Following Chris Froome's horror crash during the Criterium du Dauphine that saw him hospitalised with several broken bones, ruling him out of competition for at least six months, Team Ineos have confirmed the eight riders they will be sending to the Tour de France.
Froome would have gone into the race not as defending champion but likely still as the team leader, chasing a record equalling fifth Tour title. Team Ineos are still attending the race with the defending champion, of course, in the shape of Geraint Thomas.
The Welshman beat Froome into third, behind rival Tom Dumoulin, at last year's race and will begin the 2019 Tour de France as his team's leader. Albeit joint-leader with Egan Bernal.
The young Colombian has aleady won Paris-Nice and the Tour de Suisse this season and could be unrivalled – even by the defending champion – in the high mountains.
Those two potential overall winners will be assisted in their quest by Jonathan Castroviejo, Michal Kwiatkowski, Wout Poels, Luke Rowe, Dylan van Baarle and Gianni Moscon – who was disqualified from the 2018 Tour de France after he was seen striking another rider at the beginning of Stage 15.
Trying to stop the Team Ineos procession around France to another overall win, boring us all in the process, will be riders such as Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), among others.
Any of those riders could potentially win the Tour, but each has a weakness – whether it be team support, an internal team rival, time-trialling, attitude – that could see them slip up and lose bags of time along the way.
The 2019 Tour de France starts on Saturday 6th July in Brussels, Belgium.