Time Trial

3. BORA-hansgrohe (up one position)

Were at the right spot when the splits started to form and were key in driving the pace all the way to the finish to help out their GC man Emanuel Buchmann. The quiet German shuns the spotlight and has barely been sighted on the road this Tour, but he's up in fifth place and if his early season form is anything to go by, he'll be hard to dislodge. 

Peter Sagan is the master of all terrain and has proven that again enroute to a big lead in the green jersey. We've seen this story before and everyone knows it ends with a record 7th sprint classification win in Paris. Emanuel Buchmann is flying under the radar in fifth at the moment, he was great in the one week races earlier in the year and looks in line for a breakthrough Tour de France.

Best Results: Peter Sagan 1st- Stage 5, 2nd- Stage 1, 3rd- Stage 7, Green Jersey 7 days; Emanuel Buchmann 5th overall

4. Soudal Lotto (down one position)

Coming third still counts as a positive for Power Rankings purposes, but it's one that will leave a bit of a bitter taste in the Australian sprinter's mouth. Coming into the finish, Ewan had his best sprint positioning for the entire Tour and just had to produce a similar sprint to his past efforts to claim the win.  

The only team to switch names (from Lotto Soudal to Soudal Lotto) mid Tour de France is going great guns so far. They've been a consistent force in nearly every stage of the Tour and haven't been afraid of being aggressive and forcing the pace, creating some of the most interesting racing of this year's Tour.

Best Results: Thomas De Gendt 1st- Stage 8; Tiesj Benoot 2nd-Stage 9; Caleb Ewan 2nd- Stage 7, 3rd- Stage 1+4, Tim Wellens Mountains Jersey 7 days

5. Team Ineos (up three positions)

"We race boring anyway, don't we?" That was Geraint Thomas' rebuke to criticism of Team Ineos after Stage 10, where they were the main protagonists in forcing the splits in the crosswinds. 

A tremendous Stage 10 for Ineos, they've put most of their major rivals minutes behind them on GC and the go into the first rest day with their two top-tier GC men 2nd and 3rd overall. They've even got Deceuninck-Quickstep to help shoulder the burden of marshaling the peloton and could scarcely have been much more impressive for a team that doesn't have a sprinter and won't send riders in the break. 

Best Results: Geraint Thomas 4th - Stage 6, 2nd overall; Egan Bernal- 3rd overall, 1st White Jersey; 2nd- Stage 2 Team Time Trial

6. Bahrain Merida (down one position)

Another minor placing for Colbrelli, another day of losing time for Nibali.

After ten stages Bahrain Merida will be happy with their Tour to date. A Stage 6 win for Teuns crowns their race, but they've been very competitive in other stages with Colbrelli hunting around the sprints and Tratnik nearly grabbing a breakaway win. Nibali getting booted off GC will mean that they need to stay aggressive.

Best Results: Dylan Teuns 1st- Stage 6; Jan Tratnik 3rd- Stage 9

7. Mitchelton-Scott (same)

A very nice day for the Aussie squad as they had Adam Yates positioned to steal some spots on GC and Trentin had a go at the sprint, finishing eighth.

An emotional stage win for Daryl Impey is the first in three years for the Australian squad, but they didn't come here for stage wins, they're looking for GC. Adam Yates is a bit behind the Ineos pair after an indifferent TTT and solid Stage 6 climb, but closer than many and well in the hunt for yellow. 

Best Results: Daryl Impey 1st - Stage 9, Adam Yates 7th overall; Matteo Trentin 3rd- Stage 5

8. Wanty Groupe Gobert (up two positions)

Odd Christian Eiking ticked off his presence in Wanty-Gobert breakaway excursions. 

The Power Rankings rewards attacking intent along with results and Wanty-Gobert have managed both, hunting around for results and livening up potentially boring parts of the race with a succession of attacking rides. Xandro Meurisse has been a revelation.

Best Results: Xandro Meurisse 3rd- Stage 6

9. Team Sunweb (up two positions)

Team were licking their chops coming into the sprint finish, a slight uphill sprint suiting Matthews and they had the team with the most riders present to do a leadout. They took control at the front and led Matthews in perfectly, but it appeared Cees Bol didn't have too much to give to lead Matthews to the line with speed and they got swamped by the jumps from the other fast men.

A lot of almost moments from Sunweb. Hopefully that's not the takeaway from the Tour as they've been very energetic throughout the race, but just can't quite get it all together for that elusive stage win quite yet.

Best Results: Michael Matthews 2nd- Stage 3; 4th- Stage 2 Team Time Trial

10. UAE Team Emirates (up three positions)

It seems strange to say, but Dan Martin wasn't caught out by the crosswinds and didn't suffer really bad luck with a puncture or random crash. He, in fact, leap-frogged seven people on GC and is now in the top-10, just under a minute down on Thomas.

Best Results: Alexander Kristoff 2nd- Stage 4, Dan Martin 9th overall

11. Trek-Segafredo (down two positions)

What looked to a very positive week has been thrown into disarray by Richie Porte consistently losing time, leaving his GC bid looking quite forlorn. They'll have happy memories of Ciccone in yellow and Stuyven being very active in his free role within the squad, but disappointment in the tilt for yellow is a very bitter taste.

Best Results: Giulio Ciccone 2nd- Stage 6, 1 day in yellow; Jasper Stuyven 3rd- Stage 3; Richie Porte 20th overall

12. CCC (same)

Another day, another breakaway. Michael Schar was their man for the flat today, but unfortunately the break stood no chance once the GC fight got started behind.

CCC came into the race with van Avermaet in indifferent form and a squad casting about for a way to impact the race. They answered by going on the attack consistently in the early breakaways and looking for opportunities for van Avermaet.

Best Results: Greg van Avermaet- 4th Stage 3, Mountains Jersey 2 stages

13. Groupama-FDJ (down five positions)

Strange what difference a few days makes. From the French hero to the yet another promised one who failed to deliver, the French press is having a field day with Thibaut Pinot. The Groupama- FDJ squad rallied around their leader, but he lost a big chunk of time in what is a sickening blow to his chances for yellow. 

Best Results: Thibaut Pinot 2nd- Stage 8, 11th overall

14. Movistar (up one position)

Movistar were very attentive to the action at the front of the peloton and even had Nairo Quintana rolling through and pulling turns. Disaster struck when an errant Warren Barguil slammed into Mikel Landa and sent him skidding into the fans by the side of the road. Thankfully no one was hurt, but Landa lost over two minutes and is now four minutes down overall.

A very quiet first ten days for Movistar, a poor time trial and Mikel Landa crashed, losing significant time, but there's plenty of life looking forward to the mountains. Quintana looked very good on Stage 6, Landa did as well with Valverde looking to take on more of a helper role. 

Best Results: Nairo Quintana 8th overall; Mikel Landa 21st overall

15. Cofidis (up three positions)

Natnael Berhane is racking up the kilometres off the front, this time claiming the combativity award.

Another team that has consistently taken the front foot throughout the first ten days in the saddle. Losing Christophe Laporte is a blow to their chances of claiming their first Tour win since 2008, but there's a few likely breakaway days that they will be eyeing up.

16. EF Education First (down two positions)

That one would have hurt. EF Education were the first team to have a really hard go on the front of the race, but as Matthew Keenan said in commentary 'don't start what you can't finish'. They were way out the back soon after the pace was reapplied shortly after their surge and were left scrapping along with the rest of the dropped riders to close the gap. 

It's been a bit all or nothing for Rigoberto Uran so far and their positive moves have come unstuck in odd ways, with Woods crashing when they were setting him up, then missing out in the crosswinds after starting the attacks. Rigo's down on GC after Stage 10, so we should expect to see plenty of attacking in the mountains from their talented squad.

Best Results: Rigoberto Uran 13th overall

17. Dimension Data (same)

After leaving Mark Cavendish out of the race there's a fair bit of pressure for Dimension Data to prove that it was worth it. Nizzolo has looked pretty rapid but hasn't been near the right spots with a leadout, while the rest of their squad has looked a step behind the quality of the rest of the peloton.

Best Results: Giacomo Nizzolo 4th- Stage 1

18. AG2R-La Mondiale (up one position)

Romain Bardet was dropping like a stone on the general classification after a very poor time trial and then getting dropped on the first mountain stage. He made the crosswind split and is now a bit better off than some of the others, though if he continues to lose time uphill, it will be a very long Tour for the Frenchman. AG2R have been all-in for Bardet, but they salvaged a fourth place finish with Naesen on Stage 9.

19. Astana (down three positions)

Astana's tactics are a bit mind-boggling, they have all these great riders in the hills, but going into stages where a breakaway win is a real possibility they refuse to put anyone in the move. That's fine as long Jakob Fuglsang wins the Tour, or at least podiums, but he and the team missed the crosswind split and now have to make up a ton of time.

Best Results: Jakob Fuglsang 16th overall

20. Total Direct Energie (up one position)

It's been a very nothing Tour for Direct Energie as they refused to put anyone in to the breakaways up until the more recent stages suited their riders. Which is fine for other teams, but the point of wildcards is to enliven the race even when they are on a hiding to nothing. Best result so far is 12th with Romain Sicard on Stage 9....

21. Team Arkea-Samsic (down one position)

Andre Greipel has gotten nowhere near a bunch kick yet, so it's hard to tell how he's going, but it's not turning into the Tour he would have imagined when transferring to the squad. Other than that, Warren Barguil briefly tried an attack on Stage 6, but didn't look too flash and the biggest impact he's had so far is to knock Mikel Landa off his bike.

Best Results: Warren Barguil 17th overall

22. Katusha-Alpecin (same)

After a good TTT, they have done very little. They don't have a presence on GC, in any of the categories and haven't been in the fight for the win in any stage to date. Rumours of the team's demise have been denied by team management, but maybe it's already here.

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13 min read
Published 16 July 2019 12:08pm
Updated 18 July 2019 12:15pm
By SBS Cycling Central
Source: SBS


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